Time's Top 100

Time's two Richards, Schickel and Corliss, put together a list of the top 100 films of all time. It's a pretty good list (not as good as my list, of course), except they are cheating cowards: cheating, because they include trilogies and television miniseries in the list, and cowards, because they refused to rank them. They should know that scoffing at the rankings is the greatest pleasure one can derive from a top 100 list.

The trilogies thing is more annoying than usual in this instance because they applied it only when it served their purposes: The Apu Trilogy is on there as one film, as is The Lord of the Rings. Yet only Star Wars is there; why not include Empire or Jedi, the former of which is considerably better than Star Wars? And they split the difference on The Godfather, including parts one and two but jettisoning the third. Not that I blame them, of course, but still. It's the principle of the thing.

They copied 29 from my top 100 list, and my lawyer will be in touch with them: Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Band of Outsiders; Blade Runner; Bride of Frankenstein; Casablanca; Chinatown; Citizen Kane; Dr. Strangelove; The Godfather; The Godfather: Part II; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Goodfellas; A Hard Day's Night; His Girl Friday; The Lady Eve; Lawrence of Arabia; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Manchurian Candidate; Notorious; On the Waterfront; Pulp Fiction; Raging Bull; Schindler's List; The Searchers; Sherlock Jr.; Some Like It Hot; A Streetcar Named Desire; Sweet Smell of Success; and White Heat.

Why aren't Double Indemnity, The 400 Blows, In a Lonely Place, Out of the Past, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Taxi Driver, and Wings of Desire on my list? Revisions, revisions, revisions. Of course, I'd tear my hair out attempting to pick which films to bump.

These 19 are acceptable on anyone's top 100 list, though they didn't make mine: The Awful Truth; Bonnie and Clyde; Brazil; City Lights; City of God; The Crowd; Dodsworth; E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial; Farewell My Concubine; Ikiru; It's A Wonderful Life; Kind Hearts and Coronets; King Kong; Metropolis; Ninotchka; Once Upon a Time in the West; Star Wars; and Unforgiven.

I have reservations about these: Barry Lyndon was good, yes, but it also bored me to tears at times. I need to see it again. Chunking Express is good, yes, but Wong Kar-Wai's best film is In the Mood for Love. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is very good, but if you're going to put Bunuel on the list, there are many films that would come before this one, like That Obscure Object of Desire. Finding Nemo: Again, a really good film, but there are at least three Pixar films that are better than this one. The Last Command is a good film, and a great performance, but for this to be the only Sternberg film on the list is a crime. Miller's Crossing...I guess I just never saw what made this film so great. Almost all of the Coen brothers' movies I've seen are better than this. If you're going to pick a Disney movie, Pinocchio ranks around fourth; I'd have been happier with Beauty and the Beast. Are the film geeks going to take away my license to practice if I admit that Psycho never did it for me? I liked it, but it wasn't earth-shattering. The Shop around the Corner is not even close to Lubitsch's best; what about Trouble in Paradise or Heaven Can Wait? I need to see Singin' in the Rain again. I was unimpressed when I first saw it, back when I thought I didn't like musicals. Yojimbo is fun and funny, but there are at least a half-dozen other Kurosawa films that would go on before this one. And Detour is the essence of noir distilled into a film that works even when it shouldn't, but noir is full of films that are just as gripping and a lot more technically accomplished.

Can someone tell me what The Fly and Talk to Her are doing on a top 100 list?

I'm really happy they included these three, although I wouldn't have put them on mine: Dodsworth is one of the great forgotten films of the 1930s; The Legend of Drunken Master (a.k.a. Drunken Master II) is an oddball pick, but it feels right; and In a Lonely Place might just be Bogie's best performance.

I haven't seen The Apu Trilogy; Baby Face; Berlin Alexanderplatz; Camille; Charade; Children of Paradise; Closely Watched Trains; Day for Night; The Decalogue; 8 1/2; Invasion of the Body Snatchers; It's A Gift; Kandahar; The Man with a Movie Camera; Meet Me in St. Louis; Mon oncle d'Amerique; Olympia, Parts 1 and 2; Persona; The Purple Rose of Cairo; The Singing Detective; Smiles of a Summer Night; Swing Time; Tokyo Story; Ugetsu; Ulysses' Gaze; or Umberto D. A lot of them are on my Netflix queue.

I've never even heard of The Crime of Monsieur Lange, Leolo, Mouchette, Nayakan, Pyaasa, and A Touch of Zen. I'm ashamed of the gaps in my foreign film knowledge.

I stole this idea from Nick Davis, one of my favorite reviewers. Feel free to check out his top 100 list and his reaction to the Time list.