Woody Harrelson’s five favourite movies of all time: “The most inspiring stories”
Iconic actor Woody Harrelson first came to public attention when he played a bartender on Cheers and its spin-off Frasier in the 1980s and 1990s. It might seem like a curious place to find a renowned actor, but tracing the history of sitcoms back to their earliest beginnings, you will note some of the best performers have had their first minutes on screen in front of a live studio audience, amid cheesy smiles and canned laughter.
Since then, Harrelson expanded his repertoire by playing in a number of dramatic roles that have made him one of the most well-respected actors of his generation. Harrelson has always managed to deliver the kind of performances that set him out from the rest of the group. Not concerned with being a pretty boy or a particularly serious auteur, Harrelson has found his way into a myriad of roles.
The Texas-born actor has performed admirably in the likes of Natural Born Killers, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and The Messenger, and several of his films see him combine his early proficiency for humour with deeper emotional acting. As for Harrelson’s cinematic inspirations, we can take a look at his five favourite films.
Harrelson told Rotten Tomatoes that his ultimate favourite film of all time is Cool Hand Luke. The 1967 prison drama directed by Stuart Rosenberg, in which Paul Newman stars in the lead role as a prisoner at a 1950s Florida prison camp who rebels against the system, is undoubtedly a classic of the genre. “That’s kind of been my favourite for a while,” Harrelson said. “I just love that movie.”
Up next for Harrelson is Hal Ashby’s 1971 picture Harold and Maude. The film focuses on a young man who begins and friendship and romance with a lady much older than him after he rejects the life his overly-protective mother has prescribed him. “I just think it’s this beautiful, complex love story between this kid and a much older lady,” Harrelson explained. “Just the performances, the direction… I don’t know; definitely one of the great movies. It’s wonderful, funny, emotional.”
Going back to the year of Cool Hand Luke’s release, another favourite of Harrelson’s also found its way onto the big screen. He claims that Mike Nichols’ The Graduate is “just one of the greatest comedies of all time.” Dustin Hoffman played a recently graduated young man who falls for an older married woman and her daughter. Harrelson said of Hoffman’s performance in the film, “You know, I guess that was his first big break, and he just blew me away when I first saw that. Extraordinary performance.”
The only film Harrelson selects outside of the 20th century is the 2006 effort The Lives of Others, the directorial debut of German/Austrian filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It tells of the monitoring of residents in East Berlin by the country’s secret police. Harrelson calls it “just a powerful, riveting movie.”
Finally, Harrelson rounds off his list with another classic, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Milos Forman’s 1975 film adaptation of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel of the same name, starring Jack Nicholson in one of his best-ever roles as Randle McMurphy, a man who is committed to a mental institution when he pretends to be crazy to get out of serving time in prison. “I think it’s one of the great performances of Jack Nicholson,” Harrelson said. “It’s just some of the best acting and one of the most inspiring stories.”
The list is one of the more resolute we have ever seen. It not only provides one of the more succinct introductions to genuinely wonderful cinema, but it also speaks highly of the man who picked them. This isn’t a list that you would expect to find in the arthouse coffee shops or barely-visited galleries. This is a list for the people, by the people.
Woody Harrelson’s five favourite movies:
- Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 1967)
- Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)
- The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
- The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 1975)
