Tell me about your favorite movie

What is your favorite movie? If I tell you mine, will you tell me yours?



You might say your favorite is “Casablanca,” which many would readily tout as the epitome of all time movie making. You might say “The Godfather,” which many may grandly recall as the epitome of contemporary film making (as “contemporary” attains classic status because it was made way back in the 1970s).

Maybe the deepest you go for a favorite is “Titanic” or the furthest you’re able to look is “The Lord of the Rings.” Whatever. I’m not asking for best-movie votes. Rather I’m asking: Which is your favorite?

My favorite is “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939, directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur and Claude Rains). Its romanticism is firmly anchored in unapologetic corniness. Its romance melts cynicism into love and catapults love into transcendence. Its substance is as rich as the myth of democracy. I love tons of movies from throughout the decades, but pressed to name a favorite, it’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

It’s the kind of larger than life that defines the phrase “movie magic.” It does so with violence that goes no further than one sock in the jaw, with sex that shows us no more than the committed first kiss at the end of the movie, and with no special effects beyond making you forget how impossible the timeline of the story is.

While you’re waiting for the next summer blockbuster to hit the theaters or waiting for November when the “important” movie releases happen, e-mail the name of your favorite movie to jaffee@startlets.com. Take an extra minute to jot down a reason or two why it is your favorite.

<I>Chuck Jaffee lives in Nevada City. Look for his movie reviews for The Union at startlets.com</I>