Today's question: What's your favorite movie?

By Jeff Orvis

What's your favorite movie?

A few days ago, Dan Patrick posed that question as a poll question during his nationally syndicated radio-TV show. His team, called "The Danettes," gave a choice of "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas" or "the field." The way the question was posed was probably understandable, since most of Patrick's audience is probably male. But a lot of folks surprisingly chose "the field" and I have to say I was one of them.

I have to admit that I am probably not qualified to say much on motion pictures. It's been years since I walked into a movie theater. I don't even remember the last film I saw, but it may have been "The Aviator," starring Leonardo DiCaprio. What I remember of that experience was that despite the fact we saw it in the afternoon, it took me several days to recover from the shock of the cost of admission and concessions.

So we've already covered one reason why I don't go to many movies - cost. I'm a big fan of free TV. I also have a good cable TV subscription and Amazon Prime, where many movies are available for no additional charge. I can simply sit in my recliner, without shoes on, munching on a 40-cent bag of microwave popcorn and watch what I want. There's no threat of somebody behind you talking throughout the movie, kids crying or cell phones buzzing at the climax of a dramatic scene.

There was a time when I was a lot younger when I did see movies in the theater. When I was in junior high, we lived about five miles from downtown Davenport. Sometimes in the summer time, Mom would take a leap of faith and allow me to join a couple of my friends on a walk down to the city bus stop and on into the city, where we would have lunch at Bishop's Buffet and then catch a matinee at either the RKO Orpheum or the Capitol Theater. When it was over, we'd retrace our route and be home in time for supper.

Sometimes we would go as a family to the movies. My dad, who didn't seem to enjoy vocal music that much, took us to see "The Sound of Music" twice in one week at the Coronet Theater in uptown Davenport. Maybe he had a secret crush on Julie Andrews. They recently interviewed the former owner of the theater who explained how he remodeled the inside in anticipation of showing that film and how opening night had a line of viewers out to the street.

In those days, there were far fewer movies produced and they had a much longer shelf life in the theater. Those of you who have seen me will find this hard to believe and I only mention it to point out how long some movies lasted. But I can remember going to see "Love Story" at least four times with four different girls. True confession time, I think I cried more than they did...still do when I watch it on TV.

I can only remember a couple of drive-in movie experiences. When I was in college, a carload of friends went to see "The French Connection." But we were more interested in the bottle we took with us. Still don't know how we ever made it back across that narrow twin bridges to Bettendorf! I saw "Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid" at a drive-in another time. But (bragging time here) it was raining, my date was scared of thunder and it took me 20 years later to actually watch the whole movie!

Years earlier, we often stayed with my Aunt Sara in Milan, IL. She lived in a big yellow house across the street from the old Memri Drive-in. From her kitchen window, we could see the screen. But one night she shooed my sister and me away and pulled the shade when they showed what would be termed an R-rated movie today!

We could have never imagined back then that there would come a time when so many movies would be produced each year and earn so much money so quickly at the box office. There is such a rush to cable and DVD for the films that it's hard to keep up with what's available. I have friends and relatives who own hundreds of movies. But with so much available each night on TV and with my shorter attention span, I don't often devote two hours at a stretch of my life to a movie. When I do, it's often a great experience, so I hope they keep making them and keep putting them out there. Some day I'll turn away from NCIS reruns to watch more feature films.

So what would I pick for my favorite film? I can't settle on just one. I admitted earlier that I paid to see "Love Story" four times, but it was much more for the company I was with than the movie. Since the question was posed on a sports call-in show, I'd have to list such films as "Friday Night Lights," "Brian's Song," "We Are Marshall" and "Rudy" as a few of my sports favorites.