Obsessed With Film

Posted by Matt Holmes

The AFI have released their movie list for 2008 and it’s the Top 10 movies by 10 Classic Genre’s (which shockingly doesn’t include the horror film).

ANIMATION

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
2. Pinocchio (1940)
3. Bambi (1942)
4. The Lion King (1994)
5. Fantasia (1940)
6. Toy Story (1995)
7. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
8. Shrek (2001)
9. Cinderella (1950)
10. Finding Nemo (2003)

Shrek and Finding Nemo over The Incredibles and The Iron Giant? No thanks… and apart from it’s cinematic importance I don’t really think Fantasia is all that good a movie. And boy did The Jungle Book get screwed here.

FANTASY

1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
3. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
4. King Kong (1933)
5. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
6. Field of Dreams (1989)
7. Harvey (1950)
8. Groundhog Day (1993)
9. The Thief of Baghdad (1924)
10. Big (1988)

Strange genre to try and define, there’s a few movies on there that I wouldn’t have classified as a fantasy. Nice to see The Thief of Baghdad make the list, I wonder if it had anything to do with the new renewed interest from the recent Criterion release?

GANGSTER 

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. Goodfellas (1990)
3. The Godfather Part II (1974)
4. White Heat (1949)
5. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
6. Scarface (1932)
7. Pulp Fiction (1994)
8. The Public Enemy (1931)
9. Little Caesar (1930)
10. Scarface (1983)

Scarface twice? Good call.

SCIENCE FICTION

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
3. E.T. (1982)
4. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
5. The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
6. Blade Runner (1982)
7. Alien (1979)
8. Terminator 2 (1991)
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
10. Back to the Future (1985)

2001 has a massive respect in the industry these days, unsuprisingly topping yet another list. A Clockwork Orange is clearly not a science fiction movie… The Empire Strikes Back is a huge loss here and Close Encounters is quinetessential to any list for this genre I feel.

And I would class Back to the Future as fantasy.

WESTERN

1. The Searchers (1956)
2. High Noon (1952)
3. Shane (1953)
4. Unforgiven (1992)
5. Red River (1948)
6. The Wild Bunch (1969)
7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
8. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
9. Stagecoach (1939)
10. Cat Ballou (1965)

NO LEONE! WTF!

You can’t have a top 10 list of Westerns without Leone!!! Without Leone… Eastwood’s Unforgiven isn’t as moving or visceral. Cat Ballou better than The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or Once Upon a Time in the West?

SPORTS

1. Raging Bull (1980)
2. Rocky (1976)
3. The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
4. Hoosiers (1986)
5. Bull Durham (1988)
6. The Hustler (1961)
7. Caddyshack (1980)
8. Breaking Away (1979)
9. National Velvet (1944)
10. Jerry Maguire (1996)

Probably the least interesting list here.

MYSTERY

1. Vertigo (1958)
2. Chinatown (1974)
3. Rear Window (1954)
4. Laura (1944)
5. The Third Man (1949)
6. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
7. North By Northwest (1959)
8. Blue Velvet (1986)
9. Dial M for Murder (1954)
10. The Usual Suspects (1995)

Four Hitchcock movies here and with the most exception of Dial M for Murder, they all deserve a place. Would have preffered a film noir category but this the AFI, and they won’t like a genre coined by the French.

Having said all this, some of my favourite movies of all time make this list.

ROMANTIC COMEDIES

1. City Lights (1931)
2. Annie Hall (1977)
3. It Happened One Night (1934)
4. Roman Holiday (1953)
5. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
6. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
7. Adam’s Rib (1949)
8. Moonstruck (1987)
9. Harold and Maude (1971)
10. Sleapless in Seatle (1993)

City Lights is a strange winner here, not a movie I ever thought of as a rom-com but I guess it is isn’t it?

COURTROOM DRAMA

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
2. 12 Angry Men (1957)
3. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
4. The Verdict (1982)
5. A Few Good Men (1992)
6. Witness For The Prosecution (1957)
7. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
8. In Cold Blood (1967)
9. A Cry in the Dark (1988)
10. Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)

Ok, so you have a list for courtoom drama’s but not for horror films, a genre the U.S. dominated in the 80’s?

EPIC MOVIES

1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
2. Ben-Hur (1959)
3. Schindler’s List (1993)
4. Gone with the Wind (1939)
5. Spartacus (1960)
6. Titanic (1997)
7. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
8. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
9. Reds (1981)
10. The Ten Commandments (1956)

IMDB tell me Reds is a Warren Beatty movie about the Russian Comunist Revolution. Never heard of it… any good?

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8 Comments »

1. yeah there’s some weird ones here alright. My 2c on each:

   Animation: A predictable bunch, and I assume it’s top *American* films on this list as it’s the AFI (else grave of The Fireflies, Spirited Away and Akira would be shoe-ins for me). I agree with most of the list, but I’d put Aladdin instead of Beauty And The Beast.

   Fantasy: I wouldn’t consider some of those (Big, Harvey, Wonderful Life) fantasy movies, though I can see where they got that idea from. I’d put The Dark Crystal, Dragonslayer, Highlander and Conan The Barbarian in there. it’s also shaky ground as many superhero movies could be considered fantasy, in which case the original Superman, X-Men 2 and Spiderman 2 would need to be there…

   Can’t argue with the gangster genre, nice mix of classic and contemporary and although there’s 2 Scarfaces, they’re very different movies completely appropriate to their respective eras.

   Sci-fi: Since they’re left out the horror movie (seriously, WTF?), I’d need to slot Carpenter’s The Thing here. I’m also more fond of the 1970s Body Snatchers that the original, and I wouldn’t consider Clockwork Orange sci-fi. otherwise, good list.

   Western: I’m no expert on this genre although i always had a soft spot for the original Young Guns, and that would make it into my top 10. Again, AFI lists are usually implicitly American-only movies, so that’s why there’s no Leone. Kurosawa could arguably also make it onto a worldwide list.

   Sports: Again, I’m no expert. I’d assume this is fictional movies, hence no Hoop Dreams. Otherwise, good list.

   Mystery: yeah good list though obviously (and rightly) Hitchcock heavy. I’d put Memento on here, but otherwise OK.

   Romantic Comedy: So, no horror but we get the anti-horror, huh? I have no interest in the genre so can’t really say.

   Courtroom drama: again, no horror but this? It’s like someone really, really didn’t want to review horror movies so they made up as many other genres as they could to help them avoid it. Not a bad list of the genre, no real arguments here.

   Epic movies: again, another fuzzy genre. You could put the LOTR movies here, maybe even Star Wars. I’ve never seen Reds, so can’t comment, most of the others seem in place though I wouldn’t term Schindler’s List an epic.

   So, overall, some of the categories are disingenuous and filler. Why not do a top 20, including horror but also other types of movie (e.g. why no superhero movies in the list, why only one flavour of comedy? why no action, adventure or war movies?). For the categories they picked, they did an OK job with a US bias.

   Comment by aphexbr | June 18, 2008

2. In the fantasy genre, I would put PAN’S LABYRINTH in there quite high … I mean, is THIEF OF BAGHDAD truly a better film than PAN’S LABYRINTH, or is it picked here because it’s old?

   NO HORROR MOVIE CATEGORY??????

   Is JERRY MAGUIRE a better sports film than something like THE NATURAL?

   Why limit the list of comedies to only romantic ones???

   I was a little surprised that HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER didn’t make the list of WESTERNS. Man that is a brittle, nasty film!

   Comment by Ray | June 18, 2008

3. Thief of Baghdad was truly a groundbreaking film. It still holds up today. I’m with Matt though, I wouldnt’ consider several of those films fantasy, which would have made room for Pans Labyrinth as well as a few others.

   The real crime here is dissing THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN!?!? wtf. That’s a no brainer.

   Also missing is The Great Escape.

   Glad to see they included Breaking Away in the sports section. I will always have a soft spot for VICTORY as well.

   Comment by Garrick | June 18, 2008

4. i would squeeze “hollywood chainsaw hookers” somewhere in there

   Comment by torgo | June 18, 2008

5. There’s no Leone westerns because it’s the American Film Institute Matt. That’s why Pan’s Labyrinth isn’t in the Fantasy, likewise no Miyazaki anime, no other world cinema, non-Hollywood gems at all. It’s all about America in all these AFI lists.

   I’m frustrated and totally not impressed by these charting attempts. The lack of a horror category just illustrates the lack of common sense and considered judgement here. Any attempt to set genre limits and pinpoint a particular orderly rank are futile. What’s the point? The whole thing is a pointless exercise to promote blog debate and disagreement, give Hollywood a self-celebratory moment, give some self-appointed film experts a chance to pose and overall annoy cinema lovers the world over.

   Comment by James Clayton | June 18, 2008

6. Oh yeah, they’ll also get to make a long-winded self-aggrandising TV countdown that’ll bring in big advertising bucks on some American network, with a book no doubt in the bargain for every self-respecting film buff’s Christmas stocking.

   Comment by James Clayton | June 18, 2008

7. Back to the Future… hell yeah.

   Comment by Phil | June 19, 2008

8. why can’t they consider comicbook adaptations?

   Comment by _N_r_chy | June 19, 2008

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