Jun
18
AFI’s 10 Top 10, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Same Movies Over and Over Again
Filed Under Movies
The American Film Institute just released their 10 Top 10, what they consider to be the best genre films. Thing is, these are pretty much the same movies that are on every other AFI list. “The Godfather” is good and everything, but can we move on with our lives now? And I don’t know about you, but I’m fairly convinced that the silent film is dead. Why’s “City Lights” on this list? You mean to tell me that movie’s funnier than last summer’s “Superbad?”
Now, to be fair, there are some movies in the sci-fi category that aren’t older than I am: “Alien,” “E.T.,” “Blade Runner,” “Back to the Future” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” With that in mind, there should be some tighter parameters imposed on the AFI’s list-making. Movies released within the last 30 years would — I dunno — bring to an end the overwhelming sameness. And if I read another list with that thudding bore “2001: A Space Odyssey” at the top, I’m going to run away with the circus.
Modern filmmakers weren’t influenced by most of these movies. I doubt many of them have even heard of “Stagecoach.” Why are Westerns even on this list? I eulogized the Western genre just a couple weeks ago. I think Action/Adventure would’ve been a more relevant genre to pull from and a great excuse for AFI to acknowledge “Raiders of the Lost Ark” for the umpteenth time. What’s more, there’s a top 10 list for the Courtroom Drama genre, but not Horror, not even Thriller. What the stink? I swear, the mummies who compile these lists must be older than John McCain.
The American Film Institute has proven once again to be as surly and out-of-touch as Grandpa Simpson. There are some absolutely fantastic movies that are made every year, and every year there’s another one of these tired lists that ignores them all in favor of some prehistoric flick they’ve fawned over a half-dozen times already. Granted, I do like (and own) quite a few movies from this list. But year after year, hundreds of newer, richer and more contemporary films slip through the cracks and are forgotten — even during the hollow and redundant awards season. Ask anyone who’s looked at my DVD collection and said, “I’ve never heard of this one…or this one…or that one.”
AFI needs to stop living in the past and name-checking the flicks they think make them sound more sophisticated. I want to see a new list with new movies — great films made for today’s audiences, not folks who’re nostalgic for the era that came before “talkies.”
-Brad Lohan
Comments
One Response to “AFI’s 10 Top 10, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Same Movies Over and Over Again”
Leave a Reply
Maybe instead of trying to constantly look at something new, the idea is to revisit the good about the things you have already seen.