Thanksgiving, without doubt, is our family’s favorite holiday. The sentiment of the day is an expression of caring, kindness and community. Laura, my wife, thoroughly enjoys preparing a family meal and Thanksgiving eve is perhaps the best night of the year, when all of the kids are able to come home, stay over night, share their recent stories and reminisce about days gone by.

Over the years it has been a tradition that we watch a movie or two, John Candy’s Planes, Trains, and Automobiles a long time favorite, with each of the kids parroting their favorite lines right on cue. I also like to choose a film that we haven’t shared before and this year I suggested Seabiscuit while talking to our oldest son. He surprised me when he said, “I don’t like horse movies.”

I told our daughter several days later and she laughed, asking just how many horse movies he had seen. Considering the question, we were able to quickly name National Velvet and the recent War Horse. We both agreed that The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse really wasn’t “horsey” and were hard pressed to come up with other ‘horse films’ he might have seen and found ‘unlikable’. We did what needed to be done; we Googled ‘Horse Movies’ and struck gold.

Among those we somehow missed were the 20^th century classics A Horse Grows in Brooklyn, Gone with the Horse, and It’s a Wonderful Horse.

World War II themed films included The Horse Over the River Kwai, A Horse To Far, and the Pearl Harbor inspired Horsey! Horsey! Horsey!

Mel Brooks, the great comedic director, contributes Young Horsenstein, Horse Balls, and Blazing Horses.

The visionary films 2001: A Horse Odyssey and A Clockwork Horse highlight the legendary Stanley Kubrick’s catalogue.

And who could forget the film that launched the still stunningly successful James Bond genre, Horsefinger.

Yet, we remain baffled. What’s not to like?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

V