Do you remember which movies you were watching back in 1991? There were some real classics released that year and it is hard to believe that they are celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary.
Beauty and the Beast
We take a look back to this great film year and pick out some of our favourite movies from that year - many have gone on to become even more celebrated than they were at the time of release.
- Beauty and the Beast
Yes, it was back in 1991 when Beauty and the Beast hit the big screen - it was 1992 when it was released here in the UK - and it remains one of the jewels in Disney's crown.
Beauty and the Beast was the thirtieth feature from Disney and was based on the French fairy-tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.
Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise were in the director's chair while Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, and Richard White brought the central characters of Belle, Beast, and Gaston to life.
The movie follows Belle, bright and beautiful young woman who's taken prisoner by a hideous beast in his castle. Despite her precarious situation, Belle befriends the castle's enchanted staff-a teapot, a candelabra, and a mantel clock, among others-and, ultimately learns to see beneath the Beast's exterior to discover the heart and soul of a prince.
Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney film and it remains a wonderfully charming movie that is as enchanting and magical now as it was back in 1991.
Beauty and the Beast was a huge success for Disney as it went on to become the first animated film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar - it wouldn't be until 2009 when another animation film was in this Best Picture mix; the film was Pixar's Up.
Beauty and the Beast won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and grossed $425 million at the global box office.
Twenty-five years on, Beauty and the Beast is still a much-loved Disney movie and a live-action adaptation of this classic will be released early next year.
- The Silence of the Lambs
Another iconic film from 1991 comes in the form of The Silence of the Lambs, which was a big screen adaptation of the 1988 novel of the same name by Thomas Harris.
While it was the second book by Harris to feature the character Hannibal Lecter, it was the first time that we had seen this character on the big screen. Anthony Hopkins took on the role of the psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer and it remains the most memorable role of his career.
Jonathan Demme was in the director's chair in what was his first feature film since Famous All Over Town back in 1988. He brought together a great cast as Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, and Anthony Heald all starred alongside Hopkins.
The Silence of the Lambs is a smart edge of your seat psychological drama that is driven by terrific performances from Hopkins and Foster; Hopkins plays Lecter in a way that really does make you blood run cold.
It remains one of the best horror movies of the last twenty-five years and really has gone on to be a true classic of this genre.
Surprisingly, The Silence of the Lambs was a sleeper hit that year and slowly won over audiences and critics as it went on to acclaim. It went on to gross over $272 million at the box office - easily making back its rather modest $19 million budget.
As well as critical and commercial success, it went on to win Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars. Following in the footsteps of It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it became only the third film to win the top five categories at the awards.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day
It is not very often that a sequel is better than the original but every so often a film comes along that does outdo its predecessor... Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the rare movies.
The movie came seven years after the release and success of The Terminator - which was released back in 1984 - and it saw James Cameron back in the director's chair. While The Terminator was a terrific film, the director really pushed the boat out this time.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was back in the central role and starred alongside Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick.
A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor in the first film, must now protect her young son, John Connor, from a more advanced cyborg, made out of liquid metal.
The special effects proved to be a major breakthrough in computer-generated imagery and was one of the first films to us natural human motion to create a computer-generated character.
This is a slick action-packed sequel with Cameron delivering a sci-fi film that is full of imagination as well as some great twists and turns. I have to say, the special effects still look great twenty-five years on.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a huge critical hit as well as a commercial smash; going on to gross over $519 million at the global box office. It ended the year as the highest-grossing film of 1991.
- Thelma & Louise
We don't get treated to a female buddy movie very often and Thelma & Louise remains the best and perhaps the most famous film in this genre.
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis teamed up to take on the central roles of Louise Sawyer and Thelma Dickinson - a waitress and a housewife - in the Ridley Scott directed film.
Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, and Brad Pitt completed the exciting and talented cast list.
The movie follows Thelma & Louise, who set out on a road trip looking for a good time and a break from their other halves. When Louise shoots a would-be rapist, the women decide that they have no choice but to go on the run. The pair is pursued by a police officer (Keitel) sympathetic toward their plight. He chases them to the Grand Canyon, where the women make a fateful decision about their lives.
From start to finish, Thelma & Louise is a witty, intelligent, entertaining movie that has two terrific performances at its core. It is the relationship between Sarandon and Davis that not only makes this film relatable, but also makes the ending even more heart-breaking.
Thelma & Louise was a movie that really helped redefine women in film and has gone on to remains a classic in this genre.
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
We have seen many interpretations of Robin Hood hit the big screen over the years and, in 1991, it was the turn of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
The movie, which was directed by Kevin Reynolds, saw Kevin Costner take on the title role, with Morgan Freeman, Alan Rickman, Christian Slater, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio also on the cast list.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the third feature film of Reynolds' career and came after Fandango and the Beast of War. It was the second collaboration between the director and Costner - who starred in Fandango - and they would go on to work together on Waterworld.
When Robin and his Moorish companion come to England and the tyranny of the Sheriff of Nottingham, he decides to fight back as an outlaw.
I am a fan of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and I particularly likes Rickman in the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham - a role that he would forever be associated with.
Taking $390 million at the box office, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the second highest-grossing film of 1991 - behind Terminator 2: Judgment Day and ahead of Beauty and the Beast.
Other 1991 movies that are celebrating their 25th anniversary include JFK, Cape Fear, Point Break, and Backdraft.
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