#23 See the top 10 movies on the AFI list… (soon to be) DONE!
I feel bad that it’s taken me so long to blog about this particular goal, but I’ve had a heck of a time trying to get hold of a copy of The Godfather. We finally broke down and signed up for a Netflix account (we were going to anyway), so the first movie on our list is The Godfather. We’re expecting it in our mailbox any day now. 
If you’re unfamiliar with the AFI or their famous “list” …
in 1998 the American Film Institute began a series called “100 Years…” in which they cataloged cinematic milestones from the 1890′s to present day. The first list they created was called “100 Years… 100 Movies,” which listed the best American movies as evaluated by the AFI’s 1500-member panel. Over the next ten years, AFI released several more top 100 lists such as “100 Stars,” “100 Songs,” and “100 Movie Quotes.”Now, in 2007 the AFI released a second top-100-films list that they referred to as their 10th Anniversary Edition, which considered films released in the last ten years and took “changing cultural perspectives” into account. (If you ask me, though, some disgruntled Hitchcock fan came up with the idea. Ha ha.)
So that’s the history.
Having studied film in college, I had the chance to learn more about the history of filmmaking as well as some of the standout films of the mid-20th century. There were several films, though, that were ranked very highly by the AFI that I had yet to see. So between an interest in learning more about what made these films so great and a desire to have “WHAT? You’ve never seen <insert monumental film here>?!” comments go away, I set out to make sure I as least had the top ten films under my belt.
When I made my 25 Steps list, I planned to use the only best-100-films list in existence, but the 2007 list came about midway through my process, leaving me with a slight dilemma. Since there were only minor discrepancies between the two top-ten lists, I decided to tackle the films on both lists:
While I certainly enjoyed some of the films more than others (ok, make that WAY more than others), I’m glad to have seen them all and to be able to talk intelligently about them with others. I encourage everyone to seek out films like these to view, based on their significance, but here’s a brief rundown on how I felt about these movies.
Everyone should see:
Citizen Kane (because it’s #1)
Casablanca
Schindler’s List
I also enjoyed viewing:
Gone With the Wind
Singin’ In the Rain
The Wizard of Oz
The Graduate
On The Waterfront
Vertigo
Don’t feel obligated to watch:
Lawrence of Arabia
Raging Bull
Note: I’ll rank The Godfather soon!
View the full 1998 or 2007 AFI lists here (as well as all of the more specific lists they released in between).
An interesting side-by-side chart of the 1998 and 2007 top-100 lists can be found at Wikipedia.
