Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Top 100 Films Meme

I have a co-worker who is semi-obsessed with the American Film Institute list of the top 100 films. He's been working through the whole list on NetFlix and, when a movie is mentioned, invariably asks, "But is that one of the top 100 films?"

This same co-worker recently watched Princess Bride for the first time and announced it to be "the dumbest, shallowest movie I've ever seen." As support for this, he pointed out that it was not on the top 100 films list.

Your authors here enjoy a good movie as much as the next fellow, though our chances to watch movies are drastically curtailed these days. (Most good movies are either unsuitable or uninteresting to the girls at this age, and starting a movie at 9pm or later when the kids are sound asleep is usually such a tiring prospect that we just pick up our books and head for bed.) Still, I don't have the respect for critical authority that my co-worker does, and so I'm going to stoop to creating a meme for all and sundry.

Go to the AFI Top 100 list and pick:

1) Your favorite five movies that are on the list.
The Third Man
Amadeus
Vertigo
Schindler's List
Patton

2) Five movies on the list you didn't like at all.
The Graduate (like the closing song, found the movie pointless)
E.T. (which I've always found curiously annoying)
Annie Hall (a few bits of good writing, but Woodie Allen was so annoying)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Forest Gump

3) Five movies on the list you haven't seen but want to.
Double Indemnity
Casablanca (how I've missed this all these years I'm not sure...)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Bridge on the River Kwai
One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest

4) Five movies on the list you haven't seen and have no interest in seeing.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Midnight Cowboy
Platoon
Tootsie
Some Like It Hot

5) Your favoritve five movies that aren't on the list.
Lion in Winter
O Brother Where Art Thou
Brazil
Gosford Park
Man for all Seasons


Tagging: JulieD, Matthew Lickona, John Farrell

24 comments:

Julie D. said...

How did I know I'd get tagged for this? :-D

I'll have to print that list out now...more later...

John Farrell said...

Maybe reconsider Tootsie. I'm not a Dustin Hoffman fan but the scene between him and his agent (played by the director) early on in the film is one of my all time favorites in comedy.

"You played a tomato... and they went half a day over schedule because you wouldn't sit down."

"Yes, because it wasn't logical."

"You were a TOMATO! A TOMATO DOESN'T HAVE LOGIC! A TOMATO CAN'T MOVE!"

"That's what I SAID, GEORGE! So how am I SUPPOSED TO SIT DOWN???"

"Michael, I'm trying to stay calm here...you are a wonderful actor, but you're too much trouble. Get some therapy."

Sardonicus said...

No Glory? No Braveheart?

Who ARE these AFI people???

Rick Lugari said...

Good to see Patton on your list. It rocks. I'm always frustrated by these movie rating things because my all-time favorite "movie" is technically a mini-series: Band of Brothers. The.best.ever.

;)

Kiwi Nomad said...

Actually, I hate to say it, but there was a pattern when I met young people from the US in hostels who were in pairs (as opposed to the singles who were exchange students somewhere in Europe for a while). They were often talking about movies. They might be staying in Paris, or Rome, or Montpelier or Oslo. And they wouldn't be talking about the marvels they had just seen that day in that exotic foreign place... they would be talking about the movies they were obsessed with!!!!!

Darwin said...

Kiwi Nomad,

When bumbling around with a large group of other American students near the beginning of the semester I spent in Europe, the thing that absolutely drove me up the wall was that when we took a school led trip to Salzburg a small but loud group of the girls could talk about nothing but, "This is where they filmed Sound of Music!!!!" (This is probably only something that happens if you're with a bunch of conservative Catholic school kids.)

Talk about an over-rated movie -- and hello! The city is full of beautiful churches and art and there's this composer who lived there for a while, perhaps you've heard of him?

But no, they wanted to see where scenes from Sound of Music had been shot. Sigh...

mrsdarwin said...

Band of Brothers: good stuff.

Kiwi: I think a lot of people see discussing movies as a conversational default. If people have nothing in common, at least they can talk about movies they've seen. I confess that sometimes I've pulled the movie gambit when I want to keep discussion neutral when talking to tiresome bores at dinner parties.

But I fully agree with you that it's ridiculous to sit around talking about movies when the real scenery is so much more astounding.

Sardonicus said...

Man for All Seasons - I agree - needs to be on there. Anyone here a soundtrack junkie? Favorite soundtracks?

Darwin said...

Favorite soundtracks?
Last of the Mohicans
Henry V (indeed, just about any score by Patrick Doyle)
Bladerunner

now for the heresy:
No Glory? No Braveheart?

I hated Braveheart...

Sardonicus said...

Last of the Mohicans was good.

Glory and Braveheart are great soundtracks (Most James Horner scores are excellent - See STII-WoK).

No worries on not liking Braveheart - after all, we all have our oddities...

Rick Lugari said...

Favorite soundtrack: Pink Floyd - The Wall

John Farrell said...

Most underrated movie soundtrack (and movie):
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. I

John Farrell said...

Yikes--you tagged me on this one. Hmm....going to take some thought.

Anonymous said...

Favorite soundtrack: The Bounty

Top Five Movies That Shouldn't Be In The Top 100 Movies List:
E.T. the Extraterrestrial
Easy Rider
The Graduate
The Unforgiven (sub: The Outlaw Josie Wales)
Dances With Wolves

Top Five Movies That Should Be On The List But Aren't:
A Man for all Seasons
The Passion of the Christ
Alien
Arthur
This is Spinal Tap

John Farrell said...

Okay: my two cents:
Here goes:

1) Your favorite five movies that are on the list.
All About Eve
It Happened One Night
Silence of the Lambs
French Connection
The Wild Bunch

2) Five movies on the list you didn't like at all.
West Side Story
The Sound of Music
Platoon
The Apartment
Unforgiven


3) Five movies on the list you haven't seen but want to.
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Bringing Up Baby
Vertigo
Fantasia
From Here to Eternity


4) Five movies on the list you haven't seen and have no interest in seeing.
Singing in the Rain
The Grapes of Wrath
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Birth of a Nation
Rebel Without a Cause

5) Your favoritve five movies that aren't on the list.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
A New Leaf
The Horror of Dracula
The Cowboys

Anonymous said...

darwin said: "Talk about an over-rated movie -- and hello! The city is full of beautiful churches and art and there's this composer who lived there for a while, perhaps you've heard of him?"

Talk about overrated movies. If the Mozart character in Amadeus would have been even remotely believable that would have been one thing, but there's no way that the man responsible for such mathematically precise and orderly music had in reality such a disordered soul.

As for The Sound of Music, it may not be the best of movies considered simply as a movie, but its music raises it above the competition. Brilliant songwriting in that one, which is what a musical demands...

Darwin said...

Talk about overrated movies. If the Mozart character in Amadeus would have been even remotely believable that would have been one thing, but there's no way that the man responsible for such mathematically precise and orderly music had in reality such a disordered soul.

Though I really like the movie on its own, I do indeed have rather mixed feelings about it as a work of historical fiction, since it makes no particular effort to show what people were really like.

But in reference to Salzburg, I was thinking of Mozart the person, not the movie character.

Kiwi Nomad said...

I am almost ashamed to admit it, but I LOVED The Sound of Music. When I was about 5 or 6, its predecessor came out, entitled something like the Trapp Family Singers. I got taken to that by my Dad, just me, and we went upstairs. I was enchanted. (My Dad died when I was 8.)So just a few years later when The Sound of Music came out, I was predisposed to love it. And I did. And when I visited an area in the south of Germany recently, very close to the Austrian border, some of the landscapes were very SOM-ish. And yes, I was as bad as your high school girls, and to the amusement of my German hosts, I danced down the hills as if I was Maria. It was wonderful fun!!!

Anonymous said...

But in reference to Salzburg, I was thinking of Mozart the person, not the movie character.

I know, but it made for a wonderful segue... :)

Anyway, given the state of Catholic education today, I doubt those schoolgirls even know who Mozart is.

Julie D. said...

At long last, here is my link to the meme! It was fun!

http://happycatholic.blogspot.com/2007/11/top-100-films-meme.html

rose said...

WHAT? You haven't seen Casablanca? Exactly what kind of rock are you living under?

Kiwi Nomad said...

I have been to Casablanca - briefly. It is not at all romantic. It is a busy modern polluted city ;-)

Matthew Lickona said...

Hey, thanks for thinking of me. Finally got to it.

Anonymous said...

The Blackadder Says:

1) Your favorite five movies that are on the list.
Star Wars
Casablanca
Rebel without a Cause
Rear Window
Dr. Strangelove

2) Five movies on the list you didn't like at all.
The Third Man
The Searchers
Easy Rider
M*A*S*H (loved the tv show, found the movie boring)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (I love Jimmy Stewart, but this film was way too hokey for me to take seriously)


3) Five movies on the list you haven't seen but want to.
The Apartment
The Wild Bunch
The French Connection
It Happened One Night
The Treasure of the Siera Madre


4) Five movies on the list you haven't seen and have no interest in seeing.
Singing in the Rain
Midnight Cowboy
A Clockwork Orange
Tootsie
Stagecoach

5) Your favoritve five movies that aren't on the list.
The Big Lebowski
Crimson Tide
The Princess Bride
Life of Brian
Metropolitan