My critique of AFI's 100 years, 100 movies (10th anniversary edition)
Jun 21 '07
The Bottom Line Why don't you just read the review? Oh, too lazy, eh? Well, so am I...
Back in 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) undertook a daunting task. They brought together 1,500 people-scholars, historians, critics, celebrities or just movie buffs- to compile a list of the 100 greatest American movies. The success of that broadcast has inspired the AFI to do other lists: 100 years, 100 stars (1999), 100 laughs (2000), 100 thrills (2001), 100 passions (2002), 100 heroes and villains (2003), 100 songs (2004), 100 quotes (2005) and 100 cheers (2006).
Of course, the original list, along with the others since, has inspired plenty of debate. Everybody has an opinion when it comes to the movies. The reason is because everybody has different tastes, values and ideas on what make great movies. Although we may sometimes get riled up by the AFI for their selections (As I somewhat did on my review), the fact is they still do interest us. Do you know how many people probably went out to get Citizen Kane after it topped the 1998 list? I’ve come to realize that is what the AFI intended. I’ve been encouraged to see many fine movies due to the AFI’s lists, and I still have many more to see. Especially now.
Last night, the AFI redid the original 1998 poll. Besides the “blue ribbon committee”, the AFI also allowed the public to submit in ballots for the voting. Movies from the last ten years (Up to 2006) were included into the list of nominees. In addition, the AFI has also said that they will now do a new poll every ten years to reflect the “new change” in public opinion and cinema.
Anyway, here’s the 2007 list
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies -- 10th Anniversary Edition:
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 The 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 (1970)
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)
What I liked about the new list
Citizen Kane is still number one! It’s not my personal number one, but I have no complaint with it being on there, either.
There are slightly more silent movies, and higher ranked, too! Chaplin’s City Lights is the highest at number 11. The new selections are F.W Marnau’s Sunrise, Buster Keaton’s The General and D.W Grifith’s Intolerance, which replaces the technically superb but questionable The Birth of a Nation.
Among the other new selections I liked included: Toy Story, Blade Runner, Swing Time, 12 Angry Men, The Shawshank Redemption and Spartacus. I have not seen Nashville, Do the Right Thing, Cabaret, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or The Last Picture Show yet, but I imagine those selections will please many others.
What I did not like
There was only one new selection that made me cringe, and that would be The Sixth Sense. Not because it’s a bad movie- it’s okay movie- but it just doesn't seem worthy to be on such a list. Forrest Gump was a questionable selection from the 1998 list, yet it’s still on here as well. I liked All the President’s Men and M*A*S*H, but I’m still not sure about their inclusion. Saving Private Ryan is also a fine movie as well, but there are two other anti-war movies that I would put on instead (See below). I have not seen Sophie’s Choice, Tootsie or The Deer Hunter, so I cannot comment on those. I know, though, that those selections created debate back in 1998, and likely will now.
Of the movies that were cut out, I would have most liked to have seen The Third Man stay on (Especially since its reputation and exposure has gone up since 1998!) I’m surprised that From Here to Eternity, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Manchurian Candidate did not get enough support to remain on, either. All Quiet on the Western Front no longer has much exposure due to it’s age and the freshness people have of Saving Private Ryan, but it’s still an incredibly powerful movie and should be acknowledged for it’s influence and groundbreaking on the genre (Saving Private Ryan and Platoon are basically updated versions).
As for movies I would have liked to seen as new selections. Howard Hawks’ Red River would have been an outstanding choice, as it is in many ways a “quintessential western”. Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil may seem like something of an idiosyncratic choice, but the director’s cut has been available for a long time now, and film noirs needed a little more representation. The movie I most wanted to see as a new selection was Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957). It’s not a crowd pleaser, but few other war movies have been as gut wrenching, stunning, powerful and relevant as it. Like Private Ryan, it is a little bit emotionally manipulative (The ending with the soldiers singing with the girl), but it balances that out with it’s cynical, realistic nature. Furthermore, it’s very high on the Internet Movie Database top 250 (Number 44 as of this morning), so it’s not like its unknown. Surely, M. Night’s movie could have been booted off in favor of that!
Overall
The AFI’s voters came up with a more than solid list. Some questionable selections, no doubt, and everyone will have their own different placement of the movies on the list. Still, that’s what they AFI wanted, and they’ve definitely succeeded in that regard...again.
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