Time releases list of 100 all-time great movies (Gone with the wind fails the test)

Time ^ | 11 june 2005 | Richard Corliss

[voletti]

The All-TIME 100 Movies feature—compiled by Richard Schickel and me, and handsomely packaged by Josh Macht, Mark Coatney and all the smart folks at TIME.com—attracted a record-busting 7.8 million page views in its first week, including 3.5 million on May 23rd, its opening day. Thousands of readers have written in to cheer or challenge our selections, and thousands more have voted for their own favorites. The response simply underscores Richard's and my long-held belief that everybody has two jobs: his own and movie critic.

The idea was to assemble 100 estimable films since TIME began, with the March 3, 1923 issue. Later, each of us was asked to contribute five items in sidebars called Great Performances (acting), Guilty Pleasures (trash treasures) and Top Scores (soundtracks). Essentially, though, a century of movies from 82 years. That shouldn't be hard: pick a picture for each year, with 18 slots left for honorable mentions.

Not so simple, in fact, for we faced a couple of complications. The first was that two of us were to agree on the selections; and, though my admiration for Schickel is hardly bounded, and he probably doesn't mind me, no two critics will agree on all, or even most, great films. The other is the onus of the list-making process. It's a truism that a list like this takes either an hour (go with your initial inspirations) or a month (weigh every film with Solomonic probity). Our effort clocked in at about four months, off and on. And the clock is still running.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

No, I'm a big Mel Brooks fan myself.

Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles usually make these AFI "Best Comedies of the 20th Century" lists.

I'm surprised that they didn't even pick one movie from his vast, very amusing, body of work.

Oh well.

[Smokin' Joe]

MIA: The Passion of the Christ, Gone With the Wind, Young Frankenstein, .......but Finding Nemo? Pulp Fiction?

The list reeks of irrelevancy, even if they did get a few right...

[SoCal Pubbie]

They've been running Eisenstein movies lately I think on American Movie Classics. Anyway, very influential Russian director. The scene in The Untouchables where the baby carriage goes down the stairs in the train station in Chicago is a rip off of the Odessa steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin.

I once read that one of the big things about Ole' Sergei is that unlike the usual sequence of establishing shot, mid shot, reaction, etc. his scenes were a series of varied shots designed to create a rhythm and tension by their framing and juxtaposition. He had the backing of the Soviet government so budgets weren't a big deal and there were often thousands of extras in his films.

http://waynesweb.ualr.edu/Expressionism/Eisenstein.htm

[Dawgreg]

Yep.......I guess some people just don't have my warped sense of humor.*~*

[Dog Gone]

Some of those I could agree with. Some I've never heard of.

But a list that excludes Blazing Saddles is just nuts.

[Dawgreg]

I remember that scene in The Untouchables......hmmm, wonder if "The Kiss of Death" was a catalyst for his style. I couldn't believe Richard Widmark ACTUALLY pushed Mildred Dunnock down that flight of stairs! And she was in a wheelchair, fcol! *~*

[SoCal Pubbie]

If you mean did Eisenstein learn from it, the answer is no. Eisenstein began making films in the silent era. Battleship Potemkin was made in 1925, Kiss of Death in 1947.

[demkicker]

Are you kidding me? I HATED 2001, A Space Odyssey!

[Dawgreg]

Ahhhhh, I see........thanks!

[bannie]

I hated the space odyssey too...the musical scene was endless. If I hadn't been on a date, I would have left. Since I was on a date, it was a miserable, endless date.

[bannie]

In Einstein's era, there was no accepted format. Everything was new, and there was not yet an established language for reading a film.

[Logic n' Reason]

What???????????????????

No "Deep Throat"?????????????????

No "Debbie does Dallas"????????????????????

Fie upon the critics; they just don't know good cinema!

[Dan from Michigan]

No Braveheart? Rocky? Die Hard? Tombstone? Heat? Scarface? The Quiet Man? Slap Shot? The Longest Yard?(Original version).

At least Goodfellas made the list.

[Dan from Michigan]

"I'm your huckleberry."

"I got two guns. One for each of ya. "

[bannie]

If'n Westward the Women ain't on the list, it jes' ain't no list 'tall.

[Dan from Michigan]

AND WHERE's RED DAWN!!!!

[SoCal Pubbie]

Perhaps so, but he was making film well into the 1940's and by then the idiom of film was well established. I don't know if his style changed by then or not. I'm no film critic so I may have left out a lot in my explanation. Regardless, it is obvious of what I have seen of his films there was great composition in the shots.

[bannie]

I agree this was an amazing film. I was just commenting on the composition.

[Logic n' Reason]

Absolutely correct!

[Poser]

Looks like a bunch of chick movies to me. No thanks.