Top 20 List

Rick Jason and Vic Morrow in Combat!SELECTIONS FOR TOP 20 LIST

In 1993, Video magazine editor Ken Korman asked me (and other writers) to submit four 100-word selections to a "Top 20 list." They had to be quirky movies or television programs that we were passionate about and which were available for a low price. I don't remember whether he used all four, but these were my choices:

COMBAT!: "S.I.W."
$9.99. ABC Video/GoodTimes.
Mention Combat! to a post-'60s child and you'll probably get a blank stare. But the 1962-1967 series was a huge hit in its day and no wonder: the darkly heroic, gritty "war is hell" drama was developed by maverick director Robert Altman (who also directed over a dozen episodes). What makes Combat! gripping is not its well-executed action but its focus on the people and the horrible sacrifices they make during war. Of the six episodes available on tape, "S.I.W." is probably the best example of the series' gray morality, with underground filmmaker John Cassavetes playing a man who may or may not be a coward.

OUTER LIMITS: "O.B.I.T."
$12.95. MGM/UA Home Video.
Often incorrectly tapped as a second-rate Twilight Zone, Outer Limits is far more than that and is, in many ways, superior to its better known cousin. Unlike TZ, it is rarely dependent on a clever twist ending, and at its best, the 48-episode anthology series focuses on ordinary people – played by such actors as Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, and Martin Landau – caught in extraordinary predicaments. "O.B.I.T.," about strange goings-on at a military base, is the program at its best: a good yarn that makes you think as you hide under the covers.

HOOSIERS
$12.99. Vestron Video.
This touching, underrated film features a beautifully directed script and a stellar cast: Gene Hackman as the coach who never gives up, Oscar-nominated Dennis Hopper as the drunk who has given up, and Barbara Hershey as the woman who believes in everyone but Hackman. The setting is Indiana, 1951, and the subject is a small-town college basketball team that wants to go to the top. And if you think you've seen it before, guess again: Hoosiers is funny, touching, and even inspirational. It's entertainment with a message: if you give people a chance, they just may surprise you.

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
$14.95. RCA/Columbia.
Following the adventures of an ancient Greek hero as he searches for the magical Golden Fleece, Jason and the Argonauts is the stuff of dreams, offering the 50-foot bronze giant Talos, the flying Harpies, the seven-headed Hydra, the gigantic Olympian gods, Poseidon holding apart the clashing rocks, and the sword-wielding living skeletons ("The Children of the Hydra's Teeth"). The movie, with an uplifting Bernard Herrmann score and beautiful Greek locations, cleverly taps into a childhood love of fairy tales and an adult longing for the simplicity of myth. The special effects (by Ray Harryhausen) are pretty nifty, too.