My Fave Five Flicks of... JOHNNY DEPP

Because I premiered my Fave Five List with a random choice Winona Ryder, I thought it would be fitting to feature her ex-paramour Johnny Depp in my 2nd list. So here’s my own in-DEPPth analysis of my fave five flicks of the über-talented Johnny Depp.

I believe Tim Burton is more in love with Johnny Depp than he is with his wife Helena Bonham-Carter. Don’t you think so? But I don’t think Helena minds. The Burton-Depp nuptial on film has become an art form in itself. In my Top10 list alone, I have four of these movie tandems. If I’m not mistaken the gothic duo have made six films together as of date, and a seventh one is on the offing – Alice in Wonderland with Depp as the Mad Hatter. Ooh I can’t wait for that!

This marriage of talents surely have been prolific and successful at that. Who wouldn’t agree that playing a freak with a flock of seagulls hairdo and blades for hands definitely put him on the Hollywood map?

I’ve had a crush on Johnny Depp since his “21 Jump Street” days in the late ‘80s. He’s been doing small roles on the big screen even before that but it was after leaving that TV show that got him on the roll. He was James Dean reincarnated in his breakout role in “Cry-Baby” (1990), and although I like this film ‘cos it was like Grease on steroids it landed on the 11th spot in my list. Oh looking at his body of work just makes you feel like a kid in a candy store. There’s just so many to choose from.




The 2nd half of my Top 10 Johnny Depp movies include: 10) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), 9) Sleepy Hollow (1999), 8) Ed Wood (1994), 7) Chocolat (2000), and 6) What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993)

Like I said, four out of my Top 10 were his works with Tim Burton. Three of those are already in my 2nd half. I didn’t include “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005) because I really love the Gene Wilder version and I don’t think I’d ever change my mind. “Corpse Bride” (2005) was excellent but I wanted to see Johnny’s REAL face so that automatically excludes it from my list. Hahaha!



The rest of my favorites were done by other directors but if there’s one thing that I see similar among these non-Tim Burton films – his characters though still offbeat are all easy to fall in love with.

Here are my FAVE FIVE FLICKS of… JOHNNY DEPP

5) Don Juan DeMarco (1995) – Who wouldn’t want to be romanced by Johnny Depp? I love this film not only because it plays around the theme of love but more interestingly it also tickles your thoughts about the thin lines between reality and imagination. Johnny played a mental patient who fervently believes that’s he’s the legendary Don Juan DeMarco. Of course nobody believes him and Marlon Brando’s renowned psychiatrist character was tasked to cure the costumed “crazy” guy back into his real identity. The conflict in the movie was not whether Johnny’s tall tale was indeed true. Instead, it was Marlon Brando’s character that was facing a crisis as he was beginning to have some fondness over his patient, to the point of almost believing his stories already.

What I love about this film is that it poses the question: Is reality never romantic? I feel so much for this thought because personally, I would have wanted to change a lot of unpleasant and hurtful experiences in my childhood and instead create a prettier past that’s easier to look back to.

4) Finding Neverland (2004) – Acting wise, this is one of his more subdued roles. I noticed Johnny’s quite bipolar in his choice of characters – ranging from strident to serious. I think in my entire list, his role here and in Gilbert Grape are the only ones where he’s neither a freak nor some crazed costumed caricature. In these movies, he’s just a “normal” person living a regular life albeit laden with inner conflicts and issues. But of course, that’s given. That’s what makes a character anyway.

I love this film simply because he played the man who created Peter Pan, one of my favorite children’s stories of all time. I always like films about famous writers and how their personal life stories have inspired and given birth to classic literary masterpieces that the world has grown to love through the years and centuries. And it didn’t hurt that Johnny Depp was such a handsome swoon-worthy J.M. Barrie. I saw Mr. Barrie’s real photo and let’s just say I’d rather picture him with the Johnny Depp face.

3) Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy (2003, 2006 & 2007) – Johnny Depp said in one of his interviews that his kid actually believes that he’s really a pirate in real life. Captain Jack Sparrow certainly lives among us now. What was originally a supporting role to the hero Will Turner is suddenly now the story’s most compelling and timeless asset. We like Jack because he is simply the anti-hero. Jack is a confusing hybrid of many personalities: rock star, drunkard, gay… among many others. I guess the more he puzzles us, the more adorable he becomes.

2) Edward Scissorhands (1990) – Tim Burton must have been toying with a theory – what if we turn this painfully handsome actor into varying forms of grotesque characters and see if his talent was abundant enough to shine through. The theory is now truth. Johnny Depp is living proof that one can really have it ALL and LOTS of it even.

As you’ve noticed this is the only Tim Burton film that made it to my Fave Five but this is my favorite Burton-Depp project and probably the best they’ve ever done. It was a gothic fairy tale! I related to the movie because its simplest message was about the ironies of “being normal.” I’ve struggled with fitting in myself. And we learn from the movie that even though his physical body is not complete, his heart is whole and bigger than anybody else living in pretentious manicured suburbia.

1) Benny & Joon (1993) – Now this is my all-time Johnny Depp favorite, also because it stars one of my favorites Mary Stuart Masterson (Anybody knows where in the world is she now?) A mentally ill girl + an oddball boy = strange love. Play that Depeche Mode cassette tape, will ya? (Hahaha naka-relate ba kayo?) Anyway, it’s a wonderful date movie. It’s an eccentric yet endearing love story. It’s the kind of movie that you’ll never get tired watching over and over again. Well at least for me. And besides, who gets tired of watching Johnny Depp anyway, especially when he’s all cute and quirky?




If you're also Depp-ly in love with Johnny, take the poll (found somewhere on the left side of this page) and pick your own favorite flick. Enjoy! :-)