AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I would say, break down and watch them. Here in NZ, there are six Laughs films that are completely unavailable full stop, in either VHS or DVD. So you're in better position than I am.

Wow, it has been tough in the past few months to find time to watch anything. I did manage to watch Mary Poppins a few weeks ago, but never got around to posting anything at the time.

I didn't really like it at all. There were some good moments - the park sequence was really great - but overall it just was very episodic, with very little follow-through of events from one scene to the next. Mary Poppins was just so sickly and sweet - I was intrigued to learn that P L Travers' version was much more stern, and the books much darker, which I think would have been quite interesting.

Some of the songs are good, and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is a very cool fun song that I do enjoy. Some of the other songs, though - I know Walt loved "Feed The Birds", but he was wrong.

And, my gosh, that accent. I sat down, thinking "Surely it's not as bad as they all say." But it just hurt to listen to.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I love Mary Poppins, especially Feed the Birds, I like to Laugh, the animated park sequence, chim chim cherree, spoon full of sugar. It's just a terrific film all around, imo. but then I grew up with Mary Poppins.

I probably will watch them, I'd like to knock off another list, and I'm close on quotes too.

Adam

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Arthur -
Laughs list
Songs list - Arthur's Theme (the Best that You can Do)

So that's what that song is called. :p

A charming and wonderful film. Full of instantly iconic characters and dialogue. Great chemistry and in many ways very old fashioned.

But Arthur as a lush is very annoying because the rauciousness and laughter gets a bit grating after a while.

But there are some amazing funny bits. At the pre wedding party pinning an unsuspecting man between them. the famous "I'll alert the media." The shoplifting routine. Everything with the Grandmother. drunk and remorseful arthur. Arthur proposing in the Diner. and of course her father being much more devastated by Arthur confessing the truth.

One more film to go on laughs list.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Private Benjamin -
Laughs list
MAR DVD
01/09/2007

Goldie Hawn is pretty good in this flick. I was reminded over and over by the very similar Troop Beverly Hills, a favorite of my mom's that I grew up watching. Troop Beverly Hills is basically Private Benjamin at 14. :p

I had no idea what would happen at first. I was mildly amused at most of the opening wedding material, but when I realized her husband had died I started getting into the humor of the situation and her character.

Private Benjamin is pretty light and fluffy, it plays with sexism and stereotypes but doesn't confront them very directly. It does end on a nice note though.

There were some really bad moments, like the training montage after she decides to stay was horrendous, and quite funny because of it, but I'm not sure if it was deliberately funny or accidentally.

and it's amazing Hawn got to keep all her hair.

Adam

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I haven't seen Private Benjamin for years - I must see that again, to see what I think of it today. I remember watching the TV series as a kid, and when I did see it, it was not long after rewatching reruns of the show - and I was comparing the two and didn't like the film as a result. But it would be interesting to rewatch the film today, since I have very little memory of the TV series today, other than that I watched it. I might be able to judge the film on its own merits.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I watched Rebel Without a Cause (second viewing, first in widescreen) and I was blown away by how much better it felt. superb acting, over the top script, great direction. technically a marvel, and I loved the use of color. I've not seen many Sirk films, but this strikes me as excellent the way Sirk melodrama strikes others as excellent, there's just something appealing about the absurdity and unreality of the exaggeration, a careful tone that toys with satire, layers social commentary under the obvious 'message' and explodes suburban lethargy with cinematic excess--I think the term 'movie movie' works pretty well to describe that kind of film.

----
Miracle on 34th St -
Cheers list

A movie that can't fail to make you smile. Genuine and appealing. I'd only ever seen the remake. This is far superior. Natalie Wood is adorable, and the rest of the cast is excellent. The script is flawless and makes navigating the dicey material look easy. Excellent in every respect.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Breaking Away -
cheers list

A by the numbers Rocky meets American Graffitti kind of films, with bikes rather than boxing/cars.

Great acting, good script, I loved the story. Just not all that engaged by the film. The final race was absolutely wonderful and intense.


--------------------------
Funny Girl -
Passions list
Songs list - "People"
Songs list - "Don't Rain on My Parade"
Quotes list - "Hello Gorgeous."
Musicals

Last time I attempted to watch this was about seven years ago. But i'd just seen it on stage and couldn't get the stage Nick out of my head, so I gave up on it. This time around enough time has passed and I loved Streisand and Sharif, and very much appreciated Walter Pidgeon as Zeigfeld. A wonderful and quick moving musical, William Wyler did a wonderful job. Some of his crane moves into the stage were just spectacular, and I love the way he staged a shot, using a dolly and the wide field of cinema scope to lend depth and breadth to both the quiet and dynamic scenes.

Not one of my all time favorite musicals but definitely one of the highest class. I should see if I've been able to get the stage version of Fiddler out of my head, because I found myself equally unsatisfied at the beginning when I attempted to last watch it.

Adam

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

If anyone here would like to participate in the final stage of the current HTF / AFI revote, and has seen all the 100 films in our HTF list, send me an ordered list (1-100) of these films:

over a year ago we put together a slightly different list from AFI through a several stage voting off / voting on method, you can read about it here
however we never finished the last stage, ordering the final 100 into our own list. This is the stage you newcomers can come in on, if you've seen all the films. Every new person participating gives us a better statistical consensus, so the more informed opinions, the better. Your list will be weighted in the usual manner (#1 worth 100 points, #2 worth 99... #100 worth 1 point)

I have lists from George Kaplan, Michael Streeter, and Lew Crippen (and myself) but all of you are welcome to submit a new version if your opinions have shifted over the last 10 months or so.

---------
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
African Queen, The 1951
All About Eve 1950
All Quiet on the Western Front 1930
American Grafitti 1973
Annie Hall 1977
Apartment, The 1960
Apocalypse Now 1979
Back to the Future 1985
Ben-Hur 1959
Best Years of Our Lives, The 1946
Big Sleep, The 1946
Blade Runner 1982
Blazing Saddles 1974
Bonnie and Clyde 1967
Bride of Frankenstein 1935
Bridge on the River Kwai, The 1957
Bringing up Baby 1938
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969
Casablanca 1942
Chinatown 1974
Citizen Kane 1941
City Lights 1931
Clockwork Orange, A 1971
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
Dances with Wolves 1990
Do the Right Thing 1989
Doctor Zhivago 1965
Double Indemnity 1944
Dr. Strangelove 1964
Duck Soup 1933
E.T.: the Extra Terrestrial 1982
Empire Strikes Back, The 1980
Fantasia 1940
Fargo 1996
Forrest Gump 1994
Frankenstein 1931
French Connection, The 1971
General, The 1927
Godfather Part II, The 1974
Godfather, The 1972
Gold Rush, The 1925
Gone with the Wind 1939
Goodfellas 1990
Grapes of Wrath, The 1940
High Noon 1952
It Happened One Night 1934
It's a Wonderful Life 1946
Jaws 1975
King Kong 1933
Lawrence of Arabia 1962
Maltese Falcon, The 1941
Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, The 1963
Manchurian Candidate 1962
MASH 1970
Modern Times 1936
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939
Mutiny on the Bounty 1935
My Fair Lady 1964
Network 1976
Night of the Hunter 1955
North By Northwest 1959
Notorious 1946
On the Waterfront 1954
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1975
Palm Beach Story 1942
Paths of Glory 1957
Patton 1970
Philadelphia Story, The 1940
Platoon 1986
Psycho 1960
Pulp Fiction 1994
Raging Bull 1980
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
Rear Window 1954
Rebel Without a Cause 1955
Rocky 1976
Schindler's List 1993
Searchers, The 1956
Silence of the Lambs, The 1991
Singin' in the Rain 1952
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937
Some Like it Hot 1959
Sound of Music, The 1965
Stagecoach 1939
Star Wars 1977
Steamboat Bill Jr. 1928
Sullivan's Travels 1941
Sunrise 1927
Sunset Blvd. 1950
Taxi Driver 1976
Third Man, The 1949
To Kill a Mockingbird 1962
Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The 1948
Unforgiven 1992
Vertigo 1958
West Side Story 1961
White Heat 1949
Wild Bunch, The 1969
Wizard of Oz, The 1939

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -
quotes list "Elementary my dear Watson"

Basil Rathbone is a great Holmes, and Nigel Bruce is equally good as Watson. But overall I was underwhelmed by the film which is a somewhat tedious affair in which the nefarious Moriarty plays a double game of misdirecting Holmes attention so he can steal the crown jewels Bwa ha ha.

Such a story should be more interesting, but it's just not nearly as good as something like Hound of the Baskervilles, which is better able to sustain both the story and the mystery.

Adam

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

It's been years since I saw the Rathbone films - I must try and see them again.

If I remember correctly, aren't Hound and Adventures the only ones actually set in Victorian London? I think the rest of them were all set in the then-modern setting of WW2-England, with Holmes prone to spouting the occasional "We can win" dialogue.

Rathbone was a very good Holmes, but I never really cared too much for Bruce's Watson - he was just too bumbling and stupid. I much preferred the portrayal of Watson in the TV series with Jeremy Brett - easily my favourite on-screen version of Holmes.


Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of those films that I tend to be very sheepish about admitting to having not seen, because people are always astonished that I haven't seen it. So I finally saw the film over Christmas, and I really liked it.

I am always a sucker for Audrey Hepburn, who really is one of the most astonishingly radiant movie stars ever, and this is her most iconic role.

The film is basically a series of loosely-tied together events showing the slow drawing together of a high-price escort, Holly, and her gigolo/writer neighbour Paul. Blake Edwards generally shows impressive restraint, only indulging in a few well-chosen moments of slapstick to intrude, instead allowing the characters to bring out the comedy. The most famous problem is the use of Mickey Rooney as the neighbour Yunioshi - and it really is an appalling offensive performance that really highlights how things have changed over the past 45 years.

In addition to being on the Passions list, it's also on the Songs list. Henry Mancini's song, "Moon River" is a really excellent song. The film does however fall into the trap of relying on it far far too much. Having had the song written, the film then pulls it out - either sung or in the score - so much that its impact is lessened by the constant repetition. A shame, because it is a great song.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Fargo -

okay, so I was certifiably insane to have this as one of my lowest ranked AFI 100 movies films based on one viewing on VHS about 8 years ago (when I watched everything by the Coens). I still don't think this is their best film, or even best three or four, but it is superb and wonderfully fun to watch. Great writing, great characters, incredible photography and I loved the music. Outstanding all around. It does have a few slower moments, but I'll definitely pick this up on a bargain rack and watch it on regular rotation with my other favorite coens, O Brother where art thou, big lebowski, Raising arizona, and Miller's Crossing.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

One of the things I love about Fargo is that they really go hard to make it feel real. I especially love that they make Marge eight-months pregnant - and it never once comes into the plot. She doesn't have an unexpected birth in the investigation, or any of the theatrics we would expect in any other film. The events of the film just happen to take place at a point where the character happens to be pregnant.

I do enjoy the Coen Brothers - in the weekend, I came across The Big Lebowski on TV, and I sat there watching it and loving every minute. But Lebowski and some of the other Coen Brothers films, really do feel like they are totally aware that they're in a film. Where Fargo is much simpler, and feels more real. And I like that.

And you have to love Marge's ending speech to her prisoner.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Now Voyager - 10 of 10
Stars list - Bette Davis
Passions list
Quotes list - "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon--we have the stars."
oardvd
02/11/2007

I never expected to like this movie so much. But it blew me away. Enough that I think this is the first new movie I've seen in a long time that's worthy of my top twenty. Superb script, great acting, wonderful characters and a powerful story.

Bette Davis is a spinster, Miss Vale, she was a late child to her mother and her mother rules over her with an iron fist. Davis has a nervous breakdown and is sent off in the care of Claude Rains to a sanitarium. He sends her off on a voyage to South America after she's recovered somewhat

On the voyage she makes the acquaintance of Jerry, a man escaping from the ironwilled control of his wife (never seen, but the parallel to the Vale matriarch is unmistakable), they fill in the gaps in each others lives and both are healed by the others presence as they journey together.

Back in Boston, Vale finds the strength to assert her independence and manages to wrangle a grudging acceptance of this from her mother.

Warning Spoiler! Click to show

I loved every moment of the film, outstanding from beginning to end.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Love Story - 9 of 10
Passions list
Quotes list - "Love means never having to say you're sorry"

I expected this to be a terrible movie, because the quote is so horrible. Imagine my surprise that the movie is just about perfect, except for one thing, "love means never having to say you're sorry." It is quite possibly one of the stupidest things I've ever heard in reference to a relationship.

Ali McGraw is incredibly gorgeous and wonderful as Jenny. Ryan O Neal is good as a rather nasty and idiotic rich boy prat, but they have a fantastic chemistry and spark together and eventually we're quite ready to forgive Oliver for being an insufferable idiot, because he's a sincere idiot.

Excellent script (except for that one line) beautifully put together with a tragic and well earned ending (even if it's damned unfair... a classic women's weepy ploy).

Adam

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Dirty Dancing -
Passions list
Songs list "I've had the time of my life"
Quote's list "Noone puts Baby in a corner."

Well I've seen the end of this film about a dozen times, but this is the first time I've watched it straight through. It's not as bad as I thought, but it has a truly awful script, forcing those actors to say some of those lines (the quoted line, like Love Story, is one of the worst lines in the movie), it's, it's just apalling.

Baby has graduated high school, her family goes to an upstate New England family resort for three weeks, their first vacation in a while. Baby is bored, she wants to go be an activist, instead she falls in love with the muscular (and often shirtless/sleeveless) dance instructor Johnny Castle (I did say the script was awful, the names are unbelievable). Naturally there are a variety of complications, it's set in 1963, so that means back room abortions (not Baby of course), naturally. Of course Baby gets her friends the needed money from her Daddy and then gets her (now all of a sudden a doctor) her doctor Daddy to fix the butcher's vile work when it goes wrong. NAturaly Johnny is stoic and pretends to be the father and naturally Baby's Daddy despises him all the more for it, especially as he notices the connection between them. Oh and Baby becomes a professional dancer in 2.5 weeks, gets laid (oh that itch!), and lucks into Johnny declaring her independence for her to her father. Then they dance.

But oh man there is a lot of Eye-Candy in this movie, yowser, it's incredibly sexy throughout, though none moreso than Jennifer Gray, who surprisingly also delivers an excellent performance when she's not having to spout nonsense lines (there are precious few lines in the movie any actor could make sound normal).

I expected the movie to be terrible, but the editing and overall storytelling and half the performancese were excellent, shame about hte script though.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

The English Patient - 9 of 10
Passions list
OAR dvd - 3/23/2007

The English Patient tells two parallel love stories, set just before and just after WWII. The film opens on a pair of lovers flying in a plane, the rest of the story will be explaining how they got in that plane and what happened afterwards. We realize it has wrecked and that the man was pulled out severely burned. Count Almasy, the burned man, has forgotten, or chosen to forget who he was as he slowly and painfully dies. He is shipped around Italy and falls under the care of a nurse, Hana, who is scarred from too many people she loves dieing in the war. Hana recognizes the Patient will soon die and can't survive the land journey back to Britain. She installs herself in a bombed out Italian monastery, and promptly falls in love with the charming Sikh officer, Kip, who is in the area disarming mines, bombs and other Axis booby traps. Their love is tentative and tender, more puppy love, and supportive than passionate and torid. The second love story comes in pieces (and is the primary part of the film) as the patient, Almasy, remembers what his life was like before the war that led to that fateful plane ride. Almasy, a hungarian count working for the royal geographical society, is enamored with Katherine Clifton when she arrives with her husband. They are newly married and Katherine loves and is distressed by the new environment. while Clifton is off on secretive errands, Katharine is left alone with Almasy, and they survive a sandstorm together and fall madly in love. Their's is a passionate, physical needy love, contrasting sharply with the post war love story.

The way the film weaves together (and the story told) is poetic. The editing is superb. technically the whole damn film is pretty much perfect, this film deserved every single oscar it won.

The performances are excellent. Ralph Fiennes in particular gives a genius performance, it's unbelievable he didn't win, as this is a classic performance for the ages, up there at the lawrence of arabia, The Apartment, & Casablanca level. Both juliette Lewis and Kirstan Scott Thomas are outstanding in their respective roles, though Lewis perhaps stands out more. Equally impressive is the work of Naveen Andrews as Kip, who gives a subtle and superb performance that is one of the highlights of the film.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

The Band Wagon - 5 of 10
Songs list 'That's Entertainment'
Musicals list
Stars list - Fred Astaire
OARDVD
4/29/07

Fred Astaire is pretty damn good in this role, but the movie aint much. Even the big number, that's Entertainment, doesn't sizzle. The movie's charming in a familiar way, in fact we've seen everything in the film done better in Astaire/Rogers films and Berkely backstage musicals. The film is sharply lacking in the wit and cutting edge of those films, it doesn't have the screwball energy to pull off the basic energy. Sorry but I'm not giving the film a pass on sentimentality alone.

I watched the trailer for Easter Parade on this dvd and it looks like much of the same

But the flaws in this film do highlight what's so much better about another flawed film like American in Paris, a film that does work, and often overcomes its material, if only to stumble with an endless unmotivated ballet at the end.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Sabrina - 10 of 10
Passions list

A truly perfect movie.

Audrey Hepburn is Sabrina is the cheaffeur's daughter of the filthy rich Larraby family. She's in love with the younger (wild) brother, William Holden, she wants to die because he doesn't even know she exists. Instead she goes to Paris for two years to learn cooking at a prestigious instituted, there she falls under the tutelage of a wise old gentleman who helps Sabrina transform herself. She returns and in an instant Holden is under her spell, but so is his older, wiser brother Humphrey Bogart. The rest of the film is flaweless and brilliant, a perfect romance, a perfect comedy, the film never takes a misstep. Beautiful camerawork, elegant editing, brilliant from start to finish. All three leads give the some of the best performances of their career, especially Bogart, who was rarely better than this film.

Loved every second, one of my two or three favorite Wilder movies.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I really need to try starting to watch some of the AFI Films again - I just have not had the time for months now, and I miss the excitement of it.

Sabrina is a great film - Billy Wilder is great doing dark and cynical, but films like Sabrina show he has lightness of touch when needed.


Warning Spoiler! Click to show

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

The Defiant Ones - 9 of 10
Cheers list
05/27/07
OARDVD

This may be my favorite Sidney Potier performance yet, shame it's not included in our Stars list.

Sidney Potier and Tony Curtis are prisoners chained to each other while being transported to another prison/chaingang. The truck wrecks and they escape. From then on they're being chased. And as they learn how not to kill each other they somehow also learn how to depend on each other. Intense and fluid from the starting scene to the final scene the script crackles and pops and is damn near as perfect as you can get. The performances are unbelievably good, the best I've seen from both actors. Tony Curtis gets to chew the scenery with a snarling low life scraping the bottom of the barrell. He's a character that's felt a boot pressing down on him all his life, and the virulent racism he portrays at first is almost tragically sad because it's so plainly motivated by fear of being even lower on the social ladder--that being white means there is always someone he's better than, someone lower than him. He has his perceptions of that percieved privelege completely shattered, and we see a transformation take place. Sidney Potier is just unshakably tremendous, a decent man who has been cheated of a fair life and a fair trial. He's not a mere 'wronged' man though, it's clear enough that he has more explosive anger and resentment at society than Curtis does. He is much more dangerous because his anger is cold and he can control it, nurse it and focus it. He's smarter than Curtis and quickly becomes the driving force behind the pair, and although he has nothing to lose, we can see the decency in him because he also has come to depend on his companion.

Brilliant from start to finish.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I'll be moving into a household with Netflix, so I hope I can restart the challenges again.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

a fun diversion

100 movies
100 quotes
100 numbers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FExqG6LdWHU

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Gigi - 9 of 10
Passions list
Songs list - Thank Heaven for Little Girls

Superb musical about a young woman raised by her grandmother and aunt to be a Parisian prostitute errr geisha err mistress to the very wealthy. She seems about twelve at the start of the film, in attitude and figure (but that's just clever acting and costume design), when in actuality she's probably around sixteen. One of the family friends is the worldwide playboy, Gaston, whose every move is scrutinized by the press. Just as Gigi is groomed to be a superb public companion to the super-wealthy, Gaston is being groomed by his uncle, played by Maurice Chevalier, to be a callous, womanizing, sexist pig, like all the other men of Paris. The performances are outstanding, but what really brings off the films are the wonderful songs. especially, Thank Heaven for Little Girls (which I always thought was creepy but actually makes thematic sense for the film. But also, "I Don't Understand the Parisians" and perhaps my favorite, "I remember it well". The production design and direction are superb and I'd love to see this on the big screen, in all its splendor.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Updated the main post with the new AFI list, for convenience sake it's right underneath the original AFI movies list.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Sophie's Choice - 7 of 10 -
10th anniversary list

Excellent film that's a bit overshadowed by it's central performance, which is almost too good, too perfect and it's somewhat distracting.

The Killers - 9 of 10
Stars list - Burt Lancaster
Stars list - Ava Gardner
TCM
7/15/07

Superb film noir with Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner featured in flashback roles. The film opens with an incredibly tense and justifiably famous diner scene that leads directly to Lancaster's death. What I found surprising was that it wasn't a detective that did the investigating, it was the life insurance company investigator untangles the torrid threads of Lancaster's past. A superb film, excellent in every respect and one I prefer to many film noirs, yeah, even Double Indemnity.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I really need to find some time to start watching these films again, and when I do, I'm going to start with Sophie's choice - simply because I am worried about discovering what the choice is before I see the film. This year for the first year, I've managed to get the actual AFI List broadcast and I want to watch it, but I've heard they actually reveal (or at least make it pretty obvious) what the choice is, and I don't want that.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

double post...

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Shakespeare in Love - 9 of 10
Passions list
07/16/07

The play is the thing... Superb film full of wit, charm and cleverness (though I think my favorite part was, "A ghost! A Ghost!") and a stupendous chemistry between the two leads. It had a great deal of hilarity, much like the actual Romeo and Juliet, in the first three acts only to take an almost unexpected turn for the dramatic and powerful in the final two acts.


A better film than Elizabeth, but the award this film deserved most was for Joseph Fiennes who was incredibly brilliant and not even nominated. I'd still say Saving Private Ryan should have won top prize, but I understand completely why such an incredibly entertaining and thoroughly charming classic beat it.

And yes, it'll all work out, and no I don't know, it is a mystery, but it is definitely one of the greatest truisms of working in the entertainment industry.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Fiddler on the Roof - 7 of 10
Cheers list
MAR version
07/22/07

I could have sworn that this had a song on the songs list, and am stunned that it does not. If I were a Rich Man, MAtch Maker Match Maker, Sunrise Sunset, are all worthy. Also surprised this isn't on the passions list.

I love this musical. I worked sound dept on it in high school. and I couldn't watch it all those years ago simply because I couldn't separate the stage and screen versions, and the screen version just paled in comparison.

Now I'm able to watch it and find it's a pretty good version. It moves slower with less energy than on stage, and the lead actor playing tevye doesn't have the vocal presence of our Tevye (who remains the best singer I've ever heard. easy), but in all it's a pretty good, satisfying musical. The songs and scores are so good that it makes up for the visual muddiness of the people and poverty, something that made me appreciate how well Oliver! worked at not getting dragged down in the 'realistic' portrayal of squalor.

It's interesting though, that the the play left me with a feeling that it was about love, changing times, adapting to the new and the importance of family. But the film only left me with the impression 'boy it sucked to be a jew.' Certainly not a film I'd put on a cheers list.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Meet John Doe - 6 of 10
Cheers list
Stars list - Gary Cooper
Stars list - Barbara Stanwyck


This was a really terrific movie with an extremely pussy ending that's more depressing than an actual suicide. It's also easy to see why it was such a big flop, considering how anarchist the message just preceding the moment that a unifying ferver gripped the nation. Also seems to be fairly anti-Roosevelt socialist reforms, but I'm not entirely sure, again probably a bad idea post Pearl Harbor, when this movie would have been mostly seen.

It also seems to be a lot more clumsy at hitting exactly the same points that Mr. Smith Goes to Washington so masterfully addressed. It felt like being sermonized rather than told a story, and I doubt the title helped much in that respect either.

A very odd movie.