The Necessary Nineties

There ... is ... another!

Yes. Salty Chewbacca is back. My eighties movie challenge was tough, but exciting it turned out. The Empire Strikes Back defeated Raiders of the Lost Ark in the closest final yet to earn the title of greatest eighties movie (not named Back to the Future) of all time. You could argue Raiders should have won (or The Princess Bride or Ghostbusters or The Goonies), but Empire is truly deserving. It was such a fun (and difficult) tournament, that I thought about never doing again. I didn’t think I could top it. Or have the mental strength. But here I am!

And what better theme to follow the eighties than, well, the decade that followed: the nineties. Before I get to what made the list of 32, I should talk about what didn’t and why. My eighties movies blog was all about fun and adventure, so I figured I would do the opposite for my nineties movies blog: action and violence! While searching for movies that fit this category, I started to realize a pattern: most of the movies had first-time directors. So I started to build the list around those. I also found that some movies were directed by people who also had movies that made my eighties list. So I threw them in there. To round out the list I figured I would include a few movies directed by people who just missed making the list last time. It was starting to come together!

So now came the hard part: leaving movies out. For my eighties movie list I had some guidelines. I liked those guidelines, so I decided to use them again. I left out my favorite movie from the nineties, Before Sunrise. It wasn’t as hard a decision as leaving Back to the Future off my eighties list; the director of Before Sunrise had another movie that made more sense to be on the list. I already did basketball movies, so no Hoop Dreams. I already did Disney movies, so no Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, or The Lion King. The critically acclaimed movies are always discussed, so no Schindler’s List, The Silence of the Lambs, or Titanic. I thought it would be funny to snub Martin Scorsese again like I did on my eighties list, so no Goodfellas. My decision to lean towards action and violence meant I would have to leave off some family movies that would have made the list otherwise, so no Anastasia, Babe, or Home Alone. At this point I am guessing that everyone is going to hate my list ...

Trust me, it’s going to be fun. There are some great movies on this list. Sure, I left off Dead Alive, Mulan, and Tank Girl (sorry Rebecca!), but a John Cusack movie made the list after somehow being excluded from my eighties movie list! It’s like he is getting a shot at redemption ... which reminds me: how in the world did I leave The Shawshank Redemption off this list?