The AFI’s “10 Top 10″

Mike June 19th, 2008 Movies

On Wednesday the AFI (American Film Institute) announced their official Top 10 lists in 10 classic genres. I thought the lists were pretty interesting and wanted to pass a few of them onto you, but invite you to check out the rest of them when you get a chance.

The genres are: SciFi, Westerns, Animation, Romantic Comedies, Sports, Mystery, Fantasy, Gangster, Courtroom Drama and Epic.

Interesting categories, especially the very specialized Courtroom Dramas, but heck, there are a LOT of good films that come from that arena.

Here are a few of the genres and their corresponding Top 10 films:

Science Fiction

2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Wars: A New Hope
ET
A Clockwork Orange
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Blade Runner
Alien
Terminator 2
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Back to the Future

An interesting grouping, although like somewhere else I saw, I think The Empire Strikes Back is a better movie that A New Hope, but I can agree with their choice because of the impact it had. Love seeing Back to the Future on there.

Animation

Snow White
Pinocchio
Bambi
The Lion King
Fantasia
Toy Story
Beauty and the Beast
Shrek
Cinderella
Finding Nemo

One of the complains I always have with the AFI (which is just my 33-year old opinion) is that they always lean towards the older films has somehow being BETTER than anything we have today. Take for example that four of the top 5 in Animation were made long before I was born.

I’m not saying Shrek deserves to be in the top 5, but you could make a case for it.

The Westerns grouping is another where you get that same thing. Only one of their Top 10 was made after 1971.

Fantasy

I thought this was had some interesting choices:

The Wizard of OZ
Lord of the Rings
It’s A Wonderful Life
King Kong (Original)
Miracle on 34th Street
Field of Dreams
Harvey
Groundhog Day
Thief of Bagdad
Big

I love the Lord of the Rings pick at #2 of course, but I was surprised to see movies like Big and Groundhog Day on there. Field of Dreams was awesome, I can see it on this list, but I’m not sure I’d ever have considered Groundhog Day a Top 10 film in this category.

The Rest

You can see all the lists over on AFI’s special section, but here are the winners in the other categories:

Romantic Comedies - City Lights

Westerns - The Searchers

Sports - Raging Bull

Mystery - Vertigo

Gangster - The Godfather

Courtroom Drama - To Kill A Mockingbird

Epic - Lawrence of Arabia

What do you think of their choices? Do you think the AFI needs to lighten up on the “old school” choices, or do you like that?

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Cap'n Schwartz 2 months ago 1 point
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I watched this whole 3 hour spectacle loaded with commercials. Once I have to disagree with are: Clockwork Orange at #4 as a sci-fi movie...please this was just a bad choice in the top 10 greatest sci-fi's ever, let alone to be #4. I could not believe Groundhog day made one of the top 10 fantasy films ever made... ever... really? It was that good??!!? Perhaps I should watch it over and over until I agree...

Some movies that also made to lists I'd never even heard of Harvey, The third man... not saying they may not be any good, but best ever in their categories, and never heard of em?

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Mike Olbinski 2 months ago 1 point
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I've actually seen Harvey...with Jimmy Stewart

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The Trousered Ape 2 months ago 1 point
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Yep - good movie

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Jason A Clark 2 months ago 1 point
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Yeah, Harvey is really well known among film school types and Jimmy Stewart fans.

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The Trousered Ape 2 months ago 1 point
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What do you think of Jimmy Stewart? Would you consider him an A-List actor for his day? I think I would. But it seems that not many people remember him and his work.

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Jason A Clark 2 months ago 2 points
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WOW! Are you kidding!?!? Jimmy Stewart was most definitely an A-List actor. In fact, for a long time he was the highest paid actor in all of Hollywood. Stewart was the actor who revolutionized the industry by structuring a back end, profit-sharing deal on his movies.

I think he's still very highly regarded among most film fans over the age of about 30 to 35. Unfortunately, the spread of cable television and the internet has created so many choices in programming that many younger people have never seen any of his movies (other than maybe It's A Wonderful Life). Some of us remember the four channel TV and watching Jimmy Stewart movies on Saturday afternoon when there wasn't anything else on.

As for my personal opinion, he was one of the greatest actors of any generation.

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The Trousered Ape 2 months ago 1 point
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I wasn't aware of his business dealings so that is pretty cool.

I love Jimmy Stewart's movies personally and think he was absolutely terrific. He reminds me in some ways of a modern day Sean Connery in that his voice is so recognizable in his roles yet you still forget it's that person and always see the character they are portraying. I don't know how they do it, but it's an amazing transformation. I think the best actors can pull that off - where I forget that it is them or forget that they are even in the movie because they are so convincing in their role.

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Mike Olbinski 2 months ago 1 point
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I absolutely love Stewart and would definitely consider him an A-Lister.

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jina 2 months ago 3 points
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City Lights as best Romantic Comedy... really?... her? (Arrested Development reference for all of you non-AD fans out there).

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Mike Olbinski 2 months ago 1 point
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That quote never gets old ;)

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Jason A Clark 2 months ago 1 point
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As always, the AFI made another list that's just full of craziness. A Clockwork Orange is a horrible movie. It shouldn't be on any BEST OF list. There, I've said it. Someone had to.

I think there's a whole lot of self-righteous, snobby, old movie critics voting on these lists which is why we end up getting the movies we get. A lot of times I think people vote for movies too because they've always HEARD they were good movies and not because they've seen all the films. I'm a film junkie who's seen probably thousands of movies and went to film school and everything and I STILL haven't seen all the movies on AFI's top 100 list from like 10 years ago.

By the way, the Western list wasn't too bad although McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Cat Ballou should be replaced for sure.

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The Trousered Ape 2 months ago 1 point
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Yeah - I don't get the Clockwork Orange position in the ranking. In the animated category I think the older ones get the nod because they are better quality than much of the newer stuff. Hand-drawn, when done well, is vastly superior to computer generated in my opinion. To me, it is the same difference as listening to a recording of music where a real piano is used rather than a synth or electronic piano. There is a warmth and softness that is totally lacking from the newer stuff.

Who ever picked the top 10 for the Fantasy category must have been having a fantasy because some of the additions are way off the mark in my opinion.

I haven't looked at the other top 10 lists in full, but I can see City Lights being up there and perhaps even #1. It's a great story, very moving and Charlie Chaplin is brilliant in it. The actors back then were superior in some ways than later actors because they had to convey all their emotions without speaking and so there is a bit more depth and richness to that type of movie that is missing from later Romantic Comedies. You can get away with a lot more by using words to replace body language and facial expressions. In silent movies I think the actors tend to be more raw and bare with their emotions and it shows through.

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Jason A Clark 2 months ago 1 point
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Well, I have seen City Lights and I love Chaplin movies...but I still don't see it being number 1.

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Cap'n Schwartz 2 months ago 1 point
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..."I STILL haven't seen all the movies on AFI's top 100 list from like 10 years ago." ... I almost have! I'm closin in on it finishing both of their lists...(they had 2 at 10 years apart)

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Jason A Clark 2 months ago 1 point
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Well, I've seen MOST of the first list. I think I lack a couple and there's a few that I know I've seen, but it's been so long ago that I can barely remember them. My goal was to rewatch ALL of the movies, but I never did make it. Some of them, like Clockwork Orange were such a chore.

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The Trousered Ape 2 months ago 1 point
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I hear that. Clockwork was a terrible movie in my opinion.

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Mike Olbinski 2 months ago 1 point
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I wish I'd have seen the whole movie by now but sadly I've only gotten
bits and pieces. But I agree with you all from what I saw.

What about The Matrix? Does it belong on the Sci Fi list?

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The Trousered Ape 2 months ago 1 point
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That's a good question about the Matrix. It is closer to Sci Fi than It's a Wonderful Life is to Fantasy (which I don't get at all). But I could see arguments made for other genre's and it wouldn't bother me. Some of these movies on their list are tough to pigeon-hole into a specific genre, but I guess if you are making lists, then you have to draw lines somewhere in order to categorize them. I don't know what criteria they were looking for to say movie "A" is this more this type than another while movie "B" is less. I would have grouped things differently, but maybe that speaks more to my lack of knowledge about what type of movie it is.

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Jason A Clark 2 months ago 1 point
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I think our modern idea of a "fantasy" movie is a lot different than the actual definition of a fantasy story. Most modern filmgoers would think of a fantasy film as being something about magic and dragons and stuff like that.

The actual definition of fantasy, however, is closer to a story of the impossible - something that couldn't really happen in the real world or a story that bends or transcends the rules of the known world, allowing such conventions as time travel, talking animals, and super-human creatures. In this definition, It's A Wonderful Life would fit as George Bailey gets to see what the world would be like if he didn't exist.

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The Trousered Ape 2 months ago 1 point
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Gotcha - that makes perfect sense. I figured I was missing something in their criteria and that would have been their definition of fantasy.

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