1) Jamie, a rescued chimpanzee, nests using a toy

For the Cinema YouTube Video of the Day, Click here >>>

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Happy Father’s Day! (I hope you have a good one). Luckily for you these Top 10 Movie Dads are available all year round. Here’s the final Top 10, in a brands new order - including a new #1 and #2 that haven’t been listed yet. Keep in mind these Dads may not be the most typical (they’re all actually pretty unique) , but they are definitely the most dynamic and interesting to watch on the screen.

Be sure to look after the jump to see who are number 1 and 2 are!

10. The Lebowskis in The Big Lebowski

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The eighth look at one of my favorite movie dads. (#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 and #7)

Jack Torrance in The Shining

The combination of Kubrick and Nicholson should be reason enough to understand why Torrance makes this list but beyond that he is one of the most terrifying fathers ever to grace a movie screen. After he takes his family to a large abandoned hotel so that he can write, Jack Torrance proceeds to go crazy and terrorize them all, including his his psychic son. The film is creepy, and if you have a good father he hopefully didn’t let you watch it as a kid. Mostly, I think this line from the film says it all:

**Jack Torrance: [as he chases his son with an ax] Danny, I’m coming!

takepart to learn a bit about writer’s block and click click click for a great fatherly scene from The Shining

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Arthur Clark, the writer, underwater explorer, and space promoter died today at his home in Sri Lanka. The 90 year old renaissance man was perhaps best known as the co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clark is considered to have developed the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, in fact, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits. The author of over 100 books, Clark published his best-selling 3001: The Final Odyssey when he was 79. Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 1989. He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s. And in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Don’t miss these excellent posts on some very engaging and thoughtful topics - from going green at the office to Julian Beever to dystopian film telling us to take action now. Check out our most popular articles of the week on a variety of subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Katoucha’s Body Found: Model Helped African Women Escape Mutiliation

Julian Beever Brings Art to New Orleans Sidewalks

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Nicole:

Heath Ledger Nick Drake Video for “Black Eyed Dog” Hits Web

Top 10 Ways to Go Green in the Office

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Giulia:

Crate & Barrel Goes Green

The Black Comedy Project

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Gina:

Top 10 Dystopian Future Films Telling Us to Take Action Now

Going to “The Edge of Heaven” with Fatih Akin

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Kerry:

Sustainable Songstrees Sue West’s Rural Revival

No Impact Home A Hit At Ecobuild Exhibition

The 80th annual Academy Awards are on Sunday and on everyone’s minds. But instead of predicting this years winners, I wanted to write about some of the losers in Oscar’s history. OK, maybe losers is a little too strong. These 5 Best Picture nominees didn’t win the Academy Award. But by highlighting important social issues, raising awareness, and inspiring action, they won our hearts and minds. So get ready to be inspired!

1. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) starring Jimmy Stewart and directed by Frank Capra is both a scathing critique of Washington DC corruption and a heartfelt and hopeful story of an individual’s ability to make change in the face of adversity. The film was criticized by the media, politicians, congressmen, (surprise surprise!) who called it Communist and Anti-American. Another measure of the film’s power and reach is that it was banned in Fascist Italy and Spain and Nazi Germany.

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So ! You can be a Mr./Mrs./Ms. Smith and you don’t even have to go to Washington. All you have to do is e-mail Washington! Tell Congress to stick to its principles and not cave in to special interests and corruption.

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There is an entire genre of film out there that examines the darker side of humanity and what the future looks like if that darker side continues to thrive. It seems to me that these films offer us a great opportunity to turn a negative into a positive and thus I present you with the Top 10 Dystopian Future Films Telling Us to Act Now!

The films below are the best of the dystopian bunch, each one offering us a great cinema experience as well as insight on how to make the world better today!

1. Metropolis : My # 1 dystopian adventure is also the oldest. Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent, Metropolis, is about a society in 2026 (so soon!) that is split is two, with the rich living above ground and the workers below. When one of the elite goes underground, he falls in love and those above use technology to keep their delicate class system in order. The story’s simple and the messages it provides are abundant.

So & give a home (above ground ) to those who need it.

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