I’m glad I chose to undertake this project. I got to see a lot of movies that have been on my to-see list for a long time and movies I might not otherwise have seen. Two things struck me during this 1) there are a lot of war movies on here and 2) a lot of them involve crime in some way.
Chup asked me why it was I thought there were so many war movies and I think the reason is that it allows the writer/director to tell a story about average people in extraordinary circumstances. It also allows them to put people together who would never be together ordinarily. It also does away with the necessity of back stories. We don’t need to know how the Sergeant got to be in Vietnam, he was probably drafted there just like most of the others. We don’t need to know why the Private is in the trenches, he thought the cause was worthy enough to fight for. It doesn’t matter that Private1 is from an old-money while Private2 is a farm boy.
As for the crime aspect, maybe it just has to do with people’s overall fascination with crime people doing things they wish they themselves could get away with. I think it also makes for good stories.
There was a suggestion that I now start reading the top 100 novels. I don’t think I’ll be doing that. One reason is I’d be very surprised if I’ve read more than 10 on that list. Another reason is that I rarely read novels, although I do enjoy them when I do. Almost everything I read is nonfiction. I prefer to enjoy fiction in movies rather than reading it.
I think my next endeavor will be the AFI Top 100 (2007 Version). It looks like I have 46 more movies to watch. I do, however have to question any “Top 100” list that includes Titanic. Anyhow, here’s the list:
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 Boulevard (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
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 MASH (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 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 (1960)
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)
5.23.2008
5.15.2008
Movie Update XI: The End of an Era
Sorry it’s been so long since an update, but since there were so few movies in the queue, when those specific ones weren’t available, I had to just wait… and wait… and wait. So here goes:
Some Like it Hot – I saw this one a couple weeks ago but didn’t mention it here. I liked this movie. It was clever, witty, had a decent plot, and good acting. I generally don’t like movies about guys who dress up like women, but this one was an exception. The acting (Except for Monroe’s) was great. This movie also had a great ending and, in my opinion, one of the best closing lines of any movie. A great comedy that I highly recommend.
The Silence of the Lambs – another of those movies from my time that I’ve just never seen nor really had a desire to see. It was a good movie, and not at all like what I was expecting. The plot was good, albeit not very believable. Also, I think Anthony Hopkins is one of the best actors out there. I’m sure you’ve already seen it, so I won’t bother recommending it.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – Good movies with interesting stories, just not to my taste. I liked the first one, and it kept me going. I was genuinely interested in the story and the characters. When it ended, I wanted to know what happened. The second one, I found very boring. There was a lot of fighting and action, but it seemed (at least to me) to be just there to keep the audience entertained and into the story and not suffer the normal lull associated with the second act. The first night I sat down to see this I fell asleep about 3 times in the first 45 minutes. Two nights later, I tried to see it again. By the halfway point I was knocked out. It’s probably just be and my dislike of the genre, but I couldn’t figure out what was going on and I didn’t care. I also don’t like movies filled with CGI crap – special effects are nice when they add to the movie but not when they are the movie. I’ll have to confess, I didn’t make through the 2nd and I didn’t watch the 3rd. I figure if I can’t make it to the end of the 2nd, there’s no way I’ll be able to follow the 3rd. Again, I am certain to be in the minority here, and I don’t mean to offend anyone who likes this series, it’s just not for me.
And there you have it – 61 movies in 14 weeks, I don’t know if I should be proud or ashamed. To recap, I have now seen all movies on the IMDB top 95 (at least as they were ranked 14 weeks ago). There were only a handful I didn’t like and 3 I didn’t finish (I’m putting the LOTR in the unfinished category because it really is more like one movie broken up into 3, but if you are a literalist, 2 unfinished and 1 not watched).
I have some additional thought I’ll post soon.
Some Like it Hot – I saw this one a couple weeks ago but didn’t mention it here. I liked this movie. It was clever, witty, had a decent plot, and good acting. I generally don’t like movies about guys who dress up like women, but this one was an exception. The acting (Except for Monroe’s) was great. This movie also had a great ending and, in my opinion, one of the best closing lines of any movie. A great comedy that I highly recommend.
The Silence of the Lambs – another of those movies from my time that I’ve just never seen nor really had a desire to see. It was a good movie, and not at all like what I was expecting. The plot was good, albeit not very believable. Also, I think Anthony Hopkins is one of the best actors out there. I’m sure you’ve already seen it, so I won’t bother recommending it.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – Good movies with interesting stories, just not to my taste. I liked the first one, and it kept me going. I was genuinely interested in the story and the characters. When it ended, I wanted to know what happened. The second one, I found very boring. There was a lot of fighting and action, but it seemed (at least to me) to be just there to keep the audience entertained and into the story and not suffer the normal lull associated with the second act. The first night I sat down to see this I fell asleep about 3 times in the first 45 minutes. Two nights later, I tried to see it again. By the halfway point I was knocked out. It’s probably just be and my dislike of the genre, but I couldn’t figure out what was going on and I didn’t care. I also don’t like movies filled with CGI crap – special effects are nice when they add to the movie but not when they are the movie. I’ll have to confess, I didn’t make through the 2nd and I didn’t watch the 3rd. I figure if I can’t make it to the end of the 2nd, there’s no way I’ll be able to follow the 3rd. Again, I am certain to be in the minority here, and I don’t mean to offend anyone who likes this series, it’s just not for me.
And there you have it – 61 movies in 14 weeks, I don’t know if I should be proud or ashamed. To recap, I have now seen all movies on the IMDB top 95 (at least as they were ranked 14 weeks ago). There were only a handful I didn’t like and 3 I didn’t finish (I’m putting the LOTR in the unfinished category because it really is more like one movie broken up into 3, but if you are a literalist, 2 unfinished and 1 not watched).
I have some additional thought I’ll post soon.
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