Last night, CBS aired the American Film Institute's list of America's top 100 most inspiring movies. If you missed it, here's a link to the list: AFI's 100 Cheers.
I love these lists. As you can tell from our List Friday posts, I tend to love lists. Period. But I confess that I ABSOLUTELY adore slacking in front of the television for a gluttonous 3 hours watching clips of the best movies ever made. So I was H A P P Y last night. (Incidentally, Molly - I only could have been happier if you were watching with me. I didn't call - mainly cuz I was pushing it with the hubby to assume control over the giant screen tv set for the 3 hours, anyway. sigh.)
So of course, there were films that made the list that made me scratch my head ... like Working Girl? 2001: A Space Odyssey? High Noon? The last two are great movies, don't get me wrong, but inspiring? Huh?
And of course, there were omissions - I mean, if you can put One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in the list, can't you include Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in there, too? Yo, Film Dudes? Samwise Gamgee is my hero! And maybe, just maybe, if you're gonna include a film like Sullivan's Travels, of which I've never heard, could you maybe think about including The Goonies? The Goonies inspired nerdy kids to just be themselves waaay before Napoleon Dynamite made it hip to be square.
(Aside: Who should be an icon to the 30-something generation, but isn't? Sean Astin. He made the list two times more than Colin Farrel ... )
Ok, and then - there's the argument of placement. I knew I'd have placement issues with this list the moment they showed #100 ... Chariots of Fire, and minutes later announced #98, The Karate Kid, and #95, Places in the Heart. To me, each of these movies should have been higher up on the list. Braveheart was placed at #62, and Rudy (another Sean Astin!) at # 54 ... Are we seriously saying that Dead Poet's Society at # 52 is more inspiring, more apt to make us cheer? Uhh, for teen suicide? Again, I give you a hearty "HUH?"
Overall, the list is fun and a great reminder of all the great movies out there. So, AFI, what's your next topic????
1 comment:
Apparently, there is some hubbub about the fact that no movies about Jesus are on the list.
I am really sad I didn't get to watch it, because reading the list didn't do much for me. For instance, I was hardly inspired by Schindler's List. Understand completely how it got on the list (if you read their criteria), but that movie depressed me, it did not inpsire me.
I'm still not sure what movies have inspired me, however. I need to think about it some more.
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