Three Way News: Ooo, everybody loves lists!

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Ooo, everybody loves lists!

This is the sort of thing Libby Mae would usually post but I am ~~snapping it up before she gets a chance~~ bearing the burden for her so that she might have time for other projects.

Time Magazine this week has its list of the 100 Best Movies and while all of these lists leave something to be desired I think this one is a little weaker than most. Of course the only reason magazines print things like this is to sell a few extra copies and no one should take them too seriously. Still, the fun of these is the debate that ensues among movie fans so let me say that I am outraged, OUTRAGED I tell you, over what this list gets wrong!

Barry Lyndon but not 2001? A ton of foreign films but not La Dolce Vita? I liked Talk to Her as much as the next guy but top 100? No way. Same goes for Miller's Crossing. A fine film but not even the Coen brothers' best work, which of course would be Fargo or Raising Arizona, neither of which make the list. (And if anyone, especially if they have the initials D.R., is thinking Barton Fink at this point I darn well expect to see a persuasive argument in the comments section.)

And where is Robert Altman? Hello? M*A*S*H, Nashville? Or better yet McCabe & Mrs. Miller which should make any top 10 list let alone top 100.

I'll end the criticism there so there is something left for others to dig into (like, say Jaws?) and mention there were a few non-obvious films I was pleasantly surprised to see. Lord of the Rings and Blade Runner for example, films that tend to not make these lists due to genre bias more than anything. And also Hard Day's Night (the Jamboettes' favorite film, really) which might not really be in the top 100 but is still pretty darn cool 40 years on.

19 Comments:

i don't see bull durham on this list. clearly, the list if flawed beyond repair.
ari

By Anonymous, at 6:41 PM

Good point. BD is a great, if light weight, movie. If the top 100 was made up entirely of high culture art house films I could see leaving it out but since they seemed to find room for a good number of "popular" films that is one for which a good case could be made.

By Jambo, at 7:00 PM

Until the critics realize that Citizen Kane, for all its technical merits, is a bloated, slow-motion trainwreck of a movie, I suggest we all ignore these lists.

By Hammer, at 7:30 AM

especially when shakes the clown and office space arent on the list.

By Anonymous, at 8:02 AM

It's just critics engaged in mutual masturbation. "Ooh, look at all the foreign films I saw!"

As MTX sang years ago:
know words like "sobriquet," "malaise" and "plutocrat."
And I compare the Shaggs to Wittgenstein--
how cool is that?
Oh, you don't? I didn't think you would.
Aren't my references out of control? Sometimes I even stump myself,
but it's all in my book about rock and roll.

I wrote a book about rock and roll
I wrote a book about rock and roll
rock and roll is in my soul
so I wrote a book about rock and roll

hey yeah yeah, rock and roll

if you start doubting me
there's something you should see
take a look at these
thousands of CDs
no one has more than me
and I got all of them for free

By Hammer, at 8:09 AM

Any list that does not include Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein is taking its self a little too seriously. Kudos though for including LoTR and Blade Runner. And Jambo must be despondent that Almost Famous didn't make the cut.

By Anonymous, at 10:13 AM

tiny dancer

By Anonymous, at 10:15 AM

Ach, it's just a list by 2 guys who have seen a lot of movies. It deserves no more credibility than you would normally give any 2 guys on the street.

By Hammer, at 10:43 AM

Of course. It's just a good excuse for other people (in this case us) to rant about what should and shouldn't be on the list. I like a good excuse for a rant.

By Jambo, at 11:04 AM

Yes, I am disappointed about Almost Famous. Whether it is to ones particular musical tastes or not it is a very well told story with some great performances. Crowe is a huge Billy Wilder fan and it really shows in AF. Tho I guess I can see why it doesn't make the "Top 100" even if it makes my top 10. Now Jaws on the other hand...

And what about foreign films? People sometimes complain when these lists contain too many of them but I wonder if maybe there should actually be more, even if I've (we've) never seen them. I think it is pretty arrogant to think that America has made, say, 98% of the best films and the rest of the world combined has only come up with 2%.

I have a member of my family who has the exact opposite kind of arrogance who claims that almost all American movies are inferior to foreign films. We have had a long running battle over Jaws which he refuses to even watch claiming it is just some stupid American blockbuster piece of crap. I have told him for years that if it were a black and white German film called Dos Shark he would be all over it.

By Jambo, at 11:28 AM

2 guys making a list of movies...

Sounds a lot like 3 people making political opinions. You should sell this shit.

By Anonymous, at 12:18 PM

Hollywood hasn't made 98% of all movies, Hollywood dominates internationally. Didn't Revenge of the Sith due huge international business opening weekend, too?
I think international films tend be to be overrepresented in such lists, because the critics who make the lists want to demonstrate their erudition.

By Hammer, at 12:18 PM

2 guys making a list of movies...
Sounds a lot like 3 people making political opinions. You should sell this shit.
If only we could find buyers.

Don't know how serious you are, but I would be happy if anyone took my opinions are seriously as some people take Ebert or Roeper.

By Hammer, at 12:20 PM

Even I don't take Hammer's opinions as seriously as I take Ebert's! And I usually agree with him.

By Jambo, at 3:17 PM

I'm with you on Jaws, Jambo. That scene in the boat that starts out with Hooper and Quint comparing scars, then turns deadly serious and scary with Quint's WWII story, is one of my all-time favorites. I've read that Robert Shaw wrote that whole speech himself.

One of the few cases where the movie is better than the book. Wizard of Oz is another.

By Joseph Thvedt, at 5:54 PM

I have contended for years that that is one of the best movie scenes of all time. I love everything about it; the singing, Brody looking at his appendectomy scar before thinking better of bringing it up, the way Quint says "my third wife's dimeeeze", Hooper's line "Mary Ellen Moffet. She broke my heart." and the way he turns 180 degrees when he hears Quint mention the USS Indianapolis. And then Quint's story itself. Man! If there is a better original monologue in modern film I don't know what it is.

By Jambo, at 12:28 AM

Libby Mae's audition in Waiting for Guffman. Best. Monologue. Ever.

By Hammer, at 8:08 AM

I don't remember it so I'll have ot go back and watch it again to be sure, but I'm going to go ahead and say, ah, no.

By Jambo, at 10:54 AM

The out take is better than the version in the film. All improvised, of course.

By Hammer, at 10:57 AM