Thursday, February 7, 2008

AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movies

So, last night at knit night (hi ladies!) the topic of AFI's Top 100 movies list came up. Apparently this is THE list for best movies of all time. And when Katey began listing the movies I realized that I had seen hardly any of the ones she said. Katey assured me that I have probably seen at least 50 of them, so I decided to investigate.

According to the American Film Institute's website, "Each year, AFI presents another episode in its widely acclaimed series of CBS television specials - AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - which launched AFI's on-going celebration of the cinema centennial. Each special honors a different aspect of excellence in American film. In 2007, we celebrated AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition."

Sounds good to me. I had to sign up to the website to get an email that included a link to download the list of movies. Phew! All this to waste time seeing if I have seen THE 100 GREATEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME. And this list is from 2007, and the 2008 list comes out in June, so I had to get crackin'.

And because I LOVE lists (please see The Best Movies from the 80s or The 108 in 2008 as examples) I decided to paste the list below, cross off the ones I have seen and tell you if I enjoyed it using a star system. 1 star being the worst and four stars being the best.

And I do this all for you.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972) ****
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone With the Wind (1939) ****
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler's List (1993) ****
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939) ****
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: a Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) ****
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) ****
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974) ****
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) ****
35. Annie Hall (1977) ****
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) ****
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40. The Sound of Music (1965) ****
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) ****
51. West Side Story (1961)
52. Taxi Driver (1976) ****
53. The Deer Hunter (1978)
54. M*A*S*H (1970)
55. North by Northwest (1959)
56. Jaws (1975) ****
57. Rocky (1976)
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951)
66. Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981) ****
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998) ****
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) ****
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) ****
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994) ****
77. All the President's Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
80. The Apartment (1960)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997) ***
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. A Night At The Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999) ****
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie's Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994) ****
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99. Toy Story (1995) ****
100. Ben-Hur (1959)

Um, so. Wow. I watch a lot of movies, but obviously they are the wrong movies. I have seen just 23 of the AFI's top 100 movies. I was happy to see my favorite movie of all time, 'The Shawshank Redemption', made the list but Titanic? Seriously? Maybe one of the most expensive movies of all time, but definitely not one of the best.

So, of the 77 movies I haven't seen are there any that you think I should definitely see? How many have you seen? And who is up for a movie night?

7 comments:

Meaghan said...

I haven't seen Casablanca either but would love to. I can think of a few movies that are way better than many of these, and I am totally with you on Titanic.

Ones on the list that I have seen that I would recommend:

Singin' in the Rain
Star Wars
The Graduate
On the Waterfront (only seen part of this)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Bonnie and Clyde
(West Side Story is better on stage)

Unknown said...

Of the ones I have seen:
Casablanca is a must see.
West Side Story (but I agree with Meaghan - better on stage)
Star Wars
To Kill a Mockingbird
My opinion of The Graduate is that I have no idea why it's on the list. But...everyone else says it should be, so you might want to decide for yourself.

We're having a movie night tomorrow with a bunch of friends to watch and discuss Hotel Rwanda. Have you seen it? It's a very difficult movie to watch, but very accurately based on what really happened there in 1994 so I would say that's a must see as well.

Happy movie watching!

Julie said...

Meaghan and Kate have great taste, so ditto to what they said, but I would also add:
Tootsie--Love. It.
Singing in the Rain and Yankee Doodle Dandy are two of my favorite older movies, but are kind of cheesy if you're not into the studio musicals as much. I have them both if you ever want to borrow them for your movie day!
~Jules

Senegal Daily said...

I've only seen 7 of them. You are much more cultured than me.

Sherrie said...

Ok so I've seen all but 12 of the movies on the list :-) Each one is great for different reasons and different tastes.

Must See?
Cabaret - definitely! Liza in her prime and Joel Grey is wonderfully creepy.

12 Angry Men - group pressure and personal conviction, where is the breaking point? Henry Fonda is wonderful.

In The Heat of the Night - wonderful, tense, took new steps in what was "acceptable" for moviegoers to see. Poitier, fabo.

A Clockwork Orange - Odd but fascinating. Basic question of when does the criminal become the victim. Just remember it's not the average movie genre :-)

And ANYTHING Hitchcock is worth it! He was a mastermind in a class of his own.

Have fun! Let us know when movie night is :-)

Sherrie (ur knit teacher lol)

Chris said...

I didn't make a full list, but I'm pretty sure I've seen far fewer of these than you have.

I tend to prefer what I'll call folksy movies over "classic films," so my list would includes titles such as Raising Arizona, The Princess Bride and Waking Ned Devine.

I suspect AFI would never publish my list. :)

Tina Nandi said...

Oooh, Casablanca!
You must see it!
One flew over the Cuckoo's nest is also on the list for a reason... good movie.
Happy watching!