As we enter the apple-picking, pumpkin-eating, sweater-wearing season that is autumn, we here at The Pilot thought we would share with our top three favorite fall movies — ones that will get you in the spirit of the season. If you don’t like horror movies but still want that feel-good autumn entertainment, I might just have what you’re looking for. So grab some popcorn, maybe something pumpkin flavored and get yourself ready for some fall movie classics.
#3 : Dead Poets Society (1989) Directed By: Peter Weir
The Dead Poets Society (not to be confused with the newest Taylor Swift album “The Tortured Poets Department”) follows the arrival of a new English teacher, played by Robin Williams, to an all-boys school known for its rigid and stultifying approach to teaching harsh and conservative approaches to discipline. The students, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leanoard), Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke) and others acquire a new perspective on life and approach to learning under the guidance of their new teacher, whose ways of teaching are unconventional and nonconformist. This movie is triumphantly beautiful, landing an important message that one should always try and “seize the day.” Between the connection of the boys and their professor and the gorgeous picturesque setting of Vermont’s falling leaves, there are very few movies that capture the heart and soul of the years between childhood and adulthood like this one, reminding you of the most vibrant, loud and gut wrenching years of your life.
#2: Good Will Hunting (1997) Directed By: Gus Van Sant
Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose IQ level is one of geniuses, is discovered by a professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) after solving a graduate-level math problem on a bulletin board. The professor decides to try and help Will reach his full potential. After a run in with the law, Will is forced to meet with therapist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) in order to try and tame his reckless behavior and rehabilitate him. This movie is brilliantly written, with its sharp but meaningful dialogue and wicked sense of humor. This movie lends itself to greatness with its complex message about the uncertainties that come with life and adolescence shown through both the adult life of Sean and the youth of Will. You will finish this movie with the most hopeful feeling in your gut that even the most horrific and burdensome of childhood traumas can be overcome. I consider this movie a tremendous fall movie because its setting has always reminded me of the beginning of the school year.
#1 When Harry Met Sally (1989) Directed By: Rob Reiner
Usually in a movie when a boy meets a girl, it’s love at first sight, fireworks explode, birds chirp, a timeless song plays perfectly synchronized to how the two lovers hold each other in their arms, and the two somehow end up in love instantly. Love is often portrayed as this wildly magical force in movies, unless of course you’re Harry and Sally. When Harry (Billy Crystal), a college graduate, meets Sally (Meg Ryan), another college graduate, they are forced to embark on a long car ride from Chicago to New York, during which they spend most of the time arguing and never seeing eye-to-eye on anything, especially the idea that men and women cannot have completely platonic relationships with one another. After ten years of not seeing each other, they meet again in a bookstore, becoming friends who tell each other everything. Over the course of a couple of years, Harry and Sally learn how to live with the complexities that come from “just being friends.”
This movie is truly one of my favorites. If you were not hoping for a romance as my first suggestion for fall movies, I want to convince you how much more this movie has to offer than just another silly romance. Between Billy Crystal’s humor and Meg Ryan’s charming personality, the movie is nothing short of fantastic. One of the reasons I love this movie for the fall is its beautiful depiction of autumn in New York. The bonus to this movie is also that you can watch it all the way up until New Year’s Day, and it would still feel festive. A not-so-classic classic story of boy meets girl and an honest romance that truly shows how to make two lovers of friends.
