dispatches from quilt city

AFI's Top 100

Remember a while ago when I happily announced that I'd finished watching all the movies on the AFI's Top 100 list. Well, apparently I took way too long to complete it because the list just celebrated it's 10th anniversary by ... CHANGING THE LIST!

I mean seriously. We all know I have no choice but to complete it again. Of course I'd say I'd seen about 1/5 of the last list when I started. This time I only have about 1/10 to see so that's good. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, let's go over the ones from the list I watched for no reason, because they got dropped.

Doctor Zhivago
Birth of a Nation....I can't believe I sat through 4 hours of silent racism for nothing
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
From Here to Eternity...Fell asleep three times while watching it.
Amadeus
All Quiet on the Western Front...A bit disappointing, I really enjoyed this one.
The Third Man
Fantasia
Rebel Without a Cause
Stage Coach
The Manchurian Candidate...I guess Angela Lansbury's performance wasn't enough
An American in Paris
Wuthering Heights
Dances with Wolves
Giant
Fargo
Mutiny on the Bounty...Again, I really enjoyed this one so I'm sad it got dropped.
Frankenstein
The Jazz Singer
My Fair Lady
Patton
A Place in the Sun
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...This one is probably the one I feel most strongly about. It's amazing and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey are beyond compare in this film.

My emotions are a little torn by most of these. In some ways, I'm like, "Yeah, that movie sucked kick it to the curb!" but then I think, "Wait, what did I watch that crap for!?!"

Anyway, on to the new additions, I thought the films added would be films from the last ten years but only four or five were. They added several silent films, which I thought I was done with. Overall, the new films I haven't seen are ones I've wanted to see anyway, like Twelve Angry Men and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Here's my new list:
Blade Runner
Swing Time
12 Angry Men
A Night at the Opera
Sunrise
Spartacus
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Cabaret
Sullivan's Travels
Intolerance
The General

Another interesting part of the new list were the movies that moved either up or down the list. The movie that climbed the most was The Searchers, which went from 96 to 12. I have to say I'm a little confused by this. I don't remember being particularly impressed by this film. I didn't hate it but I wasn't overwhelmed.

The movie that dropped the most was The African Queen, which went from 17 to 65. This has to be the ultimate vindication for Nicholas. He hated The African Queen, really hated it. Every time we talk about old movies with other people he goes on and on about how much he hates them and he invariably uses African Queen as an example. I liked it but I like anything with Katharine Hepburn so I'm probably not objective.

So, I guess I'm off to update my Netflix list! :)