Animals Are Good Luck For Movies

2 weeks ago 04th Nov 14:07

The Men Who Stare At Goats is just the latest in a long line of movies that have had an animal in the title, yes there have been plenty over the years.

But what does come as a surprise is animals seem to be a bit of a lucky charm as many movies that do contain and furry little creature in the title have gone on to be very successful, granted some have been totally rubbish.

So because The Men Who Stare at Goats is released on Friday we put this theory to the test and take a look at some of the most successful films that have featured an animal in the title.

- Dances With Wolves

Released in 1990 Dances with Wolves was based on the epic novel of the same name and saw Kevin Costner step behind the camera in a project that took five years to develop, oh yeah did I mention he also stared in the movie?

In 1865, Civil War hero Lt. John Dunbar (Costner) asks to be reassigned to the western frontier before it disappears.

At his isolated post he develops a relationship with the peaceful Lakota Sioux and a white woman (Mary McDonnell) who lives among them, finding greater kinship with them than with his own people.

But his life with the Sioux is threatened when the Army appears, and Dunbar must decide where his loyalties truly lie.

A hit upon release Costner won Best Director at the Oscars for his effort, not bad for your debut movie behind the camera!

- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 shows Jack Nicholson at his dramatic and comic best.

R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a misbehaved con who shirks authority, finds himself in an asylum after faking insanity to get out of work detail in prison.

The vivacious troublemaker soon finds himself in a worse kind of prison, one presided over by the repressed, terrifyingly quiet Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), whose set of rules and regulations are meant to suppress patients' psychotic outbursts, and their spirits.

And it's not long before McMurphy is reaching out to his new inmates, trying desperately to bring life to an otherwise dead atmosphere.

Hollywood had always been weary of tackling mental health issues on film for fear of alienating it's audience however the film's success surprised it's producers Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas. It still remains one of the best movies in it's genre.

It was the first movie to win all five major accolades since It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991, by The Silence of the Lambs.

- Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino's debut movie came in 1992 after he penned the script for Reservoir Dogs which opened at the Sundance Film Festival.

The movie gave audiences a first look at the nonlinear storylines and stylistically excessive violence that he is now so famous.

Mastermind Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) assembles a crew of top-notch criminals to pull off a jewellery store heist.

As the film opens it becomes immediately clear that the plan backfired, forcing the survivors, who have gathered at an abandoned warehouse, to figure out if one of them is, in fact, a police informer.

The crew, Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), an aged veteran; Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), a wounded newcomer; Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), a psychopathic parolee; Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), a bickering weasel; and Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn), Joe's son--begin to unravel as the pressure becomes too much for them to handle. When Joe arrives, the truth becomes clear in a vicious Mexican standoff.