Following on the heels of the sad news that Paul Newman passed away at the age of 83 from cancer, I let my former movie critic mind wander through the legacy the actor has left us. I tried to make a “Best of” list, but it’s hard with an actor who was so good and who left us so much material.

Here, in order, are what I consider to be twenty of his “best” roles, and many thanks to Paul Newman for these cinematic treasures and condolences to his wife, Joanne Woodward.

1)     “Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid”  (1969) - Is there anyone who was alive and going to the movies in the year 1969 when George Roy Hill directed Newman and Robert Redford in the William Goldman written script that doesn’t think of Newman as “Butch?” And I can think of the scene where Newman is urging Redford to jump from a high cliff, to avoid those pursuing them so relentlessly that they ended up in Bolivia. Redford admits, reluctantly, that he can’t swim. Newman laughs and says, “The fall alone’ll kill ya’!” And they jump.

2)     “Cool Hand Luke” - (1967) - “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Fifty hard-boiled eggs. Strother Martin’s green teeth. Luke as a symbol of man’s indomitable spirit. A classic. Newman was nominated for the 1969 Oscar, but did not win.

3)    “The Hustler” - (1961) As “Fast Eddie” Felsen, he took on Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) in the pool game of the century. Newman was nominated for the 1962 Oscar, but did not win.

4)    “The Color of Money” - (1986) - Reteamed as “Fast Eddie” with Tom Cruise, Newman took home the Oscar for his role in this film. It might not have been as good as the original role or the others on this list, but this one won him the gold statuette.

5)   “Hud” - (1963) - The scene with Patricia Neal in the kitchen oozes sexuality. Another movie for which he was Oscar-nominated in 1964, but did not win.

6)    “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” - 1958 - As Brick Pollitt opposite Elizabeth Taylor’s Maggie the Cat, the pair personified hot, steamy sex. He even looked good on crutches.

7)     “Sweet Bird of Youth” - (1962)  Chance Wayne (Newman’s character) was as hot as Brick. Geraldine Page was the beneficiary in this Tennessee Williams play made into a movie.

8)   “The Long, Hot Summer” - (1958) - As Ben Quick, Newman provided the steam in this movie based on a William Faulkner novel “The Hamlet.” The cast he worked with included Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Orson Welles, Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury.

9) “The Verdict” - (1982) . As Frank Galvin, an attorney with a drinking problem, Newman gave an Oscar-worthy performance and was, in fact, nominated for a 1983

Oscar. He didn’t win. The movie received 5 nominations, and the performance by Lindsay Crouse as Nurse Kaitlin Costello was a tour de force.

10) “Road to Perdition” (2002) - Newman came storming back in the role of John Rooney, co-starring with Tom Hanks in the film based on the Max Allan Collins graphic novel, which was based on an actual gangster named John Looney who terrorized the streets of Rock Island, Illinois back in the day. The name was changed and Jude Law was added as a villainous photographer. This Sam Mendes-directed film was to be Newman’s last “great” role, and also the last time that legendary cinematographer Conrad L Hall would do the lighting, which is superb. Hall was reputed to be the best in the business and the last man working who could call for the right camera lighting without a light meter.

The second ten are included to show the breadth of this fine actor’s career, but the “Must See(s)” are above.

11) “Absence of Malice” (1981) - Playing Michael Colin Gallagher with Sidney Pollack (who also died recently) directing, the film garnered 3 Oscar nominations and co-starred Sally Field, Bob Balaban and Melinda Dillon.

12) “The Sting” - 1973 - Reteaming Newman (as Harry Gondorff) and Robert Redford as con men was a no-brainer. Arguably, belongs in the Top Ten. A great Scott Joplin song or two didn’t hurt.

13) “The Drowning Pool” - (1975) - Lew Harper (from 1966) comes back to the scene as a gumshoe detective. Co-starring Joanne Woodward and Anthony Franciosa, again, the film gave ingénue Melanie Griffith her first big part.

14) “Harper” - (1966)- Lew Harper’s first appearance on the scene as detective extraordinaire.

15) “Somebody Up There Likes Me” - (1956) - The life story of Rocky Graziano, Newman rebounded from “The Silver Chalice,” which he considered so bad that he bought up all the prints and publicly apologized.

16) “Slap Shot” - (1977) - Reggie “Reg” Dunlop - Hockey. George Roy Hill directed. Some familiar co-stars resurface, including Strother Martin (from “Cool Hand Luke”), Lindsay Crouse (from “The Verdict”) and Michael Ontkean. (Whatever happened to Michael Ontkean’s career?)

17) “Sometimes A Great Notion” - (1971) - Logging story. Nominated for 2 Oscars. Based on the Ken Kesey novel. Co-starred Henry Fonda, Lee Remick and Richard Jaeckel, whose scene when he is trapped under a log and will soon drown if the log cannot be removed is worth the rental.

18) “Exodus” - (1960) - Ari Ben Canaan. A movie about the formation of Israel based on the Leon Uris best-selling novel. What I remember about this film is that the theater down the street from my house (one block away) was evacuated when sparks began landing on the roof of the theater from a blaze that burned down one entire block right across the street from my house! I had to take a back alley to get home, where I found my father manning a garden hose in an attempt to keep our house from catching fire. Had to go back to finish the film another day, but it was worth it.

19) “From the Terrace” - (1960). Newman played David Alfred Eaton. “An ambitious young lawyer chooses a loveless marriage and an unfulfilling life, in exchange for a successful Wall Street career,” says the International Movie Data Base. In other words, it’s the life story of a broker today. I always thought that Ina Balin (as Natalie Benzinger) was poorly chosen as the love interest; she needed to use some depilatory cream on her upper lip.

20)  “Towering Inferno” - (1974) - Yes, I know. You liked this one better than half of the others, but, let’s face it, it was a popcorn movie. Newman played Doug Roberts and there was talk of strife between Newman and Steve McQueen, who played the fire chief assigned to rescue the hapless individuals trapped in a high-rise building. It had a great cast, though: Newman, McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner and…..wait for it….O.J. Simpson. (Yes, that O.J. Simpson.)  I was teaching junior high school students at the time, and we took busloads of students, who had been participating in some after-school “craft activity” classes, to see a double bill of “Towering Inferno” and “Earthquake.” Wags dubbed it “the Shake-and-Bake special.” That was all right, but my friend, Nelson, the history teacher, put  a sign on MY bus that said, “HOOKERS: this bus.” This was because the students in my group  had been taking part in an after-school class in rug hooking. Still, Nelson…..(I’m still smiling).

“The Pineapple Express” was sneak premiered for members of the Chicago Cinema group, and I was there (on Thursday, July 24^th). As Seth Rogan’s new film (”Superbad,” “Knocked Up”) my companion and I had high hopes for humor.

Unfortunately, while there are some laughs to be had, the overall storyline is weak. It has to do with a very rare breed of pot called Pineapple Express, which Seth buys from his dealer, a badly miscast James Franco.

Here’s my question: James Franco, who is a dead ringer for the young James Dean when he is cleaned up (and has played him on film) is cast as the scrungy-looking drug dealer. There would have been comic possibilities in the casting of “McLovin” (from “Superbad”) or, really, anyone who looks “funnier” than James Franco, who merely looks unclean in this film.

Seth Rogan, who is a process server, unwittingly witnesses a murder committed by crooked cop Rosie Perez and her boyfriend, drug lord Gary Cole. He can be tracked because he throws a half-smoked roach out the window of his car, and the Pineapple Express brand of Mary Jane is being sold only by one dealer (Franco) and has been sold to only one customer (Seth Rogan).

The problem is that the movie seeks to be an outright comedy, but there are shootings and deaths galore, which don’t add up to Com-e-dee. There is also one character who is repeatedly shot and yet remains upright and ambulatory. Not only does this defy logic and believability, it isn’t really that “funny.”

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I was disappointed in this new film, because I really loved both “Knocked Up” and “”Superbad.”

The new Batman film “The Dark Knight” had its World Premiere at Navy Pier in Chicago on Wednesday, July 16^th, and I was there. The screaming fans in front of the entrance got to see Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and the film’s director and writer, Christopher Nolan (”Memento”) who wrote the script once again with Jonathan Nolan (as they did for “Memento”) and whose soaring vision displays Chicago to good effect.

Much has been said about the memorable performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker, and he may well earn that posthumous nomination and Oscar for Best Actor. Certainly the film is as much about the Joker as it is about Batman, and it also has an added allegorical layer of meaning as it displays Chicago filming sites like the (still under construction) Trump Tower, the Sears Tower, the former Brach’s Candy factory at 401 N. Cicero Ave, which doubles as Gotham City Hospital and is blown up. The fancy party that the Joker crashes was inside the Illinois Center Buildings, Building 2 at 111 E. Wacker Drive. The aerial shots of Batman’s secret underground lair are 1500 S. Lumber St. The old (abandoned) Chicago Post Office at 404 W. Harrison St. doubled for the Gotham City Bank in opening heist sequences, and, in addition to the funeral procession down LaSalle Street and the chase scenes on lower Wacker Drive, there were various location shots at 330 N. Wabash Avenue, which was once known as the IBM Building. These included the Mayor’s office, District Attorney Harvey Dent’s office and the boardroom of Wayne Enterprises.

The movie created about 4,500 jobs in Chicago last year, which meant $17 million to the city. There were more than 300 Illinois vendors involved, from security providers to cleaning and catering services ($22 million in sales).

The political subtext of the script is there for anyone to see and hear. There is the issue of the invasion of privacy, which causes the character played by Morgan Freeman to tender his resignation rather than unethically use a sonar device he has created to spy on the public. (Shades of recent legislation involving amnesty for the telecommunications industry!) Lucius says, “This is too much power for one person. Spying on 30 million people isn’t part of my job description.”

Here are just a few of the politically charged lines: “Do I really look like a man with a plan? I’m like a dog chasing a car. I wouldn’t know what to do about it if I caught it.” This line (spoken by Ledger’s Joker character) certainly smacks of “W’s eight years in office.  Ledger goes on to say, “I’m an agent of chaos, and you know the thing about chaos, it’s fear.” (Orange alert, anyone?) Another line that resonated, for me, was: “You should have thought of that before you let the clown out of the box.” Indeed, we, as a nation, should have. The Joker also says, “It’s not about money; it’s about sending a message” and “I’m not a monster; I’m just ahead of the curve.”

Batman (Christian Bale) says, “I was meant to inspire good. Not madness. Not death” as we learn that, in the inevitable  sequel, he will have a “bad” reputation, since he is taking the fall for the mayhem another character has created.

Harvey Dent, the crusading District Attorney, is played by Aaron Eckhart (”Thank You For Not Smoking”), who says, “In their desperation, they turned to a man they don’t fully understand.” Harvey is in love with Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), but so is Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale).

Repeated more than once is the line, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to be a villain,” and that seems to be the script key for the next installment of the Christopher Nolan-directed series. Nolan has single-handedly taken the franchise to new heights, aided by truly wonderful special effects, gorgeous aerial photography of both Chicago and Hong Kong (some shooting, also, in London and Cardington in the UK).

Here’s another politically charged message: “I told you my compound would take you places. I never said it would be places you’d want to go.” (The Joker). Another good one: “Know your limits. What’s gonna’ happen on the day that you find out?” How about this one that could well have been uttered by the “Decider:” “I don’t get political points for being an idealist. I have to do the best with what I have.”

There are a few clunky lines that will sound familiar (”The night is darkest just before the dawn, but I promise you, the dawn is coming,” as articulated by D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). There is also, “I know the truth. There is no going back. You’ve changed things forever.” (Ain’t it the truth?) Harvey Dent declares, “The Joker’s just a mad dog. I want whoever let him off his leash.” (That would be Dick Cheney, for openers, and Rumsfield aiding and abetting.) With talk of “a misplaced sense of self-righteousness” and “decent men in an indecent time” where “the only morality is chance” a plot is woven that combines terrific action sequences with great special effects and wonderful music (James Newton Howard).

Again and again, the critics have pointed to the fine acting by one and all. Christian Bale as “the Batman” is set to continue this series and even to take on another sacrosanct movie of yesteryear, playing John Connor in “Terminator Salvation.” Michael Caine, as the Butler Alfred, turns in his always-competent support, and Gary Oldman as the Lieutenant who becomes Police Commissioner is good. But the best is Heath Ledger’s Joker, matching Jack Nicholson’s demented work that preceded this portrayal.

“The Dark Knight” made a record $18.5 million from 3,040 theaters, according to Warner Brothers (distributors of the film), as of Friday, July 18^th. That bests the 2005 “Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith” ($16.9 on 2,915 screens) and puts it on pace to clear more than $100 million on a non-holiday weekend, placing it in the top ten.

The movie is beautifully made, finely crafted, well-written, has great music, is well-acted and plotted and…most interestingly for me…makes some strong social commentary, as when we hear lines like, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” You can hear that simply as dialogue from a Super Hero movie, or you can really pay attention to the messages this movie is sending out, loud and clear in this, a political year unlike any other. When supporting players like Eric Roberts (”King of the Gypsies”), Maggie Gyllenhaal (”Stranger than Fiction,” “Sherry Baby”), William Fichtner (”Prison Break,” “Invasion” on television) and the leads mentioned above add their expert thespian talents to the mix, you’re watching one of the best movies of the summer and the year.

Yes, I mean Kevin Costner, the actor best known for his Oscar-winning year with “Dances with Wolves” (1990), which garnered 7 Academy Awards and, according to Kevin Costner in an interview in July 20, 2008 “Parade” magazine, put such strain on his marriage of 16 years (they were wed in 1978) that it collapsed under the strain. Costner had three children with his college girlfriend from Cal State, Fullerton (Cindy Silva):  Anne (now 23), Lily (now 21) and Joe (now 20). Costner also fathered a child out-of-wedlock with socialite Bridget Rooney, a Pittsburgh resident. That child, Liam, is not 11, but the marriage-shy Costner did not tie the knot with the child’s mother.

Then he met Christine Baumgartner, the blonde, younger trophy wife (whom he had met once before on a golf course many years prior when practicing for his role in “Tin Cup.” Baumgartner is 33 years old, to Costner’s 53, and they have been married for four years (2004). They have a son, Cayden, who is one.

So, what pearls of wisdom does the marriage-shy Costner have to share with readers who might miss his Midwest tour with his band? Yes, his band. It seems that old movie stars never really die; they just form a rock band and tour, and that is what Costner is going to be doing with his band, the country rock band Modern West, which will be playing Chicago’s House of Blues soon. (Costner says his wife joins him as often as possible on the road.)

I heard Costner sing in “The Postman” and my Costner fix will have to wait until his latest movie, “Swing Vote” hits theaters on August 1^st. To say it was a painful experience to watch (and/or listen) to Costner sing is being kind.

But back to Pearls of Costner Wisdom, and I mean this seriously. The man has given some thought to life and love and one of my favorite quotes from way back when is “Marriage is a tough gig.”

New Pearls of Wisdom are these:

• “We’re afraid of a lot of things in life. It’s part of the human condition. What do we fear? Love? Failure? Telling the truth about ourselves? I think we don’t show people all we truly are because we’re afraid that if they actually know everything about us, they won’t love us. I’m as guilty of that as anyone.”
• “Falling in love is a really tricky thing. If you pretend you’re in love when you’re really not, it ends up bloody.”
• “When I met Christine, I wasn’t prepared to be in loved again. It took me a long time before I said, ‘ I love you’ to her, a long time.”
• “After my marriage ended, I never dated anyone consistently. I stayed single. When I wanted some company in my life, I was like the classic single guy—who do I love this week, who next week? I wouldn’t even use the word ‘love’ with someone, because that makes things trickier.”
• “I have never wanted to be afraid in my life, but after my divorce, I was. The pain of that experience had been so strong that I never wanted to go through it ever again.”
• “Sometimes you learn that the thing you’re most afraid of in life is the thing that will save your life.”

So, those are today’s Costner’s Pearls of Wisdom (courtesy of Dotson Rader’s interview of the 6′ 1″ heart-throb in the Sunday, July 20^th, “Parade” magazine. He may not be much of a singer, but he has some experience at living life, and I always look forward to his latest observations on same.

In”The Fog of War,” the 2003 Oscar-winning documentary produced and directed by Errol Morris, interview subject Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the Viet Nam war, offers eleven lessons:

1) Empathize with your enemy.

2) Rationality will not save us.

3) There’s something beyond one’s self.

4) Maximize efficiency.

5) Proportionality should be a lesson in war.

6) Get the data.

7) Belief and seeing are both often wrong.

8) Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning.

9) In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.

10) Never say never.

11) You can’t change human nature.

McNamara: “Learn from your mistakes. Try to learn. Try to understand what happened. If people do not display wisdom, they will clash like blind moles, and then mutual annihilation will commence.”

McNamara asked Castro, post Bay of Pigs, “Would you have recommended that Khruschev use the missiles?”

Castro responded forcefully, that he HAD told Khruschev to use them, admitting that Cuba would have been destroyed.

McNamara shook his head in incredulity, stunned to learn that this was Castro’s position.

“Pull the temple down on our heads? My God!”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (United Nations, September 25, 1961) “Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle our disputes…Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.”

McNamara: “The human race needs to think more about killing…about conflict. Is that what we want in the 21^st century… I was part of a mechanism that, in a sense, recommended it.” Ninety-nine per cent of the city of Toyama was destroyed on McNamara’s watch. Omuta, a city the size of Miami, was 31% destroyed.

McNamara asks whether killing 50 to 90% of the population of 67 Japanese cities and then dropping two nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities was “proportionate.” (Lesson 5). He noted there is “no chance to learn from nuclear war…there is no learning power from such an experience. If we’d lost the war (WWII), we all would have been prosecuted as war criminals. What makes it immoral if you lose and NOT immoral if you win?”

Senator Scott called Vietnam, “The war which we can neither win, nor lose, nor drop…Like “W’s” “Bring ‘em on!”, LBJ is heard, in tapes made in the Oval Office, saying that he wants to “whoop the hell out of ‘em…kill some of ‘em.”

LBJ, after John Kennedy’s assassination, said, “You can have more war or more appeasement. I always thought it was bad to make any statements about withdrawing.”

McNamara: “We were wrong, but we had in our mind a mindset that led to that action. And it led to such heavy costs…we see what we want to believe.”

(Rule #1). McNamara related a heated conversation with the man who had once been President of North Vietnam, which occurred many years after the conflict. “We (the North Vietnamese) were fighting for our independence. You were fighting to enslave us. We weren’t the pawns of the Chinese or the Russians. We would have fought to the last man,”said the North Vietnamese leader. (Point #1).

LBJ: “We’re not getting out, but we’re trying to hold on to what we have. This is a nasty little war that has turned in to a nasty middle-sized war. But America wins the wars she declares. Make no mistake about that!”

McNamara (Lesson #8, “Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning,”): “What makes us omniscient? Do we have a record of omniscience? None of our allies supported us. If we can’t persuade nations with comparable values of the rightness of our cause, we had better re-examine our reasons.”

When asked why he continued to support LBJ as he escalated the war, McNamara answered: “It was my responsibility to try to help LBJ carry out the office he thought was in the interests of our people.” McNamara won’t answer the question of whether he feels guilt at his involvement in sending 58,000 American soldiers to their deaths. When he left office, the nation had experienced 25,000 deaths in Vietnam, half the ultimate toll.

Robert Strange McNamara says, “What I’m doing is thinking it through in hindsight. We all make mistakes. We all know we make mistakes.”

Lesson #9 “(”In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.”) McNamara: “Human beings must stop killing other human beings. How much evil must we do to do good?”

McNamara (November 1, 1967):”The course we’re on is totally wrong. We’ve got to change it. I love this man. I respect him, but he’s totally wrong. At the end, Johnson and I found ourselves poles apart. Something had to give.”

McNamara was dismissed as Secretary of Defense and LBJ, on March 31, 1968, announced that his political career was over.

Copyright 2004 by Connie Corcoran Wilson, M.S. You may reproduce any or part of this article, as long as you give proper attribution, and you may read more of Connie Corcoran Wilson’s writing by ordering her book “Both Sides Now” from the web-site www.ConnieCorcoranWilson.com.

    David Archuleta nailed it tonight on “American Idol.” I’ve had an article up on my blog (www.weeklywilson.com) for days, now, saying that David Archuleta would become the next American Idol, but his superior, stellar performance tonight practically guarantees that outcome.

     “Idol” used the boxing analogy to intrigue viewers, almost to the point of cheesiness, but that gimmick couldn’t detract from the wonderful performances of the two Davids, especially Archuleta.

    The two finalists sang three rounds. Clive Davis picked the first round of songs. Davis selected “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” for David Cook to sing at the beginning of the competition, and it was arguably Cook’s best performance of the night. The U2 song fit his style and distinctively gritty vocal quality, and he made the most of it, although the sliding up to the final note that Judge Randy Jackson praised seemed unnecessary, to me, and detracted from the overall quality of Cook’s presentation.

     David Archuleta’s first song was “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me,” an Elton John song, selected by Andrew Lloyd Webber. He sang it so well that, even though the judges had pronounced David Cook’s performance just prior as “phenomenal,” they said that David Archuleta’s singing was “beautiful, beautiful, stunning performance” (Paula Abdul) and “One of the best performances of this season.molten hot.” (Randy Jackson). Simon said that Round One had gone to Archuleta, and that pattern continued throughout Rounds Two and Three.

     Round Two was a round given over to new songs composed especially for the night. David Archuleta’s song was just better than David Cook’s, as all the judges agreed. Archuleta’s lyrics, speaking of “staring through windows at my own reflection” was just a better song than “Reach Out for Something More”, which Cook tried.

     The final round allowed the singers to either pick a brand-new song or one they had sung earlier in the season. Cook tried a new song from Collective Soul, but it paled by comparison to David Archuleta’s revisiting of “Imagine,” which he was, quite simply, brilliant on.

     So, as I said on this blog and others days ago, this year’s American Idol will be David Archuleta.

      There are so many great movie quotes that echo in my mind and have special meaning for me.

     Like nearly everyone in America, Clark Gable’s famous pronouncement “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!” as he exited Tara in “Gone with the Wind” seemed the very essence of manly disdain. His complete contempt for the manipulative Vivien Leigh’s cries of “What shall I do? Where shall I go?” show that he has reached the limits of human endurance with Scarlett O”Hara’s perpetual scheming. Men everywhere applauded his sheer bravado in telling Scarlett O’Hara where to get off.

      Another film that resonates with nearly every American is “The Wizard of Oz” and I think we all share Judy Garland’s sentiment  “There’s no place like home.” It reminds of that other famous literary quote that says, “Home is the place where, when you have nowhere else to go, they have to take you in.”

     Because I grew up only 60 miles away from the movie set of “Field of Dreams” I have always held dear “Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa,” and, as a fledgling entrepreneur in 1986, I often muttered to myself, “If you build it, they will come.” The W.P. Kinsella novel on which the movie was based was a hymn of praise to Iowa, my birth state, and Kinsella was a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Implausibly, the film about a son coming to terms with his dead father worked on so many levels, showcasing stars like Kevin Costner, Burt Lancaster, James Earl Jones and Ray Liotta.

     Most of us have internalized the Italian family saga that is and was “The Godfather” and the saying, “I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse,” Marlon Brando’s veiled threat, has certainly made its way into the pantheon of contemporary American sayings. Brando also uttered one of the best and most famous lines in American cinema when he told his brother Charlie (Rod Steiger) that he “shoulda looked out for him” and added, “I coulda’ been a contender, instead of a bum. Which is what I am.” This famous exchange, set in the back of a car in “On the Waterfront,” earned Marlon Brando’s Terry Malloy an Oscar and takes us back immediately to the Elia Kazan film, co-starring Eva Marie Saint.

     In “Taxi Driver,” Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) grows more and more paranoid and delusional until we see him practicing saying, in a mirror, “You lookin’ at me? You lookin’ at me?” This glimpse of a tormented soul losing his grip on sanity seems very true-to-life as we read today’s headlines about violent shooting rampages.

     On a happier note, Humphrey Bogart tells Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa in “Casablanca,” “We’ll always have Paris,” as he urges her to leave with her husband on the plane. The film was and is widely considered one of the best ever shot, and the line lives on as a tribute to romantics everywhere.

     More recently, Cuba Gooding snagged an Academy Award for screaming, “Show me the money!” into the phone to Tom Cruise, his sports agent, in “Jerry Maguire.” It was a tour-de-force performance by Gooding, one that he has yet to match.

     “Psycho” with Anthony Perkins as the young motel clerk with the mommy hang-ups gave us, “A boy’s best friend is his mother.” This Hitchcock film was among the most terrifying ever filmed, and, even today, the shower scene is unparalleled. At no time is the knife shown penetrating flesh, but, through successive quick cuts, the master gave us a totally terrifying murder scene in a motel bathroom shower.

     Another film of the sixties that gave us both the one-word “Plastics” and the line, “Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?” was “The Graduate,” a vehicle that launched Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross, with an able assist from Anne Bancroft. Mike Nichols directed and the iconic images still influence filmmakers today.

    At the end of “Some Like It Hot,” Joe E. Brown tells Jack Lemmon (in drag), “Nobody’s perfect,” as they speed across the water in a speedboat. Lemmon has been trying to tell the persistent suitor that he is not a woman, but a man, and rips off his wig to reveal his secret, finally, only to find that Brown cannot be deterred. It gave obsession a whole new dimension.

     These ten-plus lines are known to serious film-goers everywhere, but, just to round out the list, the one word “Rosebud” from “Citizen Kane,” which, we now know, was the name of Orson Welles’ sled and represented his lost childhood is classic, as is “I’ll have what she’s having” from “When Harry Met Sally,” uttered by Rob Reiner’s real-life mother in a bit part in a restaurant, as Sally (Meg Ryan) faked an orgasm for Billy Crystal’s benefit.

   See if you can name the films from which these lines sprang: “I’m King of the World!” (spoken by Leonardo deCaprio).

    “Hey! I’m walkin’ here” as uttered by Dustin Hoffman. (It was improvised, as the budget for the film was so small that traffic could not be shut down and Hoffman, walking with co-star Jon Voigt, really did bang on the hood of the New York City cab.

    “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.” Gloria Swanson said it, and William Holden’s body was found, floating facedown of the pool, at the very beginning of the film.

    And in what movie did Jack Nicholson say, “You make me want to be a better man” to Helen Hunt’s waitress. Or, Robert Duvall spoke “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” in what Francis Ford Coppola vehicle?

    If you don’t know the answer(s) to the questions posed in the last 3 paragraphs, visit http://www.weeklywilson.com/ for the answers.

ANSWERS: “I’m King of the world” is Leonardo deCaprio’s famous line from “Titanic,” spoken with Rose from the prow of the ship before it famously sinks.

     “Hey! I’m walkin’ here!” was uttered by Dustin Hoffman in “Midnight Cowboy,” as the character Ratso Rizzo navigates downtown New York City with  male hustler Jon Voigt.

     “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille,” was faded star Gloria Swanson’s line, as the police close in to arrest her for the murder of William Holden, (seen floating in the pool as the film opens) in “Sunset Boulevard.”

     “You make me want to be a better man,” was Jack Nicholson’s Obsessive-compulsive writer’s plea to waitress Helen Hunt in “As Good As It Gets.”

     “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” was Robert Duvall’s wacko comment to his men in Vietnam in “Apocalypse Now,” as he also suggested they surf the waves in this Francis Ford Coppola-directed Vietnam War epic.

    If you liked these, write me a line and I’ll share others with you to solve in future articles on www.weeklywilson.com.

“No Country for Old Man” picked up the Oscar for Best Picture at the 80^th Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Kodak Center in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday, February 24^th. In addition to Best Picture, the story of psychopathic killer Anton Chagar (Javier Bardem), with able assists from Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin, garnered a Best Supporting Actor statuette for Javier Bardem, the first Spaniard to be nominated for Best Actor. The Best Director Ocar went to Coen Brothers Joel and Ethan (”Fargo,” “The Big Lebowsky”) for “No Country for Old Men” and the film also picked up the best adapted screenplay Oscar, to lead with 4 wins as the night’s biggest winner.

For quite some time early in the evening, Matt Damon’s film “The Bourne Ultimatum” was the leader of the pack, with 3 Oscars in more minor categories (Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing), but it was ultimately (pun intended) eclipsed by “No Country’s” brutal tale of murder and money in the desert.

Two awards apiece were given to “There Will Be Blood,” one of them the big one of Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis (”My Left Foot). The intense actor has been nominated four times and has won twice. “There Will Be Blood,” a tale of oil drilling, greed and violence, also won for Best Cinematography, for Robert Elswit.

Another film that garnered two Oscars was “La Vie en Rose,” which won the Best Actress award for Marion Cotillard, portraying French chanteuse Edith Piaf. “La Vie en Rose” also won the Oscar for Best Make-up. Cotillard’s win was an upset over the favorite, Julie Christie for “Away from Her.” Cotillard seemed overcome with emotion as she thanked the audience, saying, “There is angels in this city” (Los Angeles).

Best Supporting Actress was Tilda Swinton, who won for her role in “Michael Clayton,” which was largely shut out after earning among the most nominations (along with “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood”).

Other winners were:

Documentary Feature “Taxi to the Dark Side,” about the war-time death of a cab driver.

Documentary Short “Freeheld,” which dealt with a gay couple’s rights to inherit when one dies.

Animated Feature winner was the crowd favorite “Ratatouille.”

Best Foreign Language Film was “The Counterfeiters” from Austria.

Best Original Screenplay winner was Diablo Cody for “Juno,” her first script.

Best Visual Effects winner went to “The Golden Compass.”

Best Animated Short Film went to “Peter & the Wolf.”

Best Live Action Short Film went to “Le Mozart des Pickpockets” (”The Mozart of Pickpockets”).

Best Art Direction award went to “Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” another film that was largely shut out after securing multiple nominations.

Best Costume Design went to “Elizabeth: the Golden Age,” which was one of the areas where “Sweeney Todd,” along with “Atonement” had been favored. “Atonement” did, however, win in the area of Best Original Score for Dario Marianelli.

Best Original Song went to “Once” from “Falling Slowly,” but the entire music category had been criticized prior to the night’s ceremony for failing to represent contemporary music when both Eddie Vedder (”Pearl Jam”) for “Into the Wild” and Radiohead’s lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood (the score for “There Will Be Blood”) were not recognized for their work, nor was the music from “Juno,” which has been among the best-selling CD’s nationwide since the film’s release.

Host Jon Stewart performed host ceremonies with some occasional zingers, after announcing, “This is it, this is it, this is the big one,” as the ceremony kicked off at 7:30 p.m. CDT.

Commenting on the violent subject matter of “There Will Be Blood,” “Atonement,” “No Country for Old Men,” and “Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” Stewart said, “Thank God for teen pregnancy,” a reference to the final nominated film, “Juno.” Stewart also got in a good zinger when, in commenting on the make-up nomination for “Norbit,” he said, “Too often the Academy ignores movies that weren’t any good.” He compared Javier Bardem’s hairstyle in “No Country for Old Men” to a combination of the horribleness of Hannibel Lecter with Dorothy Hamill’s wedge haircut.

Fashion notes: the gorgeous gowns were back, with most of the crowd (especially the nominees) looking very “Hollywood.” I had problems with the outfit that Rebecca Miller (Daniel Day Lewis’ partner and Arthur Miller’s daughter) selected, a black dress with red bows on the shoulders and large big fake medallions, a truly hideous combination. However, to give equal time to her escort’s strange attire, wearing two gold loop earrings was probably an equivalent fashion “faux pas.” The opinion expressed here is strictly my own and does not reflect Mr. Blackwell’s Worst Dressed List…although it eventually may.

On the gorgeous side, Cameron Diaz shone in a pale pink number and Penelope Cruz looked equally lovely in a black dress. The female interviewer on the red carpet, herself, had on one of the most satisfactory gowns of the evening, with a fetching shoulder strap treatment

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