DAILY DIRT: The journey is over … ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ ‘Clueless’ lead era’s all-time top 10

June 4, 2024 | By Steve Eighinger, Muddy River News Minister of Culture and Doctor of Love

Yeah, you'll feel this way after reading this one. JRG

Somehow, I just don’t think either Robert Redford or Ryan O’Neal would have worked as well as Al Pacino did as Michael Corleone. … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 969 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Following four days and 40 years of countdowns concerning what The Daily Dirt Control Group (Steve and ONLY Steve. JRG) feels is the golden age of the modern cinema (1960-99), we have reached the checkered flag.

As promised, our top 10 films from that entire era:

1. “When Harry Met Sally” (1989): An oft-forgotten item tied to this film is it featured the song “It Had To Be You” by Harry Connick Jr.

Sally might be saying “Yes!”, but the rest of us are saying “No.”

2. “Clueless” (1995): Director Amy Heckerling chose Alicia Silverstone over Reese Witherspoon for the starring role because she felt Silverstone “had that Marilyn Monroe thing”.

3. “Dawn of the Dead” (1978): Most famous line from what may very well be the finest horror film ever made: “When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth”.

4. “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1988): While a freelance writer for Rolling Stone magazine, screenwriter Cameron Crowe spent a year secretly embedded at Clairemont High School in San Diego, Calif., under an assumed name (and in cooperation with the school’s administration) to gather stories for a non-fiction book with the same title. Crowe’s book was published in 1981; a year later, it was adapted for the screen.

5. “Schindler’s List” (1993): Director Steven Spielberg donated all of his profits from this film to the USC Shoah Foundation, which was established in 1994 to honor and remember the survivors of the Holocaust.

6. “Titanic” (1997): Kate Winslet was 19 when director James Cameron cast her as Rose DeWitt Bukate, the lead role.

7. “The Godfather” (1972): Robert Redford and Ryan O’Neal were actually the first choices to play Michael Corleone, not Al Pacino.

8. “Jaws” (1975): The famous pneumatically-powered shark in the movie weighed in at 1.2 tons and measured 25 feet in length.

9. “Die Hard” (1982): Clint Eastwood had wanted to play the role of John McClane, a part that wound up going to Bruce Willis.

10. “Goldfinger” (1964): The movie was originally banned in Israel because of actor Gert Frobe’s connections with the Nazi party. Frobe played Auric Goldfinger.

2. Did you know (Part 29)

That the average person has 250 hairs per eyebrow.
That the sound your stomach makes when you are hungry is called borborygmus, caused by the movements of fluids and gasses in your intestine.
That a person produces 25,000 quarts of salvia in a lifetime. Holy spit!
That Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer is the only MLB hurler to win a World Series game in three different decades. In addition, Palmer never gave up a grand slam homer or back-to-back home runs.
That there is a restaurant named Burger King in Mattoon, Ill., which opened before the nationwide chain of the same name came into existence. The nationwide Burger King chain is not allowed to operate within 20 miles of the Mattoon restaurant site.