Top 10 Ron Howard Movies
Just one member of a famous filmmaking family that includes Rance Howard (his father), Clint Howard (his brother, afforded cameos in almost every one of his films), and Bryce Dallas Howard (his daughter), Ron Howard has forged a career for himself as a talented, dedicated filmmaker whose releases have notably been filled to the brim with a softness and heart unlike many a release in the decades he’s been active. The director, whose career has crossed paths with fantastic on-screen talent the likes of Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, Michael Keaton and Jim Carrey – each arguably in their prime – has assembled ensemble cast after ensemble cast on his way to establishing himself as a big-time Hollywood player and the man at the helm Lucasfilm’s Star Wars spin-off, Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018. Howard’s career, which has seen him as an on-screen talent in the likes of ‘Arrested Development’, has spanned over 5 decades as a feature film director and has seen him release 25 feature films. In this article, we’ve whittled the selection down to just 10 for this, the Top 10 Ron Howard Movies…
10. Willow (1988)
This 80s fairytale is a staple of many a millennial’s childhood, owing much of its success to the director’s signature whimsy. Starring Warwick Davis in a career defining performance alongside Val Kilmer, himself on the cusp of superstardom, Willow told the tale of a dwarf tasked with protecting a baby from an evil queen, and there aren’t many more fantastical plot lines than that. There are elements of this film that have certainly fell victim to the passage of time, and it’s perhaps best remembered for much of its silliness, but it remains an important fantasy film for many people of a certain age and hits our number 10 spot by the merits of this and a pretty great use of certain fantasy tropes.
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9. Splash (1984)
Remember when Tom Hanks fell in love with a mermaid? That was Ron Howard’s film!
Splash is a film not too unlike Willow in how it’s a fantasy film best remembered by those of a certain age, but it did have the sort of heart and conviction (despite its quite ridiculous premise) that would come to define Howard’s career as a feature director, and it helped to make a star out of Hanks who thrived in such conditions. Daryl Hannah (Blade Runner – 1982) starred as the mermaid who’d saved Hanks as a child and had since met him in the human world of New York City, in a story as filled with typical Hanksisms as you could possibly imagine. Truthfully, there was little to separate this film and Willow but we’ve listed this a position above the other because it came first and that’s the only logic we could find to separate them…
