AFI 100
I surfed into the American Film Institute's 10th anniversary update of its "100 Years... 100 Movies" last night. That only American films were showcased made it easier for me since that's pretty much all I watch.
I love movies and I'm a sucker for these kind of "Top 100" rankings. Not only does it give me ideas for movies I must see but it's so much fun to disagree with the results. For instance, the number one movie, "Citizen Kane", is great. But I could easily put either the 2nd or 3rd place movie, "The Godfather" and "Casablanca", ahead of it. I'd put "Some Like It Hot" and "Unforgiven" much higher.
My biggest gripe with the list is that "The Sixth Sense" is on the list at all, depriving a spot to 2 much better movies that were bumped off from the original list: "Fargo" and "Patton". (Bruce Willis can't open the basement door! Hello!?! He's dead! I had that figured out right away. Dumb movie.) There are only 6 movies in the top 50 I haven't seen; out of the 100, I've seen 76 of them.
I credit my mother and Bill Kennedy at the Movies for my love of American films. Bill was a two-bit actor who had roles in a few B-movies back in the '50s. He hosted an afternoon movie six days a week on Detroit's channel 50 when I was a teenager living in Michigan back in the '70s. He was kind of funny-looking and effete. By the time I was watching him, he was a Hollywood has-been living in Southfield. I thought he was ancient. But Bill Kennedy had an incredible memory and was just an amazing font of Hollywood legend and lore. He knew the stories behind everything. Mother and I would watch Bill together every Sunday, laugh at his delivery, enjoy the movie, and talk about it till the next movie rolled around. Thanks to Bill and my mother, the movies I saw as a teen were so much better than the fare teens view today.
Anyway... as a result of AFI's 10th anniversary list, there are nine more movies in my Netflix queue.
The complete list of AFI's "100 Years... 100 Movies" I've yet to see appears after the jump.
K-
AFI's Top 100 Films Not Yet Seen by Kem White
11. "City Lights," 1931.
12. "The Searchers," 1956.
18. "The General," 1927.
43. "Midnight Cowboy," 1969.
44. "The Philadelphia Story," 1940.
49. "Intolerance," 1916.
51. "West Side Story," 1961.
58. "The Gold Rush," 1925.
61. "Sullivan's Travels," 1941.
62. "American Graffiti," 1973.
63. "Cabaret," 1972.
67. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", 1966.
71. "Saving Private Ryan," 1998.
77. "All the President's Men," 1976.
78. "Modern Times," 1936.
79. "The Wild Bunch," 1969.
80. "The Apartment, 1960.
81. "Spartacus," 1960.
82. "Sunrise," 1927.
85. "A Night at the Opera," 1935.
88. "Bringing Up Baby," 1938.
90. "Swing Time," 1936.
94. "Pulp Fiction," 1994.
98. "Yankee Doodle Dandy," 1942.
I caught bits of that broadcast, too. Kinda wish I'd taken the time to watch it all. I agree with you on Sixth Sense and Unforgiven but I have never been all that enamored with Some Like It Hot. I've seen eleven of your "not yet seen" list (43, 44, 62, 63, 71, 77, 81, 85, 88, 94, 98), some several times. I saw Cabaret as a teenager when it came out and then again last year. The difference in perspective from seeing it at 15 or 16 and then again at 49 was just amazing to me. Safe to say I didn't really get it the first time. Some of those are amazing movies, Kem. Try to see them.