Kurt Russell names his favourite movie of all time
The 1980s were brought to life by a number of iconic filmmakers and industry stars. James Cameron’s Terminator introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger’s titular android to the fold, George Miller’s Mad Max 2 popularised Mel Gibson’s post-apocalyptic hero and John McTiernan tossed Bruce Willis into the action fold in Die Hard. But, no other duo better define the decade than filmmaker John Carpenter and American icon Kurt Russell.
Their first collaboration began on the small screen, with Russell starring in Carpenter’s 1979 TV movie Elvis, which would spark a career-long relationship. Their first feature film collaboration wouldn’t come until the release of Escape from New York in 1981, however, where he discovered his most iconic character, Snake Plissken, a convicted bank robber sent on a daring escapade.
Just a couple of years later, he would once again work with Carpenter for the sci-fi horror masterpiece The Thing in 1982, playing the cynical pilot R.J. MacReady, before taking on the director’s campest movie to date in 1986’s Big Trouble in Little China. His collaborations with the filmmaker would make Russell a star, leading to further work with the likes of Robert Zemeckis, Quentin Tarantino, James Gunn, James Wan and S. Craig Zahler in the future.
A prominent figure of ‘80s cinema, Russell enjoyed an early career in the limelight, where he gained an education from the very masters of the cinematic form.
Speaking to Cindy Pearlman in the book You Gotta See This, Russell discussed his favourite movie of all time, referencing a 1942 Michael Curtiz classic. “Casablanca is my favorite film,” Russell stated, “It’s the most emotionally satisfying film ever made and has the best dialogue in any movie ever. It’s also the greatest romantic film. I love it because it’s about something, too. In my mind, the message is about people facing their moment of truth. We’ve all been there or will be there in our real lives”.
An iconic movie in the history of Hollywood cinema, Curtiz’s film tells the story of a cynical American cafe owner who wrestles with whether or not to help his former lover escape from the grip of the Nazis in Morocco during the war. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, the film went on to win ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch.
Speaking further about his passion for the movie, Russell adds: “By the way, the people starring in the best movie of all time are as good as it gets. The words they said have never been rivaled by any other film. You just can’t improve on them…Anytime I see Casablanca on TV, I’m stuck. I’m going to watch the entire thing”.
Such a lover of the 1942 classic, lead actor Humphrey Bogart proposed that the studio do a sequel. Frederick Stephani, the director and screenwriter behind 1936’s Flash Gordon, was the one due to helm the sequel, named Brazzaville after the French city the two lovers travel to at the end of Casablanca. The proposal was turned down by Warner Bros, however, when it was said that Ingrid Bergman wouldn’t be returning to the cast.
Take a look at the classic ‘Play it Again Sam’ scene from Casablanca below.
