Ten uplifting, inspiring movies

West Kildonan

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/03/2023 (904 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you are still waiting for spring and looking for something to take you away from the winter doldrums and the present state of the world, have a look below.

Here is a list of some my favourite movies that help me to escape, if only for a little while, into a world where, yes, there is sadness and yet, amazingly, hope in a world where there is empathy, kindness and decency despite all the evil.

Of course, your movies will be different ones, but here are some to try.

1) A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood – A 2019 film starring Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers. whose extraordinary kindness impacts the life of a skeptical journalist.

2) Life is Beautiful – A 1997 Italian film partly inspired by the director’s (Roberto Benigni) father who endured two years in a concentration camp in the Second World War. The father (also played by Benigni) tries to protect his son from the camp’s horrors.

3) It’s a Wonderful Life – A 1946 Christmas movie starring James Stewart as George Bailey, who is thinking of suicide. An angel shows Bailey what the lives of those he loves would be like without him.

4) Meet Me in St. Louis – A 1944 musical comedy starring Judy Garland, about four sisters and their lives leading up the World’s Fair in 1904. Set in St. Louis, Mo.

5) How Green Was My Valley – A 1941 American film set in Wales. Based on a novel of the same name, it is the story of a hard-working Welsh mining family in the 1800s.

6) To Kill a Mockingbird – A 1962 American film based on Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Gregory Peck plays Atticus Finch, a lawyer, with two small children, who is assigned to defend a black man in small town Alabama in the 1930s.

7) The Sound of Music – A 1965 musical based on the true story of the Von Trapp Family Singers at the beginning of the Second World War.

8) Les Misérables – Based on the French novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1862, which has been made into many adaptations including my favourite, the musical. It tells of the lifelong troubles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and more.

9) Fiddler on the Roof – A 1971 musical about a poor Jewish milkman, Tevye, and his family set in Imperial Russia. Tevye tries desperately to hang onto his family traditions while being evicted from their village.

10) Newsies – A Disney 1992 musical based on the 1899 strike by newboys in New York City, many of whom are mere children and orphans. Also features the characters of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.