The Favorite Movies of the Midwest USA Players Quiz

Answer: The Shawshank Redemption

While not laden with awards, this movie has maintained its gloss over time, and it is on many personal Top 10 lists for favorite movies. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman played the lead roles of Andy Dufresne and Ellis Redding. Neither won the Oscar for their excellent performances, but both have since won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, for "Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby", respectively.

Answer: The Last of the Mohicans

Although based in upstate New York, most of the film was made in the mountains of North Carolina. The film was praised for the realistic costumes, weapons and the attempt to stay true to the time period. A beautiful love story caught in a war movie.

Answer: Dr. Strangelove

"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" was directed by Stanley Kubrick and released in 1964. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but sadly won none of them. Peter Sellers, nominated for Best Actor, starred in no fewer than three completely different roles. Bring your sense of humor and watch a single crazy general cause the apocalypse to unfold.

Answer: Cars

"Cars" (2006) was the seventh full length feature film of Pixar, a computer animation leader in the industry. It told the story of how hot-shot racecar Lightning McQueen loses his way on a cross country trip and ends up in the small town of Radiator Springs on Route 66.

A wide variety of characters (all anthropomorphic vehicles) were voiced by George Carlin, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Michael Keaton and Katherine Helmond, just for starters. Although you'd think of this as a kids' movie, it's a must-see for any NASCAR fan.

Answer: Element

"The Fifth Element" was selected to be the opening film at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997. This great cast also includes Gary Oldman, Chris Tucker and Ian Holm.

Answer: Gone With the Wind

"I have forgot much, Cynara! Gone with the wind." -Ernest Dowson (1867-1900)

"Gone With the Wind" is on many Top 5 lists of Best Movies of All Time, including the American Film Institute, the go-to place for movie lists. "Gone With the Wind" dealt with the unrequited love of two people, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, in the midst of recovery from the Civil War. The story came from Margaret Mitchell's one and only novel she wrote while in recovery from injuries.

Answer: Amistad

Steven Spielberg did a wonderful job of portraying this wretched time in history, from the horrors which began with the capturing Africans, then the treatment, brutality, and murder on the ship, to the courtroom where abolitionist attorney, Roger Sherman Baldwin, tried his case which ended up going to the Supreme Court with John Quincy Adams as the eloquent attorney who pleaded for their release.

Answer: Top Gun

Tom Cruise, Meg Ryan, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Kelly McGillis and some really fast fighter jets got together and made for an exhilaratingly good time in the theater. It was the movie to see in 1986. Unfortunately Tom Cruise's rendition of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" gave people everywhere an excuse to sing the song in karaoke, with the belief they could never sound as bad as Maverick. Sorry, singers, some of you are wrong; you sound worse.

Answer: Days of Wine and Roses

Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon portrayed a successful, romantic couple who destroy their love and many of their dreams in this drama by allowing their passion for insobriety to control their destinies. Decades after its release, this cinematic jewel is being used by many substance abuse clinics to assist clients with their recoveries.

While leaving the audience with a sense of tragedy, it conveys an ultimately powerful message.

Answer: The Wizard of Oz

Starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Burt Lahr, the film was based on the novel by L. Frank Baum about a girl from Kansas swept over the rainbow into a magical land. The song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" won the Academy Award for Best Song and Song of the Year in 1940. From 1956 to 1998, it was shown on television only once a year, first on NBC and then on CBS.