Alex Cox’s 10 favourite movies of all time
The English film director Alex Cox enjoyed a fair amount of critical and commercial success in his early career with the likes of Repo Man and Sid and Nancy. However, after 1987’s Walker was a commercial failure, Cox moved away from mainstream cinema and started making independent movies instead.
Cox also was credited as a co-writer on Terry Gilliam’s excellent 1998 picture Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, starring Johnny Depp in one of his career-defining roles as his hero Hunter S. Thompson. But how about the films of other directors that Cox holds admiration for? Well, we can consult a list of his favourite movies as per Combustible Celluloid to find out.
First up for Cox is one of the films that many cinema lovers consider to be amongst the greatest of all time. Orson Welles’ examination of the rise to power of a media tycoon Citizen Kane. Welles played the titular role of Charles Foster Kane in the 1941 film, having co-written it with Herman J. Mankiewicz, and it clearly holds a dear place in Cox’s heart.
Cox is also a great admirer of the original film in the iconic King Kong franchise. The 1933 movie was produced and directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedcask and told of a giant ape known as King Kong and his attempts to take hold of a beautiful young woman in New York City, wreaking havoc in the process.
One of the greatest, if not the greatest, science fiction movies also finds a place on Cox’s list. Stanley Kubrick’s universally admired 2001: A Space Odyssey was written in conjunction with author Arthur C. Clarke and told of the rise of humanity from pre-historic apes to something beyond humans in line with scientific technology.
A Japanese master of cinema is also a fond love of Cox. Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, released back in 1957, is said to be one of his favourite features. Kurosawa’s film is his version of William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, and he takes the traditional Medieval Scotland setting and transports it to feudal Japan in a true stroke of genius.
Elsewhere on Cox’s list, we find classic features from the likes of Luis Bunuel, Francesco Rosi, Lindsay Anderson, Peter Watkins and Ken Russell. Check out the complete list below to get a flavour for what the Repo Man and Sid and Nancy director critically admires the most.
Alex Cox’s top 10 favourite movies of all time:
- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
- The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)
- The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962)
- King Kong (Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
- The Mattei Affair (Francesco Rosi, 1973)
- O Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson, 1973)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
- Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
- The Wages of Fear (H.G. Clouzot, 1953)
- The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1967)
