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.