Jonathan Rosenbaum - Alternative 100 Top American Films

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Jonathan Rosenbaum says "Just about everyone I’ve spoken to about the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest American movies, presented on a stultifyingly vacuous three-hour CBS special last week, has been depressed about it—partly because the list was so lackluster and partly because the show failed to offer an interesting justification for any of the titles…

Let me hasten to add that if I were drawing up my own list of the 100 greatest American movies, roughly a quarter of the AFI’s list would be on it. But it seems more useful to offer an alternative list of 100 features rather than an unwieldy composite of the 25 or so AFI titles I can live with and 75 others. I’ve also decided to list my choices alphabetically rather than impose an order based on merit, since that would be tantamount to ranking oranges over apples or declaring cherries superior to grapes."

Pages: 1

  1. 1.
    Ace in the Hole (The Criterion Collection)
    by Billy Wilder
  2. 2.
    An Affair to Remember
    by Leo McCarey
  3. 3.
    Anatomy of a Murder
    by Otto Preminger
  4. 4.
    Avanti!
    by Billy Wilder
  5. 5.
    The Barefoot Contessa
    by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  6. 6.
    The Big Sky (1952)
    by Howard Hawks
  7. 7.
    Bigger Than Life (The Criterion Collection)
    by Nicholas Ray
  8. 8.
    Black Cat [VHS]

  10. 10.
    Broken Blossoms
    by D.W. Griffith
  11. 11.
    Cat People [VHS Tape] (1942)

  12. 12.
    Christmas in July
    by Preston Sturges
  13. 13.
    Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)
    by Albert Zugsmith
  14. 14.
  15. 15.
    Dead Man

  16. 16.
    Do the Right Thing: The (The Criterion Collection)
    by Spike Lee
  17. 17.
    Docks of New York [VHS]
    by Josef von Sternberg
  18. 18.
    Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer
    by Thom Andersen
  19. 19.
    11 x 14
    by James Benning
  20. 20.
    Eraserhead
    by David Lynch
  21. 21.
    Foolish Wives

  22. 22.
    Force of Evil
    by Abraham Polonsky
  23. 23.
    Freaks
    by Tod Browning
  24. 24.
    General (1927)
    by Buster Keaton
  25. 25.
    Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

  26. 26.
    Gilda

  27. 27.
    The Great Garrick
    by James Whale
  28. 28.
    Greed [VHS]
    by Erich von Stroheim
  29. 29.
    Hallelujah I'm a Bum
    by Lewis Milestone
  30. 30.
    The Heartbreak Kid
    by Elaine May
  31. 31.
    Housekeeping [VHS]
    by Bill Forsyth
  32. 32.
    The Hustler
    by Robert Rossen
  33. 33.
    Intolerance (1916)
    by D.W. Griffith
  34. 34.
    Johnny Guitar
    by Nicholas Ray
  35. 35.
    Judge Priest [VHS]
    by John Ford
  36. 36.
    Killer of Sheep
    by Charles Burnett
  37. 37.
    The Killing

  38. 38.
    Killing of a Chinese Bookie
    by John Cassavetes
  39. 39.
    Kiss Me Deadly
    by Robert Aldrich
  40. 40.
    The Ladies Man

  41. 41.
    The Lady from Shanghai
    by Orson Welles
  42. 42.
    Last Chants for a Slow Dance
    by Jon Jost
  43. 43.
    Laughter (1930)
    by Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast
  44. 44.
    Letter from an Unknown Woman [VHS]
    by Max Ophüls
  45. 45.
    Lonesome (1928)
    by Pal Fejos
  46. 46.
    Love Me Tonight
    by Rouben Mamoulian
  47. 47.
    Love Streams

  48. 48.
    The Magnificent Ambersons
    by Orson Welles
  49. 49.
    Make Way for Tomorrow (The Criterion Collection)
    by Leo McCarey
  50. 50.
    The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Pages: 1

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Created by Robot Co-op on Nov 30, 2005.
 

Comments

czechnewwaver

What is he trying to prove? — 6 years ago

It seems more like a 100 Favorites list to me. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but after getting so stuffy about the AFI’s list he shouldn’t submit his own severely flawed “100 best” list. Anyway, only 25 of the AFI’s films would be on his list? I’d love to know what those 25 would be…the AFI list was deeply flawed of course, but it achieved its goal, which was to get people interested in film history. At the time I was a teenage film buff who’s interest in seeing classic films had waned in recent years (I was getting into music at the time). The AFI list re-kindled my flame and since then I’ve barely looked back.

Aug 09, 07:09PM | 1 comment | Reply to this

gamine humming the songs from "footlight parade"

Some awesome movies here but... — 6 years ago

Only one Douglas Sirk film – and it’s not in color? Wow.

And where are all the sparkling screwball comedies … like oh, maybe “Libelled Lady” and “The Lady Eve”?

Jul 19, 02:29AM | 1 comment | Reply to this

Mike Lietz

Untitled — 7 years ago

Wrong movies! He meant the original Point Blank with Lee Marvin, not the remake, and the 1961 Ladies’ Man with Jerry Lewis.

Apr 03, 09:58AM | 0 comments | Reply to this



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