The Best Movies You've Probably Never Seen

You'd have to go really far into the backwoods to find anyone who's never heard of Titanic or Gone with the Wind, but there are lots of great movies not so well known. We have a few favorites to share, and we hope that you'll contribute to this discussion as well. Just send a paragraph or two about your favorite little-known movie-how you found it, what you love about it, and anything else we may find interesting.

Judy: I recently turned the TV on in the middle of a movie called Something the Lord Made. The title was enough to make my remote finger twitch, but Alan Rickman is in it so I gave it a minute. Soon I was drawn into the story of Dr. Alfred Blaylock, played by Rickman and his African-American lab assistant, Vivien Thomas, a part beautifully acted by Mos Def. Based on the story of the two men who accomplished the first successful heart operation on "blue babies," it sticks close enough to truth for anyone who sees the film to have a good idea of the facts.

In a day when only whites could walk in the front door of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Vivien Thomas  was up in the lab fashioning elegant techniques that made heart and lung surgery possible. The title actually came from a comment made by Dr. Blaylock when he felt stitches Thomas had made and said it was like "something the Lord had made." I found another showing of the movie on HBO and watched it again from the beginning. This film is an HBO original, and you may not be able to find it everywhere, but it's definitely worth seeking out.

 

Alicia: I find the best movies at my parents' house, as we have movie channels OnDemand (you get to watch all the movies whenever you want to). A couple of years ago I discovered a great film-- Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007). I was intrigued by the brief synopsis of the movie, as it seemed right up my alley. The story is about Dominic, a professor from pre-WWII Europe who is struck by lightning one night. Although he should have died, the event actually made him retain his youth for many years, allowing him to live much longer than normal.

Eventually, he became a person of interest to the Nazis and others for research purposes and was forced to live somewhat secretively. The lightning also afforded him certain super-human capabilities, enabling him to expand his intellect exponentially. He tries to discover the origins of language, but this task jeopardizes his relationship with his true love. The movie is really about Dominic and the life he leads after this miraculous, although not necessarily fortuitous, event. The layers and complexity of this movie should not be underestimated. I've actually seen the film twice, and it is not to be watched passively. It has mystery, romance, and continually conjures the feeling of the unknown that surrounds the film. It is visually pleasing, and Tim Roth is superb in the lead role. It reminded me a little bit of Benjamin Button, except that it was not as slow, more entertaining, and it came out first.