THE BEST SELLERS’ LIST- Period of Time: Going back in history to rank the best historic period pieces

By Thomas Sellers Jr.

I’m pretty sure all of us at one point in the past two months wished we could go back in time.
Back to a time before March 11 and Rudy Gobert came back with a positive test. Since that moment in Oklahoma City, not only did the NBA come to a stop but also the entire world came to a halt.
Now we’re slowing picking up speed to normalcy. There are still huge roadblocks in the way toward a total recovery from this pandemic. And recent unrest from the tragedy in Minneapolis spreading across our nation has slowed the process.
It will be nice to escape to a world of calmness, peace and understanding. I realize going back in time comes with highs and lows.
The reason I have this viewpoint is because of the hours of period piece films I’ve seen over the past 30 years. A period piece is a work, as of literature, art, furniture, cinema, or music, whose special value lies in its evocation of a historical period.
The most common way we view historic moments, places, objects and people is through the lens of a camera. Hollywood has gone back into history on multiple occasions to recount real life moments and figures.
The historic time piece has been used for a backdrop for sports, dramas, thrillers and comedies. This week The Best Sellers’ List is continuing its “At the Movies” quartet of countdowns with Best Period Pieces of All Time.
I will not include sports in this week’s breakdown, as it deserves its own separate category. Let’s jump into this week’s top 10.

10. “Shakespeare in Love”
    1998 drama
    OK, I have to give my 11th grade Pre-AP English teacher JoAnn Hollenbach credit: I just enjoy “Shakespeare in Love.” We had to go watch it as part of our class for a field trip. She forced us to pay attention to the historic film, warning us we would have a test on it.
    The movies was a depiction of a fictional relationship between William Shakespeare and a young woman. The woman posed as a man in order to star in one of Shakespeare’s plays.
    This woman became his muse during the late 1590s. That relationship developed into a forbidden relationship.
    That’s the kind of stuff women love and men are secretly entertained by for about 2 hours and 15 minutes.
11. “Life”
    1999 drama/comedy
    A pair of comedy icons hit the big screen with Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy. The duo deliver a funny and compassionate performance in this bittersweet tale. During Prohibition, loudmouth Harlem grifter Ray (Eddie Murphy) and the no-nonsense Claude (Martin Lawrence) team up on a bootlegging mission to Mississippi. Now you have two Northern black men in the deep South in the 1920s. They run into trouble and were falsely locked up by a shady lawman for a murder.
    We share their time in a Mississippi jail until the poetic conclusion. Over the decades in prison, the odd couple develop a special bond.
12. “Rosewood”
    1997 drama/history
    Let’s stay in the South around the 1920s and move over to Rosewood, Fla. Based on real events, Rosewood was a small, peaceful town with an almost entirely black population. The blacks in the community were middle class and enjoying life until New Year’s Day 1923.
    The white community formed lynch mobs to find the black man who attacked a white woman. Her cries to the local men in her community sparked a racial war.
    The next events of the movie are depressing and scary. It depicts a time period in our country when a black man could be just haunted down in the streets and brutally murdered. And nobody had to answer for his death.
    Luckily, there were a few strong black men in Rosewood who rescued the women and children on a train.
13. “The Help”
    2011 drama/historical drama
    Let’s stick with the melancholy theme for a moment with a trip back to the early 1960s U.S. American South.
    The Magnolia State, to be specific. In Mississippi, the socialite Skeeter, played by Emma Stone, returns back home from college with aspirations of being a writer. Her subject she chose to examine was the black women in her small town.
    She spent time with the ladies who took care of white families for a living. Aibileen, portrayed by Viola Davis, the housekeeper of Skeeter’s best friend and was the only one talking at first. As the young white girl and middle-aged black woman formed a connection, other black women came forward to share their tales of being the help.
14. “Three Amigos”
    1986 comedy/Western
    I hate Westerns, but I love comedy. And in 1986 I was a 5-year-old fan of Steven Martin and Chevy Chase. So when the duo teamed up with Martin Short to make the “Three Amigos,” I was willing to give a Western a shot. It hit the bullseye with hijinks and a funny plot.
    The plot was about three cowboy movie stars from the silent era — Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase), Lucky Day (Steve Martin) and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short). The trio was fired when one of their movies bombed. But down in Mexico, a young woman named Carmen believed the men were real-life heroes who could save her town from El Guapo (Alfonso Arau).
    The three amigos had to use what they knew best to bring down El Guapo and his army. This movie taught me about community and believing in yourself.
15. “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”
    1993 comedy/
    adventure
    I am not a fan of the Robin Hood movies. Whether it’s the original from 1938 to Kevin Costner’s version in 1991, it is a great way to put me to sleep. And I’ve heard about a 2018 edition of the classic tale. Trust me, I won’t bother to watch it.
    But leave it up to Mel Brooks to get me to enjoy a version of Robin Hood. “Men in Tights,” starring Cary Elwes as the nobleman Robin of Loxley, was comedy gold.
    Brooks robbed from the poor plots of the past and enriched them with parody muscles. Veterans of comedy like Richard Lewis, Tracey Ullman and Matthew Porretta do an excellent job in the movie. Then Isaac Hayes contributes to the laugh and a young Dave Chappelle steals any scene he’s in with his natural talent.
    Funniest scene was the challenge with the gloves. Robin Hood’s reply and his metal glove are classic.
16. “Casualties of War”
    1989 war/drama
    Outside of “Full Metal Jacket,” I’m not a big war movie buff. Usually they go over two hours and it’s too dark for viewing. But in 1989 I finally watched a wartime flick that was gripping, emotional and well-presented. Plus it was only an hour and 59 minutes.
    Director Brian De Palma guided Michael J. Fox as Pvt. Max Eriksson, who was stationed in Vietnam under Sgt. Tony Meserve, played by Sean Penn.
    Meserve saves Eriksson’s life during battle. Feeling in debt to his sergeant, Meserve is torn when his leader ordered the abduction of Than Thi Oanh (Thuy Thu Le). The young Vietnamese woman was used as a sex slave. Eriksson refuses to take part in the abuse of Oanh, creating tension with the sergeant and the two other men involved.
    Eriksson decided to defend the honor of the woman once they returned home turning in the trio. The Vietnamese woman died trying to escape her torture.
17. “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy”
    2004 comedy
    One of Will Ferrell’s best performances came as 1970s news anchor Ron Burgundy. This classy guy from San Diego takes us into the world of broadcast news during that era.
    As the hotshot of the station, Burgundy welcomes upstart reporter Veronica Corningstone played by Christina Applegate. She has to adjust to a male-dominated industry and her talent allows her to shine. She becomes Burgundy’s rival quickly. This conflict leads to hilarious scenes and the two pair finding love.
18. Forrest Gump
    1994 drama/comedy-drama
    This movie is an U.S. American classic. Tom Hanks does a masterful job of showing us the view of the world through the eyes of the slow-witted Forrest Gump. All this movie does is take us down the road of American history. We travel the world, run the country, visit the White House and get mixed in the middle of historic moments.
    This movie is two hours and 22 minutes of historic entertainment with a love story underneath it.
19. “JFK”
    1991 drama/thriller
    If you have about three and a half hours to burn one day, I suggest you go “back and to the left”
    of your living room. Get comfortable with your television or viewing device to watch the historic theatric look into the assassination of our nation’s 35th president.
    This acclaimed Oliver Stone drama presents the investigation — led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner — into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
    When Garrison begins to doubt conventional thinking on the murder, he faces government resistance before and after the killing of suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, portrayed by Gary Oldman. This movie is intense and eye-opening at the same time. You go back into a journey of our country’s belly during the 1960s. The JFK death branches out to Cuba, the Civil Rights movement and much more.
    THOMAS SELLERS JR. is the editor of The Millington Star and both the sports editor and a weekly personal columnist for West 10 Media/Magic Valley Publishing. Contact him by phone at (901) 433-9138, by fax to (901) 529-7687 and by email to [email protected].