Top Ten Romantic Movies: Great Idea for a Cheesy Date or Girls Night

My top ten romantic movies are definitely memorable and mostly tear-jerking! I like romantic movies a lot, so I feel they deserve a top ten list, too! Here's my top ten romantic movies, listed alphabetically.

The Bodyguard (1992)

Sure, this is one of the personal top ten romantic movies that was basically made to showcase the singing of Whitney Houston, but what the heck! Not only is the singing by Whitney good, but we come to see via this film one real aspect of romantic love; that being the sense of security that one can feel in another as Houston plays pop rock star Rachel Marron who's being stalked by some mysterious person, who turns out to be totally unexpected. The threats on Marron's life bring Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner), a celebrity security expert, to the rescue. The ending of this film just brings chills down my spine just by thinking of it because of Houston's I Will Always Love You song finale.

84 Charing Cross Road (1987)

There's no hot love scenes nor mushy talk in this film about a struggling New York writer named Helene Banff (Anne Bancroft) and a London bookseller named Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins), for they never meet in person. Yet they share the romance of quality literature via the hard to find books that Banff writes Doel for over the course of twenty years. Numerous letters and packages go across the pond, with each letter and package forming a stronger bond between New Yorker and Londoner, in what seems to me a bit of a "de facto romance" on one level. This top ten romantic movies selection proves how the personal letter can close the gap of geographical distances. I've been to the spot in London where such an 84 Charing Cross Road could've been, though it was occupied by a chain book store that had another address number.

Endless Love (1981)

How powerful can love be? How obsessive can it be? Watch this personal top ten romantic movie of mine, or better yet, read the Scott Spencer novel of which the movie is based on to find out what happens when an all-encompassing love hits a teenage boy, and he can't handle it constructively via society's rules and limitations. Even though the movie is basically nothing but a kind of mutated highlight film of the book, there are scenes in that movie that stay with me, making it one of my personal top ten romantic movies of all time. I think of the beginning scene where David Axelrod (Martin Hewitt) is with Jade Butterfield (Brooke Shields) in the planetarium and you can feel their vulnerability to each other, or at the end, when after all that's happened, it appears that Jade is going to stick with David as Lionel Richie and Diana Ross sing the Number One smash hit with the same title as the movie. I strongly recommend this novel because it talks so much more about the machinations of such an obsessive love, which can come about due in part to family dynamics and ensuing ulterior motives.

Grease (1978)

When I was eleven years old in the summer of 1978, living in Casper, Wyoming, I went to see Grease. I hadn't really fallen in love with any girl yet so wasn't that touched romantically by watching the film, but this movie about high school life and love between outsider Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and prissy Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) was simply irresistible because of the incredible range of fast-paced pop rock (like Greased Lightnin' and Summer Nights) and romantically-yearning songs (like Sandy and Hopelessly Devoted to You) which came off the movie screen bigger than life! I would see the movie again and again that summer despite the fact the actors came across like adults trying to act like teenagers. I believe Grease was the first film I saw more than once at the theater without my parents. But little did I know, this movie foreshadowed the first time I would fall in love later that fall. Grease is the first of the romantic movies that I really liked, and still retains a personal top ten romantic movies spot to this very day.

Heaven's Gate (1980)

Based on the Johnson County War in Wyoming in the 1890's, Heaven's Gate was initially both a critical and financial flop, plagued by bad press from the time it began shooting because of its enormous expense, set troubles, re-editing, and Texas-sized ego of director Michael Cimino. As a result, it's made the top ten worst movies of all time lists of movie critics. I'm thankful for the DVD version that features the director's cut, because when I watch Heaven's Gate this way, I am more touched by the romantically-shot photography and music in the film than by the romantic triangle between Sheriff Jim Averill (Kris Kristofferson), Stock Growers Association henchman Nathan Champion (Christopher Walken), and bordello madam Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert). This top ten of romantic films of mine moves slowly over the course of almost four hours, but I'm sucked into the scenery and plot line because of Cimino's attention to detail throughout the film and the brilliant cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond. This is as close to a western as I like, though it takes place in a time when that glorious era was coming to an end.

Ice Castles (1978)

This was the second ever romantic movie that touched my soul, and has produced more tears out of me than any of the other top ten romantic movies. The first poem I ever sold to a publisher was based on this movie, too! I watched it a whole lot on HBO as a teenager, and even though the movie is about two hours long, time really flies by so fast while watching it. Lynn-Holly Johnson plays Olympic figure skating hopeful Alexis "Lexie" Winston, who has a freak accident, leaving her almost totally blind. She's ready to give up on life, but her boyfriend Nick Peterson (who normally quits anything when the going gets rough), played by Robby Benson, goes contrarian to his personality and won't allow Lexie to wilt into oblivion, helping her make a comeback on the ice. The theme song Through the Eyes of Love also makes my Top Ten Tear-Jerking Pop Rock Songs article at Associated Content.

The Other Side of the Mountain, Parts I & II (1975/1978)

Jill Kinmont was a promising Olympic hopeful skier until she was paralyzed in a skiing accident. These two movies cover her attempts at trying to live as normal a life as possible amidst her physical disabilities and prejudices she encounters as a college educated woman who wants to teach children. Kinmont manages to find two men who love her despite her challenges, but after the death of her first boyfriend post-skiing accident, the sequel focuses on Kinmont's fears in committing to the next man she falls for, a truck-driver named John Boothe (played by Timothy Bottoms). Seeing movies (which I count as one selection in my favorite top ten romantic movies list) like these shows how people who have disabilities (like me: I have Asperger's Syndrome) do have the same kinds of feelings and dreams that "normal" people do. Kinmont has done well as a woman in her 70's today. She's led a successful life in both teaching and as an artist. She also carries the name Boothe, so this should be a clue as to how the sequel ends!

The Preacher's Wife (1996)

Courtney B. Vance plays Reverend Henry Biggs, who is spending too much time on his congregation's needs and trying to keep his church from being bought out by a greedy developer; and thus, he's ignoring his family, including his wife Julia (Whitney Houston). Help from above comes in the form of Dudley the Angel (Denzel Washington), who shows up to help Henry set his priorities right, but not without a lot of resistance and some romantic temptation building between Dudley and Julia. Still, this is about as clean of a romantic movie as they come. Since I'm a fan of Whitney Houston's romantic singing, which has helped her get a slew of top ten hits, that helps make this one of my favorite top ten movies that tugs at my heart strings.

Say Anything (1989)

I've never seen a movie before or since, where after making love, the main character (in this case Lloyd Dobler, played by John Cusack) is shivering and shaking pretty hard. For the young woman he made love to, Diane Court (Ione Skye), has touched his body and soul so deeply! It's the original writing in this underachiever boy woos over-achieving girl movie that keeps it from being some dopey, formulistic film. An example of this is when Lloyd tells Diane's father James Court (John Mahoney) that his biggest career aspiration is to be with his daughter. Many of the lines in this personal top ten romantic movie seem too idealistic for our times, but there's nothing wrong with aspiring to those ideals of love that's based on true feeling, rather than less than pure motives for hooking up!

The Way We Were (1973)

Opposites may attract, but then they can destroy the very attraction that brought them together. Barbra Streisand plays the wallflower-type, but idealistic and politically active Katie Morosky, who falls for the sheep-like, sycophantic pretty boy Hubbell Gardner (Robert Redford). They clash over ideals, values and the meaning of life, which ultimately breaks them up after a long term relationship. I don't really see the romantic chemistry between Redford and Streisand for most of the film, but still am transfixed by it because the romantic film's musical score is so dang tear-jerking as well as Katie's wearing her heart on her sleeve. Plus, at the very end, the viewers get to see the two former lovers look at each other in a way that conveys that they once shared a great love. Barbra Streisand's singing of The Way We Were in this movie is also one of my Top Ten Tear-Jerking Pop Rock Songs selections (Associated Content article).