100 YEARS, 100 LISTS: AFI's 100 Years, 100 Cheers - A bullet point commentary

Let's face it, lists are a dime a dozen (in fact, if I had a dime for every list out there...). As a fast paced society that loves quick, to the point access to information, ours is a culture that relishes lists -- we love to make lists, to read them, to disagree with them and to use them to validate our own opinions. And frankly I’m no different, because lists are lots of fun, even if one can never take them too seriously. After all, they are highly subjective; representing the biased views of a single perspective or that of a select few. Personally, I love making all kinds of lists – grocery lists, to do lists, a list of goals, a list of things to dread, and especially lists associated with the entertainment industry. But unlike a lot of lists out there, my lists are constantly being revived, because except for the Ten Commandments, no list should be written in stone. After all, people change and so does their perspective.

As already stated, my favourite lists are the ones involving entertainment – I always pay close attention to them to see how much I agree or disagree. So when I heard about AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Cheers, a list of the most inspirational movies, I was excited. I’ve really enjoyed the AFI series over the past several years, particularly the last one, 100 Years, 100 Movie Quotes and my very favourite, the one that started it all, 100 Years, 100 Movies broadcast in 1998 to celebrate the first 100 yeas of cinema. I’ve read a lot of 100 greatest films lists and the AFI list from 1998 is one of the very best because unlike a lot of the other lists, it isn’t saturated with pretentious selections that characterize a lot of critics’ lists. The AFI list is a good balance between critically acclaimed, films, multi-award winning films, and popular, blockbuster films that became cultural phenomena – validating the fact that the movie going public can sometimes be just as savvy as critics when recognizing quality in cinema. A lot of the greatest films lists are usually by snobby movie critics who frown upon anything remotely commercial. After all, no critic would ever include Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) in any best films of all time lists even though it’s clearly one of the ten greatest ever made.

But I digress – back to 100 Years, 100 Cheers. Most of the films I expected to be on the list were there, some to my delight and some to my utter disgust. Here’s a list of how the AFI list breaks down.

*Babe (#80) and Braveheart (#62) – overrated, yes. Inspirational...NOT! Only in the sense that they both inspired me to write scathing reviews.
*I've always felt that Star Wars: A New Hope (#39) is extremely inspirational, but I never thought anybody else did – so I was delighted by its inclusion.
*2001: A Space Odyssey (#47) is not only one of the ten greatest films ever made, it’s one of the five greatest films ever made. Brilliant, visionary, spell binding, and totally awesome. However, inspirational is not the first word that comes to mind when I think about this Kubrick masterpiece. So I was surprised by its inclusion, but 2001 deserves to be on every kind of 100 best list out there.
*Gone with the Wind (#43) is definitely Hollywood’s greatest melodrama, but again, inspirational is not the first word to come to mind when I think about this cinema milestone – but no real complaints here.
*I was surprised and thrilled to see Working Girl (#87), a film I’ve always found to be truly inspirational, make the list, even if only in the bottom 50. This Mike Nichols’ classic doesn’t get the credit it deserves – being that it’s one of the best romantic comedies of all time, one of the best films of the 80’s, and the movie that boasts Melanie Griffith’s greatest performance.
*Thelma & Louise (#78) is not what I would classify as an inspirational motion picture experience. If anything, it’s pessimistic and tragic. But I’m one of the few who think this Ridley Scott feature is extremely overrated, mainly because it makes light of a very serious sociological problem – that it’s really a man’s world where women are still second class citizens.
*I expected to see one of my all time favourite films Dead Poets Society (#52) on the list and I was thrilled that AFI did not let me down.
*I was disappointed that two of the best and most inspiriational films of the 90's didn't make the list In the Name of the Father (1993) and Strictly Ballroom (1992). But since they're not really American films, I can't complain.
*The Color Purple (#51) is one of Spielberg’s most underappreciated masterpieces. Yet it remains, in my opinion, the very best film of 1985, one of the very best films of the 80's, and one of Spielberg’s greatest artistic triumphs. Not to mention that The Color Purple wrote the book on inspiration and consequently deserved to be much higher on the AFI list.
*I knew Rocky (#5) would be on the list but why did it have to be that high – uuggh! The only list Rocky should be no.5 on is a list of the most overrated movies of all time.
*The Shawshank Redemption (#23) – a no brainer, as one of the best and most beloved films of the 90’s, Shawshank is the best Capra film Capra never made.
*It’s A Wonderful Life (#1) – no surprise, I knew it would be no.1. But I’m one of the few who doesn’t share everyone’s enthusiasm about this holiday classic. Maybe I simply need to see it again -- if only I could stay awake through the first hour and refrain from groaning every time those two blinking lights in the sky start talking.
*Schindler’s List (#3) – no.3? Spielberg's award winning masterpiece should've been no.1, no question. As Schindler's List is not only inspirational, it transcends the realm of cinema itself and elevates the medium to a supernatural level. After all, how could God's favourite movie be anything less than the most inspirational film of all time.

CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE - A Bullet Point Review

You’ve heard all the controversial babble surrounding The Da Vinci Code, but the real controversy is how such a supposedly good book can turn out to be such a cinematic dud. Here’s how The Code breaks down:

*The story is so ludicrous it makes Raiders of the Lost Ark look like a documentary. If they’re going to go that way out with the premise, they should at least attempt to portray some historical facts accurately, so that the narrative could at least appear to be somewhat plausible.

*The plot is unnecessarily convoluted, with twists and turns that feel completely manufactured – twists and turns that serve the genre rather than the story itself. In other words, this is a thriller purely for the sake of thrillers and not a thriller that flows naturally from a solid story. For instance, a man is shot in the Louvre at the film’s opening. He's about to die and has little time left. How does he spend his precious remaining moments on earth? He devises the most absurdly cryptic clues imaginable, leaving behind a pointlessly complicated message. Isn’t that how most of us would spend our last remaining moments?

*Most of the characters’ motivations don’t make any sense. For example, why is this professor, who should be more concerned about clearing his name of murder, willing to elude police, risk his life, and go on a wild goose chase with a woman he doesn’t even know - because she’s hot? As well, why are so many people willing to radically compromise their values in order to destroy a secret that could never possibly be proven and so could never present any threat to Christianity? A secret that isn't in any real danger of being exposed?

*One of the villains, Silas, an albino monk with a few unresolved issues, is so over the top, he even looks like the Emperor from the Star Wars films.

*One of the main secrets revealed near the very end of the film, is painfully clear long before that and definitely not worth the approximate 2.5 hours we had to sit through to reach that point. Thus the finale is rather underwhelming and anything less than climactic.

The bottom line: As far as summer movie escapism goes, The Da Vinci Code works more like a mild distraction, than a first rate thriller. A good thriller flows out of a good story, not solely out of a good premise, no matter how original that premise is. Dan Brown should have focused more on justifying the characters’ motivations and behaviours rather than resurrecting dubious historical legends. As for the controversy, having not read the book, I do believe that one needs to be very careful when incorporating sacred symbols into fiction. The Jesus Story, whether one believes it or not, is sacred to millions of people, and so Brown should have been a little more respectful of the subject. It’s not a matter of people believing that the story may be true, it’s a matter of desecrating images that are sacred to millions. But as far as posing any threat to Christianity, it can only pose a threat if Christians are insecure about their beliefs. People who are secure in their own belief system aren't threatened by opposing points of view. In fact, opposing belief systems often help to strengthen one's own ideologies. After all, you can learn a lot from "heresy". Historically, it was heresies that forced the Christian Church to affirm and formalize its doctrines. The only thing The Da Vinci Code really threatens is quality summer movie viewing as the the film adaptation will more likely be remembered for being one of the biggest critical disappointments in the medium's history, than anything else.

On The Rickter-Scale, the Da Vinci Code rates a 4.5 out of 10.

THE RICKTER-SCALE:
10 (A+) – extraordinary, a masterpiece
9.5/9.0 (A) – exceptional, a milestone
8.5/8.0 (A-) – excellent, a classic
7.5/7.0 (B+) – very good, a near classic
6.5/6.0 (B) – good
5.5/5.0 (B-) – fair
4.5/4.0 (C+) – poor
3.5/3.0 (C) – very poor, a near disaster
2.5/2.0 (C-) – terrible, a total disaster
1.5/1.0 (D+) – torture, a catastrophe
0.5/0.0 (F) – abysmal, the end of film as an artform