Sunday 4 December 2005
Pointless exercises...
The ABC's My Favourite Film survey results came in. It is, as these things invariably are, a very strange list.
Plenty of my favourite films made it, along with a few dozen more that I really like. Was very pleased to see 'Withnail and I', 'The Third Man' and 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' on the list. And was also satisfied with the Coen brothers' and Monty Python's level of representation.
'Aliens' managed to come in at 65 and 89 which is quite an achievement for a film that I consider to be highly overrated. Hopefully number 65 is a typo and should read 'Alien'. There is the horrible possibility that it is 'Aliens' that came in at 65 or worse, 'Alien' missed out entirely and it's meant to be one of the other dreadful sequels. [Error subsequently corrected and it was 'Aliens' in position 65; people have bizarre tatses.]
Can't help but feel that 'Donnie Darko' climbed higher on the list than it otherwise should have due to the advantage of being a recent release. And surely 'Lost in Translation' and 'Garden State' only made the list at all because of that same advantage. But of course the biggest error due to recentness of release would have to be 'The Lord of the Rings Trilogy'. Does anyone seriously think that 'The Lord of the Rings Trilogy' will even make the list, let alone occupy first place, five years from now?
The most glaring omissions for me would have to be Terrence Malick's 'Badlands' (1973) - I actually just rechecked the list to make sure I wasn't mistaken, because after thinking about it I find it unbelievable that 'Badlands' missed out altogether - and Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America' (1984), which though flawed should have been able to make a top 100.
Why am I dismayed about the films that should have made it but didn't, when I knew all along what a pointless exercise such lists are? Probably for the same reasons that I logged on to read the list as soon as it was available; whatever they were. I'll just have to console myself with the possibility that we'll get it right next time. As I pointed out there are more than a few places that should fall vacant next time.
Plenty of my favourite films made it, along with a few dozen more that I really like. Was very pleased to see 'Withnail and I', 'The Third Man' and 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' on the list. And was also satisfied with the Coen brothers' and Monty Python's level of representation.
'Aliens' managed to come in at 65 and 89 which is quite an achievement for a film that I consider to be highly overrated. Hopefully number 65 is a typo and should read 'Alien'. There is the horrible possibility that it is 'Aliens' that came in at 65 or worse, 'Alien' missed out entirely and it's meant to be one of the other dreadful sequels. [Error subsequently corrected and it was 'Aliens' in position 65; people have bizarre tatses.]
Can't help but feel that 'Donnie Darko' climbed higher on the list than it otherwise should have due to the advantage of being a recent release. And surely 'Lost in Translation' and 'Garden State' only made the list at all because of that same advantage. But of course the biggest error due to recentness of release would have to be 'The Lord of the Rings Trilogy'. Does anyone seriously think that 'The Lord of the Rings Trilogy' will even make the list, let alone occupy first place, five years from now?
The most glaring omissions for me would have to be Terrence Malick's 'Badlands' (1973) - I actually just rechecked the list to make sure I wasn't mistaken, because after thinking about it I find it unbelievable that 'Badlands' missed out altogether - and Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America' (1984), which though flawed should have been able to make a top 100.
Why am I dismayed about the films that should have made it but didn't, when I knew all along what a pointless exercise such lists are? Probably for the same reasons that I logged on to read the list as soon as it was available; whatever they were. I'll just have to console myself with the possibility that we'll get it right next time. As I pointed out there are more than a few places that should fall vacant next time.
Comments:
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'Defending the Centre' lives up to its name and corrects wayward thinking!
Here's my Top 10 (all the usual caveats apply):
1. Bringing Up Baby
2. The Shop Around the Corner
3. Now, Voyager
4. The Sorrow and the Pity
5. The Apu Trilogy
6. The Piano Teacher
7. L'argent
8. La Règle du jeu
9. Mean Time
10. Sunrise
Here's my Top 10 (all the usual caveats apply):
1. Bringing Up Baby
2. The Shop Around the Corner
3. Now, Voyager
4. The Sorrow and the Pity
5. The Apu Trilogy
6. The Piano Teacher
7. L'argent
8. La Règle du jeu
9. Mean Time
10. Sunrise
# posted by 
: 6/12/05
: 6/12/05
Given the staying power of Star Wars, I see no reason why LOR won't be around forever. However, I do consider it grossly unfair that they lumped those three movies together as one entry, presumably collating votes for individual films to make it win, and did not do the same thing with Star Wars.
I consider Aliens to be one of the greatest films ever made, and Alien to be basically kind of crap and boring.
I consider Aliens to be one of the greatest films ever made, and Alien to be basically kind of crap and boring.
Mark,
Re: 'Alien' vs 'Aliens'
The two films, though similar in setting, character and monster, are of different genres. 'Alien' is a horror film and 'Aliens' is an action film. I probably enjoyed 'Alien' more because I have a slight preference for horror films over action films and I found 'Aliens' too derivative of written science fiction - chiefly Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. So though I would not elevate 'Aliens' to greatness, I did enjoy it very much.
'Alien' suffers as a horror movie if it is watched after 'Aliens' because a lot of the tension is built on the starship crew - and the audience - not knowing what they're dealing with. The Alien is 'explained' in great detail in 'Aliens' removing that tension from 'Alien'.
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Re: 'Alien' vs 'Aliens'
The two films, though similar in setting, character and monster, are of different genres. 'Alien' is a horror film and 'Aliens' is an action film. I probably enjoyed 'Alien' more because I have a slight preference for horror films over action films and I found 'Aliens' too derivative of written science fiction - chiefly Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. So though I would not elevate 'Aliens' to greatness, I did enjoy it very much.
'Alien' suffers as a horror movie if it is watched after 'Aliens' because a lot of the tension is built on the starship crew - and the audience - not knowing what they're dealing with. The Alien is 'explained' in great detail in 'Aliens' removing that tension from 'Alien'.
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