My immediate count is that there are 41 films in common between my list. For what it's worth.
My immediate reactions to the list:
-Where are the Coens?
-Only 2 Ford films?
-Spartacus? Really?
-It's less conservative than the last one, but it's still pretty safe: is any film here obscure? Sunrise, maybe, but that's too depressing to contemplate.
*****
Post-mortem will have to wait a bit. I'm kind of brain-fried. But I will say that I'm a lot more happy with this list than 1998's.
*****
Morgan Freeman burbles about this and that. I think he's stoned. Seriously, look at his eyes. It's not that bad, Morgan!
*****
1. CITIZEN KANE
Well, duh. People assume it's the best film ever made, so they rank it that high.
You know what's a tragedy of unmentionable proportions? That if Welles could have finished AMBERSONS like he wanted, it would have been even better.
It bothers me that people talk about how every shot in this film has a narrative meaning, as though that wasn't the point of the cinema, as though no other movie even thought of using using the visuals to tell a story. These people need to see more silent films, European films, and above all, European silent films.
But it is immaculate, and I'd be an asshole to pretend it isn't.
2.THE GODFATHER
People like Sheen can come out and say that it's the best American filmmaking ever, because of blah blah I was on THE WEST WING, but I have honestly never understood why people think it's the best of the best of the best.
It's great, but there are better movies. And as I made clear yesterday, I prefer THE CONVERSATION to Coppola's mob epics. You know how some movies are great to look at because they have a visionary director, and some have a cinematographer who makes his director look really good? This is absolutely one of the latter.
*****
They are stretching this way the fuck out. By the way, we all know that it's KANE and GODFATHER as 1 & 2, right? Good.
*****
3. CASABLANCA
This is my favorite movie of all time. This is the best Hollywood movie of all time, with the second-best script in the history of the English language, and and the best ever to be written essentially on the fly. So, I dare not judge the AFI too harshly for its position.
4. RAGING BULL
Okay, it's just about that good, and it's kind of satisfying to see a group so stodgy as the AFI has tended to be try this hard for relevance. "It's violent! And it's in our top 5!" It sure is, AFI.
5. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
Righteous. Top 10 was a foregone conclusion, but I'm happy to see it squeak above no. 10, where it was in 1998. Is there a better Hollywood film? Only one. and It will be somewhere in the top four. And it's name rhymes with "Rasablanca."
I haven't watched this movie in ages, either. I should fix that, when I'm done spending time with the truly important FRIDAY THE 13TH series.
6. GONE WITH THE WIND
In addition to being a contrarian, I have issues with the film's basic racism, and I've always felt that the second half is at least twice as long as it needs to be. If David Nothing Selznick hadn't bought this film's way into history, I'm not sure what aspect of it would still be remembered today...the cinematography, maybe. There are some damn nice shots in that movie.
*****
7. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
British. SO British. SO freaking British. Is it good? Sure. But it's British.
Also, too easy. I mean, I love it and I love David Lean, but this is as safe a choice as you could get if you're over thirty years old.
8.SCHINDLER'S LIST
Because it's "important." The older I get, the more I'm convinced that it's a cornucopia of lies about the Holocaust, the most sacrosanct topic of the modern age; but as I get to be more and more of a formalist, I fall more and more in love with the way that the Great American Populist uses black and white.
Spielberg Count: 5
9. VERTIGO
Someone at the AFI likes me. I kind of didn't expect to see this at all.
Is there a sea-change a-coming? Am I the harbinger of a new mode of film-viewing? Or just a part of that new mode? Or am I going to be really pissed off by the next few?
On the other hand: they didn't even fuckin' put Fuller on the goddamn longlist. So I can still be angry at them. Ah...
10. THE WIZARD OF OZ
Of course it's up here. I wonder if I put it too low. Of course, 10 is too high. but it's one of the best musicals that MGM ever produced, which is a lot like saying "the best sex you'll ever have with a supermodel."
*****
Morgan Freeman: only one film hods the same slot. Prediction: CITIZEN KANE
*****
11. CITY LIGHTS
On the 1998 list, but now ranked somewhere that's actually appropriate. Nice change.
I'm growing dangerously mellow towards this list.
Jack Lemmon cries at the end! Even though he is dead! Dead Jack Lemmon and I have something in common!
12. THE SEARCHERS
HOLY SHIT. I really did not expect to see this year. Just like THE GENERAL, I almost want to forgive them everything. Nice choice. IN the last...3 years, maybe, I've come to respect the hell out of John Wayne's acting ability.
Spielberg and Scorsese wax orgasmic As well they should.
Can a movie at no. 12 be "too low"? We'll see what comes up above it.
13. STAR WARS
Fuck George Lucas and his joyless reduction of what used to be one of the great b-movies of all time. This movie is dead to me. DEAD.
I can't tell if the clips are Special Edition or not. If they're not, I'll confess that maybe it's okay that it's here. But not in the top 20. Or top 50. Or top 75.
14. PSYCHO.
Last time, this movie was behind REAR WINDOW. Good to see it get its due.
I have to be honest: I don't think it's aaalll that. The final scene comes powerful close to wrecking the whole damn thing. But it might actually be the most important movie ever made. I don't think that's hyperbole. I mean, it is, but it's easy to defend it.
As Bogdanovich says: he'd never experienced anything like it.
15. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
I used to like this a bit more than I do now (mostly because I started watching European art films in from the '60s and I found that Kubrick wasn't operating in a stylistic vacuum), but this is still almost undeniably the smartest sci-fi film ever made, or perhaps ever makable.
They got Arthur Clarke to talk about it! Or maybe it's just stock interview. He's alive, but I think he's older than that.
16. SUNSET BLVD.
I haven't watched this movie in like, four years. I should change that. Jesus in a breadbasket, this is a fantastically perfect motion picture.
17. THE GRADUATE
I think I figured out why I left this off my list: I am tired of 1960s English-language cinema. So hip and cool and swanky and sly.
Also, the more you think about this film, the more that Benjamin is kind of a shitheel.
18. THE GENERAL
Good Lord! No Keaton at all in 1998, and now his masterpiece in the top 20? I'm tempted to take back everything I've said against the list just for this one film. Now slap up some Harold Lloyd, and we've got ourselves a show.
19. ON THE WATERFRONT
The one Brando performance that I grudgingly admit is actually kind of a good thing to have captured on film. That said, I don't get why people like Elia Kazan. His movies are so shrill and personality-free.
*****
20. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Ye gods, this is a boring, safe choice. That's all we're going to have going forward, isn't it? Boring, safe choices.
I think it might be the classic example of of a movie that I liked a lot more before I know much about the movies.
21. CHINATOWN
Damn, this is a good script. I mean, damn. That's probably why they brought screenwriter Robert Towne out to talk about it. And Angelica Huston. Wait, what?
I think I ranked this too low. Except I have no recollection of where I ranked it.
22. SOME LIKE IT HOT
It makes me quite the bitch to say that 22 is too low, but really! I's the most flawless script in the history of Hollywood. So at least I can remain smug that I Top-10'd it, and they'll have, like, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.
Cameron Crowe: the iconic film about cross-dressers...really? That makes me sad for the cross-dressers out there
Obviously, they go right to the final line in the clips. I think that's a law somewhere.
23. THE GRAPES OF WRATH
Literally the only John Ford film I would call "overrated." Which, obviously, is why it's the only Ford film on this list. I assume. I mean, there are 22 films to go. For the first time, my amusement at the list's straining for "social significance" has turned to anger.
24. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
Spielberg gets off on his own movie. The clips are from the whored- up 2002 CGI cut.
Yeah, the movie makes me cry. With embarrassing regularity. Proof that Spielberg's cynical manipulation of the audience can be used for the forces of good.
Spielberg Count: 4
25. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Dangerously naive. Gregory Peck's best performance, but there are so many better films about race in America, that it makes the crypto -racism of this one all the more diabolical
26. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
Naive, but not dangerously so. Jimmy Stewart is fantastic.
20 June 2007
4 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.
Wow! You're pretentious.
ReplyDeleteThere used to be a blog for people who wrote about music the way you've written here, I think you introduced me to it. It was called "The Shins Will Change Your Life." Granted, I certainly have no real desire to be an apologist for the AFI, and since I actually contributed to tonight's little canonization in some small way, I almost feel guilty doing so. Still...
ReplyDeleteIt's telling that you cast disapproval over the inclusion of Sullivan's Travels, a film whose purpose is to celebrate the movies' ability to inspire, entertain, amuse, and warm the heart, because in all too many cases you seem to suggest that there's no place in the world for movies that want to do little more than that.
There's a great line in an episode of Sports Night where they're compiling a list of "athlete of the century" and someone suggests Ali, which is met with "isn't that a bit obvious?" Do you remember the retort?
To quote you first: "Also, too easy. I mean, I love it and I love David Lean, but this is as safe a choice as you could get if you're over thirty years old."
Of course you remember, because I know you love the show: "I didn't realize we were trying to be cunning."
You were trying to be cunning, in building your list. Which isn't just your right, it is how it should be. My list (I think I might do one) would have all sorts of "album cuts" on it too, and some of them perhaps conspicuously placed. That's what an *individual's* list is meant to look like. Any list formed by a collective is going to reflect popular tastes. Lawrence of Arabia is the top rated Lean film because Lawrence of Arabia is the most widely beloved Lean film and because the god-knows-how-many members of the AFI didn't exactly get together and say to one another "everyone's seen Lawrence of Arabia, so let's throw 'em Brief Encounter instead."
There's also the issue of "everyone's seen Lawrence of Arabia," because everyone hasn't. Sure, all of us have. But the people this list was made for haven't. Our list, as you well know, is the Sight and Sound list. And damn 2012 is too far away. This list is for high schoolers in Tennessee who've just become interested in film to look at, and feel ashamed that they haven't seen the movies on it. Maybe they'll print a copy and keep it in their wallet, pull it out whenever they go to Blockbuster without a specific film in mind and see what the "great films" are all about. Nothing wrong with that, they'll stumble over Tootsie and get angry when they watch The African Queen, sure, but they'll see North By Northwest. And Raging Bull. And Some Like It Hot. Maybe they'll like what they see. Maybe they'll love it, decide they want to study it, and get into foreign cinema as well, maybe start finding those "album cuts" too.
Hell, maybe they'll chase the whole damn thing down, attend the institution that made the list, and participate in the creation of the next one, complaining all along about being a part of it because they've forgotten what good the first one had done them.
If that happens, hopefully they'll have a stick-in-the-mud film critic friend that just goes way over the deep end in criticizing the list so that they can remember.
Now that I've made my point, some addenda...
ReplyDeleteBrief Encounter would be the highest ranked Lean film on my list, but it also would have to be an international list, because if you include Lean, why not include Powell and Pressburger, and at that point, you just aren't making a list of American films. BTW: Third Man and Lawrence both had American producers. Doesn't amount to crap in my book, but oh well.
Wait! Where's Third Man?
The inclusion of Sunrise and The General are likely the best changes, though I'm certainly glad to see The African Queen fall so far. But enough of the good: how does the near-perfection of Stagecoach fall off the list entirely, from the sixties?
I was once told that there were two kinds of students at Northwestern: people who live on North Campus, drink beer to excess, and love the Shawshank Redemption; and people who live on South Campus, drink wine and liquor to excess, and love the Shawshank Redemption. Made me laugh. In one of those "it's funny because it's true" ways.
There is aboslutely nothing that I've learned along the way to "know[ing] much about the movies" that causes me to lose any appreciation for It's A Wonderful Life. Not. One. Thing.
I hope you feel differently about Harper Lee's novel. I'll excuse your comments about the film because I haven't seen it in over a decade.
Yes you should have ranked NxNW over Psycho. Obviously.
When I harassed you about Bitter Tea of General Yen, It Happened One Night was at the fore of my mind. Partially because I'm not so stupid as to assume you had it in you to admit to having any appreciation for some of the other Capra, I'll admit, but also because that film is very you.
LotR has no business on the list. At all. But hey... it could have been Crash.
The wikipedia page for the new list offers interesting stats, so you don't have to crunch the numbers yourself. Biggest jump: The Searchers, followed by City Lights and Vertigo (triple yay). Biggest drop: African Queen (make that a quad).
I forgot the Coens used to be on the list. Damn, where'd they go? Oh yeah, bad taste in the mouth from Ladykillers.
Speaking of Hanks vehicles, only three on the list, which kinda surprises me.
I'm less embarrassed than I expected to be. That's gotta amount to something. For what the list strives to do, I think it does it well, and a damn sight better than the last.
First off, since both (explicitly) Justin and (implicitly) Will level the "Tim, you are very pretentious" attack, let me respond with, "Thank you, yes I am, and I've put a great deal of effort into becoming that way."
ReplyDeleteSecond, while I agree that your experience makes for a heartwarming story, I would counter with: what's so bad with pointing those high school kids to "White Dog" instead of "In the Heat of the Night," to "Five Easy Pieces" instead of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," to "The Band Wagon" instead of "The Sound of Music," or "Shadows" instead of "To Kill a Mockingbird"?
Third, I'm well aware that the people filling out ballots didn't all get together in a meeting; referring to an institution as having a single editorial instinct is a very old custom.
Fourth, I was hard on "It's a Wonderful Life." There's no way around that.
Fifth, I rescind nothing about "Mockingbird," which book I have not read and am unlikely to. The movie feels like taking medicine & I've always imagined the novel would as well.
Sixth, I wrote most of those comments in about 20 seconds or less. There's not a lot of theory behind them - just gut reactions.