Continuing our romantic movie theme, here are my two favorite romantic scenes from two great romantic movies almost fifty years a part in their first airing.
Lloyd Dobler’s hoisting of the boom box in front of his unsuspecting girl friend’s window is one of John Cusack’s most iconic roles. Lloyd is a regular guy and he is a genuinely nice one at the same time. He’s fallen in love with his class’s most intelligent and beautiful student played by Ione Skye. When she dumps him because of her father’s over protectiveness, he appears beneath her bedroom window sporting the boom box and plays their song at full volume. Seriously, how romantic can you get?
Considered one of the greatest love stories ever told, the romantic moments in this film are almost too many to enumerate. When we meet cynical Rick, the exiled American who runs his night club in World War II Casablanca where his old flame happens to appear with her very much wanted resistance leader husband: Victor Lazslo. There are no villains in this piece and that is what makes Casablanca one of the most truly romantic films of all time. You know that Lazslo understands Ilsa’s love for Rick and Rick’s for Ilsa’s. You are also surprised that cynical Rick can respect and admire Lazslo’s dedication to a cause and Ilsa’s love and dedication to him. That’s why the ‘hill of beans’ speech that Rick gives Ilsa to send her back to her husband gets me every single time.
What’s harder than loving someone?