So, AFI released their
10 Top 10 lists yesterday, and these sorts of things are total catnip to someone like me. I figured I'd be better off writing up these thoughts than just yelling them at my computer screen, so here's a breakdown by genre.
Animation: (Percentage Seen: 70%)
It seems a little weird that there wasn't one slightly non-mainstream choice in here. One would think
Spirited Away would be well-regarded (#57 overall on IMDB) enough to have slipped in here.
Romantic Comedies: (Percentage Seen: 80%)
Man, do I hate
City Lights! I know people love it, but I just found it so tedious and impenetrable. There are some significant omissions here; most notably the lack of anything by Hawks, Wilder, or Lubitsch. Including both
When Harry Met Sally and
Sleepless in Seattle seems gratuitous. And, really, doesn't
Some Like It Hot routinely make the list of best movies ever? How did it not end up here? Not romantic enough? How about
The Graduate? Anyway, this list has maybe 20% crossover with my top 10 picks in the genre, with the significant caveat that I haven't seen either
It Happened One Night or
The Philadelphia Story. I should take care of that.
Westerns: (Percentage Seen: 80%)
I routinely cite
The Searchers as the most over-rated movie ever, so I'm not entirely pleased to see it show up here. I'm not a big fan of
Unforgiven either, but I at least understand why people find it interesting. It seems a little odd none of the Leone ones made the list, since they seem to be widely beloved. I don't like them much myself, so I'm not going to argue their merits - just seems surprising. I suppose this list could be much worse; they could have included
Dances With Wolves.
Sports: (Percentage Seen: 80%)
Given that the mere mention of
Breaking Away makes me want to stop what I'm doing and watch
Breaking Away, I think it's pretty clear that that would be my pick for the top of this list. I'm not a big fan of
Raging Bull, but, compared to, say,
Jerry Maguire it's fantastic. Maybe
Jerry Maguire was only included because they couldn't come up with a better football movie. I'd probably take
The Longest Yard or
Heaven Can Wait (I love
Heaven Can Wait, but it's only tangentially a sports film). Heck, I'd probably rather list
Wildcats than
Jerry Maguire. Also, why no similar tokenism for hockey?
Slap Shot?
Youngblood? Actually, it's kind of surprising
When We Were Kings isn't on here. I guess perhaps they were avoiding documentaries (and already had two boxing movies).
Mystery: (Percentage Seen: 100%)
Now we're talking. I don't really like
Chinatown, but I'm aware I'm in the minority on that one, so I can't complain much. I'm pleasantly surprised to see
Laura show up on this list. It's not better than
The Third Man by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still quite good.
Rear Window isn't my favourite Hitchcock mystery, and I'm not sure
North by Northwest really qualifies as a mystery, but, overall, no big complaints with this list, unless you consider
Touch of Evil a mystery, in which case its omission is sacrilegious.
Fantasy: (Percentage Seen: 80%)
They're certainly stretching the bounds of the genre with this list. I don't really think of
King Kong and
Big being in the same genre at all. I guess this category is "fantasy and films with a supernatural plot device." I have to assume they tried straight fantasy first and ended up with a list that included
Red Sonja so had to broaden the genre requirements. Maybe if they really get desperate for more AFI specials, we'll start seeing things like "AFI's Top Barbarian Movies" (which would lead to a career resurgence for Peter and David Paul). But, I digress. As far as this list goes, I'd pick
Return of the King if I had to pick a
Lord of the Rings selection. I'd also put
Beauty and the Beast (1946) pretty high up there. Actually, now that I'm looking at this list, is it American films only? That would explain some of the significant omissions. Though, they included
Lawrence of Arabia, which is British, so I don't know. Ah, yes. Here's the press release. "America's 10 greatest films in 10 greatest genres." Weird. I mean, I'll accept it, but seems like cheating to include
Lawrence of Arabia. But, back to fantasy. If I'm constrained to American films only, this is certainly a rough list to put together. I guess that's why
Big is in here...
Sci-Fi: (Percentage Seen: 100%)
Not a bad mix of films here, actually.
ET doesn't belong here, but I suppose it couldn't be left off the list without complaints. I've finally come around to the opinion that
Blade Runner is pretty much an awful film with fantastic design elements, so I'd argue that it shouldn't be here either. I probably watch more sci-fi than I should, so my list is very different than theirs, but I can't argue too much. This is pretty much what I'd assume is the mainstream sci-fi canon (though,
A New Hope vs.
Empire Strikes Back seems kind of odd).
Gangster: (Percentage Seen: 73%)
I've only made it about a third of the way into
Scarface (1983), so clearly it's not one of my favourites. I'm not sure about
Goodfellas coming in at #2. I'd probably put
Godfather Part II in first place, but at least they didn't try to wedge
Casino in here.
Courtroom Drama: (Percentage Seen: 30%)
I think I'd argue against this being one of "America's 10 Great Genres." The three of these I've seen were all pretty hard to sit through, but I can't really offer any better options. I like to think of myself as being pretty open minded about films in general, but I clearly have a strong bias against courtroom dramas.
Epic: (Percentage Seen: 70%)
Again, they seem to be stretching the genre definition a bit here.
Titanic seems a little out of place compared to
The Ten Commandments. Once again, I would argue that
Lawrence of Arabia is not an American movie, so probably shouldn't be in the top spot. Also seems odd that they'd pick
Saving Private Ryan as a war epic, but not
Apocalypse Now. Aside from that, this is another genre I don't tend to particularly get excited by, but I am pleased by the inclusion of
Reds and the exclusion of
Passion of the Christ.
Feel free to argue about me with any of these in the comments. I'd write up my own lists, but the idea of having to come up with 10 American animated films I actually enjoy (let alone 10 courtroom dramas) is just too daunting.