Re: The AFI 100 Years List for 2008...
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.
