“It was so rich”: the movie Morgan Freeman loved so much he couldn’t stop rewinding it
Morgan Freeman is one of Hollywood’s last true enigmas. As one of our most beloved actors, his presence in any movie is always welcome, and he has a reputation for playing wise mentor figures. Because he operates in so many different genres, though, taking roles of wildly varying size and quality, it’s hard to get a bead on his personal taste in film. He once revealed there was a film so rich and deep that he couldn’t stop rewinding it to experience the magnificence again, though. He wanted to see if there were any little treasures he missed.
Over his long career, Freeman has been asked about his favourite films several times, and he’s always been consistent about his number one pick. The pick may surprise his fans because he’s never been in a movie like it. In 2005, he told IGN that his absolute favourite film that he wasn’t in is Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, which starred Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Freeman explained, “I just think that movie is fabulous…I mean, all of it is just amazing: the dancing, the wardrobe, the music.”
He acknowledged that the film was divisive, with people either loving or hating it. However, he argued that’s actually a sign of its status as something which can be classed as high art instead of simply a film designed to make a buck. He mused, “I think when you have divided opinions like that, that’s the sign of art. It’s a work of art.”
In 2023, Freeman revealed some of his other favourites, and they’re similarly eclectic choices. He loves two westerns – High Noon and The Outlaw Josey Wales – but his other picks were Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and the 1956 adaptation of Moby Dick.
While telling Rotten Tomatoes about these films, he spoke highly of Lee, who he claimed is “one of the best directors in the business.” He also praised Clint Eastwood, remarking, “I like all movies with Clint, but The Outlaw Josey Wales is one I can’t pass up. If I’m scrolling through and I come across it, I’ve got to watch it.” It’s interesting, though, that even though Freeman has worked with Eastwood many times, he’s not yet managed to collaborate with Lee.
The film Freeman said he kept rewinding to let it wash over him again and again, though, was a 2007 western that couldn’t be more different from most Eastwood entries in the genre. While talking with The Hollywood Interview about Gone Baby Gone, the Ben Affleck-directed thriller starring his brother Casey that Freeman also featured in, he revealed he’d just watched Casey give an incredible performance in another film. Coincidentally, it co-starred Brad Pitt, someone Freeman worked with in Se7en.
“I just watched The Assassination of Jesse James, and was just blown away,” revealed Freeman. “I had to keep rewinding it and watching it over because I felt I was missing things. It was so rich.”
Andrew Dominik’s elegiac film, whose full title is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, reminded Freeman of the work of Terrence Malick. He was impressed by the performances, saying, “Casey was great, and I thought Brad did a great job. Just kept it very low.” When the interviewer remarked that he loved how Dominik committed to the characters looking dirty and having bad teeth, as people would have had in the 1880s, Freeman widened this compliment to include every aspect of the production. He marvelled, “Everything, down to the tiniest detail, was right there.”
Ultimately, Freeman wasn’t alone in loving Dominik’s film. Even though it sank at the box office, it received two Academy Award nominations, including ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for Affleck, and it was on most critics’ lists of the best films of the year.
Pitt also says it’s his favourite movie in his catalogue, even though it performed the worst. He told GQ Style, “If I believe something is worthy, then I know it will be worthy in times to come.”
