« Marriage Amendment Defeated | Main | Not Thrilled With Danny Ainge Right Now »
June 20, 2007
The Road Leads Ever On and On
(Some of this is background information you regular readers already know, but I'm cross-posting this elsewhere, so skim through it.)
Ten years ago, the American Film Institute revealed its list of the 100 Greatest Movies of the 20th Century. It inspired me to go down the list and watch or rewatch all of them, write up my thoughts, and become the literate film buff that I always wanted to be. Now, I could confidently stride into any cinematic cafe and say with utter sincerity, "Yeah, I watched Wuthering Heights."
Eight years after I began in earnest, I'm kinda almost nearly getting close to being done. This has turned into a cavalcade of procrastination, bad luck, shame - lots of shame - and has been a constant and reassuring nagging presence in my life since Bill Clinton started getting in trouble.
And now they've gone and redone the list.
When I heard the AFI was going to do a 10th Anniversary special, I thought maybe they'd shuffle a little, add a few recent gems, and it would make a nice little coda once I finished off the original list.
Hardly.
There are 23 different movies on the list. That's almost a quarter of the list replaced, if my math is correct.
Oh boy.
A quick list at the 23 added to the list: Toy Story, Blade Runner (yay), Do the Right Thing, The Last Picture Show, Sophie's Choice, Swing Time (huh?), The Sixth Sense (I'll have a lot to say about this, I promise), Twelve Angry Men (the biggest injustice on the first list), A Night at the Opera, Titanic (really?), Sunrise (who?), Spartacus, All The President's Men, In the Heat of the Night, The Shawshank Redemption (yay yay yay yay yay), Saving Private Ryan, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cabaret (I know someone who will be pleased with that), Sullivan's Travels, Nashville, The Fellowship of the Ring, Intolerance (oh my), and The General.
What got the axe? Doctor Zhivago, Birth of a Nation (yay), From Here to Eternity (really?), Amadeus (boo), All Quiet on the Western Front, The Third Man (a grave injustice), Fantasia, Rebel Without A Cause, Stagecoach, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Manchurian Candiate (you're killing me, AFI), An American in Paris, Wuthering Heights (see ya), Dances With Wolves, Giant, Fargo (COME ON), Mutiny on the Bounty, Frankenstein (Raaarrrr!), Patton, The Jazz Singer, My Fair Lady, A Place In the Sun (yay), and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.
And Forrest Gump remains. Somebody's got some explainin' to do.
Filed Under: Movies | Permanent Link, Comments (8) | Linking Blogs
Comments
Twelve Angry Men -- yes! But Toy Story? Thanks for this anaylsis.
Posted by: Rhea | June 21, 2007 07:01 AM
It almost seemed that the AFI doing it again so soon cheapened the whole thing and that they shuffled things just for the sake of shuffling things. Doesn't mean that we didn't watch, but it was kind of like watching the referees in that Lakers-Sacramento game a few years ago. You sort of knew what was coming and it felt contrived.
Nevertheless, we watched, and there were some pluses such as the addition of Twelve Angry Men, some surprises such as the addition of some very old films that I never heard of (and if they were that good, why didn't they make the list 10 years ago when they would have been fresher in AFI reviewers' minds?).
Also, The Godfather was #3 last time behind Casablanca. While The Godfather is my favorite film of all time, I don't know what it did in the last ten years that would make it move ahead of that movie on this list, or make Casablanca move down. Did Meryl Streep suddenly get added to the cast of The Godfather?
Once a great movie, always a great movie.
Posted by: Vin | June 21, 2007 07:36 AM
That's really very strange. How can a great movie stop being a great movie? I guess they realized that they'd made some glaring omissions (I disagree with more than a few, but then again, they didn't ask me for my opinion) -- but then you'd think they would've deleted 78-100, right? Replace the 23 least-great greatest movies? But no. Go figure. I have a love/hate relationship with lists.
Posted by: Karen | June 21, 2007 12:09 PM
dude! what you need to do is abandon your project midway. and then get lists from your friends of their 25-30 top movies of all time. and then watch and review those. or maybe just watch those. or maybe just reinstate movie night.
something like that.
oh, and toy story would not be in my top list of 30. but toy story 2 would. so there (take THAT afi!).
Posted by: kari | June 21, 2007 01:39 PM
They took off The Third Man?
Bastards!
Posted by: Corrie | June 21, 2007 04:47 PM
I am extremely happy about "Sunrise" by F.W. Murnau, actually. It's a 1927 B&W about a country husband lured to the wicked city. I saw it in SF with Lambchop doing the music, and it's incredible. I think it's the AFI's stab at hipness.
But I'm even happier about Nashville. That one tends to freak people out, and that's why I love it so. It can take the place of Dances With Wolves any day.
Posted by: Caroline | June 21, 2007 05:42 PM
steve p. pointed out to me that the 3rd man was, in fact, a british production, which may have had a part in removing it from the list of the 100 greatest american films.
possibly.
is alls i'm sayin'.
Posted by: kari | June 25, 2007 01:33 PM
I don't really get how people maintain Citizen Kane at #1 yet can completely drop Birth of a Nation off the list. Sure, its reprehensible and all, but it was a landmark cinematic achievement and quite possibly the film that made the movie industry.
Oh, well. Glad to see The General get some love.
I'm too jaded by these AFI lists anymore. The imdb.com 250 is better, even if it is plagued a bit by recentism.
Posted by: Andy | June 25, 2007 09:23 PM
