Comfort Movies: My Favorites. Name Yours - Jack...

Couch potatoes know what I'm talking about. There are you are, flopped on the couch or in bed, and up comes a movie you've seen a hundred times and what you're going to do is, you're going to watch it again. There is no reason for this except that you like it and you like it even more because you know what's coming next. It's like an old friend, or a comfortable pair of slippers.

We are not talking about Great Films, necessarily, for in fact Great Films can be troubling and this we do not want. We do not want to be troubled.

Life is bad enough. We don't need a movie to add to our tsouris.

"Deliverance," for example, is not a comfort movie.

A comfort movie will even let you fall asleep somewhere in the middle and this is okay. However, a real comfort movie will not even let you go to the bathroom.

You do not want to miss Jennifer Aniston giving her boss the finger in "Office Space."

I define a comfort movie as a movie in which NOBODY GETS HURT. That's rule number one. Number two: You like it! Anybody got a problem with that!

Here are some of my favorites, not exactly the Greatest Movies of All Time, but the Greatest Comfort Movies of All Time.

I'm sure I've missed plenty in this round-up, which is why, please, join in. Meanwhile, here goes:

"The Godfather." Yes, I know. I just broke my own rule about nobody gets hurt. So sue me. We're talking about part one and two, never part three.

"One Fine Day." It's so "New York" and Michelle Pfeiffer has never been more dazzling. George Clooney nearly does Cary Grant. The best thing about is that we know they'll get together at the end, that with all the bickering they're in love, and that's another rule for all comfort movies - the two stars have to get together at the end. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. If they don't get together at the end, what's the use?

"Doc Hollywood." That's as good as it gets in a small town setting; and Michael J. Fox and Julie Warner get together at the end!

"Office Space." Not just funny, but a wonderful take on corporate clichés. Everyone is good in this, but Gary Cole nearly steals the show.

"Out to Sea." Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and Dyan Cannon. What more do you want? But Brint Spiner steals every scene that he's in.

"The Great Escape." Because. Just because. No rules, no excuses, just like "The Godfather."

"The Verdict." Do I have to explain this? Paul Newman in top form. Charlotte Rampling? What happened? Where'd you go? James Mason, spectacular as usual.

"North by Northwest." Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. Okay? (That scene on the train?) Again James Mason, and how we miss him!

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." William Goldman's screenplay never lets up in this Paul Newman/Robert Redford classic.

"The Producers." The original. Not the one that came later. Not even close.

"Oceans 11." Either one, the Sinatra original or the Clooney original. (Why did they ruin the franchise with 12 and 13?)

"The Dirty Dozen." The first half mostly. Lee Marvin's performance is priceless. (True, nobody gets together at the end.)

"Clint Eastwood." Any of his cowboy movies where he arrives with no name and starts shooting up all the bad guys. Very relaxing.

All right. I've shown you mine (for the time being). Show me yours.

Google Meets THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE

I understand that there are millions, even billions, out there who've not yet read THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE - An Original Novel.

That doesn't seem fair.

So I'm happy to announce that this novel has now gone live as part of Google's BOOK SEARCH program. See the next line to copy and paste:

http://books.google.com/books?q=the+bathsheba+deadline&btnG=Search+Books

This means that potential readers/customers can now preview and "Search Inside The Book" and find out all about it before making a decision.

As many of you may know, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE originally ran as a 12-part serial on Amazon - Amazon's first serialization of a novel.

Readers wanted an actual book!

Now, the novel is out in PAPERBACK, and that's what's up there on Google Book Search, the paperback.

Browsing is permitted and even encouraged.

Reviewers such as Cinnamon Stillwell, Linda Shelnutt, John W. Cassell, Judy Silver and Adam Daniel Mezei have praised the novel.

Robert Spencer calls it "a rousing thriller" and Letha Hadady cites it as "a towering literary achievement."

Thank God for readers, yes, you! - and let me add my gratitude to Amazon and Google for their support.

The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel INDECENT PROPOSAL that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novel, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, now available in paperback, places journalism at the center of our war on terror. He can be reached at viewopinion@aol.com.

Comments: 57

Linda Shelnutt Jul 11, 2008, 8:05pm EDT

For me this was a comfort... article... to perfection.

Appreciated your breaking of your own rules, with The Godfather, such an appropriate place to break rules. What I like about that movie is the soundtrack. So fitting for the story, and the voices, those yummy Italian accents and ambiances. In my Italian background a few distant echoes were always there about relatives of distant relatives via in-laws, but my close family were dirt poor and coal dust rich, (un)common laborers without connections beyond live-and-let-live friendship, and privacy mattered too.

It was easy to see why you enjoyed your comfort movies listed, and I enjoyed reading about the Engelhard in his kid-time PJ's.

As you know, I also enjoyed reading THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, and am happy to know it's beginning to get the recognition is deserves.

As far as confessing my favorite comfort moves, I may have to embarrass myself and say I watch, re-watch, and re-re-watch my tapes of the Babylon Five TV sci fi series. I went into mourning when that series was discontinued. I even liked the short series taken-off from Babylon, Crusade. Again there I liked the unusual, haunting sound track, and the voices of the characters.

Any time I replay in my mind Captain Sinclair's deep, resonant voice saying to Captain Sheridan, "Hello Old Friend"... any time I reply that voice my spirit literally sighs and feels at home, even in this world today.

Thank's, Jack, for adding this type of spiritual comfort to my day; the same type of peaceful strength, BTW, I've felt each time I've read a work of fiction you've written... that goes as well for your nonfiction memoir, ESCAPE FROM MOUNT MORIAH.

From my perspective, the peace and strength come from the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

The real truth doesn't hurt; it heals.

What hurts is a "truth" which is just partial enough it holds bits of pollution of cloaked falsehoods which slip by because they're so tiny and tied-in, like sandpaper to a soul which is crying but doesn't know why.

This is why your books are such an enormous relief to read. The sandpaper they work with is real, based on clear truth, which feels clean and welcome.