Desert Island Top 5 - DVDs/Blu-rays.

You know the rules.  You're stranded on a desert island.  You get to select five DVD's/Blu-rays to have with you during your lonesome stay.  These are the only DVD's/Blu-rays you will watch for the rest of your life, or at least until you starve to death, which ever comes first.  Of course, we're taking the liberty of assuming there's such things as televisions, DVD/Blu-ray players and electricity on this island, but I digress.  Feel free to share your own desert island top five DVD's/Blu-rays in the comments section below.


1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).  Yeah, I've talked about this movie endlessly on my pizowell and The Sausage Factory YouTube channels, but, for me, the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the ultimate horror movie and the precursor to the modern slasher film.  Not only do I consider it a landmark horror film, influencing an endless number of similarly themed knockoffs, but a landmark independent film.  Shot on a minuscule budget in the blistering Texas summer of 1973, the film has often been imitated but never duplicated.  The film sports an almost verite air of bewilderment, a raw ferocity and a complete and utter sense of impending doom around every corner. It's simple, stylish, cerebral, unsettling, totally intense and truly unforgettable.  Did I mention it's also quite humorous, a fact lost on many overwhelmed by the film's other, more startling, attributes?  The film also has the unwarranted reputation of being an unflinching bloodbath, a testament to its subliminal nature and suggestive title.  It's a film I've seen countless times and could easily sit through and not only enjoy, but appreciate countless more.

2. Heat (1995).  Heat is the ultimate cops and robbers movie.  A sleek, epic crime drama that pits a hard-nosed L.A. detective (played with a preternatural intensity by Al Pacino) against a meticulous and disciplined professional thief (a cold and brooding Robert DeNiro).  The film is a deep and challenging character study. Writer/director Michael Mann creates an atmosphere steeped in mood and stylish imagery.  The film boasts one of the greatest big screen shootouts in modern film history, as our heroes and villains hold court in the mid-day streets of downtown Los Angeles.  When the two men finally come face to face, seated across from one another in a diner and discuss their work, their lives, their dreams and fears, it is a breathtaking piece of filmmaking, not just in that you have two great actors sharing the screen together, but in that you see the two characters as they truly are, stripped of their defenses and, despite the dissimilar paths they've chosen in life, they are shockingly indivisible in their dedication to their chosen crafts and could have, under different circumstances, been brothers.  Maybe the greatest testament to the film is that it gives both cop and thief equal character development and depth and who you find yourself rooting for at the end may surprise you.

3. The Thin Red Line (1998). The late 90's and early 2000's saw a war movie renaissance.  Of all the war movies released during this time, Terrence Mallick's The Thin Red Line is surprisingly the least war-related. Yeah, the film is centered around the conflict at Guadalcanal during WW2, but the movie is really about the wars waged within the heart of man and the thin red line that separates good from evil.  The film sports an all-star cast (most notably are the performances of Nick Nolte, Sean Penn and Jim Caviezel), the writing is non-linear, loosely plotted and full of some of the most strikingly poetic voice-overs in film history, along with hauntingly beautiful cinematography and a moving musical score.  Detractors of the film call it unfocused, meandering, even boring.  It is one of the few films that actually moved me to tears and is still the singularly most powerful movie-going experience of my life.

4. True Romance (1993).  Quentin Tarantino's first produced screenplay finds loner and comic book nerd Clarence (played by Christian Slater?) hooked up with a hooker with a heart of gold named Alabama and a suitcase full of cocaine.  The two embark upon a journey to Hollywood to sell their ill-gotten blow while evading cops and gangsters!  After that rough plot synopsis there should be no question as to why I LOVE this movie.  It's over-the-top, violent as all get out, strangely romantic and, at times, side-splitting.  And get this cast: Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, an Oscar-worthy Gary Oldman, Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore, Samuel L. Jackson, a pre-fame Brad Pitt and Val Kilmer as "Mentor", a vision of Elvis Presley who offers Clarence praise and guidance and only appears when Clarence is alone in the bathroom.  The brief interchange that occurs between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken is pure cinematic gold.  The writing from Tarantino is explosive and hilarious and the visuals from late director Tony Scott are slick and frenetic.  It's a wild ride and one that I could easily take again and again for the rest of my life.

5. The Big Lebowski (1998).  A series of absurd misunderstandings finds an aging stoner and bowling enthusiast hired by a wealthy man to courier ransom money to the kidnappers of his young trophy wife.  Herein lies what little plot there is to be had in The Big Lebowski, a film comprised of peculiar characters, absurd situations and an overall aura of outlandishness that makes this film deserving of multiple viewings.  Writers and directors The Coen Brothers based their titular character on a film producer and distributor that helped guide their first film, Blood Simple, into theaters.  Jeff Bridges' portrayal of Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski is worthy of iconic status, as is the performance of John Goodman who plays Walter, a Vietnam vet with such an intense personality he holds a fellow bowler at gun point over a foot fault and takes a crowbar to a brand new Corvette simply to prove a point in one of the most side-splitting movie moments I've ever witnessed.  Lebowski runs afoul of crooked cops, pornographers and eccentric artists on his hilarious journey.

Expect more lists in the future and submit your own in the comments section below.  Got any Desert Island Top 5's of your own?  Let me know.