Greatly taken by outdoor adventure movies I saw as a kid leads to a top-10 favorite list

As a young ’un, I vividly recall visiting the High Lama.

And the subterranean ocean that we crossed by making a raft of giant mushroom stems …

The tickle on my foot from the creature while swimming in the black lagoon.

As much as my early, REAL adventures into the woods and waters around my neighborhood…I was greatly taken by the movies I saw as a kid.

Weren’t we all?

I wanted to be those people who were doing those things. I wanted to be Rod Taylor in 1960 when he goes ahead in time to 802,701 A.D. and takes on the Morlocks in the film, “The Time Machine”. When I grew up I, too, wanted to search for Shangri-La in the 1937 Frank Capra film classic “Lost Horizon.” And to go to the center of the earth with Pat Boone and James Mason in 1959 after watching “Journey to the Center of the Earth”? Well, now, that would have been what any normal 13-year old would have signed up for.

I’ve always been fascinated by the Amazon River. And certainly fearful. That seemed…and still does…to me the ultimate survival test. Especially when you have half-man, half-fish monsters like that one in “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954).

I love outdoor adventure movies, the classics and the latest ones.

But as noteworthy as those old ones were, I’m hesitant to put ‘em on my Top 10 List, though. Maybe the Top 100, ‘cause there are just so many adventure films that I have either in my own library or have watched repeatedly. Like King Kong, Jaws, Deliverance, Braveheart, True Grit, Last of the Mohicans, K2…and, of course, Avatar.

What you won’t see on my list, though, is either “The Great Outdoors”(John Candy) or “Dorf Goes Fishing” (Tim Conway). And don’t even talk to me about the “Bambi” deception.

Even though it might not really fit into the great outdoor adventure genre I’m tempted to put “Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid” in my Top 10. If for no other reason than the scene when Paul Newman and Robert Redford have been chased to the edge of a rocky cliff above the Animas River in southwest Colorado.

Butch: “Alright. I’ll jump first.”

Sundance: “No.”

Butch: “Then you jump first.”

Sundance: “No. I said.”

Butch: “What’s the matter with you?”

Sundance: “I can’t swim.”

Butch: “Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you.”

Great movie, great actors, great dialogue, great story…and, most of all, great outdoor locations near Durango, Colorado and other places southwest.

Sundance doesn’t make my Top 10, but I’d put it in the Honorable Mention Category…along with “The Bear” (not just another cute fantasy), “Downhill Racer” (Robert Redford in the fast lane), Romancing the Stone (and the Indiana Jones flicks), “Jeremiah Johnson” (Robert Redford in the slow lane) and “Insomnia” (come on, the setting is Nightmute, Alaska and stars Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank!)

OK, here’s my list of all-time favorites. I’d love for you to challenge me and give me some of yours. In descending order:

10. “The Edge”. I was always pulling for the bear.

9. “Into the Wild”. Jon Krakauer wrote an amazing book and Sean Penn does an amazing job of directing.

8. “Legends of the Fall”. I was always pulling for the bear.

7. “Everest-IMAX”. One of the most spectacular displays of sight and sound ever on celluloid.

6. “Grizzly Man”. A provocative doc from Werner Herzog.  No comment about the bear this time.

5. “Dances With Wolves”. Trivia: Kevin Costner borrowed the buffalo from Neil Young.

4. “Out of Africa”. Redford and Streep and a truly lyrical story. ‘Nuf said.

3. “Never Cry Wolf”. Nerd makes peace with canis lupis in the Yukon. Together they dine on rodent.

2. “A River Runs Through It”.  I really like Robert Redford, as you can tell.

Yeah, I know, all of this is so subjective. And, frankly, how is it that “A River Runs Through It” is not everybody’s favorite, including mine? What can I say, there are so many wrenching moments in one particular movie that I have to say it’s too good not to make No. 1.

Like the scene when the African beetle crawls into the explorer’s ear while he sleeps in his tent and drives him mad. Yeah, baby, that’s my kind of outdoors!

1. “Mountains of the Moon.” Sorta a river runs through it, as in Africa. Discovering the headwaters of the Nile.