In 1994,
The Winter Olympics took place in Lillehammer;
The Channel Tunnel opened;
Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as President of South Africa;
Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley;
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered;
A baseball work stoppage cancelled the World Series;
Stella Liebeck was awarded nearly 3 million dollars after being burned by hot coffee at McDonald’s;
George Foreman became the oldest heavyweight boxing champion;
Republicans took control of the US House for the first time in decades;
Sony released the Playstation;
Lucy Boynton, Julia Garner, Harry Styles, Charlie Heaton, Dansby Swanson, Dakota Fanning, Justin Bieber, Tyreek Hill, Bad Bunny, Ansel Egort, Joel Embiid, Saoirse Ronan, Jordan Fisher, Takeoff, Camila Mendes, Phoebe Bridgers, Madelaine Petsch, Breanna Stewart, Halsey, Margaret Qualley, Zoey Deutch, Lil Baby were born;
While Cesar Romero, Tip O’Neill, Harry Nilsson, Telly Savalas, Hal Smith, Jack Kirby, Bud Wilkinson, Derek Jarman, Dinah Shore, John Candy, Melina Mercouri, Charles Bukowski, Lewis Grizzard, Kurt Cobain, Ralph Ellison, Richard Nixon, Richard Scarry, Ayrton Senna, George Peppard, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Massimo Troisi, Peter Graves, Jack Hannah, Henry Mancini, Kim Il Sung, Domenico Modugno, Peter Cushing, Linus Pauling, Danitra Vance, Lindsay Anderson, James Clavell, Terence Young, Jessica Tandy, Robert Bloch, Harriet Nelson, Burt Lancaster, Raul Julia, Michael O’Donoghue, Wilma Rudolph, Cab Calloway, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jerry Rubin, Woody Strode died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 1994:
10) Forrest Gump
In the thirty years since it’s release, the pendulum has swung from beloved to hated back to a nostalgia fueled beloved.
I enjoy it immensely, and for Gen-X, it’s an iconic part of our childhood.
Jenny, Little Forrest, Bubba, Lieutenant Dan, Mama says… the whole thing is etched into our brains.
I liked it so much I read the book and the differences are so vast it’s not fair to call it an adaptation. The book is a caustic critique of late 20th century America, while the movie is an earnest celebration of the same.
This is the epoch of Robert Zemeckis’s career. He’s made a lot of audacious movies since (mostly focused on innovative uses of technology), but never reached these heights again.
Of course between the money this and Back to the Future made, I doubt he cares.
This movie still somewhat defines Tom Hanks in the public imagination, and Gary Sinise’s star shone bright for a period before he faded into Jeopardy! question territory.
9) Maverick
Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson) is enroute to a high stakes poker game. Short of the required entry fee, he must drum up some money along the way.
His traveling companions are Zane Cooper (James Garner) who’s providing security for the event, and Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) a con artist who hopes to win the game herself.
James Garner played Maverick in the original TV show so it was a bit of stunt casting, but the movie works because he and Mel Gibson ooze charisma and are clearly having a wonderful time.
Foster is as funny as she’s ever been and the genesis of her long, loyal friendship with Gibson is evident.
The supporting cast is loaded with fun cameos and great performances from Alfred Molina, James Coburn, and Graham Greene.
The twisty ending feels a like a mini version of The Sting.
This is not a groundbreaking piece of art, it’s a popcorn movie with a lot of laughs and a ton of personality.
I loved seeing Garner and Gibson go toe to toe. It was a delight when I first saw it and has remained so for thirty years.
Mediocre playwright David Shayne (John Cusack) recently moved to New York to pursue his ill-fated passion. To finance his latest play, he hires gangster moll Olive (Jennifer Tilly) as the star. She’s predictably horrible, but her illiterate bodyguard Cheech (Chazz Palminteri) is an undiscovered genius playwright and his uncredited assistance transforms Shayne’s play into a more successful production.
Everything is headed toward a smash opening night, until the frustrated Cheech murders Olive and uses a mob gang war as cover.
Cusack is great, Palminteri reached the highest peaks of his career, I really enjoyed Jennifer Tilly (who gives one of her best performances).
Dianne Wiest won her second Oscar in an Allen production as an alcoholic member of the troupe and her scenes with the always reliable Jim Broadbent are top notch.
It’s a dark, screwball film which says it’s okay to recognize your limitations.
It’s vintage Woody Allen, made just after the initial controversy following his split from Farrow. I love Allen’s work during this period and while this is not his best, it’s better than most.
7) Sátántangó
This seven hour film from director Bela Tarr is a master class in a slow burn. It’s gorgeous black and white, mysterious, symbolic and resembles a dream.
Many will be intimidated by the length, but if you break it up like a TV miniseries it becomes manageable.
My hope is, as audiences grow accustomed to binging TV seasons, public interest in longer form movies will increase.
Tarr is not as accessible as many of his contemporaries, but they’re worth the effort.
6) The Postman
During a Chilean exile, Italian poet Pablo Neruda forms an unlikely friendship with Mario Ruoppolo, the uneducated fisherman who serves as his personal postman.
Pablo introduces Mario to a world of possibility and helps him find love.
Eventually, the exile is lifted and Pablo returns to his native land. While he’s away from his Chilean home, Mario is killed at a communist rally reciting his own poetry.
It’s a lovely film about an unlikely friendship and the power of ideas to shape and transform, made all the more poignant because the film’s co-writer and star, Massimo Troisi died from a long illness just after production was completed and was posthumously nominated for an Academy Award.
The crowning achievement of the original Disney Renaissance, the period which began with The Little Mermaid (1989) and included Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992). Few production houses have engineered a more impressive streak.
Disney’s African set, Hamlet inspired film was a seminal part of the Generation X / Millennial experience.
The soundtrack revived Elton John’s career.
James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Matthew Broderick as Simba (adult), teen heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas as the younger Simba, Jeremy Irons as Scar (as a teen I adored his big musical number, “Be Prepared”), Nathan Lane with an iconic turn as Timon. So much talent, I forget Robert Guillaume and Rowan Atkinson are in the movie as Rafiki and Zazu. Not even mentioning Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin as two of Scar’s lackey, laughing hyenas.
This movie is so entrenched in the memory of two different generations that a lesser 2019 “live action” remake made a billion nostalgia fueled dollars.
Anyone who doesn’t include this in top tier Disney movies is not making a serious effort.
After Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning) unexpectedly commits suicide, Hudsucker Industries chairman Sidney Mussburger (Paul Newman) conspires to promote naive mail clerk Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) as CEO to keep stock prices low and prevent a public sale of the company. Unfortunately for him, Norville is astonishingly successful.
After the critical success of Barton Fink (1991), Hollywood inevitably came calling and this was the Coen Brothers big budget debut with established stars in the lead roles. The result is a fun homage to the kind of screwball comedy of yesteryear (think Preston Sturgess).
Paul Newman is delightful as the heavy. Tim Robbins is a wonderful everyman. A young Jennifer Jason Leigh is charming as the potential romantic partner for Norville and perfectly encapsulates the spitfire attitude of Jean Arthur, Katharine Hepburn, etc.
Before they became a brand, this is vintage, experimental Coens, back when it was them and their friends (Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell) trying to see what they could get away with. I prefer the energy of this earlier Coens, with a more anarchic, convention busting, devil may care attitude.
3) Ed Wood
Similarly to the more recent film, The Disaster Artist (2017), this film is an homage to wannabe filmmakers; people whose love of cinema and the creative process outstrips their talent.
Famously inept film director Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) is featured during his most fervent period of creativity.
Wood struggles to finance his movies, but remains convinced his next film will be a huge success and lead to greater opportunities. Sadly, he dies without achieving the kind of renown and respect he dreamt of for himself.
His unlikely friendship with fading movie star Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) is the film’s emotional core. Both want respect and fame. One had it and lost it (Lugosi), the other is convinced it is his destiny (Wood).
This is one of Burton’s most personal and affectionate films. He clearly has a soft spot for Wood and his misfit group of friends. It’s easy to believe he sees himself in the character.
The Burton / Depp collaboration eventually devolved into a joke, but here it was still bearing fruit.
The cast from top to down is electric. Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, and Bill Murray are wonderful, and Landau deservedly won the only Oscar of his career for his turn as the one time household name, Lugosi.
This wonderful film is a celebration of being different and odd and a defiant statement about the pleasures of art for art’s sake and finding purpose in the creative process.
A decade after losing the American colonies in the War for Independence, Britain’s King George III (Nigel Hawthorne) struggles with a bout of madness. His loyal wife, Charlotte (Helen Mirren) tries to get him adequate treatment, but his son and heir, George, the Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett) is eager to take control so he can marry who he wants.
Eventually, the king is put under the care of Dr. Francis Willis (Ian Holm), whose unorthodox methods guide him back to sanity.
Hawthorne’s film career rests almost entirely on this role and he’s excellent in it. Helen Mirren and royalty are always a wonderful pairing and she’s phenomenal as the doting, supportive Charlotte.
Ian Holm is fantastic as Dr. Willis. From Alien (1979) to The Lord of the Rings (2000s), to Chariots of Fire (1981), Holm had fantastic range, at home in a wide variety of genres.
I love the British monarchy; I’m fascinated by this vestige of a world long gone which still parades through time, out of touch with modern sensibilities, but untouchable to the currents of history.
I love the reminder how one stray comment from one particular individual can reshape the historical record; I like how Willis turns convention on its head during his treatment of the king, but must revert to societal norms after the cure. The British monarchy is a living embodiment of tradition and without this safeguard it’s existence is in doubt. Even when circumstances dictates it bend, it snaps back into place as soon as possible.
1994 was a miracle year for movies, but while Forrest Gump was a technical marvel and transformed Tom Hanks into a national treasure and Pulp Fiction ushered in a new era of hyper violence, the cream of the crop was the story of the wrongfully convicted Andy Dufresne.
Its continuing power is due to the amazing cast of characters.
Thousands of people dream of Morgan Freeman narrating their lifestory, but what they really want is the comforting, soothing gravitas of prisoner Ellis “Red” Redding magnifying the minutiae of their lives.
Bob Gunton is one of the greatest screen villains as the hypocritical, Bible-thumping, slightly obtuse warden, Samuel Norton.
James Whitmore is heartbreaking as Brooks Hatlen, the lifelong prisoner unable to adjust to life on the outside.
Andy’s quiet quest to secure his freedom stands in contrast to the bitterness and defiant anger we expect, and the image of him emerging from the sewer a free man and looking up into the falling rain is a triumph of the human spirit.