A few things I've learned over these four years:
- Now that I've watched it while paying full attention, I recognize that Star Wars is an impressive movie for its time. For the record, though, I still don't understand the obsession.
- I'm a Hitchcock fan. All of the ones I watched fell in the LOVED category.
- Buster Keaton > Charlie Chaplin. Sorry. True.
- I'd be fine to never see another Western in my life. Generally, the plot is simple, the script is boring, and the characters are one-dimensional. I don't love all the killing, either.
- I respect the filmmakers who pay attention to whether lines or scenes enhance a movie and don't just add filler. (I'm looking at you, Singin' in the Rain.)
- Marlon Brando was a creepy, creepy man who knew how to act.
- I'm still thinking on it (it's a pretty big decision), but Casablanca may have surpassed Gone with the Wind as my favorite movie.
- A movie (e.g. Schindler's List) can affect you in a way that leaves you literally shaking, for hours.
- I wish I hadn't known the meaning of "Rosebud." I don't remember who told me, but that person sucks. Maybe I would've agreed with Citizen Kane's #1 spot had I not known that.
Overall, my movie-watching time was time well spent. There were still a handful of duds, but I discovered some amazing films I otherwise never would have seen.
Here's how they fell for me. The long list of "LOVED" and "liked" should tell you I thought this whole experience was worth it.
LOVED
- #2 The Godfather (1972)
- #3 Casablanca (1942)
- #6 Gone with the Wind (1939)
- #8 Schindler's List (1993)
- #9 Vertigo (1958)
- #10 The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- #13 Star Wars (1977)
- #14 Psycho (1960)
- #16 Sunset Boulevard (1950)
- #17 The Graduate (1967)
- #18 The General (1927)
- #20 It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
- #21 Chinatown (1974)
- #22 Some Like It Hot (1959)
- #24 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- #25 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
- #29 Double Indemnity (1944)
- #32 The Godfather: Part II (1974)
- #36 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- #40 The Sound of Music (1965)
- #42 Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
- #44 The Philadelphia Story (1940)
- #48 Rear Window (1954)
- #50 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- #55 North by Northwest (1959)
- #61 Sullivan's Travels (1941)
- #66 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- #71 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- #72 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- #75 In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- #76 Forrest Gump (1994)
- #83 Titanic (1997)
- #87 12 Angry Men (1957)
- #89 The Sixth Sense (1999)
- #91 Sophie's Choice (1982)
- #94 Pulp Fiction (1994)
- #99 Toy Story (1995)
- #100 Ben-Hur (1959)
Liked
- #1 Citizen Kane (1941)
- #4 Raging Bull (1980)
- #7 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- #11 City Lights (1931)
- #19 On the Waterfront (1954)
- #28 All About Eve (1950)
- #33 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
- #34 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
- #35 Annie Hall (1977)
- #37 The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
- #41 King Kong (1933)
- #43 Midnight Cowboy (1969)
- #46 It Happened One Night (1934)
- #47 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
- #49 Intolerance (1916)
- #51 West Side Story (1961)
- #52 Taxi Driver (1976)
- #54 MASH (1970)
- #56 Jaws (1975)
- #57 Rocky (1976)
- #58 The Gold Rush (1925)
- #62 American Graffiti (1973)
- #63 Cabaret (1972)
- #64 Network (1976)
- #65 The African Queen (1951)
- #67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
- #68 Unforgiven (1992)
- #69 Tootsie (1982)
- #70 A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- #73 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
- #74 The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- #78 Modern Times (1936)
- #80 The Apartment (1960)
- #81 Spartacus (1960)
- #82 Sunrise (1927)
- #85 A Night at the Opera (1935)
- #88 Bringing Up Baby (1938)
- #90 Swing Time (1936)
- #92 Goodfellas (1990)
- #95 The Last Picture Show (1971)
- #97 Blade Runner (1982)
Didn't Like
- #5 Singin' in the Rain (1952)
- #12 The Searchers (1956)
- #26 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
- #27 High Noon (1952)
- #30 Apocalypse Now (1979)
- #31 The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- #53 The Deer Hunter (1978)
- #59 Nashville (1975)
- #60 Duck Soup (1933)
- #77 All the President's Men (1976)
- #93 The French Connection (1971)
- #96 Do the Right Thing (1989)
- #98 Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Hated
- #15 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- #23 The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- #38 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
- #39 Dr. Strangelove (1964)
- #45 Shane (1953)
- #79 The Wild Bunch (1969)
- #84 Easy Rider (1969)
I'd like to thank AFI for putting together a pretty solid list, and I'd like to thank my husband for tolerating me spending all of this time without him. :)
http://www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx
So awesome that you did this. I would LOVE to do this someday.
ReplyDeleteDo it! If you do, I'd recommend watching from #100 to #1, and try to set some sort of schedule so it doesn't take you several years like it did for me.
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ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finishing (sorry I'm two years late to comment on this)! And I agree, having a kid makes watching these movies a bit more challenging, but kudos on completing it. I wanted to reply to your "A few things" bullet points...
ReplyDelete-Yes, Hitchcock is incredible! "North by Northwest" is in my Top 3 of all time.
-Buster Keaton was a daredevil! "The General" may have been the most impressive movie I watched on this list. I still like Chaplin, but yes, Buster Keaton needs more praise for his work.
-I could tell by how you categorized the movies you didn't really like the westerns. =o) I actually was more of the opposite: I hadn't seen many westerns before the AFI list and didn't think I'd like them, but I ended up liking most of them on this list. I think that's something neat about going through this list, is you learn more about your own tastes and preferences for movies because you have to watch a fairly eclectic assortment, including genres you may never have otherwise watched.
-I still need to re-watch "Singin' in the Rain" and blog about it, and I don't see a post by you on it, so I'm going to assume you are referring to that 10-minute long number in the middle of the movie. If so, I agree. It's weird, drawn out, and adds nothing to the plot.
-Agreed on Marlon Brando. Creepy, great actor. My wife and I have our own way to describe someone who "doesn't age well" - they're a Marlon Brando. I'll even admit he was a great looking guy in "A Streetcar Named Desire", but he kept looking worse and worse as he aged - even in "On the Waterfront", which was only 3 years later.
-I'm interested to know why "Gone With the Wind" is your favorite (or second favorite) movie. I thought it was well done, but most people I know do not like it (I think because it's not a typical romance movie with a happy ending).
-"Schindler's List" left you shaking? The movie that did that for me was "Apocalypse Now". I was literally trembling the rest of the night the first time I watched it.
-The story for "Citizen Kane" (and "Rosebud") was not nearly as impressive to me as the technical aspects of how they filmed the movie, which is why I feel it's considered the greatest of all time.
Again, congratulations, Lindsey!