One important bonus of the Sparano Scale™ is the singling out of the Great™ things in your life — the things you’ve experienced that are too good to just call Good™. These are the things that, for whatever reason, you have a fundamental connection to.

Batman poster from the Oxide office by Alex RossBatman poster from the Oxide office by Alex Ross

Once you’ve identified all the Great™ things, patterns emerge. These patterns are the biases that define your perspective on the world. Essentially, this list enables you look at yourself from a completely objective point of view.

Since the system was born out of movies, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at my Great™ movies list and find some patterns.

Movies where one guy (or Batman) takes on the world

  • Batman Begins
  • Batman Returns
  • Catch Me If You Can
  • The Dark Knight
  • JFK
  • The King of Kong
  • Minority Report
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Moon
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  • Zodiac

Movies that take place in one day

  • Collateral
  • Groundhog Day
  • Inside Man
  • Panic Room

Movies that remind me of being a kid…
or, movies that remind me that I’ll always be one

  • Back the Future I, II & III
  • A Christmas Story
  • Dumb and Dumber
  • Home Alone
  • The Incredibles
  • Iron Giant
  • The Muppet Movie
  • Toy Story 2 & 3
  • Uncle Buck
  • Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Movies about relationships from a guy’s perspective…
or, movies that prove I’m kind of a sap…
also, movies about music or with great soundtracks

  • Adventureland
  • Almost Famous
  • Beautiful Girls
  • Definitely, Maybe
  • High Fidelity
  • Little Children
  • Midnight in Paris
  • Scent of a Woman
  • The Social Network
  • The Squid and the Whale
  • When Harry Met Sally

But, also guy movies…
and, modern westerns

  • 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
  • American Psycho
  • Glengarry Glen Ross
  • Inglourious Basterds
  • It Might Get Loud
  • The Matrix
  • Moneyball
  • The Shawshank Redemption
  • Tombstone
  • The Wrestler

And finally, movies with some kind of overarching concept

  • Chicago
  • Drag Me to Hell
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • The Game
  • The Illusionist
  • The Prestige
  • Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
  • Quiz Show
  • The Royal Tenenbaums
  • Singin’ in the Rain
  • The Truman Show
  • Zombieland

 

Of all the movies on this list, it’s this final grouping that is probably closest at capturing the biases that make me who I am.

Whether it’s a movie, a tasty dessert, a comic book, a regular book, a zoo exhibit, a pop song, or a logo — I just love to see people making creative decisions to solve problems meaningfully.