I have a thing about movies. I love them; they're like little slices of cake. I love sitting in the theater alone or with friends watching a good story unfold on the big screen. I love curling up for a few hours with my netflix account and gettting lost in plot and character development. However, I’m sadly lacking in some basic movie knowledge. Like that poor, sad kid who HASN’T seen Empire Strikes Back at least four times, I need to correct this as soon as possible.
Because it’s been a rule of mine for years to read the novel before seeing the movie, I will stick to that here for the novels I haven’t already read. I’d hate to have to go through Gone with the Wind again. I love me some Scarlett, and Rhett is all Southern gentlemanly perfection. Plus! We meet him first in the library. Swoon… but Ashley is a damned whiney baby and….. confession time: honestly, Melanie’s death is the first time I ever remember being happy that a character died. She was insufferable (sugary sweet often ends up being sickeningly sweet). Anyways, so glad I don’t have to reread Ms. Mitchell’s best again because, by God, I swear I’d never make it through twice!!
I chose this list because I really like AFI, I adore movies, and I want to use my super awesome netflix account for something other than marathoning Buffy while grading papers.
The Plan: The deal is to watch the list in reverse order and write some sort of review or bulleted list of impressions about each film as I come to it. After all, the thought process isn’t complete without some sort of articulation. I’ll also link back to this post to cross out titles as I finish them. (Makes me feel like I’m getting something done. And, I really like lists.)
So here’s the movie list. I’ve bolded the ones that I’ve already seen, italicized the ones that were novels first and starred the novels that I’ve already read. If I’ve seen it and read the novel, I feel ok skipping it in the list. Same thing goes for non-novel movies as well.
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy
99. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner –sadly, not the version with Ashton
98. Unforgiven
97. Bringing Up Baby
96. The Searchers
95. Pulp Fiction
94. Goodfellas –pretty excited about this one actually
93. The Apartment
92. A Place in the Sun
91. My Fair Lady –Kim will be happy about this one
90. The Jazz Singer
89. Patton
88. Easy Rider
87. Frankenstein*
86. Mutiny on the Bounty
85. Duck Soup
84. Fargo
83. Platoon
82. Giant
81. Modern Times
80. The Wild Bunch
79. The Deer Hunter- not looking forward to this one
78. Rocky
77. American Graffiti- love me some non-prequel Lucas
76. City Lights
75. Dances with Wolves
74. The Gold Rush
73. Wuthering Heights*
72. Ben-Hur
71. Forrest Gump
70. The French Connection
69. Shane
68. An American in Paris
67. The Manchurian Candidate
66. Network
65. The Silence of the Lambs*
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
63. Stagecoach
62. Tootsie
61. Vertigo
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark- it hurts my feelings that this is so far down on the list.
59. Rebel Without a Cause
58. Fantasia
57. The Third Man
56. MASH
55. The Sound of Music- really the sound of me groaning. Ew.
54. All Quiet on the Western Front
53. Amadeus
52. From Here to Eternity
51. The Philadelphia Story
50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
49. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves- Agreed. Doc, who’s obvi been to med school, does NOT belong in a cottage in the woods. What is he doing with his life?
48. Jaws
47. Taxi Driver
46. A Clockwork Orange
45. A Streetcar Named Desire
44. The Birth of a Nation
43. King Kong
42. Rear Window
41. West Side Story*
40. North by Northwest
39. Dr. Zhivago
38. Double Indemnity
37. The Best Years of Our Lives
36. Midnight Cowboy
35. It Happened One Night
34. To Kill a Mockingbird*
33. High Noon
32. The Godfather Part II
31. Annie Hall- stoked about this one
30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
28. Apocalypse Now*- Mistuh Kurtz, Mistuh Kurtz!! I’ve already read this one. YAY!
27. Bonnie and Clyde
26. Dr. Strangelove
25. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
24. Raging Bull
23. The Maltese Falcon
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey*
21. The Grapes of Wrath
20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
19. China Town
18. Psycho
17. The African Queen
16. All About Eve
15. Star Wars- how did this not crack the top ten??
14. Some Like It Hot
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai
12. Sunset Boulevard
11. It’s a Wonderful Life
10. Singin’ in the Rain
9. Schindler’s List
8. On the Waterfront
7. The Graduate
6. The Wizard of Oz*
5. Lawrence of Arabia
4. Gone with the Wind*
3. The Godfather*
2. Casablanca
1. Citizen Kane – damn Rosebud
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