Josh Hartnett names his four favourite movies: “There’s so many great films”
When actors drop off the map seemingly overnight, most people who think about them at all would probably assume that they simply stopped being offered roles.
Maybe they were typecast as one type of character and struggled to find other options, or maybe they starred in a flop, and no one wanted to be associated with them; regardless, there are many reasons why the job offers might stop flowing, but few of them involve the actor actually choosing not to work, and such has been the case with Josh Hartnett.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, it seemed like Hartnett was set to become the next Tom Cruise; he was ridiculously good-looking, had screen presence, and seemed pretty proficient at acting, appearing in hit movies, with Pearl Harbour being the dubious standout, seemingly poised to become the next big thing. But then, he stepped away from it all, only popping up in a handful of smaller films that rarely threatened to take the box office by storm.
All of this, it turned out, was by design, where he was offered the role of Superman on multiple occasions and turned it down. He was even considered for Batman before Christian Bale took over, and at one point, he quit the industry for nearly two years and moved back home to Minnesota, later moving to the UK to avoid being crushed by the fame machine. In recent years, though, he’s returned, appearing in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and M Night Shyamalan’s pop-concert horror drama Trap.
So, what kind of movies would a reluctant matinee idol with an ambivalent relationship with Hollywood favour? In an interview with Letterboxd, Hartnett revealed that while he may not like being a creature of Tinseltown, he sure loves the films it produces. First up on his list was Back to the Future, Robert Zemeckis’s feel-good science fiction classic starring Michael J Fox, a film hard not to adore, despite its hokey dialogue and Zemeckian tendency to manipulate the emotions in the most simplistic ways possible.
Next on his list was 8 ½, Federico Fellini’s 1963 homage to filmmaking, told through the lens of an existential director remembering his life story while trying to find his way into a new project. It’s one of those movies that every cinema lover must see at least once, and it’s inspired countless filmmakers over the years, which Hartnett calls his favourite film of all time, without question.
Third, he named Apocalypse Now, yet another classic that needs no introduction, especially famed for its behind-the-scenes antics. Francis Ford Coppola’s mash-up of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and the all-too-real Vietnam War remains one of cinema’s most visceral experiences, both for the people working on the production and for those who watch the results.
Having chosen films from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, Hartnett stuck with the pattern and chose a ‘90s classic with Pulp Fiction, noting, “There’s so many great films, it’s really hard to even come close to… argh!” We hear you, Mr Hartnett, for as any movie fan knows, it is impossible to pick favourites, but it’s safe to say that his choices are some of the most celebrated and worth watching films of all time, making a heavy-hitting but uncontroversial line-up.
Josh Hartnett’s four all-time movies:
- Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
- 8 ½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
- Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
- Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
