[10]

Steven Spielberg wanted to make a James Bond movie until his buddy George Lucas said, ‘I have a better idea.’ And he did. Lucas created Indiana Jones, a globe-trotting archaeologist who sought treasure for fortune and glory while encountering a variety of adversaries in his travels, starting with the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones would become the new name of film adventure in the 1980s, paying homage to the cliffhanger serials of yesteryear while simultaneously elevating them with a bigger budget and more attention to craft and character. Lawrence Kasdan’s screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark is a well-oiled machine that never falters or skips a beat, balancing the thrills with a healthy dose of humor and the spectacle with likeable characters with whom you’re more than happy to go the distance.

Superman: The Movie (1978)

August 23, 1978

[9]

This was the first blockbuster superhero movie (for better and for worse) and I doubt there will ever be a better film adaptation for the Man of Steel. Under Richard Donner’s (The Omen, Lethal Weapon) direction and good taste, Superman is a winning blend of action, drama, charm, and yes, camp. The first forty minutes are emotionally powerful, more than any other comic book adaptation I’ve ever seen. I get choked up every time I watch this movie, whether it’s seeing Marlon Brando (as Jor-El) say goodbye to his son before sending him away from their doomed home world, watching the Kent family deal with the death of Jonathan Kent, or the gorgeous wheat field scene where Clark tells Ma Kent it’s time for him to go.

Dirty Harry (1971)

July 24, 1971

[9]

Clint Eastwood stars as his most iconic character, ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan, a gruff, no-bullshit San Francisco police investigator on the trail of a psychotic sniper who calls himself ‘The Scorpio Killer’. There have been many cat and mouse chase movies over the decades, especially in the paradigm of cop vs criminal, but Dirty Harry left a mark so indelible on the sub-genre, that it remains the measure for comparison over forty years later.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

July 9, 1967

[9]

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway star as the legendary real-life bank robbers in Arthur Penn’s volatile Bonnie and Clyde. With its anti-hero point of view and graphic violence, this film helped lead the charge for grittier, more realistic fare that cropped up throughout the ’70s. While the film certainly sensationalizes the criminals, it also humanizes them. It’s easy to see how a bored waitress like Bonnie Parker would fall for a handsome bad boy like Clyde Barrow (I mean, who wouldn’t get in a car with smoking-hot Warren Beatty?) And since the two only robbed banks, they became folk heroes to a working class destroyed by foreclosures. I also like that the film suggests Clyde is impotent. It’s refreshing to see a tough guy with flaws and foibles, and it also makes the romantic relationship more interesting than most.

Gunga Din (1939)

August 24, 1939

[10]

Directed by George Stevens and inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s poem, Gunga Din is the story of three indomitable British soldiers who find themselves at the center of a battle against the bloodthirsty Thuggee cult. Captured and enslaved with an aspiring water boy (the title character), the men endanger their lives to thwart an ambush of the British army coming to rescue them. Gunga Din is a rousing adventure that exalts camaraderie among men. The stalwarts are played by Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Oscar-winner Victor McLaglen (The Informer, The Quiet Man). The men spend half their time quarreling and the other half working against a common enemy — but it’s a three-way bromance, to be sure. Grant and McLaglen even spend half the movie trying to trick Fairbanks, whose character is leaving the army to get married, back into service. Joan Fontaine has the thankless role of Fairbanks’ betrothed, the Yoko threatening to break up the band.

The General (1926)

June 11, 1926

[9] Silent-screen star Buster Keaton plays a train engineer who gets rejected by the Confederate army because his job is too important to leave vacant. But he gets his chance to serve the South when Union soldiers steal his beloved…