Scarlett O'Hara vowing, with God as her witness, to never be hungry again.

	Castle Rock Entertainment Do you feel inspired by 1994's "The Shawshank Redemption?" The Tim Robbins-Morgan Freeman vehicle told the story of a man wrongly accused of murder, a friendship he developed in prison, and his amazing escape. Click photo for larger image. Related article Critic picks a dozen good bets for AFI's 'inspirational' list

A down-and-out racehorse who gives a jockey, an owner and a nation reason to cheer during the Depression.

A girl named Anne Frank who believes "people are really good at heart," despite the evil swirling outside the attic where she and her family are hiding.

Newlyweds who sacrifice their honeymoon -- a week in New York, a week in Bermuda, the highest hotels, the richest caviar, the hottest music -- to save their town's building and loan.

A boy from West Virginia coal country who dreams of launching a rocket into space.

A lion cub who grows to believe in the circle of life.

Inspiration comes in many forms, with many faces and in hundreds of films. On Wednesday from 8 to 11 p.m., CBS will air "AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Cheers: America's Most Inspiring Movies." (Due to rights considerations, the special will not be available for sale, so set the VCR or TiVo.)

The American Film Institute franchise started in 1998 with a list of the 100 greatest American films and since has weighed in on stars, laughs, thrills, passions, heroes and villains, songs and quotes.

To qualify for "100 Cheers," a movie had to be an American film released before Jan. 1, 2005, (so don't look for "Cinderella Man") that inspires with characters of vision and conviction who face adversity and often make a personal sacrifice for the greater good. With or without a happy ending, they are triumphant, giving audiences hope and a sense of human potential.

Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire in "Rocky." Click photo for larger image.

The list of 300 nominees, distributed to 1,500 voters who included directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers, critics and historians, is a wide-ranging roster that counts such disparate movies as "Erin Brockovich," "Footloose" and "The Passion of the Christ."

It honors wartime heroics, religious sacrifice, perseverance both in prison and out, the ability to stand up for what's right in a jury room and under a high noon sun, and even some hapless Pittsburgh Pirates who get a little help from angels in the outfield of Forbes Field. (See www.afi.com for a list of all 300 nominees.)

Patricia King Hanson, executive editor of the AFI catalog, calls it the show "we love to hate " because it sparks passionate arguments the next morning about what was included, excluded and whether a movie's ranking was too high or too low. She helped to research the ballot and voted, but she even doesn't know what came out on top.

She expects some AFI standards, such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Casablanca," to make the cut. "I love 'The Pride of the Yankees '; that's one of my favorite films. It's hard, having seen it multiple, multiple times, to keep a dry eye and not get choked up when Gary Cooper recites the famous line" in Lou Gehrig's humble farewell speech.

She's rooting for some lesser-known films, such as "Captains Courageous," starring Spencer Tracy as a Portuguese fisherman, and underdogs like "Lilies of the Field" with Sidney Poitier as a handyman who helps build a chapel for German-speaking nuns.

Women who watch "Thelma & Louise" are often inspired to follow the Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon characters -- not in driving off a cliff but in realizing their lives have gone off course.

"Judging by how many times it's rented at the video store and how many times it's been satirized or used in commercials, I would say 'Braveheart' is one people seem to find inspirational." Add "Ray" and "A Beautiful Mind" as recent reasons to cheer, but one of Hanson's guilty pleasures -- "Animal House" -- did not make the ballot.

"I think this [list] was very hard to really categorize because it's everything from the noble hero -- Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck -- but there are also sports movies, which is a different kind of thing, and a lot of war movies," said Hanson in a phone call from Los Angeles.

"We really tried to give a good balance to all sorts of inspirational things -- religious inspiration, social inspiration, some comedies. ... It's any movie that kind of gets your blood going, whether that's something like 'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.' We have a lot of films which have racial and social themes," such as "A Raisin in the Sun," which celebrates quiet strength.

Tom Hanks and Henry Fonda are the most represented male actors on the ballot, with eight entries each. Poitier, Cooper and Denzel Washington have seven each, while Jean Arthur is the most represented woman with four. Leading all directors: Frank Capra and Steven Spielberg, six apiece.

The actors are likable and "very American, in what we would like in the best sense of the word," Hanson says. "Maybe we're not as good as that, but we would certainly like to be."

The AFI lists, in addition to providing CBS with a ratings-grabber in the doldrums of summer repeats, serves as a reminder or a primer on great films and sometimes forgotten actors and actresses.

"There are a certain number of actors who were hugely popular 30, 40, 50 years ago," such as Paul Muni, who won the Best Actor Oscar for "The Story of Louis Pasteur." And yes, the 1935 movie about the scientist is on the ballot, not far from "Star Wars" and "Superman."

CBS has announced a long list of participants, who no doubt hold clues about what will make the hallowed hundred.

They include: Jessica Alba, Sean Astin, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, Kirk Douglas, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, George Foreman, Whoopi Goldberg, Lou Gossett Jr., Ed Harris, Mark Harmon, Ron Howard, Norman Jewison, James Earl Jones, Milla Jovovich, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Lumet, Ralph Macchio, William H. Macy, Marlee Matlin, Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, Sidney Poitier, Mickey Rooney, Eva Marie Saint, Gary Sinise, Steven Spielberg, Cicely Tyson, Mario Van Peebles and Sam Waterston.