Top 100 Films: Take 2
I compiled my first Top 100 film list over 2 years ago now. Since then I've seen many many more films and also rewatched lots of the films on the list, some of which I'd not seen since I was 19 -- they were due some reappraisal. So here's my revised and fully updated list. As you'll see this is very much an "update" rather than a completely new list and I've not commented on some of the films that featured last time, so if you're unfamiliar with the old list I'd recommend having it open in a tab alongside this one. All I've done here is inserted the new entries into the list and provided a little comment for each one to justify its inclusion. Some films have changed position from last time, in those cases I've also noted what the position was (in brackets after the title), if there's been a big move in places I'll also give a brief explanation for why. A bit no frills, I guess, but nothing else is required.
From a personal point of view, it's quite interesting to see how my tastes have developed and changed. In general there's been a shift away from films featuring the big 70s actors who I've traditionally idolised -- Pacino, De Niro, Nicholson, Hoffman -- to films without any real stars, which runs parallel to a turn from Hollywood realism to gritty low-budget horror films and the works of "aeuters" like David Lynch. There are also a lot more British films. The biggest slide down the list from the original 100 is Return of the Jedi, which has fallen 57 places from 26 last time to 83 now: I've just gone off Star Wars a bit that's all. Other big fallers include Kramer vs. Kramer (down 52 places), Crimes and Misdemeanours (down 38 places), Pulp Fiction (down 36 places), and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (down 29 places) -- I have my reasons, but it is mainly down to the changing tastes I've just told you about. The highest climber is Sexy Beast, which has risen 38 places from 93 to 55: I can't get enough of Sir Ben Kingsley in that film!
It's probably worth mentioning here as well that not a single film breached the top ten, which remains unchanged; the highest new entry was at number 12. I think the actual ranking of a particular film is less important than its actual inclusion because from 59 (that's Big) on there's very very little to choose between the films for me -- they are all films I'd happily watch at any time, all films that have a je ne sais quoi that in my mind set them apart from all others, which is to say the difference in quality between a film at 45 and 25 is negligible.
As was inevitable, there are quite a few casualties that had to make way for new entries. I've listed them here along with their position in the first list:
OUT
24. Fight Club
29. A Very Long Engagement
38. The Shawshank Redemption
40. Seven
42. Million Dollar Baby
50. The Deer Hunter
53. The 400 Blows
56. All The President's Men
58. Don't Look Back
60. Rear Window
63. The Graduate
64. Terms of Endearment
65. The Life of Brian
68. Apocalypse Now
69. Love, Honour and Obey
72. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
74. Amelie
76. Under Milk Wood
78. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)
79. Batman
80. The Return
81. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
82. Marathon Man
83. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
84. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
85. Me and You and Everyone We Know
88. Psycho
89. Rosemary's Baby
92. The Matrix
94. Silence of the Lambs
96. The Departed
97. Carlito's Way
98. To Kill a Mocking Bird
99. Sideways
100. The Prestige
The vast majority of these were "shunted down" and pushed off the list that way. However, there are a few films here that, after rewatching them, I felt I overrated last time. The biggest of these was Fight Club, which must have really impressed me when I was younger but seems trite, obvious, didactic and clunky to me now. Neither the initial deconstruction of materialist-consumerist culture nor the more subtle point that in trying to battle such a culture Tyler simply reproduces it (branding, the commidification of the individual etc.) can save the film from the charge that nothing it says is particularly new or profround. Worse still, little can save it from the further charge of pseudo-intellectualism; Flight Club is a film for people who have never read any philosophy -- it is at best post-modern trash with cool editing. That lead me to take another look at Seven and, similarly, it seems I overestimated David Fincher's work. His best film is probably Zodiac, to be honest (and, no, it's not on the list). Million Dollar Baby was also massively overrated at 42, it's not bad or anything just undeserving of a place on the list. Although I must say that like everyone else who has seen Gran Torino, I LOVE old Clint; I'm a big fan of Unforgiven and all. I've fallen out of love with The Shawshank Redemption, which is ironic because Frank Darabont's latest film is the highest new entry in the updated list. I rewatched the two Python movies and am ashamed to say that I sat through them stony faced -- I didn't laugh once -- perhaps something in me has died. Putting Revenge of the Sith at 72 last time was stupid. On reflection, Marathon Man is not that good either. And I now understand why Halliwell's is so harsh on The Deer Hunter. You'll notice three French films there -- Amelie, A Very Long Engagement and The 400 Blows -- have gone, I put that down to a general turn in my demeanour, which is to say that, like most of the films listed above, they remain excellent I just prefer other films to them now ... here they are:
On to the new Top 100
I compiled my first Top 100 film list over 2 years ago now. Since then I've seen many many more films and also rewatched lots of the films on the list, some of which I'd not seen since I was 19 -- they were due some reappraisal. So here's my revised and fully updated list. As you'll see this is very much an "update" rather than a completely new list and I've not commented on some of the films that featured last time, so if you're unfamiliar with the old list I'd recommend having it open in a tab alongside this one. All I've done here is inserted the new entries into the list and provided a little comment for each one to justify its inclusion. Some films have changed position from last time, in those cases I've also noted what the position was (in brackets after the title), if there's been a big move in places I'll also give a brief explanation for why. A bit no frills, I guess, but nothing else is required.
From a personal point of view, it's quite interesting to see how my tastes have developed and changed. In general there's been a shift away from films featuring the big 70s actors who I've traditionally idolised -- Pacino, De Niro, Nicholson, Hoffman -- to films without any real stars, which runs parallel to a turn from Hollywood realism to gritty low-budget horror films and the works of "aeuters" like David Lynch. There are also a lot more British films. The biggest slide down the list from the original 100 is Return of the Jedi, which has fallen 57 places from 26 last time to 83 now: I've just gone off Star Wars a bit that's all. Other big fallers include Kramer vs. Kramer (down 52 places), Crimes and Misdemeanours (down 38 places), Pulp Fiction (down 36 places), and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (down 29 places) -- I have my reasons, but it is mainly down to the changing tastes I've just told you about. The highest climber is Sexy Beast, which has risen 38 places from 93 to 55: I can't get enough of Sir Ben Kingsley in that film!
It's probably worth mentioning here as well that not a single film breached the top ten, which remains unchanged; the highest new entry was at number 12. I think the actual ranking of a particular film is less important than its actual inclusion because from 59 (that's Big) on there's very very little to choose between the films for me -- they are all films I'd happily watch at any time, all films that have a je ne sais quoi that in my mind set them apart from all others, which is to say the difference in quality between a film at 45 and 25 is negligible.
As was inevitable, there are quite a few casualties that had to make way for new entries. I've listed them here along with their position in the first list:
OUT
24. Fight Club
29. A Very Long Engagement
38. The Shawshank Redemption
40. Seven
42. Million Dollar Baby
50. The Deer Hunter
53. The 400 Blows
56. All The President's Men
58. Don't Look Back
60. Rear Window
63. The Graduate
64. Terms of Endearment
65. The Life of Brian
68. Apocalypse Now
69. Love, Honour and Obey
72. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
74. Amelie
76. Under Milk Wood
78. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)
79. Batman
80. The Return
81. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
82. Marathon Man
83. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
84. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
85. Me and You and Everyone We Know
88. Psycho
89. Rosemary's Baby
92. The Matrix
94. Silence of the Lambs
96. The Departed
97. Carlito's Way
98. To Kill a Mocking Bird
99. Sideways
100. The Prestige
The vast majority of these were "shunted down" and pushed off the list that way. However, there are a few films here that, after rewatching them, I felt I overrated last time. The biggest of these was Fight Club, which must have really impressed me when I was younger but seems trite, obvious, didactic and clunky to me now. Neither the initial deconstruction of materialist-consumerist culture nor the more subtle point that in trying to battle such a culture Tyler simply reproduces it (branding, the commidification of the individual etc.) can save the film from the charge that nothing it says is particularly new or profround. Worse still, little can save it from the further charge of pseudo-intellectualism; Flight Club is a film for people who have never read any philosophy -- it is at best post-modern trash with cool editing. That lead me to take another look at Seven and, similarly, it seems I overestimated David Fincher's work. His best film is probably Zodiac, to be honest (and, no, it's not on the list). Million Dollar Baby was also massively overrated at 42, it's not bad or anything just undeserving of a place on the list. Although I must say that like everyone else who has seen Gran Torino, I LOVE old Clint; I'm a big fan of Unforgiven and all. I've fallen out of love with The Shawshank Redemption, which is ironic because Frank Darabont's latest film is the highest new entry in the updated list. I rewatched the two Python movies and am ashamed to say that I sat through them stony faced -- I didn't laugh once -- perhaps something in me has died. Putting Revenge of the Sith at 72 last time was stupid. On reflection, Marathon Man is not that good either. And I now understand why Halliwell's is so harsh on The Deer Hunter. You'll notice three French films there -- Amelie, A Very Long Engagement and The 400 Blows -- have gone, I put that down to a general turn in my demeanour, which is to say that, like most of the films listed above, they remain excellent I just prefer other films to them now ... here they are:
On to the new Top 100