1. The Lion King
Hands down my favorite movie. I’ve seen it enough to know it by heart. It defined my childhood and it hakuna matata is something I still sing to myself now and again. No worries. It taught to me to be strong and to take things in stride.
2. The Motorcycle Diaries
It’s the story of a young Che Guevera, and it’s a big part of why I want to be a doctor someday. He travels around South America, and he looks into the eyes of the people he meets. I see him change as he reacts to the injustice around him. I identify myself with him as I begin to react to the world around me.
3. Fightclub
Fightclub takes violence and uses it to make us examine everything around us. I notice something new every time I watch it. One of my favorite scenes is one where they fake a hold-up to make the guy really appreciate life; it makes me think about taking life seriously every day.
4. Scarface
Scareface shows me in a crazy dramatic and beautiful way what the American dream is. Tony Montana makes it in America, but it means blood, destruction, and honestly one of the coolest deaths in American cinema. He really does make it, he’s ruthless, and confident. You have to be confident to make it here in the states.
5. Gladiator
Maximus thinks of his family the whole movie. It doesn’t matter that he went from general to slave, he’s still fighting the fight, what matters to him is who he’s fighting for, what the end result is. It makes me respect whatever it is you do, if you respect it in turn, and it’s for what you think is good.
6. The Sixth Sense
I saw this when I was four with my sister, and she made me sit through it! When I started crying, she brought me outside and looked me in the eye and said, you don’t have to be afraid, because it’s not real. When I calmed down she brought be back inside. She taught me to not be afraid of what’s not real.
7. The Bourne Trilogy
When I’m traveling and I need to do something questionable or risky to, or scrappy, my friends and I call it Jason Bourning. We saw it in a movie, and even though we’re not nearly as cool as Matt Damon, we try to have as much fun as he definitely did when we travel.
8. I Am Sam
I was not prepared to watch this movie. It is emotionally fatiguing, but because I watched it so young, it made me truly value my family, and our struggles, small or large. I love my family, and I thank God for the one He gave me.
9. Liar Liar
This movie set the standard of hilarious for me, and it’s a high one. I can watch it over and over again, because it’s so simple. It’s simple, but I find it so clever in that same sense. It really is a commentary on how hilarious it is that we have to lie all the time. I don’t like lying.
10. End of Watch
I saw this a couple weeks ago, and once again, my sister knew what was up. The whole movie was pulling on my heart strings, and the ending especially struck that chord of me and my best friend. It’s a total best friend movie, but it’s just so real it makes me think that it could easily be my friend and I in that police car serving all day. I acknowledge that those who are around me and who I love are a major part of who I am.
