Empire Magazine compiled a list of 500 of the greatest movies of all time. Now I usually abhor these types of lists by authoritative organizations/magazines/whatnot because they usually comprise of black and white movies by Bergman, Frtiz Lang, Godard, etc. For instance, AMC's list placed "Citizen Kane" as the most important movie ever made. While we were all forced to watch CK in high school and I found it to be decent, in no way would I place it in the top ten list of my favorite movies. The problem I have with lists that put movies like "Casablanca," "The Third Man," "Maltese Falcon," and "Chinatown" at the top of their list is that they are extremely pretentious and completely disregard crowd-pleasing favorites that are masterpieces in their own right. I'm referring to films like "Aliens," "Indiana Jones," "Dog Day Afternoon," "The Godfather," and "Scarface." Beloved classics for the masses but too 'mainstream' for the critics.
What I like about Empire's 500 list is that it combines art-house, foreign flicks with blockbuster, nostalgic favorites. It also does a good job of incorporating great films from abroad into the list as well like "Cache," "Old Boy," "Layer Cake," and "Yojimbo." Instead of the traditional Godard, Truffant, etc. they also include well-known directors of my generation like Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Ang Lee, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Sidney Lumet, etc. This list even has populist favorites like "The Goonies," "Lord of the Rings," "The Matrix," "Donnie Darko," "Network," "Kill Bill," "Transformers," 300," "Lost in Translation," "Fight Club," "Dazed and Confused," "28 Days Later," "Batman Returns," and "The Breakfast Club."
While, a lot of my favorite movies are in the 300-500 range, I'm just glad they even made it on the list. One of these days I will have to compile my own list, which I think will be more representative of our generation. For starters, I was pleased with the plethora of Kurosawa films sprinkled throughout the list but I would definitely include more of Alfonso Cuaron's, Park Chan Wook's, Danny Boyle's, Zhang Yimou's, Luc Besson's, and Federico Fellini's works.
2 comments:
List making useless sucks most of the time. Still this list is good for people who want to get into watching these films. Like those IMDB list.
An authoritative list might be rather 'useless' to the lay man, but I think a personal list made by an individual says a lot about that person's tastes and personality. Also, it's just a fun way to reminisce and be nostalgic. OK, fair enough. I guess it's just a grand gesture in intellectual masturbation, but I still find it worthwhile.
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