Here’s some more info on the updated version of my book Making History: how to remember, record, interpret and share the events of your life, to now include the 1990s. Making History is divided into 8 sections, section 6 of which is Arts & Entertainment.

This category covers painting, photography, books and literature, music, theater, television, and film – a huge category. So today I’m only going to discuss film. Although movies are made all over the world, the film industry began in America with Hollywood its acknowledged capital. All of us are influenced by the movies we see, and even the movies we don’t see but which by popularity change our culture.

Below are some of the popular or acclaimed movies of the 1990s – what did these movies mean to you? Who did you see them with? Did you see them in a theater or at home on video? Did you discuss them with your friends and family? What did you learn from any of these movies? Did any of them shock you, make you laugh, make you cry? Did any of them inspire you to change your actions or change your beliefs? Did any of them inspire you to become a part of the film industry? What would you change about any of these movies to make them better?

For me, of the movies I list below one I remember well is Dances With Wolves. I can close my eyes right now and see the death of that wolf, senselessly killed by soldiers out for thrills, and be filled with rage and sorrow – not only for the wolf but for the attempted genocide of an entire people and way of life for no other reason save mindless arrogance. My campaign against mindless arrogance was strengthened by this movie.

I’d love to hear what you thought of these movies – if you have a story (or stories) about the films of the 1990s, please share them, and if you share them on this blog, tell me if I can use them in my upcoming edition of Making History. (I will credit you, of course.)

The movie of the decade was undoubtedly Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time, and winner of the Best Picture Oscar of 1997.

Other Best Picture Winners include Dances with Wolves (1990), The Silence of the Lambs (1992), Unforgiven (1992), Schindler’s List (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), The English Patient (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and American Beauty (1999).

Other high grossing films of the 90s include Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Lion King, The Sixth Sense, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, Men in Black, Ghost, Twister, Saving Private Ryan, Pretty Woman, Mrs. Doubtfire.