I don’t know that it was the most formative year for me when it came to movies, but 1996 was a year that would shape how I would watch movies, and discuss them, in the years to come. With us being 25 years away from that year, I thought it would be good to look back at that year, the movies I love from it, and what it means to me now.
1996 and Me
1996 was the year I graduated from high school. I was in the Lassiter Band, and it was basically a full-time undertaking, much like sports are for a student. I originally was not going to continue playing trombone in high school, but my mom insisted, saying that I should give it a year, after which I could quit. Four years later, it was a life-changing experience. In a way, high school band took the place of Boy Scouts in terms of socialization. (Almost like a changing of the guard, as December of my freshman year is when I received my Eagle Scout.) I’ve been fairly introverted for much of my life, and Boy Scouts was a way for my parents to get me meeting people when we moved down to Georgia in 1988. Being in a band program of over 300 was a big change in size, but the way that the sections would break up and be an complete organism within the larger ecosystem made it easy to assimilate with others, even among freshman and seniors. During a break is when I first caught sight of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, and it helped shape my sense of humor moving forward. My musical tastes, as well; I became much more interested in classical music, and rock music, as well; it was also during this time when movie soundtracks became a much more integral part of my musical diet- even though we didn’t really play them as a band, as my moviewatching became more frequent, my ear became more attuned to soundtracks, and by my senior year, I was a full-on soundtrack junkie.
I’ve written before about how James Horner’s score for “Braveheart” is what inspired me to want to write film music. That year, “Braveheart”, “Apollo 13”, “Se7en” and “Get Shorty” were some of the soundtracks that became part of my rotation. When it came to deciding what I would study in college, though, I’ll be honest that I was not sure. I applied to the University of Georgia first, but not out of some deep-seeded desire to go there, and in December 1995, I would apply to Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta. The reason for that? My parents heard about the Music Industry/Sound Recording Technology program they had there, and it piqued my interest. It wasn’t until I started studying it that I realized how much more complicated it would be than I expected, but I figured it might give me a good place to go in terms of doing film music. Plus, it would allow me to continue studying music, which I was very much enjoying in my time at Lassiter.
The second half of my senior year would see my fate decided. I received my rejection letter from UGA, but about a week later, the same day I played, with Lassiter’s second Symphonic Band, at a Band Clinic on the south side of Atlanta, I received my acceptance letter to Georgia State. My future after Lassiter was starting to be laid out, with a tour in the 1996 iteration of the Atlanta Olympic Band, which would play in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games that summer, in between. The best four years of my life to that point, capped off with an experience I’ll never forget- starting college in the Fall of 1996 would pail in comparison.
The Movies of 1996 and Me
A couple of years ago, I began an ambitious “Class of 1999” podcast series on the films of 1999. This blog is not going to be me making the case for 1996 being as big a milestone year for cinema as that year was collectively, but it was noteworthy for a lot of reasons. When it comes to blockbusters, I think more landed than flopped than in any other year of the decade, and the ones that landed were ridiculously popular, and still hold up fairly well. Meanwhile, independents dominated the awards conversation like never before, with four of the five Best Picture nominees being independent films. In the middle, there were plenty of middle tier films that made some noise, for one reason or another, or are now seen as key stepping stones to later careers. Personally, it was the year I went hog wild for movies, seeing more films, more times, in theatres than ever before. This was the first year I saw multiple films 10 or more times. So many films from this year remain among my all-time favorites. And this is where I was first inspired to write about movies, although my first published piece would not be until 1997.
From 1993 on is where I tend to have some of my most vivid memories of going to movies. Where I saw movies, who I saw them with, and my experiences afterwards, the ’90s are where those times are most memorable, and 1996 is chock full of them. The day I graduated, my mom, grandfather and I went to go see “The Rock”. One night, after Olympic Band practice, several of us Lassiter members of the band went to see “Independence Day”, and it’s one of the most fun times I’ve had watching a film. My mother and I went to the Atlanta Premiere of “Twister” at the Fox Theatre, the first of several times I would go there over the years to watch a film. I went to go see “Swingers” and “Big Night” at the Plaza Theatre, back when it was an independent discount theatre, and part of the LeFont chain. And I was a regular at Georgia State’s campus screening room, where I saw “The Frighteners”, “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hill” and “The Whole Wide World”. And, seeing as though my mom was a massive Mel Gibson fan at the time, we went to go see “Ransom” a LOT; for about 15 years, I had seen it more than any other movie in theatres before the 2012 3D rerelease of “The Phantom Menace” helped that film take the crown.
1996 is when I first started to keep track of what movies I saw from a given year, and it was the first year to go past 100 films from a calendar year seen- if I didn’t see it in theatres, I would make an effort to catch it on video. And as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution began to take submissions from readers on movies they enjoyed, my beginning to read movie reviewers like Peter Travers and Leonard Maltin, and starting to formulate my own distinct thoughts on films inspired me to write in my own reviews; when I finally got one published in 1997, it was for Milos Forman’s Oscar-nominated “The People vs. Larry Flynt”.
One of my most vivid movie-related memories from this year was in my freshman year at Georgia State. I lived down at the dorms, which had been previously the Olympic athlete village the summer prior. We had basic cable, but I watched movies more often than not anyway. There was one channel, though, that intrigued me. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was basically nothing but movie trailers and featurettes on upcoming films. Yes, I saw plenty of trailers in theatres, but especially, since I went to see several movies multiple times, the trailers were basically the same. This channel was where I really internalized trailers for “The Whole Wide World”, “Swingers”, “Big Night” as movies to keep an eye out for, as well as giving me easy access to trailers for movies I was excited about like “The Ghost in the Darkness” and Spike Lee’s “Get on the Bus”. It was basically an early YouTube channel and it was wonderful. It disappeared from the listing after a month or two, but I remember it fondly, especially since some of my favorite movies from 1996 were introduced to me because of how frequently the trailers were played.
The following 25 films are not necessarily the best ones, or just the most popular ones, from 1996, but the ones that left their imprint on me the most from that year, whether it was a particular screening or just how the hype hit me at the moment.
25 Films That Mean Something to Me From 1996
=“The Whole Wide World”– Dan Ireland’s sweet, lovely story chronicling the relationship a Texas teacher (played by Renee Zellweger, whom I had just seen in “Jerry Maguire”) and pulp author Robert E. Howard (Vincent D’Onofrio, in his best performance) is one of five favorite movies of all-time. It didn’t start that way after I watched it at Georgia State’s campus theatre in early 1997, but the way the film details a challenging friendship between two big intellects that connect beyond all reason, lingered long with me, and every time I return to it, it seeps into my heart, and moves me all over again.
=“The Crow: City of Angels”– By 1996, Alex Proyas’s 1994 comic book thriller “The Crow” was my favorite film of all-time. As the sequel was gearing to come out in 1996, first just before my birthday, then on Labor Day weekend, my hype for the film was as massive as others have for “Star Wars” films or Marvel and DC movies. I bought the cross-promotional magazine, the soundtrack, trading cards, and even the novelization. The film fell short of my expectations (and only moved further down as the viewings went by), partially because of how the novelization points to an ending that is so much richer, and more tragic, than what we got in the formulaic third act of the final film. There’s still some affection that remains for this film, especially with its better-than-the-film soundtrack and score.
=“Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie”– My mother and I became big fans of Comedy Central’s cult TV show about a man and robots who make fun of movies. We went twice to see this movie adaptation to AMC’s Phipps Plaza in the Spring of 1996, and there are lines in this that remain some of my all-time favorites from the show’s run. I also still have one of the mini-posters the theatre was giving away, mounted and signed by all of the OG MST3K crew except for Michael J. Nelson and Kevin Murphy. It now hangs proudly in my office, representative of the film’s place in my personal moviewatching history.
=“Fargo”– My first experience with Joel and Ethan Coen, and one I will not soon forget. There was part of me that was just not quite sure what to make of this darkly comedic kidnapping thriller when my mom and I went to go see it in February 1996. As I revisited it later in the year on video, however, the rhythms of the Coens’s storytelling vision took over, and I was as excited as everyone when Frances McDormand won her Oscar for playing Marge Gunderson, the most disarming and confident police officer in movie history. It’s far and away my choice for the Best Film of 1996.
=“Broken Arrow”– This was my first John Woo film, but that’s not necessarily the reason why it is my personal favorite of all of the action movies from this year. The score by Hans Zimmer, which plays with Western sounds and idioms, was as personally inspiring to me as Horner’s “Braveheart” score was the year before, but it was because of its use of synthesizers to bring the score to life. More than any other soundtrack from 1996, this made its way into my rotation, and I continue to be inspired by the musical identity Zimmer gives Woo’s silly, but energetic action thriller.
=“Ransom”– In an English class, we were give carte blanche to write a brief essay on what we wanted, and the topic I chose was a compare and contrast on “Fargo” and this film, which- at the time- were my choices for the best films of 1996. Only “Fargo” holds that much esteem with me now, but honestly, Ron Howard’s kidnapping thriller still holds up as a more serious cousin to “Fargo” in how it dissects the anatomy of a kidnapping, and how the plan goes awry. There are moments of suspense as well directed here as anything Howard did before or after this film, and while he may be a terrible person, Gibson’s performance in “Ransom” is, indeed, one of his best.
=“Independence Day”– The blockbuster event of 1996, and it earned every penny at the box-office. Roland Emmerich’s alien invasion got us to the theatre with the promise of destroying the White House and the Empire State Building, but we kept going back because of the square-jawed sincerity and jingoism of this film, its 4th of July release date, and great chemistry between Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith, who officially became a movie star with this film, even before he punched out an alien and said, “Welcome to Earth.” I had at least three viewings of this film I would rank among my favorite theatrical screenings of the year.
=“Twister”– Jan De Bont directing “Speed” and this fantastic disaster adventure before falling off a cliff as a film director will remain one of the great enigmas of ’90s blockbuster filmmaking. But the entertainment level of this film, with Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt falling in love again while chasing tornadoes, remains as thrilling as when I saw it at the Fox Theatre opening night.
=“Swingers”– This is probably my favorite ending of 1996. From the moment Jon Favreau and Heather Graham take the dance floor at the end of Doug Liman’s comedy, the balance of confidence shifts from Vince Vaughn’s Trent to Favreau’s Mike, and the film achieves full-circle. This remains an enjoyable comedy about trying to date, and live, in 1990s Los Angeles, with one of the most delightfully excruciating sequences in history involving a man and an answering machine. I don’t know if I still think it’s money, baby, but it’s on its way.
=“Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills”– College is a time for experimentation; for me, that meant watching documentaries and foreign films on the reg. My first of the former was the initial chapter of Joe Berlinger’s and Bruce Sinofsky’s trilogy of documentaries about the legal case of the West Memphis Three, teens who had been accused of the murder and sexual assault of three boys. I watched this at the University screening room, and it lingered long in my memory, and it remains a powerful examination on how the justice system can be twisted by the religious fervor of a community.
=“Jerry Maguire”– The older one gets, the more you live, I think Cameron Crowe’s romantic comedy about a sports agent (Tom Cruise, giving one of his best performances) who goes through an identity crisis resonates more and more. While it has several tropes of the rom-com genre, it comes from a place of mature reflection on how messy life is, and how the big moments don’t always feel like the big moments immediately. As Jerry works through the trials of starting fresh with an idealistic single mother (Renee Zellweger) and ego-driven wide receiver (Cuba Gooding Jr.) in tow, Crowe gives him a lot to reflect on as he tries to forge a new path; the result is a film that gets better and better as the years pass.
=“Scream”– What Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson concocted here is really what got me back into watching horror films after a relative dormant period. From the opening with Drew Barrymore to the way Neve Campbell’s Sidney becomes one of the great horror “scream queens” to its self-referential humor about the cliches of the slasher genre at the time. The sequels only delved further into, and leaned into, those cliches, but the original remains one of the most entertaining films the subgenre has ever delivered.
=“The Frighteners”– Watching Peter Jackson’s paranormal dark comedy at the University screening room is a screening I remember vividly because of the way the film landed with the crowd. It was so unexpected and funny and entertaining, the crowd went nuts for it. That he would go on to make one of the landmark pieces of cinema in the next decade was not something that probably crossed our minds- that he had a winner in that moment was all we knew, and appreciated.
=“The People vs. Larry Flynt”– Few films speak more to the importance of the First Amendment, and entertain us doing so, than this brash and hilarious biopic from Milos Forman and the screenwriters of “Ed Wood” and “Dolomite is My Name”. Woody Harrelson, Edward Norton and especially Courtney Love are fantastic as Hustler publisher Larry Flynt goes all the way to the Supreme Court for his right to offend with hard core pornography and political satire. My brief review for a viewer “You Be the Critic” section was my first published movie review.
=“Emma”– Douglas McGrath wrote and directed a wonderful adaptation of Jane Austen’s comedy about a matchmaker who finds herself intertwined in potential matches herself. This is one of Gwyneth Paltrow’s best performances, and she is given a delightful cast (including Toni Collette, Jeremy Northam, Ewan McGregor, Polly Walker and Alan Cummings) to play off of in one of my favorite films from 1996.
=“Mission: Impossible”– It is wild that, 25 years after this adaptation of the ’60s TV spy series, this series is not only continuing, but thriving. I think the fact that star/producer Tom Cruise has brought different voices, and leaned into more ensemble casts, has been the key to its success, although Christopher McQuarrie (who’s now writing and directing his third film in the franchise) seems to have found the sweet spot in this franchise. I remember being perplexed by the mystery Brian De Palma wove in this one, but in rewatches, it holds up beautifully, and Cruise makes a great Ethan Hunt to anchor this series with.
=“Get on the Bus”– 1996 was the first time I watched Spike Lee films. Earlier in the year he had a comedy called “Girl 6” which I was not a fan of. The Fall brought this drama about a bus of Black people, from a wide swath of generations and political views, going to the Million Man March in Washington. It takes place almost entirely on the bus, and it is probably one of Lee’s finest moments as a filmmaker, and a political voice.
=“The Long Kiss Goodnight”– Shane Black made bank when he sold this action script about a mother and wife who is actually an assassin. The director who brought it to the screen was Renny Harlin, a generic action filmmaker who made this film with wife Geena Davis after their disasterous “Cutthroat Island”. The result is one of the strongest action thrillers of the decade, a great distillation of the humor and brutality that peppers a lot of Black’s best scripts, brought to life with a pairing of Davis and Samuel L. Jackson that is instantly iconic.
=“Trees Lounge”– Steve Buscemi landed on my radar early in 1996 with “Fargo”, but I think my favorite performance of his this year is from his smart, sharp directorial debut, where he explores self-destructive behavior at the titular bar and lounge. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this, but it’s on Prime, and I remember loving it back in the day. I am looking forward to experiencing it again.
=“My Fellow Americans”– I remember my mother and I watching this comedy, which paired Jack Lemmon and James Garner as former Presidents on the run, at an early screening. We couldn’t get enough of the chemistry between Lemmon and Garner, and it was a pleasant and engaging surprise during the holidays for us.
=“Executive Decision”– Like a lot of action films from the 1990s, Stuart Baird’s move from the editing room to behind the camera deals with some disgusting racial stereotypes. Nonetheless, it remains one of the most tense and entertaining action thrillers of ’96 because of the strong work by Kurt Russell and Halle Berry, along with a great sense of suspense on Baird’s part. Oh, and Steven Segal is killed off almost immediately. That’s a win.
=“Citizen Ruth”– Alexander Payne directs Laura Dern as an irresponsible pregnant woman who becomes the center of the abortion debate. This and “Election” have Payne in peak political satire mode, and it gives Dern one of the best performances of her career.
=“Bottle Rocket”– Wes Anderson’s feature debut, about brothers who become criminals, is a funny dissection of familial dynamics and crime that remains a gem in his filmography. (There’s a great discussion on the production history of this on the “You Must Remember This” podcast’s season on Polly Platt that is worth a listen, along with that season in general.)
=“Beautiful Girls”– I need to revisit this ensemble comedy-drama, about a reunion with hometown friends, sometime soon. I really responded to this film from the late Ted Demme (“The Ref”), and featuring a cast that includes Timothy Hutton, Natalie Portman (in one of her best teenage performances), Uma Thurman, Matt Dillon, Rosie O’Donnell and Mira Sorvino. There’s a tenderness and authenticity to this film that stays with us, and points to Demme (gone too soon) as someone who was cut from the same cloth as his uncle Jonathan.
=“Courage Under Fire”– Edward Zwick’s war drama, the first film I can remember about the 1991 Iraq War, is one of the biggest sea changes from first viewing to rewatch in my opinion of it. The story of a Lieutenant Colonel (Denzel Washington, in one of his best performances) investigating whether a Captain (Meg Ryan) should be the first woman to posthumously receive the Medal of Honor. The film cribs liberally from “Rashomon” in its structure, but the impact it has by the conclusion hits you in the gut.
What are some of your favorite movies from 1996? I know there are quite a few missing from this list (like “Shine”, “Secrets & Lies”, “The English Patient”, “A Time to Kill”, “Lone Star”, “Big Night”, “Welcome to the Dollhouse”, “Phenomenon”, “Mars Attacks!”, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “The Nutty Professor”), but I’d love to hear from you. This was a unique and entertaining year in cinema.
Viva La Resistance!
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
