James Cameron’s Favorite Movies: 18 Films the Director Loves from ‘Dune: Part Two’ to ‘Barbie’

‘Dune: Part Two’ (2024)

Speaking with the French newspaper Le Figaro (via News.com), Cameron praised ‘Dune: Part Two,’ Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi epic. Cameron compared the film favorably to David Lynch’s 1984 version, which took several liberties to compress the epic into a two-hour runtime. 

‘David Lynch’s adaptation was disappointing. It was missing the power of Herbert’s novel. Villeneuve’s films are much more convincing. The characters are sketched out, they are very identifiable. It’s pure cinema,’ Cameron told the paper. 

‘Barbie’ (2023)

In December 2023, Cameron spoke with Greta Gerwig as part of Variety’s Directors on Directors series. Cameron heaped mountains of praise on Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated ‘Barbie,’ calling her feminist take on the iconic doll ‘risky’ and ‘heartfelt’ and singled out Ryan Gosling’s performance as Ken for being ‘incredibly brave.’ Cameron further said his favorite moment in the film is the pivotal America Ferrera monologue about the expectations placed upon women by society. 

‘You basically sum up thousands of years of the female dilemma in one minute,’ Cameron told Gerwig. ‘I don’t think it’s ever been done as succinctly and hit the mark so perfectly.’ 

‘Taxi Driver’ (1976)

Cameron’s most readily available list of recommendations comes from a 2017 interview with Fandor. The director honors five films as his all-time favorites, and includes Martin Scorsese’s Palme d’Or and four-time Academy Award winner ‘Taxi Driver’ among them. Starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, and Harvey Keitel, the psychological thriller is about a struggling veteran whose spiraling mental stability ends in staggering cruelty against the backdrop of a metropolis in decay. It also spawned one of the most iconic movie quotes of all time in De Niro’s improvised and immortal ‘You talkin’ to me?’ The 1976 film is widely regarded as one of the most historically important representations of New York City in cinema.

‘The Godfather’ (1972)

Appearing on Cameron’s Fandor top five list (and on the lips of film bros everywhere), the effusive praise that Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 mob masterpiece receives is perhaps rivaled only by ‘Citizen Kane.’ Marlon Brando and Al Pacino deliver perennial performances as Vito and Michael Corleone: some of the genre and medium’s most universally celebrated character portrayals. In 2022, the film’s unbelievable behind-the-scenes saga got the docudrama treatment for Paramount+ with Michael Tolkin’s (underwhelming) ‘The Offer.’

‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939)

Another standard but understandable choice on Cameron’s Fandor list, Victor Fleming’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’ made film history in 1939: dazzling with its technological achievements while seamlessly weaving the tale of a gingham-clad dreamer from Kansas into the cultural fabric of Midwest Americana.

‘My favorite film is ‘The Wizard Of Oz,” Cameron said in a 2022 Empire Q&A. ‘It’s been with me my whole life, from first viewing on a black-and-white TV as a kid in the early ’60s, to my periodic family screenings of it to this day. It’s still as magical now as it ever was. That moment when Dorothy opens the door and steps out of her black-and-white world into the vivid, Technicolor land of Oz still gets me. The genius of that, and how it must have taken the audience’s breath away in 1939. Now I see it also through the jaded lens of decades of production experience and think about how hot that lion suit must have been under those old arc lights, and how tough actors were in those days. But it has never lost its charm, or the power of its message, which is not, ‘There’s no place like home,’ but that if you respect the people you meet along your path, and help them, you’ll become friends, and your care for each other will get you through any adversity. Even lions and tigers and bears.’

‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)

‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ joins Cameron’s Fandor top five with good reason. Stanley Kubrick’s paragon of sci-fi excellence, which concocts a dreamlike blend of (metaphorically) grounded interstellar exploration drama and intentionally ambiguous thematic flourishes with timeless artistry at the foreferont, is an almost operatic experience. Kubrick won an Oscar for the widely praised visual effects. Interpretations of the film vary, affirming it as a lasting and debate-worthy touchstone for cinephiles such as Cameron.

‘Dr. Strangelove’ (1964)

Rounding out Cameron’s Fandora top five curation is another Kubrick project: the 1964 pitch-black Cold War comedy ‘Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.’ Co-written with Terry Southern and Peter George, Kubrick’s hugely celebrated political satire film is based on George’s 1958 novel ‘Two Hours to Doom’ and features a dazzling doubling (well, tripling) performance from Peter Sellers. 

‘Resident Evil’ (2002)

During COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Cameron revealed in an interview with Empire that he had a surprising affection for the widely panned ‘Resident Evil’ (2002): a misguided adaptation of the popular Capcom video games that would spur a whopping six films starring Milla Jovovich. ‘One of my guilty-pleasure films that I actually think is quite beautifully made is ‘Resident Evil,” he said. ‘Watching Michelle Rodriguez in that film, moving like this feral creature, is joyful.’

‘Alien’ (1979)

Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi sensation might seem too obvious to put on a list of Cameron’s favorite films. (For the miraculously uninformed, the writer/director teamed up with Sigourney Weaver in 1986 to create megahit ‘Aliens,’ a franchise-spawning sequel to Scott’s triumph that first and foremost rips.) But Cameron’s appreciation for ‘Alien’ is well-documented and insightful enough to underline the recommendation. It stands in contrast to his distaste for the other films in the ‘Alien’ series.

“The franchise has kind of wandered all over the map,” Cameron told Vulture in 2017. “Ridley [Scott] did the first film, and he inspired an entire generation of filmmakers and science-fiction fans with that one movie and there have been so many films that stylistically have derived from it, including my own ‘Aliens,’ which was the legitimate sequel and, I think, the proper heir to his film. I sort of did it as a fanboy. I wanted to honor his film but also say what I needed to say. After that, I don’t take any responsibility.”

He continued: “Let me just add to that — and don’t cut this part off, please — I will stand in line for any Ridley Scott movie, even a not-so-great one, because he is such an artist, he’s such a filmmaker. I always learn from him. And what he does with going back to his own franchise [will be] fascinating.” Scott has reportedly been working on a “Alien” prequel since the release of “Alien: Covenant” in 2017. A separate project directed by Fede Álvarez with Scott producing is also in development, per The Hollywood Reporter.

‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ (1976)

As with ‘Alien,’ it should come as no surprise that Steven Spielberg’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ is a hit with Cameron. The filmmaker has said he considers it a kind of spiritual successor to Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ 

‘I could be watching ‘Close Encounters’ on cable at three o’clock in the morning and when that scene comes on, when the mothership comes over, and just the sense of awe and wonder that it invokes, I still get a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye in a little bit,’ Camerson said in conversation with Spielberg. ‘And right through the end of the film, right til the thing is taking off and just the beautific expressions on the faces of all the cast.’

‘Jaws’ (1975)

In the same converation with Spielberg, Cameron mentioned his love for ‘Jaws’ but drew a contrast with ‘Close Encounters’ saying he appreciates the films for different reasons. 

‘[‘Close Encounters’] reminded me of the impact your work had on me at that point,’ Cameron said, describing a group of college friends he used to go to the movies with.  ‘I loved ‘Jaws’ but I sort of loved it as a fan. I didn’t think of it more as a potential filmmaker.’

‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (1969)

Writing for Empire in October 2021, Cameron described his love for ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ He praised the George Roy Hill Western’s humor: ‘In terms of a laugh bringing down the house, I can remember two from that period, from the same film — Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, written by the master William Goldman. 1) When they’re trapped on a cliff with the relentless posse of the Man In The Straw Hat closing in, and they have no choice but to jump 100 feet down into a raging rapid. Robert Redford won’t do it, admitting that he can’t swim. Paul Newman throws back his head and laughs uproariously, then says, ‘Hell, the fall will probably kill you!’ And they jump together, yelling ‘Shiiiiiiiiiit’ all the way down, to huge laughter.’

Cameron continues, ‘Another moment from the same film: they’re robbing a train, about to blow this huge safe, and Newman says to Redford, ‘Do you think you used enough [dynamite]?’ — and then the entire boxcar explodes into kindling, lofting two stuntmen straight into the camera in a fusillade of splinters — by far the most dramatic explosion stunt done to that time in cinema.’

‘Wait Until Dark’ (1967)

In the same piece for Empire, Cameron celebrated Terence Young’s ‘Wait Until Dark,’ a 1967 psychological horror starring Alan Arkin and Audrey Hepburn, who earned an Oscar nod for Best Actress thanks to the film. 

‘The most visceral audience reaction moment I remember from my early film-going years is the jump-scare in ‘Wait Until Dark,” Cameron writes. ‘People can talk about ‘Alien’ or ‘Psycho’ or whatever all day long, but the scene that I vividly remember truly rocking the house was when Alan Arkin, the killer — presumed by the audience to be dead — leaps out of the dark and grabs poor blind Audrey Hepburn’s ankle. Of course, there’s a now-classic music sting — a single massive strum of piano strings that felt like an electric shock up the spine.’

He continued: ‘The entire audience lost their shit — slammed back in their seats and screamed like little girls — myself included. It was physical, involuntary, universal, and perfectly synchronised. And the first time I really understood the visceral power of cinema. It was at the Princess Theatre in Niagara Falls, Canada, in probably 1968 — the film was released in 1967 but Canada was always an afterthought. I was 14.’

‘Borat’ (2006)

Directed by Larry Charles, Sacha Baron Cohen’s star-making debut as international icon Borat makes Cameron laugh so hard he told Empire in a 2021 interview, ‘After three viewings, there’s one scene in ‘Borat’ I still haven’t seen because of the tears in my eyes.’

‘The Woman King’ (2022)

Answering a question from ‘The Woman King’ director Gina Prince-Bythewood in a 2022 Empire Q&A, for which filmmakers and actors asked Cameron their most burning questions, the ‘Aliens’ filmmaker began, ‘Hi, Gina, and congratulations on the success of ‘The Woman King’ — my kind of film. Women kicking ass.’ The Viola Davis-starring African battle epic tells the story of the Agojie: an elite tacitcal team comprised entirely of women who defend the kingdom of Dahoney. 

George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’ Films

Now a long time friend of George Lucas, Cameron is one of many epic filmmakers for whom Star Wars was a critical inspiration. Not only did ‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope’ launch Cameron’s first short film effort, but he has repeatedly cited the galaxy far, far away as a key influence for how he’s mapping out the ‘Avatar’ franchise. Notably, he has not been a fan of the Disney-produced sequels. 

‘I felt that George’s groups of six films had more innovative visual imagination and [‘The Force Awakens’] was more of a retrenchment to things you’ve seen before and characters you’ve seen before,’ Cameron said in 2016. 

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Films

Cameron is a massive Peter Jackson fan, having championed The Lord of the Rings for years. As of late, he’s heaping praise on ‘The Rings of Power.’

‘It’s dangerous to tell a story with a lot of characters because it can lack focus,’ Cameron said in a Variety Q&A about ‘Avatar 2.’ ‘But I just took that challenge on. There’s this epic landscape with epic storytelling. I was trying to emulate a Star Wars universe or Lord of the Rings. Something that’s a persistent world that people can come back to and enjoy over time. If you look at something like ‘The Rings of Power’, with those multiple storylines and interesting characters, that’s what I was aspiring to.’

‘Inception’ (2010)

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, Cameron heaped praise on Christopher Nolan’s time-bending, dream-traversing sci-fi caper starring Leonardo DiCaprio. 

‘I loved ‘Inception,’ and I wish that it had gotten more,’ Cameron said of its performance in that year’s awards season. ‘I wish Chris Nolan had gotten nominated for directing that film because I think that it’s the most astounding piece of film creation and direction of the year, hands down… but now it’s not even in the running. So I diverge from the Academy’s taste in a lot of ways.’