The AFI 100 Years List for 2008... (1 Viewer)

[teapot2001]

The special is on tonight.

~T

 

[Adam_S]

The lists (spoilered for west coast viewers):


ANIMATION
1 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 2 Pinocchio 1940 3 Bambi 1942 4 Lion King, The 1994 5 Fantasia 1940 6 Toy Story 1995 7 Beauty and the Beast 1991 8 Shrek 2001 9 Cinderella 1950 10 Finding Nemo 2003

COURTROOM DRAMA

1 To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 2 12 Angry Men 1957 3 Kramer vs. Kramer 1979 4 Verdict, The 1982 5 Few Good Men, A 1992 6 Witness for the Prosecution 1957 7 Anatomy of a Murder 1959 8 In Cold Blood 1967 9 Cry in the Dark, A 1988 10 Judgement at Nuremberg 1961

EPIC

1 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 2 Ben-Hur 1959 3 Schindler's List 1993 4 Gone With the Wind 1939 5 Spartacus 1960 6 Titanic 1997 7 All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 8 Saving Private Ryan 1998 9 Reds 1981 10 Ten Commandments, The 1956

FANTASY

1 Wizard of Oz, The 1939 2 Lord of the Rings, The: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001 3 It's a Wonderful Life 1946 4 King Kong 1933 5 Miracle on 34th Street 1947 6 Field of Dreams 1989 7 Harvey 1950 8 Groundhog Day 1993 9 Thief of Bagdad, The 1924 10 Big 1988

GANGSTER

1 Godfather, The 1972 2 Goodfellas 1990 3 Godfather Part II, The 1974 4 White Heat 1949 5 Bonnie and Clyde 1967 6 Scarface: The Shame of a Nation 1932 7 Pulp Fiction 1994 8 Public Enemy, The 1931 9 Little Caesar 1930 10 Scarface 1983

MYSTERY

1 Vertigo 1958 2 Chinatown 1974 3 Rear Window 1954 4 Laura 1944 5 Third Man, The 1949 6 Maltese Falcon, The 1941 7 North By Northwest 1959 8 Blue Velvet 1986 9 Dial M For Murder 1954 10 Usual Suspects, The 1995

ROMANTIC COMEDY

1 City Lights 1931 2 Annie Hall 1977 3 It Happened One Night 1934 4 Roman Holiday 1953 5 Philadelphia Story, The 1940 6 When Harry Met Sally… 1989 7 Adam's Rib 1949 8 Moonstruck 1987 9 Harold and Maude 1971 10 Sleepless in Seattle 1993

SCIENCE FICTION

1 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 2 Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope 1977 3 E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial 1982 4 Clockwork Orange, A 1971 5 Day the Earth Stood Still, The 1951 6 Blade Runner 1982 7 Alien 1979 8 Terminator 2: Judgement Day 1991 9 Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 10 Back to the Future 1985

SPORTS

1 Raging Bull 1980 2 Rocky 1976 3 Pride of the Yankees, The 1942 4 Hoosiers 1986 5 Bull Durham 1988 6 Hustler, The 1961 7 Caddyshack 1980 8 Breaking Away 1979 9 National Velvet 1944 10 Jerry Maguire 1996

WESTERN

1 Searchers, The 1956 2 High Noon 1952 3 Shane 1953 4 Unforgiven 1992 5 Red River 1948 6 Wild Bunch, The 1969 7 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 8 McCabe and Mrs. Miller 1971 9 Stagecoach 1939 10 Cat Ballou 1965

 

[Nelson Au]

I'm dissapointed the broadcast is not in high def!

I'm 2/3 of the way through the broadcast and good selections so far. Lots of Hitchcock and Kubrick films on the list, as it should be!

 

[dana martin]

totaly safe list, no true surprise breakouts, Disney/Pixar should be funding a course at AFI with all the animated titles in the list, where is the Flischer work, Ralph Bakshi, Don Bluth???

sort of had a problem with this from the get go, what no horror?

 

[Michael Elliott]

This countries politically correct bullshit has really become laughable. For BIRTH or INTOLERANCE not to make it is downright silly but then again, as I said earlier, this would have caused the network to say a dirty work on TV so it's not really a shock.

I'm surprised to see ANNIE HALL score so highly as I always thought Allen's films were too niche. Disappointed that INHERIT THE WIND didn't make the courtroom drama.

EDIT TO ADD: Oh yeah, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA never seems to get any love in the gangster department.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Even not considering some of the mediocre movies on the list, I have to agree with the lack of Griffith. Of course it is too much to expect that AFI members will actually vote for a silent movie.

I also agree with being surprised that Allen was included, as I also think that many would think him too niche—then again at least his movie arguably deserved a spot.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Well, they did vote for City Lights, but I get your drift.

Biggest 'what were they thinking?' moment for me last night was the 10 spot in Sports. Jerry Maguire. Really? I like Cameron Crowe's films as much as most individuals but I would never put this film in a Sports category.

- Walter.

 

[PatW]

One of the biggest omissions for me was the Princess Bride and the Apartment. I thought they would have been shoo-ins for their respective categories.

 

[Pete York]

Hard to believe they would recognize the The Thief of Bagdad(1924) as the only silent film, but then again, perhaps the Fantasy list was the 'easiest' to break into.

edit: duh, also City Lights.

 

[Lew Crippen]

True Walter, but I suppose I was thinking of a difficult movie. I figure City Lights got in so that Chaplin was not totally ignored.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Part of the limiting factor in terms of what films were represented yesterday evening was the genres themselves. I have not been to the AFI site, so I have no idea how the genres were selected / devised for this listing but as an example of how choices were limited the only comedies chosen last night were ones with a romantic subplots. This effectively eliminated titles such as Young Frankenstein, Dr. Strangelove, etc., etc.

You could argue that some of these genres were represented in earlier lists so that by having narrower genres (courtroom drama for instance) this enables other titles to have their day.

- Walter.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Ouch, I didn't even realize that THE APARTMENT had been left off. This comes as a shock since the movie has always been popular but it seems its reputation has grown even higher over the past five years.

 

[PatW]

When I saw that Annie Hall was #2 then I knew for sure that the Apartment would be #1. I even wrote the name down and then they announced City Lights..... Oh well.

 

[Ray H]

How did "Schindler's List" beat "Gone With the Wind" on the epics list?

And I don't even recall a courtroom in "In Cold Blood".

 

[Bob_S.]

Would A Place in the sun be considered a courtroom drama? I'm surprised it wasn't even nominated because I thought it was a great movie.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Watch it again. Not to say I think it fit the criteria, but it did at least as much as Jerry McGuire was in the sports category.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Here's my thoughts on the lists.

• ANIMATION - I knew that this would be a Disney/Pixar centric category, but they took it to extremes that not even I could anticipate. Nine out of ten go to this team and the tenth is "Shrek"? Personally, "Shrek" would be in my bottom ten list. I think that the omission of "A Nightmare Before Christmas" is a huge oversight. This movie has only grown in stature and the total of lack of stop-motion is really reprehensible. Of course, "Dumbo" would have been my personal #1. A more interesting top ten would have been for animated shorts.
• FANTASY - "The Thief of Bagdhad" was certainly a pleasant surprise, but I was equally surprised by the absence of "The Princess Bride"
• ROMANTIC COMEDIES - WTF? The absence of "The Apartment" negates the entire special for me. I was completely mortified that it was not included. I had it picked for #2 and thought that it had a realistic chance of topping the list. "Harold and Maude" was a pleasant inclusion that I had not predicted. I also would have included "The Shop Around the Corner".
• SCI-FI - This category went almost completely to plan. I picked 7/10 correctly. I was slightly shocked that the original "Planet of the Apes" was not included, but I somehow overlooked "ET" and "Back to the Future" when making my predictions.
• WESTERN - Two big shockers here. I didn't see "Cat Ballou" coming at all...and if a comedy western is going to make it, I have to say that "Blazing Saddles" sets the pace over "Cat Ballou" any day. On the other hand, I was pleasantly stunned by "McCabe and Mrs. Miller". I didn't figure that this had a snowball's chance in hell of making it.
• GANGSTER - Nothing too shocking here. Even though "Touch of Evil" does not exactly fit the category, I thought that it might finally get some love. Also the absence of "Once Upon a Time in America" from either this or the epic list is a bit perplexing.
• SPORTS - This went pretty much to plan for me. I'm not familiar with "Breaking Away" and for some strange reason, I have never watched "National Velvet". I will have to remedy these situations. I thought that "Rocky" would top "Raging Bull" just because it's seems like a more pure sports film and also has a much larger fan base. I was mildly shocked that "Bull Durham" trumped "The Natural".
• COURTROOM DRAMA - I think that AFI invented this genre...and several of the films have minimal courtoom scenes, including "12 Angry Men", but I it did give a few other films a chance for recognition. I recently saw "The Verdict" and wasn't all that impressed, so it's high presence was a bit of a shocker.....and I've never heard of "A Cry in the Dark". I've watched nearly every one of these AFI shows, and this is the first time that I've been presented by a film that I didn't recognize at all.
• MYSTERY - I knew that Hitchcock would get a significant showing in this category, but I didn't see "Dial M For Murder" coming. As enjoyable as that film can be, it's generally considered a lesser Hitchcock movie. "The Thin Man" or "Charade" would have been better choices. Aside from that, no major surprises.
• EPIC - This category was an absolute mess. First of all, I completely disagree with the AFI's definition of an Epic being purely about length of the movie. If this is the qualification, where is "Nashville", "Short Cuts", "Magnolia", "Greed", etc... Nearly half of the films that made this list, I would not consider to be epic films. They would have been better off breaking this in to two categories "HISTORICAL" & "WAR".

Overall, I liked the concept of the program, I just think that they picked a horrible set of genres. Next time, try "HORROR", "NOIR", "SILENT", "MUSICAL", "BIOGRAPHIC", "HISTORICAL", "WAR", etc.... It's probably too simple to use genres that are accepted genres, though.

Eliminating the "EPIC" category, I average picking 7/10 on each list and nailed 6 of the top 10. In 3 other categories, I had the #1 picked at #2 and in the final, I had the #1 at #3.

 

[Adam_S]

I like the idea of a Silents category but I imagine it would get shot down as a ratings killer. However it would be an awesome category for a third 'top twenty-five' for the Hollywood Bowl concerts.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Yeah, the silent thing would never go over with a network. Plus, no network will ever say the word "Griffith" on the air.

Re: A CRY IN THE DARK

I watched part of this years ago but the DVD froze and I wasn't thrilled with it enough to go back and rewatch it. INHERIT THE WIND was the most shocking film left off as I figured it would at least be in the top 10.

I'm also shocked or confused that PSYCHO didn't get on the mystery list. I don't want to restart a debate on whether or not it is or isn't a horror film but the "mystery" of the movie is, in my opinion, the greatest and most shocking mystery of any film ever made. Without that mystery or without that mystery working so well, PSYCHO is forgotten about today.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Murnau's Sunrise is also an omission.

This would likely be the winner of the silent era