AFI Roundup

A couple weeks ago, we went over the flawed ballots used in AFI's latest list-making extravaganza. This year's list, the AFI 10 top 10, is a genre-by-genre ranking of American films. While I was reasonably upset with the way the process started, I must admit that the results turned out pretty well.

Of course, they had the gall to include The Abyss and The Apartment in their opening montage even though they left them off the ballot.

Apparently they sent the ballots to the right judges because the final tallies look solid. Or is it really that simple? Looking at the results, we're noticing some trends that make us question whether the fix was in all along. But let's look at each category first. Also, it's worth clicking on the links below because they did a really nice job featuring the films chosen.

Animated
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Pinocchio
3. Bambi
4. The Lion King
5. Fantasia
6. Toy Story
7. Beauty and the Beast
8. Shrek
9. Cinderella
10. Finding Nemo

Not really sure what Shrek is doing in here, but the list is solid. I have long had a special place in my heart for Dumbo, but due to certain racial overtones, I can see why it didn't make the list. It's pretty much all Disney. I'm still peeved that Ratatouille didn't make their ballot, but the voters did a good job with what they had.

Fantasy
1. The Wizard of Oz
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. King Kong
5. Miracle on 34th Street
6. Field of Dreams
7. Harvey
8. Groundhog Day
9. The Thief of Bagdad
10. Big

Really nothing to complain about here. Field of Dreams should be in sports, right? Maybe not. I would have liked to see Roger Rabbit in place of Big, but I can't say I'm outraged. And of course, I would put Conan the Barbarian in the list, but I had no delusions that it would make the cut.

Gangster
1. The Godfather
2. Goodfellas
3. The Godfather, Part II
4. White Heat
5. Bonnie and Clyde
6. Scarface: The Shame of the Nation
7. Pulp Fiction
8. The Public Enemy
9. Little Caeser
10. Scarface

Once again, few complaints. Scarface doesn't belong on the list over a whole litany of superb movies, but whatever. The ballot wasn't superb here, but it's a relatively narrow genre. Pulp Fiction should be higher, but again, I can't complain that much. Also, I forgot to mention previously that The Professional wasn't on the ballot but should have been (#38 all time on the IMDb). Not strictly gangster, but neither is Bonnie and Clyde or Pulp Fiction. And it's American enough...

Science Fiction
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
3. E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial
4. A Clockwork Orange
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still
6. Blade Runner
7. Alien
8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
10. Back to the Future

Another solid top ten here. I absolutely adore the pick of 2001 at #1. If that makes me a nerd or a snob, so be it. I'm also ecstatic that the underrated T2 made the cut. Yeah, I said underrated. Back to the Future and Invasion of the Body Snatchers both seem like sentimental choices, but they're defensible. Again, The Abyss should have made the ballot and if it had been around for longer, I think Children of Men had a shot at inclusion. On the whole, nice work. (BTW, The Day the Earth Stood Still is playing at Movies in the Park on August 5th.)

Western
1. The Searchers
2. High Noon
3. Shane
4. Unforgiven
5. Red River
6. The Wild Bunch
7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
8. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
9. Stagecoach
10. Cat Ballou

I really have nothing to add here. The few omissions were egregious, but given what the voters had to work with, another nice job. I've only seen four of these...

Sports
1. Raging Bull
2. Rocky
3. Pride of the Yankees
4. Hoosiers
5. Bull Durham
6. The Hustler
7. Caddyshack
8. Breaking Away
9. National Velvet
10. Jerry Maguire

Glaring omission is that The Natural didn't make the top ten, but Jerry Maguire did? Kind of astonishing. It's Kozy's favorite sports movie! Also, Hoosiers should be #1, right? Right? Maybe it's too sentimental for the AFI voters. I'll accept that. Bull Durham is technically a sports movie, but not really. It definitely doesn't belong at #5. Caddyshack is a great film, but does it really belong on this list? What about Rudy (yeah, I went to Michigan - I wrote that through clenched teeth). In sum, this is easily the most botched top 10 on the board. The ballot wasn't great, but the voters underperformed on this one.

Mystery
1. Vertigo
2. Chinatown
3. Rear Window
4. Laura
5. The Third Man
6. The Maltese Falcon
7. North by Northwest
8. Blue Velvet
9. Dial M for Murder
10. The Usual Suspects

Now that's a list! I jokingly said that this was the "Hitchcock division" and sure enough, he has three of the top four. I wish Chinatown had the top spot, but I'll gladly accept it at #2. I'd swap out The Maltese Falcon with The Big Sleep and do the same with Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr. Finally, The Usual Suspects should have been on the gangster list or not at all (I prefer not at all!). When the big mystery is that everything you've just spent two hours watching is complete bullshit, that's not a movie I want on any top ten. Anyway, a great list, and everyone should watch 1-9 before they kick.

Romantic Comedy
1. City Lights
2. Annie Hall
3. It Happened One Night
4. Roman Holiday
5. The Philadelphia Story
6. When Harry Met Sally...
7. Adam's Rib
8. Moonstruck
9. Harold and Maude
10. Sleepless in Seattle

The AFI voters deserve a big pat on the back here. They were dealt a rough hand with a slew of extremely questionable "great" romatic comedies and a large number of glaring omissions, but turned out the best list on the board. Sleepless in Seattle is a horrendous movie where two depressed, boring people finally meet at the end for thirty seconds. Other than that, pat yourselves on the back, folks!

Courtroom Drama
1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. 12 Angry Men
3. Kramer vs Kramer
4. The Verdict
5. A Few Good Men
6. Witness for the Prosecution
7. Anatomy of a Murder
8. In Cold Blood
9. A Cry in the Dark
10. Judgment at Nuremburg

I decried the inclusion of this genre for being too narrow, but they managed to grab ten good ones. As predicted, Mockingbird first, Angry Men second, and then some decent movies. When Kramer vs Kramer is your third best film, you don't have a superb genre (compare it to Rear Window, Shane, ET - you get my drift). Let's just move on.

Epic
1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. Ben-Hur (1959)
3. Schindler's List
4. Gone With the Wind
5. Spartacus
6. Titanic
7. All Quiet on the Western Front
8. Saving Private Ryan
9. Reds
10. The Ten Commandments

Nothing to complain about here, right? They pretty much nailed it.

So let's go on to some general thoughts. Firstly, the voters did a great job overall, Sports category notwithstanding. They salvaged a flawed balloting system and made a pretty worthwhile output. That's the overarching message here.

However, I can't help but question whether there was some funny business going on here. I have no proof of any kind, but there was one very curious trend throughout the categories. People who mainly take in blockbusters and mainstream comedies often complain that the Oscars doesn't interest them because the movies they like are never represented, that they never even know the names of any of the films. These AFI lists could easily have fallen prey to the same comments, but surprisingly, there was a more mainstream, modern choice on each and every list. And more often than not, this choice ended up in the #10 spot. Here are the "crowd pleasers," films that critics perhaps would not include, but the average movie fan would:

8. Shrek
10. Big
10. Scarface
10. Back to the Future
(no example in Western)
10. Jerry Maguire
10. The Usual Suspects
10. Sleepless in Seattle
5. A Few good Men
6. Titanic

Now, clearly some of these are more defensible than others. Nobody's going to sneeze at Titanic or Big. And A Few Good Men was in a thin genre. But I find it extremely curious that with the tenth selection in almost every genre doesn't fit the voting trends. I think AFI let Katherine Harris or Deibold count the votes and put the fix in. Do we really think that Jerry Maguire got more votes than The Natural? I'm not buying it. But what do the rest of you think?

Again, they did a great job on this overall and I recommend checking out their site for some really cool features on all the movies honored here including some of your favorite actors without their favorite makeup artists.

About Those Upcoming AFI Lists

A year ago, we talked about how the American Film Institute had run out of ideas for their High Fidelity-styled lists. This coming Tuesday, the American Film Institute is ready to come out with their new list of ridiculousness, live on CBS at 8pm EDT. This year's list? The AFI 10 top 10. That's pretty clearly titled, right? Let me explain in English what that's supposed to mean. They have created ten genres and are looking to narrow down the ten best American films in each one. In late 2007 they released their nomination form (PDF). The ballots were sent to a jury of "over 1,500 leaders from the creative community." But upon inspecting the blank ballot, we've already seen some problems. We'll take it genre by genre since that's apparently what they expect of us.

Before we begin, a few notes on their criteria. (1) One requirement is "English language film with significant creative and/or production elements from the United States." Reasonable as this is the American Film Institute. However, there will be some questions about the way these rules were employed. (2) There is no "comedy" genre. So if you're a slapstick movie without romance, you can't make it on the list - or even if you do, you're competing with dramas. For instance, Caddyshack is the "Sports" genre. Not really fair, is it? (3) Films must be released before January 1, 2008. The categories: Animated, Fantasy, Gangster, Science Fiction, Western, Sports, Mystery, Romantic Comedy, Courtroom Drama, Epic. More on this issue later. Let's take things genre by genre using three categories each. Nice to see -- the films we were happy to see included that may not have been obvious choices. Curious Inclusions -- rather self-explanatory. You forgot -- unforgivable exclusions from the ballot.

Animated
Nice to See: The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Iron Giant, The South Park Movie, Waking Life

Curious Inclusions: Robots (6.4 rating on IMDb), Madagascar (6.5), Pocahontas (5.8!),

You Forgot: Ratatouille (#128 all time), Spirited Away (#57 all time)

The lack of a spot for Ratatouille in their ballot was the initial impetus for this posting. It's nothing short of an outrage. It's the best animated movie I've ever seen. It fits all of their requirements and somehow is left out in favor of Pocahontas?!? Astonishing. Spirited Away, a very close second for my favorite animated film, technically isn't American, though it was released in English with American actors. I would concede this point, but as you will see in other categories they were only strict with this when it suited their purposes. And by "their" I mean "probably Disney." There is a spot for write-ins. Let's hope that enough of these 1500 folks thought to put the Rat in there. But if it doesn't show up on Tuesday, you'll know why.

Fantasy
Nice to See: Groundhog Day, Conan the Barbarian, Being John Malkovich, Beetle Juice, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Princess Bride, The Dark Crystal, The Mask

Curious Inclusions: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lionel, the Richie, and the Wardrobe, Clash of the Titans (6.5), Splash

You Forgot:

There's really nothing missing here (many of the best Fantasy films happen to be foreign), and the curious ones aren't even that curious. I'm surprised that they chose Fellowship of the Ring over Return of the King, but I actually liked that one better, so I'm not complaining (though the movie was filmed in New Zealand by a kiwi director, so how is it American?). Narnia was pretty mediocre, as is Clash of the Titans, and Splash doesn't really hold up over time. But all in all, they did a superb job on this category.

Gangster
Nice to See: Miller's Crossing, Donnie Brasco, Heat, Reservoir Dogs

Curious Inclusions: Some Like it Hot, Bullets Over Broadway, Boyz N the Hood, Bonnie and Clyde, New Jack City (6.2), Bugsy Malone (6.4)

You Forgot: The Sting, True Romance, Carlito's Way, Sin City

This is an extremely narrow category, and the top four are pretty much open and shut, right? Two Godfathers, Goodfellas, and Pulp Fiction. But I suppose we have to round out the top ten. Why didn't they simply call it "crime" and therefore be able to include all sorts of film noir and some of the other Coen Brothers movies? Because of that narrow classification, we get a lot of older films. Some Like it Hot belongs in Romantic Comedies, Boyz N the Hood has gangsterism in it, but none of the central characters are involved with gangs. Bonnie and Clyde is a great film, but just a two-person gang, and New Jack City just isn't very good. With such a small genre, overlooking The Sting is a galling mistake, and True Romance and Carlito's way should at least be included for consideration. At least Road to Perdition thankfully didn't make their cut.

Science Fiction
Nice to See: Children of Men, Cocoon, Contact, Robocop, Total Recall, Tron, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Curious Inclusions: Independence Day (seriously), Repo Man, Westworld, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Stepford Wives

You Forgot: Aliens, The Thing, Twelve Monkeys, Gattaca, Pi, Dark City, The Abyss, Young Frankenstein

There is no "Action" category, so you'll see those films split between here, Epic, and maybe even Mystery. So we have Alien in here, but Aliens is out, even though it's possibly a better film, but because Alien fits the genre better. Yet we see "Escape from New York" here, which is clearly an action movie. Whatever, this is getting silly. I fully accept that some people would have Cocoon as a Curious Inclusion, but I happen to dig it, Guttenberg notwithstanding. Independence Day was short on science, big on fiction and big on dumb. They might as well have included Transformers: The Movie. Yes I mean the cartoon. Repo Man has science fiction elements, but that's really quite a stretch. Westworld, too. Maybe it belongs in Western. Or just not mentioned at all. A.I. is fine I guess... There were a ton of borderline titles that I left out of You Forgot. Generally this is a pretty botched category. I hope Terminator 2 cracks the top ten.

Western
Nice to See: Red River

Curious Inclusions: Blazing Saddles

You Forgot: The Man With No Name Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West, Brokeback Mountain, Dead Man

Nearly all of these movies are rather old, as you might expect. I'm afraid this is not a genre I'm that familiar with, but it seems like they got most of the major ones here. I contend that if Young Frankenstein didn't make Sci-Fi, Blazing Saddles shouldn't make Western. Again, a comedy genre would have been a good idea. Brokeback Mountain certainly should have made the cut. To have none of Leone's Western films included is a travesty. A Fistfull of Dollars and its sequels were filmed in Spain, so perhaps they don't deserve to be included. However, Once Upon a Time in the West was filmed in Arizona and stars Henry friggin' Fonda and Charles friggin' Bronson! It can't have anything to do with Leone either, because they included his Once Upon a Time in America on their ballot twice. So even though I don't know this category well, I know enough to know they screwed up a bit.

Sports
Nice to See: Cool Runnings, The Great White Hope, Horse Feathers, Slap Shot, Breaking Away, White Men Can't Jump

Curious Inclusions: Cool Runnings (6.4), The Color of Money, The Mighty Ducks (5.8!), Personal Best (6.2), Jerry Maguire, Ali (6.5), Any Given Sunday (6.5), Downhill Racer (6.0!),

You Forgot: Hoop Dreams, Kingpin, Cinderella Man, Prefontaine, The Waterboy, The Harder They Fall

Yeah, I put Cool Runnings in there twice. I like it. But it also doesn't deserve to be in this list. In general, this project generally seems to avoid sequels. If that's the case, The Color of Money doesn't belong. Mighty Ducks is the most blatant example of a pro-Disney bend in the entire list. Jerry Maguire belongs in Romantic Comedy and shows up there again anyway. Hoop Dreams doesn't qualify because it's a doc, but any chance I have to mention it, I shall. There aren't a ton of really compelling cases that were passed over in this category. Perhaps there just haven't been that many good American sports movies. So they did an OK job filling up a thin category. Some of the fine English sports movies could have really bolstered this list.

Mystery (aka the Hitchcock division)
Nice to See: The Big Lebowski, The Big Sleep, Blue Velvet, Charade, Mulholland Dr., Murder on the Orient Express

Curious Inclusions: Devil in a Blue Dress (6.5), Gosford Park, Sea of Love (6.6),

You Forgot: The Sixth Sense, The Manchurian Candidate, Deathtrap, Zero Effect, No Country for Old Men

Hitchcock is nominated nine times here. No Big Lebowski and I would have been furious. Incidentally, four of the fifty films in this genre begin with "The Big..." Gosford Park is the only movie that ever caused me to fall asleep in the theater while sober. I am somewhat irate that The Sixth Sense is not nominated in any genre. This seems like the one where it should have showed up. This is probably the category I am most drawn to as a moviegoer, and I have to say that the list is solid here. Gosh I hope Mulholland Dr. somehow makes the top ten.

Romantic Comedy (aka the wedding division)
Nice to See: The 40-year Old Virgin, Harold and Maude, Say Anything..., There's Something About Mary, Sixteen Candles

Curious Inclusions: The American President (6.8), Bridget Jones's Diary, Bull Durham, Clueless (6.6), My Best Friend's Wedding (6.2), My Big Fat Greek wedding (6.6), Roxanne (6.6), Sleepless in Seattle (6.6), Something's Gotta Give (6.8), The Wedding Singer (6.8), Splash (6.2), Working Girl (6.5), 10 (5.7)

You Forgot: Almost Famous, Singin' in the Rain, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, The Graduate, Coming To America, Dave, High Fidelity, Lost in Translation, Knocked Up, Airplane!, Punch-Drunk Love, Sideways, Marty

Bridget Jones's Diary is considered American? Oh, and good? Wasn't Bull Durham a sports movie? My Best Friend's Wedding: are you freaking kidding me? Can't we, as Americans, move forward for once? My Big Fat Greek Wedding: can't we, as Greek-Americans, move forward for once? Roxanne hasn't aged well. Sleepless in Seattle is a rather empty movie, but a downright cornucopia of life compared to Something's Gotta Give. Splash gave us the name Madison, but also hasn't aged very well. Incidentally, Daryl Hannah hasn't aged that well, either. Then look at the large list of omissions. I'm sure I could dig up a ton more, but I'm sick of even thinking about this. Just a horribly botched category. Horrible job on this one. Bad AFI!

Courtroom Drama
Nice to see you:

Curious Inclusions: The Client (6.4), Ghosts of Mississippi (6.4), Legally Blonde (!!!!!! 6.3, which is way too freaking high), The Pelican Brief (6.3), The Rainmaker (6.9),

You Forgot: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, JFK, Witness,

This needs its own category? The good folks at the AFI know that TV shows aren't included, right? It's just way too narrow a genre. This is how Legally Blonde ends up on the list. Also, their strange fascination with Julia Roberts continues. Frankly, I'm totally bored by the existence of this category. To Kill a Mockingbird will be first, 12 Angry Men second, and then nobody cares. Let's just move on.

Epic
Nice to see: All Quiet on the Western Front, The Last Temptation of Christ, Reds

Curious Inclusions: The Bridge on the River Kwai, Gandhi, Gladiator, The Godfather Part II

You Forgot: Hotel Rwanda, There Will Be Blood, Platoon

The Bridge... and Gandhi both had British directors, British stars and were not filmed anywhere near the United States. So how exactly are these American? These rules seemed to be so strict when we were talking Westerns. The Godfather Part II is an epic? Also, I'm not a Gladiator fan, even though I know you all adore it for some bizarre reason. They really did a good job on this genre. I have nothing to complain about. Except Gladiator, but I'll save it for another time.

A few last comments...

As noted above, it seems that they were sometimes extremely strict about rules regarding what makes a movie "American" and also which genre a movie belonged in. Also, the below movies all ended up in multiple categories which seems really unfair to the long list of overlooked films above:
The Usual Suspects
Adam's Rib
Jerry Maguire
Bull Durham
The Godfather Part II
Once Upon a Time in America
Field of Dreams
Splash
...and probably a few more
If you're going to bother putting these films into neat little boxes, shouldn't each movie only get to play in one box?

Lastly, there are some seriously classic American films that didnt' show up anywhere, even in the "You Forgot" sections. This list includes (but is not limited to):
Casablanca
Boys Don't Cry
Taxi Driver
Dr. Strangelove
The Shawshank Redemption
Double Indemnity
The Silence of the Lambs
The Night of the Hunter
To miss these and probably countless other films from their list indicates that they really didn't put enough thought into this process at the outset. And then some of the blatant omissions in the categories means there will probably be a lot of outraged movie fans come Tuesday night. Oh well, at least you'll be able to ogle Jessica Alba.

Unyielding Commissioning Will Now Flog Self with The Quickness

Asleep at the switch. There's a new Bad Brains album coming out and nobody told me?!? Hot damn! The album, called Build a Nation, is due out this Tuesday. Their last effort at a reunion way back in 1995 was basically a disaster. God of Love, the album they released, was easily their worst. Frontman H.R. decked their tour manager. The remaining tourdates were canceled, and the band was done. However, checking out the "sample cuts" (each about 30 seconds long) on their myspace page, things sound extremely promising. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys handled production - not sure if that's a good thing or not, but I am excited. It appears that they only have four shows scheduled, but hopefully they will add more. Hey Dr. Know - there's still one TBD slot at Lollapalooza! Not holding my breath on that one. It's a small shame they couldn't have made their re-debut at CBGB, but I s'pose they were just a bit too late. In any event, in this era where everyone outside of the speed metal outfits appears afraid to rock hard, we need Bad Brains more than ever.

AFI loves lists! For the last nine years, the American Film Institute has been putting out High Fidelity style top 100 lists. They started with the 100 greatest films. Then they covered: Laughs, Stars, Thrills, Passions, Heroes & Villains, Songs, Movie Quotes... Now they're moving on to......the initial, 100 best movies list. Considering there are only three films released in the last ten years that made the list, I can't help but question whether this was necessary. The new list features a lot of changes, which also makes no sense. Yes, I realize it's a poll and the esteem of certain pictures can change over time, but seeing as there are some major incongruencies between the original list and this one, doesn't that harm the credibility of the entire endeavor? Obviously any lists such as these are "just for fun" and only a complete idiot would try to call one of them "definitive" or something like that. But couldn't they have done AFI's 100 Greatest Explosions? Or AFI's 100 Greatest Gunshot Wounds? Or AFI's 100 Greatest Money Shots? What? Those are films, too...

Thursday Youtube: Speaking of the want for real rock these days....


Here there be tygers.