Liam Neeson names his two favourite movies of all time
For around three decades, Liam Neeson has been delivering some of the most intense moments in modern cinema. His early career is largely comprised of Irish films and theatre performances, and it took until 1993’s feature in Steven Spielberg’s war film Schindler’s List for him to really come into the limelight.
Neeson had already appeared alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in The Bounty and Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons in The Mission, but it was his effort in the lead role as Oscar Schindler that established him as a force to be reckoned with. From there, Neeson starred in Michael Collins, Les Misérables, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Batman Begins, Gangs of New York, Taken and Silence.
So while many of Neeson’s performances comprise some of many cinema fans’ favourite films of all time, how about flipping the tables and seeing what cinematic moments are buried the deepest in the actor’s heart? Fortunately, Neeson has previously gone on record to state his top film loves.
“Well, there’s two actually,” the Northern Irish film legend once told MTV. “There’s one I was talking about the other night with a friend of mine – Once Upon a Time in America – and Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd.” So from the off, we see that Neeson admires lengthy movies that require a proper sit-down and focus to enjoy properly.
Once Upon a Time in America is Sergio Leone’s 1984 epic crime film, his final movie, which serves as his departure from the western genre that he’d become so well-known and well-respected for. It stars Robert De Niro and James Woods and tells of two Jewish best friends who rise through the ranks of the New York City organised crime underworld.
Like Once Upon a Time in America, which has a 229-minute runtime, Neeson’s other favourite is another long movie. Ben-Hur, William Wyler’s 1959 religious epic starring Charlton Heston, weighs in at a hefty 212 minutes. It tells of an enslaved Jewish prince who takes revenge on his Roman captors after being freed.
Neeson said of watching Ben-Hur, “I just remember the gut feeling of watching Ben-Hur on that big Cinemascope screen. That chariot races still hold up — it’s unbelievably exciting. The Phantom Menace had a chariot race, didn’t it? But that was all CGI. Not in 1959 when they did Ben-Hur.”
Check out the trailers for both Once Upon a Time in America and Ben-Hur below.
