I know it might be strange for me to dwell on the stupid top 100 list the AFI made last year, but it is important to take a close look at these types of lists. The original 1998 list was so important in determining what movies I watched when I started really getting into movies, and that meant sitting through disasters like Dances with Wolves and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. These lists play an important role in establishing the cinematic canon, or maybe just what people perceive to be as part of the canon.
As a result, I decided to pick the American films that I think deserved to be mentioned. Fargo was on the original list on 1998, but they decided to instead make way for such “masterpieces” as Titanic and The Sixth Sense, pop culture phenomenons rather than great films. Some of my picks aren’t so obvious, but I prefer all of the films listed below to about half of the list they put out. You might not think Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a work of art, but I’d take it over any Spielberg film (with the exception of Jaws) any day. I didn’t take into consideration any films released after 1999; they have yet to stand a test of time.
The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, 1938)
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline, 1940)
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
The Circus (Charlie Chaplin, 1928)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)
Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)
Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
The Freshman (Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1925)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997)
The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
Our Hospitality (John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton, 1923)
Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953)
Pinocchio (Walt Disney, et al. 1940)
Play It Again, Sam (Herbert Ross, 1972)
The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1968)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985)
Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)
Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954)
Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983)
Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)
Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)
Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1953)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander MacKendrick, 1957)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
Today, I revisited Sweet Smell of Success for the first time since I watched it in early 2005. The movie didn’t do much for me first time around, or maybe I was just tired, but the 1957 film noir starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster is delicious, full of despicable characters who get what they want by stabbing others in the back. Lancaster plays a powerful columnist who can make or break people with a few lines in a newspaper, and Curtis plays the press agent who does all of his dirty work. I don’t know what I was missing the first time I saw the film! Maybe the fast-talking characters were too sharp, or maybe I just wasn’t ready for a movie this biting three years ago. However, this time around, I adored the film, eating up the dialogue that is almost contemporary Shakespeare with its wit and subtle humor.
