Eight years later, after sort of forgetting about my attempt to finish the list, I am finally tying up loose ends and viewing the last movie I haven't seen on the AFI list. (I saw Modern Times, another loose end this weekend). A momentous occasion in the history of cinema, so I just thought I'd share it with all of you.
shareI saw it on Turner Classic Movies. It was good but not great. I am collecting the top 100 AFI movies on DVD and I have 97 out of 100. Missing Wuthering Heights, Jazz Singer and African Queen. I have seen all 100 though :)
shareYes, definitely the most underwhelming (at least from a modern standpoint) of the AFI list. Similar to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, another film notable at its time (though really that may be overstated -- look what else came out in '67). Nearly a decade later, I would certainly say the AFI list is flawed...quite a few boring "important" films are chosen over livelier genre films which have stood the test of time. Yet it did get the ball rolling for me (or rather, started it rolling again since I'd been a movie buff since the age of 7). Among a million other lists, I'm currently working on the AFI 400 nominees...so I'll be able to figure how I would have voted given those choices.
shareThe Jazz Singer is a relic and of no artistic value. The biggest tragedy is not that it ended the silent era but that the silent films like Murnau's 'Sunrise' or Sternberg's 'The Last Command' was so far superior to what was achieved by that mediocre piece of pap. Though in it's defence it is better than the badder than bad Neil Diamond remake.
How much is a good nights sleep worth?
I'm an Australian film buff, and currently I own 79 of the top 100, and have seen about 83 of them. I've got a ways to go, but there is a problem for me. Some of them cannot be purchased in Australia.
1. The Best Years of Our Lives
2. Wuthering Heights
3. Yankee Doodle Dandy
4. Bringing Up Baby
5. The Jazz Singer
As well as that, Stagecoach is only available in a ridiculous John Wayne ten pack (thus denying us any special features), and Snow White and Fantasia are currently out of print (and I didn't buy them when they were in print). So I can only get, at this time anyway, 92 of one hundred, and only see 95.
Anyone know why we in the great south land are denied these films.
Right now, I've seen 96 of AFI's 1997 list of the 100 greatest American movies.
I still have to see #57 Rebel without a Cause, #63 Stagecoach, #82 Giant, and #100 Yankee Doodle Dandy.
As for the AFI's 2007 list of the greatest American Movies, I've seen 98 of the 100 movies.
I still have to see #95 The Last Picture Show and #98 Yankee Doodle Dandy.
I've seen all the movies from the original list except for Wuthering Heights and almost all from the new list except for Nashville and Sullivan's Travels. I hope to see all of them before the year ends.
I'd like to see once again some of those movies that I haven't seen in ages like The African Queen, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfes, or A Place in the Sun.
I've heard Disney is going to release Snow White and Fantasia on Blu-ray in the spring of 2009... can't wait!
I also just finished with watching all AFI top 100 movies, and this movie was the last on my list. What a journey.
As for underwhelming selections on the list, I would say that the Jazz Singer wasn't exactly one of my favorites (it was towards the bottom), but it wasn't my least favorite. At the bottom for me personally would have to be Birth of a Nation. I actually preferred Jazz Singer over all 3 Chaplin movies (Gold Rush, City Lights, and Modern Times) and the Marx bros Duck Soup (just never got into their humor).
I guess now I'll move on to catching the remaining movies on the revised top 100 list that I haven't seen.
omg, awesome thread! I just saw The Jazz Singer because of that list!
I still have to see: The Wild Bunch, Modern Times, The Sound of Music, Yankee Doddle Dandy, MASH, The Best Years of Our Lives, Bonnie and Clyde, A Place in the Sun, The Apartment, Frankeinstein, Easy Rider, King Kong, Shane, Rocky, Network, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, All Quiet on the Western Front, Amadeus, Jaws, and American Graffitt...
That's the list...
21 to go!
I just got the Sound Of Music though, so 20 after a couple of days...
Does anyone else hate the new AFI list, also?
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