I have always been one for making lists. I am a list-addict. As a matter of fact, I've had to go on a twelve step program to get away from them because I was having trouble finishing movies because I want to get them on my list more quickly. I had the art of the list down perfectly. Rather than try to list my 100 Favorite Movies from favorite to 100th favorite, descending in a neat order in between, when I hit the thirties, forties, and fifties, I started playing around with directors, eras, title lengths, actors, poster colors, and whatnot, to make the most aesthetically pleasing lists ever assembled. I am a list-making fiend.
And so now, I proudly present the worst movie list I have ever put together. There are no well thought out write-ups here. There's not even a whole ton of criteria. I just took every year of cinema from 1920-2010 (90.5 years. Sounds like a radio station promotion) and picked my favorite film I'd seen from every year. The intitial purpose in creating this list was to see if there was any gaps. Sure, I've seen twenty films from 1927, but what the heck did I watch from 1973? To my relief, I've seen at least one good movie from every year. Of course, when you're suddenly forced to cut Casablanca and Duck Soup and include Vacation and American Graffiti (remember our talk about 1973?) you begin to question why the heck you are compiling such an abomination. But it was a fun little exercise. Quick too. As I made these selections (some of them like choosing which half of your child you want to retain most) I dreamed up some little commentaries on each of the individual years. But then I realized that if I spent a paragraph praising 1959 and 1962, I'd have to write something about... well, 1973 (American Graffiti!). So here's the list. Maybe I will tackle a few of my favorite movie years on this blog later. There were two years where I just couldn't choose. It wasn't the quality of the films per se (I allowed Casablanca to be beaten by Shadow of a Doubt because they were similar enough that I could compare their virtues head to head). No, there were two instances where such unique artists clashed, representing monumentally different movements and moments in cinema that I simply could not, in good conscience, pick one.
Warning, if you really want to save yourself for my 2010 end of the year list, there might be a spoiler below.
1920
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1921
The Goat
1922
Nosferatu
1923
Our Hospitality
1924
Sherlock Jr.
1925
Seven Chances
1926
Faust
1927
The General
Sunrise
1928
Steamboat Bill Jr.
1929
The Passion of Joan of Arc
1930
All Quiet on the Western Front
1931
City Lights
1932
Vampyr
1933
M
1934
It Happened One Night
1935
The 39 Steps
1936
Modern Times
1937
Make Way for Tomorrow
1938
The Lady Vanishes
1939
Rules of the Game
1940
His Girl Friday
1941
Citizen Kane
1942
Cat People
1943
Shadow of a Doubt
1944
Double Indemnity
1945
Ivan the Terrible Part 1
1946
It’s a Wonderful Life
1947
Out of the Past
1948
Rope
1949
White Heat
1950
Sunset Boulevard
1951
Rashomon
1952
Ikiru
1953
Tokyo Story
1954
Rear Window
1955
Night of the Hunter
1956
Rififi
1957
Bridge on the River Kwai
1958
Vertigo
1959
Rio Bravo
1960
Psycho
1961
Yojimbo
1962
Lawrence of Arabia
1963
8 1/2
1964
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
1965
Alphaville
1966
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
1967
Bonnie and Clyde
1968
2001: A Space Odyssey
1969
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1970
Patton
1971
The French Connection
1972
The Godfather
1973
American Graffiti
1974
The Godfather Part II
1975
Dog Day Afternoon
1976
All the President’s Men
1977
Star Wars
1978
Dawn of the Dead
1979
Alien
1980
The Empire Strikes Back
1981
Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982
Blade Runner
1983
Vacation
1984
The Terminator
1985
Blood Simple
Ran
1986
An American Tail
1987
The Evil Dead 2
1988
Die Hard
1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1990
Miller’s Crossing
1991
Beauty and the Beast
1992
Unforgiven
1993
Army of Darkness
1994
The Hudsucker Proxy
1995
Toy Story
1996
Fargo
1997
LA Confidential
1998
The Truman Show
1999
Being John Malkovich
2000
Unbreakable
2001
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2002
The Two Towers
2003
The Return of the King
2004
Shaun of the Dead
2005
Serenity
2006
The Prestige
2007
No Country for Old Men
2008
Wall-E
2009
Where the Wild Things Are
2010
Toy Story 3
No comments:
Post a Comment