St. Patrick’s Day Movies: Eireann go Brea!
Posted on March 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here are five great movies from or set in Ireland to enjoy:
1. The Quiet Man John Wayne plays American Sean Thornton (John Wayne), who returns to in Innisfree, the small, beautiful Irish village where he was born, to buy his family’s old home. He meets fiery Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara), courts her, marries, her, and then really has to win her as both must learn some lessons about intimacy, pride, and trust. Yes, there are some moments that seem sexist but the underlying story is as glorious as the spectacular landscape and as touching as the endearing characters.
2. The Secret of Roan Inish
3. The Commitments
4. Once
5. Millions
and with suggestions for all ages. Here’s a list of five of my all-time favorite falling-in-love (or realizing you’re in love) stories for teenagers and grown-ups. Cuddle up with your valentine and a bowl of popcorn and enjoy these movies about how love makes us crazy and immeasurably happy at the same time. 
Cher won an Oscar as the bookkeeper who has given up on love until she meets the brother of her fiance, who tells her: 
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet find that they really don’t want to forget each other, no matter how painful love can be. 
This third version of the story of a couple who are at war in person, not realizing that they are tender lovers through the mail, updates the story to the computer age. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have so much chemistry on screen that we know from the first moment what it will take them the whole movie to discover — they are meant to be together.
On the eve of her wedding, socialite Tracy Lord’s ex-husband shows up with a couple of journalists and we get to watch three of the greatest stars in Hollywood history sort out their affections. This movie has everything: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart (who won an Oscar), George Cukor as director, wit, heart, and romance and an important lesson about how sometimes it is not about falling in love but recognizing that we have already fallen.
A conspiracy theory favorite, this one has Elliot Gould, Hal Holbrook, and Sam Waterston (and O.J. Simpson!) in a story about a government plot to fake a moon landing after the real launch fails.
Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, and Gary Sinese star in this gripping drama directed by Ron Howard about the heroic rescue operation after the Apollo 13 capsule suffered an explosion on its way to the moon. This is true heroism and problem-solving — and brilliant film-making as well.
The Buddies pups end up as stowaways on a trip to the moon in his family-movie favorite.
Diane Lane is exquisite in this story about a lonely housewife who has an affair the summer that men first walked on the moon.
An anti-gravity paste transports Victorian explorers to the moon where they discover some bee-like creatures. Great effects by creature designer Ray Harryhausen.
Margaret Wise Brown’s night-time classic is beautifully filmed in this DVD collection of bedtime stories. “Goodnight, bears. Goodnight, chairs.” 
Every family should watch this documentary about the real-life adventure that had Neil Armstrong and his team land on the moon and return home safely.
Tom Wolfe’s book about the first group of astronauts is brilliantly filmed by writer-director Philip Kaufman, who recognizes the dream of a moon expedition as emblematic of the American spirit. 
, about movies that demonstrate the the idea that “that through our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, we create our own reality.”