Monthly Wallpaper - July 2008: Patriotic Movies

July is upon us, which in America means a chance to do a little fire crackin', ball tossin' and flag wavin'. And there's a lot of flag wavin' going on in the movies featured in this month's calendar wallpaper, a salute to patriotic movies.

From Patton to Superman to that Yankee Doodle Dandy himself, these movies represent patriotism on film at its very best, whether its duking it on the ring, flying high or, you know, blasting yourself into outer space. So join in with Mr. Smith, Sergeant York, Davy Crockett and the Gipper as they give three cheers to the ol' red, white and blue.

Just click on the picture above to enlarge it to its 1024 x 768 size, then right click your mouse and select "Set as Background", and you're all set. If you want, you can also save it to your computer and set it up from there, or modify the size in your own photo-editing program if needed.

The Latest on TV: AFI's 10 Top 10

The big day for fans of classic film is almost here: tomorrow night, CBS will present the three-hour television special AFI's 10 Top 10. Changing things up a bit this year, instead of 100 films for one genre, the AFI is honoring ten films in ten different genres, and Movie Dearest has been discussing the possibilities for each, based on past AFI lists, for the past ten weeks or so. But there is one other way to predict what the final film selections may be, and that is to take a look at the celebrities lined up to discuss the selections during the actual program.

Instead of a single host as in years past, this year the ten separate countdowns will each have their own host. Two of the hosts, Jennifer Love Hewitt (Animation) and Jessica Alba (Romantic Comedy), have no films nominated in any categories, so they are no help here (what, wasn't Angela Lansbury and Meg Ryan available?). Additionally, interviewees Lesley Ann Warren and Vanessa Williams (and, naturally, film and animation historian Leonard Maltin) are on hand to talk about other people's movies. As for the rest, here are their nominated films that may end up in their respective top tens, with the strongest contenders in bold:

• Tim Allen: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Cars
• Sean Astin (host, Fantasy): The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Rudy
• Ed Burns: Saving Private Ryan
• Gabriel Byrne (host, Mystery): Miller's Crossing, The Usual Suspects
• Cuba Gooding Jr. (host, Sports): Boyz N the Hood, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets
• Kirk Douglas (host, Epic): Champion, Paths of Glory, Spartacus
• Clint Eastwood (host, Western): High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima
• Harrison Ford: The Conversation, Star Wars, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Working Girl, Presumed Innocent, The Fugitive
• Jane Fonda: Cat Ballou, Barefoot in the Park, Klute
• Michael J. Fox: Back to the Future, The American President
• Brad Garrett: A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo
• Ben Gazzara: Anatomy of a Murder, The Big Lebowski
• Gene Hackman: Bonnie and Clyde, The Conversation, Superman, Reds, Hoosiers, Unforgiven, Get Shorty, Antz
• Dennis Hopper: Johnny Guitar, Giant, True Grit, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, Hoosiers
• Norman Jewison: In the Heat of the Night, Rollerball, ... And Justice for All, A Soldier's Story, Moonstruck, The Hurricane
• James Earl Jones: The Great White Hope, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian, Field of Dreams, The Lion King, Robots
• Nathan Lane: The Lion King
• Ray Liotta: Field of Dreams, GoodFellas
• Robert Loggia: Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Scarface, Prizzi's Honor, Jagged Edge, Big, Independence Day
• George Lucas: Star Wars, Labyrinth
• Sidney Lumet: 12 Angry Men, Murder on the Orient Express, The Verdict
• Amy Madigan: Field of Dreams
• Dominic Monaghan: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Elizabeth Perkins: Big, Finding Nemo
• Roman Polanski: Chinatown
• Harold Ramis: Groundhog Day, As Good as It Gets
• John Ratzenberger: Superman; Reds; Toy Story; A Bug's Life; Toy Story 2; Monsters, Inc.; Finding Nemo; The Incredibles; Cars
• Rob Reiner: The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally ..., A Few Good Men, Sleepless in Seattle, Bullets Over Broadway, The American President, Ghosts of Mississippi
• Isabella Rossellini: Blue Velvet
• Susan Sarandon: Atlantic City, Bull Durham, The Client
• Talia Shire: The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Rocky
• Steven Spielberg: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, An American Tail, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Amistad, Men in Black, Saving Private Ryan, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Shrek, Minority Report, Monster House, Letters from Iwo Jima
• Daniel Stern: Breaking Away
• Ridley Scott: Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator
• Quentin Tarantino (host, Gangster): Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction
• Sigourney Weaver (host, Science Fiction): Annie Hall, Alien, Working Girl
• Rita Wilson: Sleepless in Seattle, My Big Fat Greek Wedding
• James Woods (host, Courtroom Drama): The Onion Field, Once Upon a Time in America, Casino, Ghosts of Mississippi, Contact, Any Given Sunday

Of course, this isn't an exact science, and others may have their own favorites (for example, here's a video of another fan's picks). We'll find out the final 100 films tomorrow night on CBS at 8:00 PM EST.

Super Gay

How gay is Superman? This clip just may answer that question.

Countdown to AFI's 10 Top 10: Fantasy

"Still round the corner there may wait,
a new road or a secret gate."
-- J.R.R. Tolkien

Giant apes, talking pigs, flying nannies, sword-fighting skeletons ... these are among the many fantastic elements that make up the next genre in the Movie Dearest countdown to AFI's Ten Top 10: fantasy.

Ranging from 1924's The Thief of Bagdad to 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the fifty films nominated (see the comments section below for the full list) range from the obviously fantastical (anything based on Greek mythology) to more subtle variations on the theme (Being John Malkovich, The Purple Rose of Cairo). Fitting into the former category is the original King Kong, while the holiday perennial It's a Wonderful Life covers the latter; both are strong frontrunners for this top ten due to the fact that they have both been honored by the AFI five times in past 100 Years ... 100 Movies lists. But topping them both, with seven previous mentions, is a sure thing: The Wizard of Oz.

The other multiple honorees from the past countdowns are more recent: Field of Dreams and Ghost, plus The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (representing the entire trilogy), which placed in last year's top movies list and also won an AFI Award; Spider-Man 2 is the only other nominee that also won the annual award. Single list honorees also nominated this go round include Babe, Batman, Beetlejuice, Big, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Groundhog Day, Harvey, Mary Poppins, Miracle on 34th Street, The Princess Bride, Superman and Topper.

It is most likely that the final ten will be culled from these past honorees, but don't count out some potential first-timers, such as Brazil, Jason and the Argonauts, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Harry Potter, here represented by The Prisoner of Azkaban.

The results will be revealed when AFI's 10 Top 10 airs on CBS on June 17.

Superman Returns

The new adventures of Superman-before-he-was-Superman continue starting tomorrow night with the return of Smallville on the CW Network.

Big changes are reportedly in the works, with both Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) and Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang) reportedly leaving the show after this season. But don't worry, our favorite small town boy Tom Welling will be back for at least one more season, and with the pending departure of series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, he just may be donning the cape and tights and taking flight sooner then later.