AFI Top 10 of 10 Film Genres

 

I'm not going to re-list them all, but here are the top movies in each genre:

 

Animation - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Fantasy - The Wizard of Oz

Gangster - The Godfather

Science Fiction - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Western - The Searchers

Sports - Raging Bull

Mystery - Vertigo

Romantic Comedy - City Lights

Courtroom Drama - To Kill a Mockingbird

Epic - Lawrence of Arabia

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n54V-F5Y_xc 

The Wild Bunch

Top 100 (#80/79); Thrills (#69); Stars - William Holden (#25), Ernest Borgnine (Current); Top Ten - Western (#6)

Ugh.  This ranks up there with Unforgiven as my most disliked western.  A gang of outlaws in the last days of the Old West rob banks and trains, take advantage of women, and try to avoid the mercenaries who are after them.

There's not a single woman in the movie who's not being used by men.  I realize it shows what kind of men they were and all that, but it really was excessive.

William Holden and his adversary Robert Ryan looked too much alike, and I found that confusing.

The gunfights, however, were cinematically impressive.  And that's about as positive as I'm going to get.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62qvse2Rl-M

City Lights

Top 100 (#76/11); Laughs (#38); Stars - Charlie Chaplin (#10); Cheers (#31); Heroes - The Tramp (#38); Passions (#10); Top Ten - Romantic Comedy (#1)

Good, sweet, but maybe a bit overhyped - then again, I'm watching it 80 years later.  The Tramp falls in love with a blind girl and tries to come up with the money she needs to save the home where she lives with her grandmother. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rkNBH5fbMk

Goodfellas

Top 100 (#94/92); Top Ten - Gangster (#2)

Just when I said all gangster movies were the same, along came this one - a gangster movie with a touch of Woody Allen.

Yeah...didn't like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaXO3yg1REE

Moonstruck

Laughs (#41); Stars - Cher (Current); Quotes - "Snap out of it!" (#96); Passions (#17); Top Ten - Romantic Comedy (#8)

A young widow is engaged to a man, but ends up falling for his estranged brother.  Meanwhile, her parents are experiencing romantic problems of their own.

I liked that it included the parents' story.  I liked some of the romantic things Nicolas Cage said.  But overall, it was about passion, not love, so I didn't think it was that great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaANjmlxUzs

Little Caesar

Stars - Edward G. Robinson (#24); Quotes - "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" (#73); Villains - Caesar Enrico Bandello (#38); Top Ten - Gangster (#9)

I have now seen more than my share of gangster movies, and I am thoroughly convinced they're all the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq3uK3i4_gA

A Cry in the Dark

Top Ten - Courtroom Drama (#9)

A family vacation to the Australian Outback turns tragic when a dingo kills the baby.  The tragedy continues when, lacking a body, the court charges the parents with murder.

Good, but a little slow-paced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6plbpqm-HI

Red River

Stars - John Wayne (#13); Top Ten - Western (#5)

Personally I wouldn't rank this above Butch Cassidy or Stagecoach, but it was good.  Wayne is a ruthless rancher who leads his men on a cattle drive to Missouri. 

Montgomery Clift, as Wayne's adopted son, is so doggone good looking he dominates every shot he's in (much like Ben Affleck in Shakespeare in Love).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB90b8xXYIk

Judgment at Nuremberg

Stars - Judy Garland (#8), Spencer Tracy (#9), Marlene Dietrich (#9), Burt Lancaster (#19); Top Ten - Courtroom Drama (#10)

Excellent, excellent movie!  Well-written, perfectly paced, and superbly acted.  Maximillian Schell gave an incredible performance, and both Burt Lancaster and Marlene Dietrich were wonderfully understated.  Spencer Tracy and Montgomery Clift were terrific as well.

As I get towards the end of the lists, I feel like I've seen all the good ones already and the ones that are left are ones I didn't really want to see to begin with.  It's nice to still come across truly great movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFJ65Sr-Sho

Stagecoach

Top 100 (#63); Stars - John Wayne (#13); Top Ten - Western (#9)

This movie takes everything you need to make a good western - a gunslinger, a preacher, the town drunk, and a saloon girl with a heart of gold - and puts them together on a stagecoach.  It's John Ford's answer to movies like Dinner at Eight and Grand Hotel - take a mixed bag of characters and put them in a situation where their paths cross.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6v-auTctSo

The Searchers

Top 100 (#96/12); Stars - John Wayne (#13); Top Ten - Western (#1)

When John Wayne's niece is captured by Indians, he and his adopted nephew set off on an impossible quest to find and retrieve her.  The search takes years, but he doesn't give up.

I'm not big on westerns, but I liked this movie.  And I'm thinking it has the biggest jump between the original Top 100 list and the revised one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpuHzllobQ

Cat Ballou

Laughs (#50); Top Ten - Western (#10)

My husband and my father both like this movie, about a schoolmarm turned bandit to save her pa's farm.  It was okay - it had its funny moments.  But I saw it, and now I can cross it off the list, and that's fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm3dm5J5r0A

Blue Velvet

Thrills (#96); Stars - Laura Dern (Current - Not Rated); Villains - Frank Booth (#36); Top Ten - Mystery (#8)

I debated watching this one, decided to go ahead, then shut it off after about half an hour. 

It starts off innocent enough.  All-American boy MacLachlan teams up with small town girl Dern to investigate some mysterious goings-on.  Then it gets creepy and yucky.  I think Lynch purposely started things all sweet and innocent to make the contrast between that and the twisted underworld the teenagers discover that much greater.

Yeah, um, not what I want to be watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSeceN11Dm4

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Thrills (#82); Cheers (#67); Top Ten - Science Fiction (#5)

Aliens come to earth to warn earthlings that they'd better start getting along and be friends, or else the aliens will kill them. 

Inspiring world peace message.

What I don't get, though, is why the woman carried by the alien robot in the poster doesn't look remotely like Patricia Neal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPAOxrH7Ro 

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Thrills (#47); Top Ten - Science Fiction (#9)

Pod-like aliens invade earth, possessing the bodies of humans.  Only one man and one woman dare to resist. 

Much too cheesy to be even remotely scary - but at least it has the classic horror movie scream (I can't find the clip, but you know the one - where the woman holds her hand up to her cheek as she screams).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OacAgQO9vvo

Spartacus

Top 100 (Revised #81); Thrills (#62); Stars - Kirk Douglas (#17); Cheers (#44); Heroes - Spartacus (#22); Top Ten - Epic (#5)

What?  "I am Spartacus" is not one of the top quotes?  Who came up with these lists?

Overall, I'd say it was good for a guy movie.  Not one of my favorites though.  But Goose Cousin loves Kirk Douglas' butt chin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V32PWJX-GpY

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Top Ten - Western (#8)

First off, I just plain didn't like this movie about a gunslinger and a madam who join forces and open a brothel in late 1800s Pacific Northwest.  The characters were unappealing and Julie Christie's accent was painful. 

Secondly, I have now seen three Robert Altman movies (M*A*S*H and Nashville were the other two).  I don't like him.  He clutters his movies with people and sounds.  So many things going on at once, bouncing back and forth, crowding every frame.  And people talking about pointless things, like minor characters carrying on over whether or not one of them should grow a beard.  It's not funny, and completely irrelevant.  Yes, it's real life, but in a movie it just doesn't fit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6UAYGxiRwU

Pulp Fiction

Top 100 (#95/94); Thrills (#53); Top Ten - Gangster (#7)

Here's something unexpected - I liked this movie.  I really didn't think I would.  In fact, I was figuring I'd probably turn it off partway through.  But I didn't.

I'm not saying it's my favorite movie ever.  But it was clever.  It was witty.  It had moments that you really didn't see coming.  And John Travolta danced.

 Yes, it was sweary, and it had it's gross moments.  But it kept me interested.  And it had a great cast - John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson (but what's with his hair in the poster?  that was so not his movie hair), Eric Stoltz (not altogether lovable here, but he's always been one of my favorites, so that's ok.  and he was funny), Tim Roth, and Bruce Willis (whom I love so much, yet I always forget how much I love him until I see him and then I think "Oh, I love him so much!", so then, not only do I love him, but I'm always pleasantly surprised, and that makes me happy).  And then there's Ving Rhames and Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel.

So I'm not saying you have to see it.  I'm just saying I was surprised that I liked it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAf6MWehpGA

The Public Enemy

Stars - James Cagney (#8); Villains - Tom Powers (#42); Top Ten - Gangster (#8)

Any job worth doing is worth doing well.  Apparently James Cagney's grandma told him that, because he started out as a bit player in this movie.  He did his job so well that he impressed the director and was given the lead role.  And that's why you should listen to your grandmother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1FgpBxXho4

Shane

Top 100 (#69/45); Cheers (#53); Quotes - "Shane.  Shane.  Come back!" (#47); Heroes - Shane (#16); Top Ten - Western (#3)

Alan Ladd was a bit wussy, but other than that this was a good movie. Thank heavens, though, that it wasn't made recently. Then we'd have to suffer through Shane 2: The Return (in 3D).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy3xcQPdiHc