The good news: I've now seen 83 of the AFI top 100 movies, which brings my "grade" to a solid B. My new goal is to bring my score into the mid 90s and lock down the A.
The bad news: I feel like I'm getting to the point of diminishing returns with this project. I saw five movies that I hadn't seen before and of those two were good and three were pretty slow going.
What I Saw This Week
Sophie's Choice. This was one of the movies on my "I haven't seen it and I never want to" list. I thought it would be overwhelmingly sad and I struggle to get excited about Meryl Streep. I'm not sure why since she's been terrific in everything that I've ever seen her in.
Surprise #1: a very young Kevin Kline and an even younger Peter MacNicol! I haven't watched Ally McBeal since the early 2000's but he was still fresh in my mind.
Surprise #2: I got completely engrossed in this movie from the start. Yes it's sad but it is very watchable.
Summary: I wouldn't say that this movie was a pleasure to watch, but it was very good.
M*A*S*H*. The only reason that I can think of for this movie being on the list is that it was revolutionary for its time. I couldn't get into it and let it play out in the background.
Jaws - loved it! #1 of the five movies that I saw this week.
Shane. I'm not a fan of westerns and Shane currently stands as my least favorite movie that I saw this week and my least favorite AFI movie that I've seen in the past few weeks. This movie's only saving grace was that it's the origin of Taxi Driver's "you talkin' to me?" (about 50 seconds into this clip).
Raging Bull. I wanted to like it, but came up dry. If I had it to do all over again I would have watched Rocky II in its place. To answer Unspooled's question about does the list really need to have three Scorsese/DeNiro movies on it, my official answer is no. If I get a vote we're keeping Taxi Driver and ditching Raging Bull. Goodfellas is up for a vote.
Unspooled Podcasts that I Heard this Week
Psycho: they love it, I love it, and I can't wait to rewatch it. They make the statement that it's the first movie to show a toilet. I agree that it's "the first movie that I know of to show the inside of a toilet bowl" but I can't let that statement go unchallenged.
- A toilet is shown in 1928's The Crowd (picture and reddit thread here). We get to see it in the background and a few scenes later it won't stop running so we get details of the tank as the hero tries to fix it.
- We get to hear a toilet flush in Lady Killer when James Cagney has a fight in the men's room.
I'm sure there are other examples, but those are the two that come to mind.
The African Queen: on my rewatch list. One thing that they always try to do is to find an example when the Simpsons made a reference to each of the movies on this list, and this is only the 2nd time out of the 25 shows I've heard where they couldn't do it. The closest they found was an episode where someone does a Humphrey Bogart imitation (the other miss was Swingtime, where the closest match was an Astaire Rogers song from another movie). I'm due for a rewatch on this.
Duck Soup: I will definitely be rewatching this.
What's Next
Here are the 17 movies that I have left to see from the AFI list and my thoughts/predictions. I've listed them in the order that they're coming up on Unspooled, which is my tentative watch order. In reality I've been doing them in order of what I want to see/what's on streaming.
Clockwork Orange - this is the one movie on the list that I'm not convinced that I will see, for the reason that it's really long and from what I've read it seems likely to be upsetting. For sure I will wait until I hear the Unspooled episode which will be later this week. It doesn't sound like something that I'd want to watch when the kids are around, so I might end up watching it in bits and pieces on my laptop.
Schindler's List - I think it will be upsetting but I also think that it will be a good movie and that I'll be glad that I saw it.
The Searchers - Western/predicted snooze.
Unforgiven - eh, it will probably be something of a snooze but I trust Clint Eastwood to give me a good movie.
The Last Picture Show - I don't know anything about this movie, no prediction.
Saving Private Ryan - based on my success with the other war movies on this list I predict that I will like it.
All the President's Men - predicted snooze.
The Silence of the Lambs - I think this will be good.
Toy Story - I think it will be good but not amazing.
The Deer Hunter - don't know much about it, I'm predicting somewhat disturbing but good.
Nashville - I don't know anything about this movie, no prediction.
Spartacus - predicted snooze.
Forrest Gump - I predict that I will like it and that my long standing prejudice against this movie because it was overhyped will turn out to be unjustified.
The Wild Bunch - Western/predicted snooze.
Easy Rider - I don't know anything about this movie, no prediction.
Bridge on the River Kwai - based on the Certain Starting Place review (YouTube link here) I think it will be on the snoozy side.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Western/predicted snooze.
Whether I end up watching all 100 movies is now a matter of whether I end up seeing A Clockwork Orange and my tolerance for letting the Westerns play out in the background while I do other things. Stay tuned!
There's no rush and I most likely won't keep watching 4-5 movies a week like I've been doing, but as you can probably tell I've gotten really, really into this project so that's where the momentum is coming from.
Has anyone seen A Clockwork Orange? Thoughts?
I have not seen A Clockwork Orange, but it was talked about in my films classes...I think it has a bit of a psychological tilt to it? (That's all speculation on my part). Wow, you have not seen Forest Gump? or Toy Story? (both are great!!!) We saw Nashville (again, college film class)...personally, I was not thrilled. Schindler's List....beautifully done, but many, many horrific images. But, it depicts history, which is why it's a good film to see so we can make sure it never happens again.
ReplyDeleteYes, the number one thing that I've gotten by exploring the top 100 list is to fill in some of my movie gaps. I'm looking forward to Forest Gump and Toy Story.
DeleteGreat progress on AFI project!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that you can even remember which early movie had the sound of a flushing toilet. That hilarious!
I've never seen Clockwork Orange. I just read some reviews about it...it seems that if you can digest the disturbing scenes everybody really likes it. I'll be interested to know what you think after you've watched it!
Yes, toilets were a bit unusual in the early days, so they kind of stand out. I ripped the bandaid off an watched Clockwork this week. I helped myself out by skipping and/or looking away from the disturbing bits.
DeleteThe weirdest thing is I think we watched Clockwork Orange in high school- and I remember it being very violent.
ReplyDeleteForrest Gump- you can't imagine how many people still call me "Jenny" in a Forrest Gump voice (which you'll understand if you watch the movie) and they all think it's hilarious.
Sophie's Choice- I saw it in the theater when it first comes out, and the scene with the "choice" haunts me to this day.
You're a trooper if you make it through all of these!
Yikes! I cannot imagine watching Clockwork in high school. I gave myself the luxury of skipping the violent/upsetting parts.
DeleteOK, ready to laugh uncontrollably? I found the checklist of the 10th anniversary edition of the top 100. I've seen... 16.
ReplyDeleteYeah... your list of "not watched" is essentially the same as my "watched" list!
(You can stop laughing now!)
I am so impressed by your passion for good film - and for old and classic film. Clearly, it's never been a passion of mine, and I only hit 16 because I watched more movies as a kid / teen. I've never been into the classics, really, and only watched some because of friends / people I was dating. I really don't watch many movies anymore - I don't subscribe to cable, streaming, or other services, and my priority for my (rapidly decreasing) free time is reading, so... don't see that changing any time soon!
If it makes you feel better, I've seen 13 of them! I would rather watch Dirty Dancing for the millionth time than dig into some of these. I'm so impressed with people who watch all of them!
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