The next AFI 100 Years...100 (fill-in-the-blank) is... (1 Viewer)

[Mitty]

Well the AFI's lists have been officially stretched to their absolute limit, with this, their sixth. Why not just a special show about heroes and villains in American films? Why do they feel compelled to put them in some order? Will people not watch if someeone doesn't "win?"
William Friedkin. Man, the guy was like a talking bird, with his quasi-unintelligible ramblings. "Squawk! Pure Evil! Squawk!" Hall 9000 is 'pure evil?' Huh? Oh well, I suppose this sort of sideline keeps him from making more movies, or worse, tampering with his old ones.
I'm holding my breath for 100 Years, 100 Gratuitous Nude Scenes.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Good call on Friedkin's comments on HAL 9000. I had a similar thought process. "Pure evil" WTF?
And I'll second Seth's comments about "Man" from Bambi as a villain. Great rant. A spot on the list that could have went to any number of more deserving choices.
- Walter.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

How about that. A [rant]lawyer[/rant] beat out Indiana Jones and James Bond. Makes me proud to be a lawyer.

 

[ThomasC]

I have no problem with Atticus at #1.

 

[Quentin]

I agree with everything Seth said...EXCEPT, I have to have Hans Gruber in my top 10. I don't care if the film IS all about Maclean. Gruber MAKES him. Gruber is the man!! I can't even say F...B...I anymore without sounding like him.

This was, IMO, a slightly lame idea for a list, but missing Judah Ben Hur is a JOKE!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Harry Powell from "The Night of the Hunter" should have been much higher than number 29. He should have been in the top ten.




Crawdaddy

 

[Christopher P]

Missed the show but.....

Not sure about Regan (Linda Blair) as #9 villian, not her fault she was possessed. She was a victim if anything.
What did Thelma and Louise do that was heroic?
And I would have loved to see the entire Enterprise crew listed as heroes.

Chris

 

[Dalton]

The glaring omission of Howard the Duck makes the whole list lose credibility.
All kidding aside, I think there were many worthy names left off the list. Clarice Starling does not belong on the list at all IMO. Like everyone else i agreed with some of the names and was surprised at many of the omissions.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I predict the next one will be "100 years, 100 writers"

[beat]


Just kidding, this is Hollywood, after all.

More seriously, have they done directors yet?

Regards,

 

[streeter]

I think Judah Ben-Hur was omitted because Charlton Heston was the NRA president. People in Hollywood love guns in their movies, but nowhere else.

I think there are some other biases. As I mentioned earlier, I believe that Darth Vader would have been the #1 villain had it not been for the Star Wars prequels, which disappointed a lot of people. The Star Wars movies are no longer as 'classic' as they used to be because of this (IMO).

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Michael:

What about Moses appearing on the list at number 43? Chuck Heston got at least one big hero on the list of 50.

 

[Steve Christou]

WTF? Number one hero should easily have been 007 dammit not some... lawyer (sorry Dennis).
I mean how many times does a man have to save the freakin' world before he is appreciated? No I am not biased because I'm a Brit, just a coincidence, Bond James Bond is cinemas greatest ever hero and no namby-pamby AFI list will change that, Indy will always be number 2.
As for villains I have no real problems except Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber should have been in the top 10, c'mon he's the greatest action movie villain of the past 20 years, he's been the template for suave villainy ever since. And Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham should be up there too, aargh I give up...
[storms out of room, slams door].

 

[Larry Sutliff]

. And Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham should be up there too, aargh I give up...

Not to mention Basil Rathbone's Sir Guy of Gisbourne or Claude Rains Prince John from the original ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. I really found much of the list rather lame.

 

[Adam_S]

damn it all to heck!
This list didn't please every individual taste of every filmgoer on HTF. BURN AFI BURN AFI BURN AFI!!!!!
«runs about passing out torches to the lynch mob on this thread»
seriously though, ¾ of this thread is complaining because more recent films weren't included, 1/8 is complaining because more older films weren't included, and the other 1/8 is complaining because that's what they do. Sheesh people.
btw I love that Atticus is number one, I'd have never thought of him, but he's perfect there.
disapointed Scarlett O Hara didn't rank in the top ten villians, IMO she'd have been number one
Adam

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Did anyone ever stop and ask themselves "what good are these lists to me?"
After reading all of the personal choices in this thread, the disagreements, who should have been on their and who shouldn't (including my own picks), it strikes me as kinda funny that this list will serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever in my life or yours, unless of course you for some reason hold the AFI's lists in high regard, but for what?
It's just a list, it may be the AFI's list, but it's essentially meaningless. It's who THEY think is the more evil or good in films, it's a subjective list. Point is, anyone here in the forum could have made that list up. It was really nothing more than a newbie thread we see here all the time in the movies and polls area...only set to music and hosted by Arnold Shcwarzenegger.
One individuals ultimate villian may be Darth Vader, while to another it may be the Graboids from Tremors. To what end are we to debate if no conclusion will ever be reached.
After this thread drops off and I delete it from my subscription list, this list will be dismissed. It's not as if i'm going to run out and buy every dvd on any AFI list, unless it's a film I like. Debating is fun, just don't take this list that seriously as the bible for film hero's and villian's.
This post is not intended to sound angry or anything like that, it's just an observation.

 

[Ric Bagoly]

Travesties-

Where in THE HELL was Snake Plissken??

or for that matter, General Ripper or Dr. Strangelove?

Nurse Ratched made it, but NOT R.P. McMurphy??

McClaine, Frank, Khan, and James T. Kirk were also robbed.

As for Atticus: Politically Correct Pick, as either Jones or Bond should have been #1...

And what's with the bias against comedies?? No Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, Axel Foley, Otto West, and more than anything where the HELL was Inspector Jacques Clouseau!?

 

[Bill Huelbig]

To all the people complaining about the list and how meaningless it is: all I can say is, any show that devotes 3 full hours of prime time TV to film history is all right with me. That's an understatement: I eagerly look forward to the show every year and to whatever category the AFI comes up with next.

And if it inspires some 12-year-old kid to seek out a movie he or she might never have heard of like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, just out of curiosity as to why its hero outranked James Bond and Indiana Jones, then the list does serve a very useful purpose indeed.

--Bill

 

[Holadem]

Debating is fun, just don't take this list that seriously as the bible for film hero's and villian's.

No one is John, no one is. Perhaps you're taking the complaints more seriously than you should? As you said, it's fun to debate these litsts, that's all we're doing... Yes, it's subjective, yes they are opinions and all that. We know.
I have quite a few issues with the picks myself, mostly mirroring the complaints already voiced. The simple fact that I don't know who the hell Mr. Atticus proves to me that Bond or Indy should have been #1!
Can you really say that Judah Ben Hur wasn't a glaring ommision?! Does it get more heroic than that? Does Clarisse Sterling really deserve to be among Bond, Ripley and Erin Brokovitch?
Overall a good list still.
BTW, If you haven't watched the Usual Suspects yet, DO NOT look down the vilains list! (#48)
--
Holadem

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

The lists exist to generate discussion and interest w.r.t. film. As frequenters of the "movies" forum in the HTF, it would seem right up our alley. If you wind up buying, renting, or watching a film as a result of a character being mentioned or slighted, the AFI has accomplished what they set out to do. More power to 'em.

Regards,

 

[george kaplan]

Well I certainly don't take these lists seriously, but I do agree it's fun to debate them. And so, my own observations (bound to piss off some people).

I agree with those who feel Luke Skywalker was the biggest omission. Not that I have a problem with Atticus, but I'd certianly put Luke over Shane, Thelma & Louise, Zorro or Maximus.

And, there are two 'heroes' on that list, that personally I think of as 'villians'. Not that they didn't do some heroic things, but that doesn't make up (in my opinion) for the bad things they did - Patton & Dirty Harry.

And Regan MacNeil isn't exactly a villian. The demon that possessed her, yes, but she was an innocent little girl. And unlike some, I have no problem with Man on the list. In the context of Bambi, man is the villian (if you think about it, the only difference between Bambi - Man and Man - Alien, is the fact that we consider ourselves superior both to deer that we like to eat, and aliens, that like to eat us.) Lots of villiany/heroism is dependent on the point of view shown. Consider a film in which a soldier kills three enemy soldiers to prevent them from killing 20 of his fellow soldiers. Whose the hero and who's the villian. Kind of depends, doesn't it?