31DC: Day 7

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Favorite Movies

I guess it would make sense to split this into two categories:  horsey and non horsey movies.  We'll start with the non horsey movies first.


One of my all time favorite movies would have to be Dirty Dancing.  Love, Love, LOVE IT!  The chemistry between the Johnny and Baby is so good.  The dancing is amazing.  And how can you not just love the final dance?  Of course it doesn't hurt that Patrick Swayze is so yummy to look at.


My other all time favorite is Romancing the Stone.  I could watch it an the follow up, Jewel of the Nile over and over again.  Romancing the Stone stars Kathleen Turner as a romance novelist who goes to South America to help her sister.  While there she hires Michael Douglas to help her find an expensive jewel over which her sister was kidnapped.  Great action, plenty of romance and some pretty funny scenes.



The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I can remember when the first one came out in theaters I refused to go see it, can't really remember why though.  But I randomly decided to rent it one night.  I was hooked.  I forget how many times I went to see The Two Towers and Return of the King in theaters.  The movies follow the books fairly well all things considering.  The cinematography is amazing, the costumes are great, the cgi fits in seamlessly.  And there's Hottie Elf Boy, what more could you ask for?

And now on to the horsey movies. 


First up: National Velvet.  It is the story of young Velvet Brown who dreams of having a horse of her own.  through unusual circumstances she ends up with the Pie, who she trains to jump.  Eventually she takes him to the Grand National.


International Velvet is the sequel to National Velvet.  Velvet Brown's niece, Sarah,  from America has come to live with her after her parents are killed.  Velvet gives her the last foal of her champion the Pie.  Sarah raises the colt, whom she calls Arizona Pie and trains him to compete in 3 day eventing.  She garners the attention of the British team and earns a spot to compete at Ledyard.  The really cool part is the movie was filmed at the real Ledyard event and riders live Denny Emerson can be seen in the movie.


Another great eventing movie is Sylvester, staring a young Melissa Gilbert as Charlie.  She is working at an auction yard to support her two younger brothers when she sees the horse Sylvester.  Charlie sees the potential in Sylvester and plans to retrain him and sell him for profit.  After seeing him jump the pasture fence she dreams up the idea to show him at the Rolex Kentucky Preliminary Event in order to sell him for more money.  It very cool to watch the movie and recognize all the places at the Kentucky Horse Park.


And finally, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken.  It's a Disney movie, so expect the fluff.  It the true story of Sonora Webster who ran away from her aunt during the Great Depression to get a job as a diving girl in a carnival act of high diving horses.  Well she's not diving girl material according to the owner but he does give her a job taking care of the horses.  With the help of the owner's son, Al, Sonora eventually learns to be a diving girl and gets her chance in the show.

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