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So the American Film Institute put out a new Top 100 movies list last night, which probably means we'll be getting a new list of Top 100 Comedies, Thrillers, etc. over the next few years. Either there was something wrong with the first list or there's something wrong with this one, because a lot of movies' ranks changed a lot. Vertigo, previously the 61st best movie in history, is now #9. The Searchers, once considered barely Top 100 material at #96 is now #12. The General, not even Top 100 material at all in 1997, is brand-new to the list at #18. That last one isn't a new movie, mind you - it's a Buster Keaton silent movie made in 1927.
What's going on here? As Maryann Johanson, over at FlickFilosopher, says, "Has the stature of John Ford [director of The Searchers] changed that much in a decade? Was there some revival of John Ford hysteria that I slept through?"
The same could be asked about Buster Keaton. Or, for that matter, about The African Queen, which plummeted from #17 to #65.
M and I turned to each other in disbelief when E.T. came in one notch above To Kill A Mockingbird. In retrospect, I guess E.T. is a fine movie, but they had just shown the Mockingbird scene when everybody stands up as Atticus Finch leaves the courtroom, and then followed that up with E.T. (and the 2002 version with the CGI E.T., to boot), and I guess we got caught up in the moment. The fact that To Kill A Mockingbird went up in rankings more than E.T. (E.T. used to be nine spots higher than Mockingbird,) shows that this list gets it a little more right. That, and the fact that Star Wars went up two spots to #13.
One disappointment, in a way, is that I can no longer say I've seen all ten of the Top Ten. Raging Bull got bumped up (a lot) to #4, and I've never seen it. And M and I don't particularly want to see it, based on what we've heard about it. We can do without movies about people with violent tempers that go off on everybody all the time.
You can see the list here. You can also go to the actual AFI site, but you have to log in to see the list. But if you do, you can download a PDF that allows you to check off which movies on the list you've seen and print it out for your own Netflix reference.
4 comments:
I say that they were releasing a 10th anniversary list. I can't remember my numbers from the first list, but there are 38 I haven't seen in the new list. There are a couple, like Best Years of Our Lives and Bridge on the River Kwai that I know I've seen part of, but don't think I saw the whole thing.
If you take away the silent films and thriller/violent films I don't want to see anyway the list gets much smaller. I do intend to watch the Godfather movies, but so far haven't been in the mood.
Nice to see LOTR on there, but where are the other two? Why just fellowship?
Do you know which films got dropped?
I think Fellowship is just representing the whole trilogy (but, #50??? It deserves better than that.) Just as Star Wars is on there, even though Empire Strikes Back is just as good, if not much better.
I'll have to see if I can find a list of movies that got dropped. If all else fails, I guess we can always compare the two lists.
I always liked Pop goes the weasel even though the lyrics are a little unsettling.
Actually, that brings up a good question that I was wondering just the other day: What, exactly, happened when the weasel popped? I always pictured it as the weasel jumping up from behind the cobbler's bench, since I usually had a Jack in the box going when I heard the song.
But perhaps the chasing went terribly wrong? The monkey thought it was all in good fun (in the version I always heard, anyway,) which is kinda foreshadowing for something bad about to happen. I'm guessing the weasel jumped up onto the bench just as the cobbler was bringing down the hammer.
It's all fun and games until you're involved in a horrific shoe-mending accident.
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