The American Film Institute has named their 100 best movies again. Here are movies that I think they should remove. Why? Because I am a cranky person:
2. "The Godfather," 1972. Really? It just isn't that good. I find the "Godfather" movies no better than a middling episode of Dateline. I know that I am being a bit inflamatory, but I really don't think this movie is that good. It is entertaining, but I am not left at the end of it with either a sense of wonder or a feeling that I have learned anything about the world, life, people, humanity, etc. It is a good story and well acted, but great films should be more than that.
13. "Star Wars," 1977. Dear Lord in Heaven NO! This is not by any criteria a decent movie. Nostalgia cannot imbue a turd with a glow of greatness. Seeing or hearing anything about these movies makes my spine want to crumble. To be honest, my generations need to glorify the dreck of our youth is embarassing to me. Men! Women! Put the pacifiers away! Transformers, GI Joe and Star Wars are not cool, hip or intersteding (Though the GI Joe comics did have some intersting stuff in them). Childhood was a dreadful time--why do we want to relive it and glorify it? To try and convince ourselves that we weren't miserable the whole time. Anything in "Star Wars" that is good has been done better in other movies. The Indian Jones movies, espcially the first one, are much better films. They are transportive; they are funny; they are exciting--they hold up in ways that "Star Wars" does not. "Empire Strikes Back" was a better movie anyway--there was some ambiguity in it. That is much more interesting.
24. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," 1982. The only good part is E.T. nearly dying, and the kids growing up who said E.T. stood for "Extra Testicle." That was cool. Again, a movie about the wonder of childhood. There is no wonder to childhood and I am left with no feeling after seeing this movie.
32. "The Godfather Part II," 1974. See above.
34. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," 1937. Really? A watered down peice of crap that heralded the way for the neutering of children. Folk tales used to have teeth until Disney cleaned them up. It isn't that this movie is bad, but that it was the first step in taking anything dangerous or threatening out of childhood--a mistake in my opinion. The parts of childhood that were good were the dangerous parts. You learn something there. If we make it safe we make it empty. Children should be scared.
35. "Annie Hall," 1977. "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is so much better that I have to object. It is an inoffensive movie, but there are better movies by WA. I hate to see movies included just because they are the most well known by a filmmaker and no other reason.
40. "The Sound of Music," 1965. I just don't get the appeal. I like musicals: "Oklahoma," "Little Shop of Horrors." Again, I don't think this was picked for its own quality, but its popularity.
50. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 2001. Ok, this is the most unspeakable turd on the list. There is nothing interesting in the making of this movie. There is nothing remarkable about the acting in this movie. The story is obvious and uninteresting. I can't even get up the interst to say why I don't like it because there isn't anything there. I think the burden is on someone to explain to me why this is a great film.
72. "The Shawshank Redemption," 1994. I like this movie, but it isn't a great peice of art.
74. "The Silence of the Lambs," 1991. See #72 "Manhunter" is better. Brian Cox is a better Lecter.
76. "Forrest Gump," 1994. I wish I could put a picture of me doing a double take. Really? How about "Hope Floats?" Can we put that on the list? I really dislike this kind of movie. If we close our eyes and believe in the simple things even we can make a difference. Life is much harder than this and I think that movies like "FG" do a diservice to the audience by making them feel like everything will be ok.
83. "Titanic," 1997. Actually, this movie is better than alot of the other movies here. I assume most people reading this will already hate it, but you know, it isn't that bad. I think the acting is pretty good by everyone in the film. The story is goofy (especially the framing story with is intolerable) but if you can get past it, its no worse than most films. James Cameron just got a bit carried away with himself and the beauty of the past.
89. "The Sixth Sense," 1999. See #72.
92. "Goodfellas," 1990. See #72
100. "Ben-Hur," 1959. Except for the part where they guy actually dies (though he doesn't really).
Of course, several movies that I think are top flight aren't on here. I'm not going to complain about it. I can't always have my way. But I do want to say that "Brazil" is the MOST unjust to leave off (though perhaps they thought it was British. But TG is American, doesn't that count?) That movie does it all for me. I get the sense of wonder of being shown things that I could never imagine myself. The end leaves me stunned and sorrowful--and as a result I am changed in some way everytime I see it. This is what movies should do. They stay with you and they need to show you the terrible in people sometimes so that we can live better lives here in the real world. I think my overarching complaint (even with some of the movies that I didn't single out for burns) is that too often they show the triumph of people over adversity, or the good that people can do. That is fine. I think that should be shown--but a lot of these don't show that even doing right (or triumphing) has a terrible toll.
