It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!

AFI List is complete

Well, it took some time, but the AFI Top 100 has been compiled and researched just for this site (it sounds like a lot of work, but it was fun in a nerdy way).  Props to my sites of interest, www.filmsite.org and www.imdb.com.  Useful sites both.

First, you should know that the AFI compiled their list in 1998, so it doesn't account for six years of Best Pictures: American Beauty (1999), Gladiator (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Chicago (2002), Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Crash (2005).  It doesn't account for the cultural phenomena that have taken over the motion picture industry, notably the Lord of the Rings franchise among others.

When it was released, it was interesting and controversial.  The top 10 were endlessly debated, Hitchcock films had a wide representation though he never won an Oscar, there were dubious entries (like The Birth of a Nation), and a load of great movies that didn't make the list.  Yet, most people agreed that the 100 that made the list are definitely great movies.

Many of the topics that will appear in between Oscar shows will focus on these "greatest" type polls when compared to the Oscars.  I think it'll be an interesting comparison.

In the meantime - what do you think of the AFI list?  Have any thoughts?  Agreements?  Disagreements?

Re: AFI List is complete

Re: AFI List is complete

Wow.  I'm going to have to check 2002.  Because if Chicago got best picture, it was a crappy year for films.  LOTR, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Million Dollar Baby, and most definately CRASH deserve these titles.

I wasn't fond of Chicago.  And I didn't get the hype of American Beauty.   AB was a good film with good actors.   But how did it capture that spot?  It's a film that shows a subsection of Americana that seems to be promoted as this is American.   I disagree.  Not every family has a father that has his middle age crisis that causes them to return to an adolescent time of their lives.  Especially ones that think that going after underage woman and doing drugs are acceptable.   But I digress.

Re: AFI List is complete

Thanks for the discussion, Rock.  Allow me to offer some replies.

Chicago did get BP but split with Roman Polanski for Best Director for the Pianist in 2002.

Chicago was actually a stunningly filmed movie musical based on an actual stage musical.  Perhaps, it's the stage musical you don't like.  Many people find they don't like Chicago as a musical.  It's dark, gritty, and tries to make murderesses sympathetic characters.  The only redeemable character is Billy Flynn, the con-artist lawyer, because he stays consistent.  Yet, it's "All That Jazz" and other tunes like it that keep people coming back for more.  The direction the movie took as far as translation from stage to screen is why Chicago received top honors.  The best scenes are the stunning Prison Tango and Billy Flynn's over the top Razzle Dazzle Em.  It was one of the only times I enjoyed watching Richard Gere in a movie.

As to American Beauty, I will have to disagree with your perspective as to its purported self-promotion.  Disclaimer: This is one of my most favorite movies. I don't think it pretended in any way to be some sort of generalized picture of American life.  The movie itself is a satire, a dark comedy, looking at a specific cross-section of the population: middle class, White suburbia.  I don't think it ever pretended to be the portrait of a stereotype of the American family or even a stereotype of middle class, White suburbia.  Instead, the movie explores "the truth is beauty, beauty is truth" concept (explored heavily by poet John Keats), and how humans choose to look at situations through their own unique, sometimes rose-colored perspectives.  Each character in the film manifests their own perspectives of their lives and their relationships only to be turned on end by what is reality.  It's kind of also a message about looking for silver linings and not being too mired in one's own doldrums and idiosyncracies.  Or, about deceiving oneself into believing something just because someone makes you believe you have to.  There are many intricate themes explored in this movie that make it one of the most textured, most poignant films in existence.

Furthermore, I think middle class, White suburbia served as the focal point for this satire because isn't that what is rendered as the illustration of the American Dream?  The white picket fence, 2.3 children, two stall garage, and more money than one can handle: but what goes on behind that facade?  Not every picket fenced house suffers from some sort of moral disintegration, yet it's surprising just how many "normal" people you hear about on the news who have taken walks toward just those kinds of things.

Before I ramble on too much longer, I also wanted to suggest that this movie gives viewers who are not members of that sect the chance to laugh at it, and those who are members the chance to laugh at themselves because the most extreme situations occur all at the same time around these characters.  Something to ponder, anyway.

Re: AFI List is complete

You do bring up interesting points about AB.  Hence why I am on the fence about the movie.  I am not against it, I just felt it got more than it deserved.  It may also be that some of the extremes just rubbed me the wrong way.  But hey, you don't learn anything if your always comfortable.

It is probably just the musical Chicago that I didn't get into.  The cast was good and who knew that Richard Gere had a tolorable voice for singing.   I just had a hard time getting into it.  Maybe I should try again.  I am a musical fan and did play in the musical "Once Upon A Matress"  So I do have musical taste.  Maybe it was an off day.