The 10 movies that changed James Gunn’s life: “These aren’t my favourite films”
Few modern directors split opinion quite like James Gunn. Speaking from personal experience, I love everything he’s done for Marvel, but despise his recent efforts for DC. Perhaps it is the actors he has at hand to deliver juvenile humour within the action spectrum, or perhaps he just doesn’t connect with this particular set of superheroes.
Regardless of my or anyone else’s opinions on the man, Gunn has done very well for himself. The financial successes of his various superhero ventures speak for themselves. He’s managed to make DC feel relevant again after many assumed the studio was dead in the water, which would explain why his deal with them was recently extended. Nobody could ever accuse him of not knowing his own mind. In a world where so many blockbusters are paint-by-numbers, at least his ones feel personal… for better or worse.
Such a unique style could only come from a lifetime of accruing multiple different influences. In 2014, Gunn responded to one of those Facebook challenges your Mum is always tagging you in asking him to name ten movies that left a “lasting impression” on him. “I’m guessing these aren’t my favourite films, but movies that really stuck with me, for one reason or another,” he clarified (via Comic Book). “Many of these films changed the course of my life, either personally or artistically.”
Given his love for both horror and science fiction, it’s no surprise that both Night of the Living and Star Wars (presumably the first one) were on the list. His zany style of comedy was clearly inspired by Monty Python, which would explain why he also chose The Holy Grail. Other classic ‘top movie list’ picks include The Godfather and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the latter of which he has previously described as “perfect”.
A number of Asian movies also had an impact on the silver-haired director. Within the list, he namechecked both The Heroic Trio, a Hong Kong fantasy movie about three women who come together to stop a baby-stealing villain, and In the Mood for Love, a Chinese romance about two people who discover their respective partners are having an affair, showcasing his penchant for genre-dexterity.
Closer to home, he’s a fan of the classic spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West, directed by legendary Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone, a movie which has basically found itself nestled within the influences of pretty much every major filmmaker taking breath today.
That just leaves two of his more obscure picks. One is The Wanderers, a coming-of-age tale from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Philip Kaufman. The story follows a gang of Italian-American youths as they find their way through adolescence in 1960s New York. Finally, we have Sullivan’s Travels. This 1941 comedic drama follows a famous Hollywood director who, in an attempt to bring more depth to his movies, disguises himself as a homeless man in order to experience ‘real suffering’.
Was that as diverse as you were expecting? If I weren’t, then I don’t know what to tell you. That list is all over the place.
The 10 movies that left a lasting impression on James Gunn:
- In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
- Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
- The Heroic Trio (Johnnie To, 1993)
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
- Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
- The Wanderers (Philip Kaufman, 1979)
- Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Surges, 1941)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones, 1975)
