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."

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  1. 2.
    An Affair to Remember
    by Leo McCarey

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  2. 3.
    Anatomy of a Murder
    by Otto Preminger

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  3. 4.
    Avanti!

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  4. 5.
    The Barefoot Contessa
    by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

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  5. 6.
    The Big Sky (1952)
    by Howard Hawks

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  6. 7.
    Bigger Than Life
    by Nicholas Ray

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  7. 8.
    Black Cat / Movie
    by Edgar G. Ulmer

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  8. 9.
    The Bride of Frankenstein
    by James Whale

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  9. 10.
    Broken Blossoms
    by D.W. Griffith

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  10. 11.
    Cat People
    by Jacques Tourneur

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  11. 12.
    Christmas in July
    by Preston Sturges

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  12. 13.
    Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)
    by Albert Zugsmith

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  13. 14.
    The Crowd
    by King Vidor

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  14. 15.
    Dead Man
    by Jim Jarmusch

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  15. 17.
    Docks of New York (1928) (Silent)
    by Josef von Sternberg

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  16. 18.
    Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer
    by Thom Andersen

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  17. 19.
    ?
    11 x 14
    by James Benning

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  18. 20.
    Eraserhead
    by David Lynch

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  19. 21.
    Foolish Wives

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  20. 22.
    Force of Evil
    by Abraham Polonsky

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  21. 23.
    Freaks
    by Tod Browning

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  22. 24.
    The General
    by Clyde Bruckman

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  23. 25.
    Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
    by Howard Hawks

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  24. 26.
    Gilda
    by Charles Vidor

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  25. 27.
    ?
    The Great Garrick (1937)
    by James Whale

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  26. 28.

  27. 29.
    Hallelujah I'm a Bum
    by Lewis Milestone

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  28. 30.
    The Heartbreak Kid
    by Elaine May

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  29. 31.
    Housekeeping / Movie
    by Bill Forsyth

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  30. 32.
    The Hustler
    by Robert Rossen

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  31. 33.
    Intolerance (1916) (Silent) (B&W)
    by D.W. Griffith

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  32. 34.
    Johnny Guitar
    by Nicholas Ray

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  33. 35.
    Judge Priest
    by John Ford

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  34. 36.
    Killer of Sheep
    by Charles Burnett

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  35. 37.
    The Killing
    by Stanley Kubrick

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  36. 38.
    The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
    by John Cassavetes

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  37. 39.
    Kiss Me Deadly
    by Robert Aldrich

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  38. 40.
    The Ladies Man

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  39. 41.
    The Lady from Shanghai

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  40. 42.
    Last Chants for a Slow Dance
    by Jon Jost

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  41. 43.
    ?
    Laughter (1930)
    by Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast

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  42. 44.
    Letter from an Unknown Woman
    by Max Ophüls

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  43. 45.
    ?
    Lonesome (1928)
    by Pal Fejos

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  44. 46.
    Love Me Tonight
    by Rouben Mamoulian

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  45. 47.
    Love Streams

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  46. 48.
    The Magnificent Ambersons
    by Orson Welles

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  47. 49.
    Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
    by Leo McCarey

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  48. 50.
    The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
    by John Ford

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

Comments

What is he trying to prove? — 3 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.


Some awesome movies here but... — 3 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”?


Mike Lietz
Columbus

Untitled — 3 years ago

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