When you've worked as a film journalist for 25 years, you get used to people asking you to name the greatest movie all time. I always inform the inquirer that my default answer is Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff." A masterpiece that pretty much destroyed The Ladd Company , it's a soaring, hilarious, uplifting film that celebrates the best parts of the U.S.' cowboy mentality. It's also a brilliant combination of formats, a masterclass in the use of optical visual effects, and the shortest 192 minutes you'll ever spend watching a movie. Once I get this out of the way, I'll add, "But it depends on the day. Catch me walking out of a screening of Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing,' or Ernst Lubitsch's 'To Be or Not to Be,' and that might be my answer."

Sometimes, t

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