Monday, December 15, 2008

The AFI Top 100 Movie List

I've long been a fan of movies. I grew up watching them nearly every week as a kid, so it's no surprise that there was once a time when I knew the production company associated with each logo. Flying unicorn? Tri-Star.

Anyway, AFI published this list back in the mid-1990's and I've been slowly trying to cross them off my "to watch list." Those in bold I've seen and those in italics and underline are on my DVR.

And no, this isn't a new idea. Take a look at January of this year where I stole the idea from Paulie (and you can check my progress).

1 Citizen Kane
2 Casablanca
3 The Godfather
4 Gone with the Wind
5 Lawrence of Arabia
6 The Wizard of Oz
7 The Graduate

8 On the Waterfront
9 Schindler's List
10 Singin' in the Rain
11 It's a Wonderful Life
12 Sunset Boulevard
13 The Bridge on the River Kwai
14 Some Like It Hot
15 Star Wars
16 All About Eve
17 The African Queen
18 Psycho
19 Chinatown
20 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
21 The Grapes of Wrath
22 2001: A Space Odyssey
23 The Maltese Falcon
24 Raging Bull
25 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
26 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
27 Bonnie and Clyde
28 Apocalypse Now
29 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(on my other post, I had this as Rosemary's Baby)
30 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
31 Annie Hall
32 The Godfather Part II
33 High Noon
34 To Kill a Mockingbird

35 It Happened One Night
36 Midnight Cowboy
37 The Best Years of Our Lives
38 Double Indemnity
39 Doctor Zhivago
40 North by Northwest
41 West Side Story
42 Rear Window

43 King Kong
44 The Birth of a Nation
45 A Streetcar Named Desire (on the DVR)
46 A Clockwork Orange
47 Taxi Driver
48 Jaws
49 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
50 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
51 The Philadelphia Story
52 From Here to Eternity
53 Amadeus
54 All Quiet on the Western Front
55 The Sound of Music
56 M*A*S*H

57 The Third Man
58 Fantasia
59 Rebel Without a Cause
60 Raiders of the Lost Ark
61 Vertigo
62 Tootsie
63 Stagecoach
64 Close Encounters of the Third Kind
65 The Silence of the Lambs
66 Network
67 The Manchurian Candidate

68 An American in Paris
69 Shane
70 The French Connection
71 Forrest Gump
72 Ben-Hur
73 Wuthering Heights
74 The Gold Rush
75 Dances with Wolves
76 City Lights
77 American Graffiti
78 Rocky
79 The Deer Hunter
80 The Wild Bunch
81 Modern Times
82 Giant
83 Platoon
84 Fargo

85 Duck Soup
86 Mutiny on the Bounty
87 Frankenstein
88 Easy Rider
89 Patton
90 The Jazz Singer
91 My Fair Lady
92 A Place in the Sun
93 The Apartment
94 Goodfellas
95 Pulp Fiction

96 The Searchers
97 Bringing Up Baby
98 Unforgiven
99 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
100 Yankee Doodle Dandy

Now, on top of that, I have another five planned out for the rest of this month, but I'm not sure if it will conflict with other recordings or events. Trying to get something on the weekend is often hit or miss since we may or may not be home.

So, to steal a line form Friends, challenge extended. Where do you stand with AFI's Top 100 list (the original, don't even get me started on the 10th anniversary one)?

8 comments:

John Zeleznik said...

Dude, you really have an anti-Marlon Brando thing going on there! No Waterfront, no Streetcar! Woah...I always get intimidated by these lists because I consider myself a "movie guy" and feel like I've missed alot!

Neil Richard said...

Actually, Streetcar is on the DVR now, and about 5 more from the list will be before the end of the year. Now I just need long lunches to watch them all.

BTW - I'm up to chapter 3. Still working.

cinda1212 said...

you r cousin mark would be horrified by some of your missed ones so far.

and Amadeus is one of Steve Brown's all-time favorites. Totally doesn't seem like it would fit him, I know. It's an awesome movie. I regularly went to movies with my mom (a frequent double-movie-goer on Saturdays), but we also went to a LOT of movies with Aunt Diana. sometimes she and I would go while glenn and steve were at swim practice - but don't tell them that. :)

Neil Richard said...

Cinda - Yes, I'm well aware of Mark's movie fandom. It's legendary and something I'm in awe of. I'm coming to find I love classic movies better than new ones.

And not to get you depressed, but I miss Aunt Diana. Yvonne got a crazy gift at work and it makes me think of all her wild earrings when she wears it.

Anonymous said...

Hey TK42ONE,

I finished "A Meeting in Corvallis" last night, and I cried my eyes out over the death of whatshisname, even though I knew it was coming, and eventually figured out the how, also.

I'm going to have to read "The Sunrise Lands" again because now it will make more sense. Unfortunately, I loaned it out so I may have to by myself another copy. LOL

I'm going to start "Island in the Sea of Time" if not tonight, then tomorrow. And I hope to see excellent storywriting from Stirling in this book, also.

Damn fine story.

Jules

Neil Richard said...

Sparkly - Yes, Corvalis was great but tragic. I made the unfortunate mistake of looking at the family tree online well before I read the book, so I knew who was going to die, just not when. Stupid me. I'm nearly done with my re-read (via audio) of Sunrise Lands and can't wait to start Scourge. But I'm going to make myself wait until at least the new year before I dig into it.

You should enjoy the Island books. It's been awhile since I've read them, but I'd like to go back and see how they tie into this half of the series (there's been vague references to it throughout the series, but now the journey east is really making me wonder how it will tie in).

1979 semi-finalist said...

Hey...you already know where I stand on this issue - ala my "F AFI and I'm doing my OWN top 100 list" last year...but it's still a good list and you're making headway...I'd rather see where you are on MY list though :)

Also, that Tri-Star logo is not a flying unicorn...it's a Pegasus. Totally different thing. Geez man, get your mythical non-existent creatures straight!

Neil Richard said...

Kelly - I wouldn't consider my use of the AFI Top 100 list as any sort of endorsement, more like I'm too damn lazy to make my own list and have to use someone elses. I'll look for yours and see where I stand.

Pegasus, unicorn, it's a damn white horse with wings, isn't it?