Hey. AFI released their top 100 American movies of all time. These kinds of things are always ridiculous, but it can be fun to examine their choices anyhow.
For instance, Singin in the Rain is number 5! Really? Number 5? Singin in the Rain is the 5th best American movie EVER made? I like Singin in the Rain as much as the next person, but really? The fifth best ever?
I also can't fathom why Schindler's List should be at 8 (note that it's apparently a better movie than Vertigo). Or why Star Wars is better than both Psycho and 2001. Or why E.T. is better than Double Indemnity.
Of the more recent movies to make the list, note that for some reason Toy Story and Saving Private Ryan are apparently in the same ballpark with Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas.
AFI sucks.
The American Film Institute's 2007 list of the top-100 American movies:
1. Citizen Kane, 1941.
2. The Godfather, 1972.
3. Casablanca, 1942.
4. Raging Bull, 1980.
5. Singin' in the Rain, 1952.
6. Gone With the Wind, 1939.
7. Lawrence of Arabia, 1962.
8. Schindler's List, 1993.
9. Vertigo, 1958.
10. The Wizard of Oz, 1939.
11. City Lights, 1931.
12. The Searchers, 1956.
13. Star Wars, 1977.
14. Psycho, 1960.
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.
16. Sunset Blvd. , 1950.
17. The Graduate, 1967.
18. The General, 1927.
19. On the Waterfront, 1954.
20. It's a Wonderful Life, 1946.
21. Chinatown, 1974.
22. Some Like It Hot, 1959.
23. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940.
24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982.
25. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962.
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939.
27. High Noon, 1952.
28. All About Eve, 1950.
29. Double Indemnity, 1944.
30. Apocalypse Now, 1979.
31. The Maltese Falcon, 1941.
32. The Godfather Part II, 1974.
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975.
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937.
35. Annie Hall, 1977.
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957.
37. The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946.
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948.
39. Dr. Strangelove, 1964.
40. The Sound of Music, 1965.
41. King Kong, 1933.
42. Bonnie and Clyde, 1967.
43. Midnight Cowboy, 1969.
44. The Philadelphia Story, 1940.
45. Shane, 1953.
46. It Happened One Night, 1934.
47. A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951.
48. Rear Window, 1954.
49. Intolerance, 1916.
50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001.
51. West Side Story, 1961.
52. Taxi Driver, 1976.
53. The Deer Hunter, 1978.
54. M-A-S-H, 1970.
55. North by Northwest, 1959.
56. Jaws, 1975.
57. Rocky, 1976.
58. The Gold Rush, 1925.
59. Nashville, 1975.
60. Duck Soup, 1933.
61. Sullivan's Travels, 1941.
62. American Graffiti, 1973.
63. Cabaret, 1972.
64. Network, 1976.
65. The African Queen, 1951.
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , 1966.
68. Unforgiven, 1992.
69. Tootsie, 1982.
70. A Clockwork Orange, 1971.
71. Saving Private Ryan, 1998.
72. The Shawshank Redemption, 1994.
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969.
74. The Silence of the Lambs, 1991.
75. In the Heat of the Night, 1967.
76. Forrest Gump, 1994.
77. All the President's Men, 1976.
78. Modern Times, 1936.
79. The Wild Bunch, 1969.
80. The Apartment, 1960.
81. Spartacus, 1960.
82. Sunrise, 1927.
83. Titanic, 1997.
84. Easy Rider, 1969.
85. A Night at the Opera, 1935.
86. Platoon, 1986.
87. 12 Angry Men, 1957.
88. Bringing Up Baby, 1938.
89. The Sixth Sense, 1999.
90. Swing Time, 1936.
91. Sophie's Choice, 1982.
92. Goodfellas, 1990.
93. The French Connection, 1971.
94. Pulp Fiction, 1994.
95. The Last Picture Show, 1971.
96. Do the Right Thing, 1989.
97. Blade Runner, 1982.
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942.
99. Toy Story, 1995.
100. Ben-Hur, 1959.
6.21.2007
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6 comments:
Oh, and -- as Molly Shannon would say -- don't EVEN get me started on A Clockwork Orange at SEVENTY! Superior movies to Clockwork include the brilliant Tootsie and Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring.
I've seen 79 of these. Can anybody beat me?
I love these lists. Can't you just see the fools at AFI going, "okay, now, if we're going to win the Nerd Vote we have to include Lord of the Rings... and if we're going to get the retards on our side we're going to have to include Forrest Gump... wait have black people ever directed any movies? oh yeah, i guess we can let Do The Right Thing be 96."
Ridiculous.
I only weigh in at a paltry 59.
I agree that they seem to want to be as inclusive as possible ("let's throw in Toy story for all those families out there!"). But I really don't understand the hard-on they have for Spielberg. He might have more movies on this list than any other director -- more than Hitchcock, Kubrick, Scorcese, Woody Allen. Cuz, you know, he's a better director than they are.
Reminds me of the great Onion headline: "Spielberg credits success to monsters, Jews."
Heh. He so does.
Wow, I haven't seen shit! I'm at 36. Sam we need to bring back our movie nights. Where's that list we made again?
I've added 2 more to my "I've seen it list" and I realized that I've seen 4 more but didn't know the name of the flick. So I'm at 42.
And? of the 21 that i havent seen, there are only three that I have any desire to ever see. And they're all solid "meh" films. Which is to say that I would be easy to beat, should someone want to start stocking their netflix queue, because my total will never rise above 82.
Walead, Tina and I saw the Searchers at MoMA on Saturday, in an amazing print. What a perfect movie! John Wayne is so gangsta. And yet i weep at the end.
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