1. Rocky (1976)
Logline: A million-to-one shot club fighter gets a chance to fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World.
Memorable Moments: Bill Conti’s score, “Gonna Fly Now,” remains one of the most easily recognizable movie scores in the history of film. Aside from that, the training scenes in the meat locker and the steps outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art take a back seat only to the legendary fight sequence in which Rocky floors the champion, goes the distance and gets his eye cut open in order to see during the final round.
Why Guys Dig It: That feeling that it’s us against the world is particularly appealing about this film. It’s an ideal of the American Dream as perceived through 200 pounds of Macho.
2. For A Few Dollars More (1965)
Memorable Moments: Who’s the best shot? Monco (Clint Eastwood) and Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) shoot off the other’s hat and make it dance through the dirty streets. And then, of course, that glorious ending! When the music stops, draw!
Why Guys Dig It: Both men are representative of different aspects in the male psyche. Monco demonstrates our desire to get ahead. Mortimer represents our protective natures. We like to think we have no limits when it comes to making others pay for doing harm to the ones we love.
3. Dirty Harry (1971)
Memorable Moments: Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) tortures the Scorpio Killer (Andy Robinson) for information in the middle of a football stadium. Scorpio pays to be beaten half-to-death in order to frame our hero for police brutality. Callahan sticks Scorpio in the leg with a switchblade amid heavy religious symbolism. The unforgettable finale sees Callahan tracking Scorpio to a rock quarry for one final showdown.
Why Guys Dig It: One man against the System playing by his own rules. Pass me a beer!
4. Taxi Driver (1976)
Memorable Moments: Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) takes his date Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) to an adult movie theater, and can’t understand why she becomes offended and ditches him. “You talkin’ to me? I don’t see anyone else standin’ here, so you must be talkin’ to me. And, of course, the gruesome shootout that closes the film.
Why Guys Dig It: An expertly crafted gunfight, shocking violence (even by today’s standards), and the desire to make a difference in the world that men often feel.
5. The Godfather Part II (1974)
Memorable Moments: A young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) slices open an Italian big shot, and cuts a path of bloody violence through 1920’s New York. Also, Michael’s increased ruthlessness spills out onto his brother Fredo, who becomes a marked man in the memorable “kiss of death” scene.
Why Guys Dig It: Every guy feels like they have a little Michael in them: cold, callused, ready for business. Guys dig The Godfather Part II because it safely represents the lengths to which we think we’ll go to.
6. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Memorable Moments: The gunshot through the loupe. The sex scenes. The long, slow shots that director Sergio Leone was so famous for milking while still holding onto entertainment value. And the fact that this was the beautiful Jennifer Connelly’s first movie role!
Why Guys Dig It: Something about shocking mob violence keeps us glued to the tube for hours. In this case, expect to give up nearly four hours of your life, but it is completely worth it.
7. Goodfellas (1990)
Memorable Moments: The “Do I amuse you?” scene was a fine example for how completely terrifying Joe Pesci could be in his role as hood Tommy DeVito. In fact, most of the memorable scenes in this film pertain to DeVito’s sheer lunacy, including killing a teenage kid for talking back to him and slicing up an old school gangster with a butcher knife in the trunk of a car.
Why Guys Dig It: The mob violence and brutality was taken to a new level with Goodfellas, and it’s our grim fascination with this side of life that keeps us coming back for more.
8. Heat (1995)
Memorable Moments: It was the film that finally put Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the same scenes together, although they don’t share many. Writer-director Michael Mann’s three-hour crime saga makes the wise decision of keeping the interactions to just two: a riveting “line in the sand” sequence at the midpoint, and an intense and expertly filmed game of cat-and-mouse in an airfield at the climax.
Why Guys Dig It: Two great actors, shining examples of the tough-as-nails American man going after each other while still at the top of their games. Forget that god-awful follow-up Righteous Kill.
9. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Memorable Moments: So many gut-wrenching scenes to think of: the killing of Andy’s (Tim Robbins) ticket out of Shawshank; a parolees struggle to adjust to life on the outside after over 50 years in the pen; the prison rapists and Andy’s unfortunate run-ins with them; Captain Hadley (Clancy Brown) and his penchant for beating the inmates; and the uplifting finale.
Why Guys Dig It: We have a fascination with life on the inside. We are also drawn to stories of hope and overcoming oppression.
10. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Memorable Moments: The worms drilling their way into the ears of two Starfleet officers found acknowledgement in the 2010 reboot. The space battles between the Enterprise and Reliant are also strategically and beautifully shot. Let’s also not forget Spock’s death scene.
Why Guys Dig It: Of the original series films, Wrath of Khan is really the only one that resembled early Star Wars. Bigger on action, less on philosophical mumbo jumbo, but still enough meat there for human thought. It’s a top notch sci-fi epic and one of the best of its kind.
