AFI's new Top 100: Shawshank, Spartacus in, Patton, Fargo out

Just to broaden the debate further, here's the Top 30 from a late-90s compendium of top lists, irrespective of the film's national origin (it includes Sight & Sound's lists):

1. Citizen Kane
2. Rules of the Game (J. Renoir, dir.)
3. Vertigo
4. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
4. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
6. Singin' In The Rain
7. Gold Rush, The (Chaplin)
8. City Lights (Chaplin)
8. L'Avventura (Antonioni)
10. Schindler's List
11. The Searchers
12. 2001: A Space Odyssey
13. Bicycle Thief
14. Annie Hall
15. Greed (von Stroheim)
16. On The Waterfront
17. Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
18. All About Eve
19. The Magnificent Ambersons
20. The Best Years of Our Lives
21. West Side Story
22. Intolerance
22. L'Atalante (Vigo)
22. Persona (Bergman)
25. Casablanca
26. Amadeus
26. The Godfather
28. Gone With The Wind
29. Lawrence of Arabia
30. Ugetsu Monogatari (Mizoguchi)

 

Fuck Fellini

 

Somehow, I just knew - just knew - Brokeback Mountain would be inserted into the mix. Cooler heads prevailed, I see.

 

An example: The scene where Kane dies and the snow globe rolls off the bed and then the nurse enters and is filmed through the upended snow globe. It's impressive filmmaking. But I don't think even Orson Welles thought it was going to get more teens into the movie theater.

So, technically, the film is outstanding. As entertainment it's not everyone's cup of tea. It's not my favorite.

 

Madness?

When did we start talking about buiding a bridge on the Kwai River?

 

Or, the director might say, it wasn't made to appeal to a mass audience. And that's OK.

 

Is Caddyshack in your list?

 

Nice.

 

OK, what about a sports top-10? I know this probably has been discussed here before, and I don't really care.

My top sports flicks off the top of my head and not in any order

Oh, no remakes make this list.

Caddyshack
Bang the Drum Slowly
Hoosiers
Fast Break*
Seabiscuit
The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh*
The Natural
All the Right Moves*
Pride of the Yankees
Cinderella Man
Raging Bull
North Dallas 40*
Longest Yard
Bad News Bears
Slap Shot
Mystery, Alaska*


There are a lot I have not seen so that is why they might not be on this list.

* - they are not in the top-10, but they are worth thinking about.

 

Bull Durham?

Rocky?

 

You mean they change the top 100? How the hell am I ever going to see all of them if they keep changing it?

 

Major League?