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So once again we have broached the subject of tackling the American Film Institute’s Top 100 list. We last thought about it a couple of years ago and when looking into it now, we have learned that the list has been updated! I had to look them over, fearing that this might be leading me to watch a greater number of movies that I don’t have much interest in seeing, and we now need to decide which list to follow. Taking an eye towards the changes on the lists, a number of issues pop up, making the decision a tough one.
On the good side:
Vertigo (my favorite Hitchcock) jumped up the list substantially, to place now in the top 10, From Here to Eternity fell off the list (way too boring for my likes, at least to be one of the 100 best), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf made it to the list (personally I would have put it higher than 67) and most excitingly (and quite timely) Blade Runner made the cut!
On the down side:
What is The Lord of the Rings doing on there? Where did Amadeus go? Did they have to take Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner off of the list? And the Manchurian Candidate… How could that come off? And Frankenstein? And Doctor Zhivago? All these great films dropped to make space for a bunch of others (most of which I, admittedly, haven’t seen). And then amidst all of that, the most boring of all westerns, The Searchers, climbs nearly to the top ten? Couldn’t they have pulled that one off the list? Along with E.T., The African Queen, Tootsie and Forrest Gump? If they’d have dropped those, they could have left the good ones on the list. Obviously, it’s no where near as nice a bunch as my Top 65 list.
One Response to “afi it, now and then…”
Here’s my take on this, which I’ve, um…taken? since 1999, The Year of the List:
People have short-term memories. Sure, there may be classics on the list, movies people think they *should* like. But seriously. “Tootsie” is #2 on the comedy list?
It just proves its all arbitrary. One man’s “Doctor Zhivago” is another man’s “The Sixth Sense.”