Dave Bautista names his five favourite movies of all time
There are plenty of TV wrestlers who have gone on to transition onto the silver screen, with the likes of Dwayne Johnson, John Cena and Hulk Hogan having each attempted to become bonafide Hollywood stars. Whilst Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson might be one of the most financially successful of this exclusive cohort, recent success has proven that Dave Bautista is becoming a surprising critical star.
His first significant break came in the perfect package, playing the straight-talking Drax in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which opened plenty of Hollywood doors for the up-and-coming star. A role in the James Bond movie Spectre came next, along with a small part in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 and, most recently, M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin.
As a result of his recent success, Bautista has gained a great number of fans, with the actor giving them an insight into his life behind the camera during a conversation with Rotten Tomatoes, in which he reveals his all-time favourite movies.
His first pick is the Steven Spielberg classic Close Encounters Of The Third Kind from 1977, which tells the story of an Indiana electric lineman who sees a UFO and changes the course of human history. Speaking about the movie, he states: “It’s just one of those movies that makes you think, and it’s inspiring, and it just feels good, and it feels magical. I love Richard Dreyfuss as well, and Jaws is also one of my favourite films. But just the performance, and the whole tones at the end with the aliens, as they’re coming out, it’s just a feelgood film”.
Second on his list is a classic that has long received a lot of critical acclaim, the Francis Ford Coppola movie The Godfather. Speaking about the movie, Bautista states: “I’m going to go with The Godfather. It’s weird – I didn’t see The Godfather in theatres. I actually saw it on television. I think when I was a little kid, they ran it in a series. It was on over three or four days on television. I remember just being immediately sucked in, and I was a young kid”.
Bautista’s next choice is one he picks for mere “sh–s and giggles,” opting for the Damien Chazelle movie La La Land. “I want to pick a recent one, but you just never know until years go by whether movies stand up,” the actor explains, “What it was, was that it made me feel like Hollywood was romantic again. I don’t feel that when I go out there. What I feel like now is that it’s a town full of people who want to be on reality shows. It made me feel like old Hollywood”.
The iconic George Lucas blockbuster Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, originally just titled Star Wars, is the fourth choice on Dave Bautista’s list of all-time favourites. “The Force, it just made you feel good,” the actor states, adding: “It made you think that miracles could happen, or there was just this higher power that could give you this energy, only positive things, and you could defeat evil with it”.
Dave Bautista’s five favourite movies:
- Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
The final movie on his list is the celebrated adaptation of the 1960 Harper Lee novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Directed by Robert Mulligan two years after the release of the book, the story is an iconic law drama, with Bautista stating: “There’s such a strong sense of right and wrong in that film, but there’s something also that’s just reminiscent of childhood. I don’t know if that makes sense, but there’s just something very peaceful about that film that I love”.
