The Beckman Blog

Everyone needs a hobby. Some people collect weaponry. Others like to build models or furniture. My hobby is film. (Call it one of the lasting influences of my arts-based high school education.) I currently have 147 titles in my collection, and a long list of additional titles to add to it when the time and price are right.

Ten years ago the American Film Institute (AFI) celebrated its 100th anniversary by releasing a list ranking the 100 greatest American films as determined by a ballot vote of its members. Since the original 100 Years . . . 100 Movies special aired in 1998, every year the AFI gives us a new list of movies to chew on. We’ve had 100 Years . . . 100 Stars; 100 Laughs; 100 Thrills; 100 Passions; 100 Heroes & Villains; 100 Songs; 100 Movie Quotes; and 100 Cheers. The AFI claims that such lists are “meant to spark a national discussion of American film history among movie lovers across the nation.” Though I think the number of 100 Years . . . lists is a tad excessive, I think that’s an admirable goal. We’re surrounded by so much fluffy “popcorn entertainment” (particularly in the summer season) that we often forget that movies are capable of communicating so much more. Lists like AFI’s and Roger Ebert’s Great Movies and the Sight & Sound poll not only encourage film appreciation and thoughtful criticism (e.g., why do you think that “Citizen Kane” should/shouldn’t be the #1 film of all time?), they also serve to introduce a new generation (who regards any movie made before 1990 as “old, antiquated, and irrelevant”) to some of the greatest cinematic treasures of the last century or so. Love it or hate it, lists and rankings of the greatest films ever made keeps the movies themselves alive in our cultural vocabulary. And that’s a very good thing.

Well, AFI just released an updated list of its 100 Years . . . 100 Movies, though it’s probably more like “110 Years . . . 100 Movies” (and why couldn’t it be “110 Years . . . 110 Movies”?). Films released from 1997-2006 were now eligible for the list, which inevitably meant that some older titles would fall off of it. Of the 400 titles on the AFI ballot, voters were encouraged to consider the following criteria in their selection process:

• Feature-length: Narrative format typically over 60 minutes in length.
• American film: English language, with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States.
• Critical Recognition: Formal commendation in print, television, and digital media.
• Major Award Winner: Recognition from competitive events including awards from peer groups, critics, guilds and major film festivals.
• Popularity Over Time: This includes success at the box office, television and cable airings, and DVD/VHS sales and rentals.
• Historical Significance: A film’s mark on the history of the moving image through visionary narrative devices, technical innovation or other groundbreaking achievements.
• Cultural Impact: A film’s mark on American society in matters of style and substance.

So, just for giggles (this is the first time I’ve ever attempted it), I thought I’d give you the 10th Anniversary list, together with ranking changes from the original list. Bold black means I’ve seen it, bold blue means I own it (regular blue means I would like to someday), bold red means I’ve recorded it off of TV and it’s sitting on my computer or external hard drive waiting for me to find the time to watch it. (Can I just quickly mention that Turner Classic Movies is the greatest channel ever? Seriously, without it I’d never get exposed to some of these classic gems.)

Here we go (thanks to whoever posted the following list, with links, on Wikipedia to save me the time typing):

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

Some comments:

• It appears my viewing choices swing toward the top of the list. That could be because of the films’ prestige as “Top 10” or “Top 20” movies, or simply because they’re almost universally considered great films.
• Most of the new entries entered the list in the bottom 50. That’s appropriate, I think; they’ll have to earn their way to the top spots over time.
• “Citizen Kane” is a fine film, but it’s never really connected with me. It’s a terrific technical achievement (I love Orson Welles’ performance and that ending), though, and its influence on American cinema is unmatched. I guess it deserves its spot, but I regard it with great respect rather than admiration.
• “The Searchers” experienced the biggest jump (84 spots!), but in my opinion it’s only half a great film. The entire subplot with Martin Pawley feels tacked on for comic relief and considerably diminishes the experience of watching the film, at least for me.
• I think the biggest reason for the decline of “The African Queen” is the continued lack of a Region 1 DVD release for the film. Word has it that Warner Bros. has a doozy of a special edition in the works, though, so I expect to see it climb on the next list 10 years from now.
• Why all the love lost for “Ben-Hur”?
• “Toy Story” does not belong at #99. How in the world “The Sixth Sense” scored ten places above it absolutely baffles me.

Speaking of unjust placements, here are the films that were booted from the 10th Anniversary list:

1. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) (54)
2. Amadeus (1984) (53)
3. An American in Paris (1951) (68)
4. The Birth of a Nation (1915) (44)
5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (64)
6. Dances with Wolves (1990) (75)
7. Doctor Zhivago (1965) (39)
8. Fantasia (1940) (58)
9. Fargo (1996) (84)
10. Frankenstein (1931) (87)
11. From Here to Eternity (1953) (52)
12. Giant (1956) (82)
13. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) (99)
14. The Jazz Singer (1927) (90)
15. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (67)
16. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) (86)
17. My Fair Lady (1964) (91)
18. Patton (1970) (89)
19. A Place in the Sun (1951) (92)
20. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) (59)
21. Stagecoach (1939) (63)
22. The Third Man (1949) (57)
23. Wuthering Heights (1939) (73)

I think the biggest travesty here is the exclusion of “Dances with Wolves,” without which the epic 3-hour+ film format would be dead and buried (and for me personally, it’s the movie that turned my 11-year-old mind on to great film). And look how far “Doctor Zhivago” has fallen!

Of course, the AFI list completely overlooks international cinema, and limiting the number of included films to 100 is nonsense, which is why I personally prefer Ebert’s Great Movies list (even though many of them are so obscure to the American public that I’ll be lucky to catch them even on TCM). And then there are my personal classics, films like “Cast Away,” “Contact,” “The Fugitive,” “The Incredibles,” “Master and Commander,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Minority Report,” “The New World,” “The Right Stuff,” “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” “The Truman Show,” “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” and many others that will likely never make any greatest films list but remain very dear to my heart. But who knows–the world may eventually agree with me in about 30 or 40 years.