The 16th Best All-Time Film

(7th 1973-1998) 

Anne of Green Gables (1985) & Anne of Avonlea (1987)

In a bit of a cheat, my next film(s) are not really a film, but rather a miniseries. I have already had one TV movie on this list, “A Christmas Carol,” but this entry would be even more of a television show: the “Anne of Green Gables” adaptations from Canadian television in the eighties.

The power of these two miniseries is evident in that they were able to completely capture the imagination of a teenage boy. After seeing them I was even compelled to go back and read some of the books, and they didn’t measure up! This is not the episodic stories-for-girls of the books. It is the universally relatable story of a dreamer discovering how life can be better than our dreams, once we stop fantasizing and start looking at what is right in front of us.

The mondain and everyday can be magical because the people in our lives are more magical and surprising than even our vivid imaginations can invent. We just have to turn that capacity for fantasy into the right perspective.