The American Film Institute has released its new, updated list of the best 100 movies, nine years after releasing its original list in 1998 (although it's the "10th anniversary" list -- no one ever said moviemakers were good at math). No surprise that Citizen Kane is still No. 1 -- but there are a few eyebrow-raising big moves: Raging Bull up from 24 to 4, Vertigo up from 61 to 9, The Searchers up from 96 to 12.
Four newer films made the cut: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at 50 (big thumbs up), Saving Private Ryan at 71 (thumbs up again); Titanic at 83 (ehhhh) and The Sixth Sense at 89 (huh?).
Another new addition is one of my favorites and a major oversight the first time around, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (96).
Among the dropouts: Doctor Zhivago, Dances With Wolves and The Jazz Singer. I love Dances With Wolves, but I fear Costner's stock is really down these days.
On the other hand, Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull) is really reaping the goodwill associated with his Lifetime Achievement Award oops I mean Best Picture Oscar earlier this year. Hollywood just loves Marty right now.
As you can tell I'm a sucker for lists like this, although AFI has kind of turned these into kind of a cheap cottage industry. Let's see: "100 Years, 100 Stars," "100 Years, 100 Laughs," "100 Years, 100 Film Scores" -- it was either start over or they'd be down to "100 Years, 100 Fart Jokes."
UPDATE: Roger Ebert asks: "What? No Fargo?" It was No. 84; now it's off the list. Grrrr.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
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