In 1993,
Eritrea became an independent nation, and Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia;
Bill Clinton became the 42nd President of the United States of America;
Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ahmed Ajaj attempted to blow up the World Trade Center;
Janet Reno became the first female Attorney General of the United States;
David Koresh led the Branch Davidians in a deadly fifty one day siege in Waco, Texas;
The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union;
The Hubble Space Telescope took its first pictures;
David Letterman left NBC to begin a new show on CBS and Conan O’Brien began his career as his replacement;
Michael Jackson became the first solo performer of a Superbowl halftime show;
Star Trek: DS9, Monday Night Raw, Beavis and Butt-head, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, The X-Files, Animaniacs, Rocko’s Modern Life, Boy Meets World, Walker, Texas Ranger, The Nanny, Diagnosis: Murder, The State, and Martha Stewart Living debuted;
Zayn Malik, Will Poulter, Victoria Justice, Bobbi Kristina Brown, Jodie Comer, Chance the Rapper, Miranda Cosgrove, Swae Lee, Gunna, Ariana Grande, Beanie Feldstein, Saweetie, Jordan Spieth, Harry Kane, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Ben Platt, Rosalia, Tiffany Trump, Letitia Wright, Julia Michaels, Pete Davidson, Mia Goth, AnnaSophia Robb, Meghan Trainor were born;
While Dizzy Gillespie, Rudolf Nuerev, Sammy Cahn, Glenn Corbett, Audrey Hepburn, Thomas Dorsey, Andre the Giant, Joseph Mankiewicz, Arthur Ashe, Kerry Von Erich, Ferruccio Lamborghini, Lillian Gish, Helen Hayes, Richard Diebenkorn, Brandon Lee, Alan Kulwicki, Cantfinflas, Cesar Chavez, Mick Ronson, Mary Philbin, Sun Ra, Conway Twitty, James Bridges, Ray Sharkey, John Connally, William Golding, Pat Nixon, Roy Campanella, Fred Gwynne, Don Drysdale, Anne Shirley, Mia Zapata, Davey Allison, Jean Negulesco, Stewart Granger, Hervé Villechaize, Raymond Burr, Jimmy Doolittle, Vincent Price, Federico Fellini, River Phoenix, H.R. Haldeman, Bill Bixby, Anthony Burgess, Pablo Escobar, Frank Zappa, Don Ameche, Myrna Loy, Sam Wanamaker, Norman Vincent Peale died.
The following is a list of my top ten films released in 1993:
Caine and his friend O-Dog meander through life in Los Angeles, moving from one violent encounter to another.
O-Dog kills a Korean cashier who insults him, steals the surveillance tape, and proudly shows it to his friends. Caine lives with his grandparents because both his parents are dead (dad murdered, mom overdosed).
Their lives come to an inevitably violent end, but Caine seemingly has an epiphany about the purpose of his life in his final moments.
This astonishing debut film from the Hughes Brothers features Samuel L. Jackson, Charles Dutton, a young Jada Pinkett, and almost starred Tupac Shakur. It’s an effective, haunting reflection of the simmering rage of the black experience (particularly for young men). It doesn’t excuse the violence, but does position it as a response to a pervasive sense of hopelessness.
Robert Downey Jr. documents the 1992 US Presidential election, in what feels like a test run for The Daily Show. This election looms large in my formative memory and this is a nostalgia filled trip back to that time and place.
Beyond the political stuff, it’s a fascinating peak into the family dynamic which created RDJ; knowing how his personal story would progress gives this another layer of intrigue and poignancy.
I love Downey and politics, and came of age during the era. Everyone else might not agree, but I loved it.
This was the culmination of Steven Spielberg’s transition from populist popcorn fare to serious filmmaker. His depiction of the horror of the Holocaust (with an especially evil Ralph Fiennes) is tremendous. Liam Neeson has rarely been more effective as the reluctantly heroic Oskar Schindler, and the end is a poignant reminder of what was lost in the Holocaust.
He would continue to direct blockbusters, but the public perception of Spielberg shifted with this film.
7) The Fugitive
Based on the 1960s TV show, Harrison Ford is Dr. Richard Kimble, a man falsely imprisoned for killing his wife. During a freak bus accident, he escapes confinement and seeks to prove his innocence by tracking down the real murderer.
Ford is wonderful and the central conspiracy theory (Big Pharma is bad) makes too much sense. Tommy Lee Jones is other worldly and elevated his career significantly with this film and subsequent Oscar. He went from a respected character actor to a true leading man with his portrayal of Sam Gerard, the US Marshall assigned to track down Kimble.
This isn’t groundbreaking cinema, but it’s a well crafted thrill ride with memorable lines and easily one of the best film adaptations of a TV series.
Based on the early life of chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin, this is a compelling look at the drive to succeed and the cost of success.
Josh’s dad, Fred (Joe Mantegna) pushes him too hard and Josh briefly loses his love of the game. Ironically, the real life Josh would retire from chess at a young age for remarkably similar reasons.
The cast is a murder’s row. Ben Kingsley is legendary chess coach / mentor Bruce Pandolfini, Laurence Fishburne is a street chess player who initially identifies Josh’s talent. Joan Allen is Josh’s mother. In addition, David Paymer, Austin Pendleton, William H. Macy, Laura Linney, and Tony Schalhoub appear in supporting roles.
I enjoy movies about child prodigies and how they reconcile their way of seeing the world with the traditional ways of viewing it. The film is an instructive (albeit predictable) lesson in parenting and the need to give your kids space to grow.
The world of high skilled chess fascinates me; it’s a mysterious, intoxicating milieu of people too smart for their own good, who operate at dizzying speeds in ways most people will never understand.
Injured and claiming to be a friend of their child (as well as the son of Sidney Poitier), Paul (Will Smith) shows up at the home of Ouisa (Stockard Channing) and Flan (Donald Sutherland) Kitteridge. He overcomes their initial skepticism and convinces them to give him money. Paul is, of course, a con man who preys on the rich.
Based on the true story of David Hampton and his exploits scamming the rich and powerful, this is a fascinating film. It’s a probing exploration of class, race and identity. Paul challenges the Kitteridges to realize their wealthy liberalism is based on a lot of assumptions about people.
Stockard Channing has never been better, Donald Sutherland is in peak form, and Will Smith changed the trajectory of his career, showing a range previously unknown, effectively shedding the Fresh Prince moniker to become a real actor. I’m not sure he’s given a better performance.
4) The War Room
This fly on the wall documentary of the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign is right in my wheelhouse. I love behind the scenes stuff; I love inside politics, and the 1992 campaign was the first one when I was old enough to really pay attention. There’s a reason Carville and Stephanopoulos are still household names thirty years later.
To me this is a shot of adrenaline, but, if you’re not a political junkie, you might not feel the same way.
When their former employer, the Earl of Darlington, dies, head butler James Stevens and former housekeeper Sarah Kenton reunite and reminiscence about their time together.
Stevens defines himself by his profession and was apathetic towards his employer’s fascist sympathies in the years leading up to the second World War. Miss Kenton was more aware of the world around her and pushed back against Lord Darlington’s noxious political ideas and Mr. Steven’s unsparing resistance to sentimentality. Nonetheless she developed feelings for Stevens, but when he refused to acknowledge any reciprocation, she left to marry someone else.
Steven’s loyalty is admirable, but his lifelong insistence on elimination of emotional attachment is devastating.
Christopher Reeve is very good in a non-Superman role as Congressman Jack Lewis who eventually purchases the estate from a disgraced Darlington.
Hugh Grant is effective as Darlington’s doomed idealistic godson.
This is the quintessential Merchant Ivory film, a lush and lavish period drama focused on issues of class and British identity. It explores many of the same themes as Downton Abbey, but goes further to show how misguided loyalties and purpose do more than just blind us to weakness and inoculate us from criticism, but perpetuate real world harm.
The author of the source material, Kazuo Ishiguro, would later win the Nobel Prize in literature. His unique position as a man born in Japan, growing up entirely in England, allows him to both appreciate his adopted land and be more critical of its failures.
After announcing his engagement to May Welland (Winona Ryder), Newland Archer (Daniel Day Lewis) falls in love with May’s divorced cousin, Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer).
Archer’s dilemma leads to agonizing choices which highlight the tension between duty and desire. It’s a deeply spiritual film, challenging stiff social conventions, but also suggesting the world is better off when personal desires are subverted for the greater good.
Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel is a masterclass in duty and the meaning of love.
This film embodies one of my favorite lines from another movie, The African Queen. “Nature is what we were put into this world to overcome.”
Taming our desires and finding meaning in denying ourselves of what we want in service to the greater good is an idea which which needs more cheerleaders.
When Pittsburgh weatherman Phil Connors is assigned to cover the Groundhog Day festival in Punxsutawney, he’s inexplicably forced to relive the same day over and over again.
As Ned Ryerson, Stephen Toblowsky straddles the line between annoying, over-eager salesman and pathetic everyman; Andie MacDowell’s Rita is the most genuine person in the film and its emotional anchor; Chris Elliot’s physical comedy serves as a counterbalance to the film’s cerebral aspirations, but this movie belongs to William James Murray.
Prior to this, everyone knew Bill Murray was funny, but no one knew if he could act. As Phil Connors, he runs the gamut from depressed loser to jaded cynic to self-centered asshole to altruistic boy scout. Caddyshack (1980) and Ghostbusters (1985) made him a star, Groundhog Day made him an actor.
This movie breaks countless storytelling rules, but no one walks away thinking about the gaping plot holes. Instead, viewers fill in the blanks with their own metaphysical and philosophical explanations, whether they be Buddhist, Christians, humanist, or conservative.
Director Harold Ramis is often compared to fellow Chicagoan John Hughes, another hugely influential comedic voices in the late twentieth century. I prefer Ramis, but the difference between the two is negligible.
From Ferris Bueller, to Del Griffith, to Kevin McCallister, Hughes’s films feature insecure people trying to figure out how the world works.
From Ty Webb, to Peter Venckman to Phil Connors, Ramis’s films feature overly secure people trying to understand why the world doesn’t work the way they think it should.
On paper, this philosophical, romantic comedy about existential angst with an underdeveloped fantasy plot shouldn’t rank as one of the greatest films of all time, but it does.