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[elmono311]

MAJOR UPDATE: 12/22/09: I have completed this project. It is officially over until AFI unveils its newest list in 2016.

A few weeks ago, I decided to take on an immense project. I was going to watch all 100 movies on AFI’s Top 100 Movies list. Previously I had only seen 18 of the movies and Rocky was added a few months ago when I bought it on DVD. I think that may have been when I decided to do this project. I love movies but yet I hadn’t seen many of the classics including the ones I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never seen: The Godfather (update: I've seen this one as of June 30, 2007) and The Godfather Part II (update: I've seen this one as of February 14, 2009). So, every so often I’ll rent two of the movies on the list below (as of December 2008 this has changed as I have Netflix now... the movies will be a constant stream now). One of them will be one I think I’ll enjoy. The second will be one I think I’ll have to suffer through (this has also changed as of December 2008, Netflix is delivering them to me in order of their place on the list, plus any Instant Play movies I feel like watching). I will update the list as I watch the movies and give my opinions on them. Feel free to interject your thoughts as well. Oh, and I merged the two lists from 1998 and 2007 into one, keeping the ones that were left out on the newer list so there are actually 123 films.

Woo hoo! #25 reached on April 16, 2007 with Chinatown

Woo hoo! #50 reached on February 18, 2008 with High Noon

Woo hoo! Halfway through, #62 reached on January 19, 2009 with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Woo hoo! #75 reached on May 16, 2009 with The Philadelphia Story

Woo hoo! #100 reached on October 6, 2009 with Easy Rider

Woo hoo! 1998 AFI Top 100 List completed on November 13, 2009 with Yankee Doodle Dandy

WOO HOO!!! The project is done on December 22, 2009 with The Last Picture Show; 2007 AFI Top 100 List completed as well

Movies I’ve Seen
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
The Godfather
Gone with the Wind
Lawrence of Arabia
The Wizard of Oz
The Graduate
On the Waterfront
Schindler’s List
Singin' in the Rain
It's a Wonderful Life
Sunset Boulevard
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Some Like It Hot
Star Wars
All About Eve
The African Queen
Psycho
Chinatown
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Grapes of Wrath
The Maltese Falcon
Raging Bull
2001: A Space Odyssey
ET the Extra-Terrestrial
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Bonnie and Clyde
Apocalypse Now
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Annie Hall
The Godfather: Part II
High Noon
To Kill a Mockingbird
It Happened One Night
Midnight Cowboy
The Best Years of Our Lives
Double Indemnity
Doctor Zhivago
North by Northwest
West Side Story
Rear Window
King Kong (1933)
The Birth of a Nation
A Streetcar Named Desire
A Clockwork Orange
Taxi Driver
Jaws
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Philadelphia Story
From Here to Eternity
Amadeus
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Sound of Music
M*A*S*H
The Third Man
Fantasia
Rebel Without a Cause
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Vertigo
Tootsie
Stagecoach
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Silence of the Lambs
Network
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
An American in Paris
Shane
The French Connection
Forrest Gump
Ben-Hur (1959)
Wuthering Heights
The Gold Rush
Dances With Wolves
City Lights
American Graffiti
Rocky
The Deer Hunter
The Wild Bunch
Modern Times
Giant
Platoon
Fargo
Duck Soup
Mutiny on the Bounty
Frankenstein
Easy Rider
Patton
The Jazz Singer
My Fair Lady
A Place in the Sun
The Apartment
GoodFellas
Pulp Fiction
The Searchers
Bringing Up Baby
Unforgiven
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Yankee Doodle Dandy
The General
Intolerance
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Nashville
Sullivan's Travels
Cabaret
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Saving Private Ryan
The Shawshank Redemption
In the Heat of the Night
All the President's Men
Spartacus
Sunrise
Titanic
A Night at the Opera
12 Angry Men
The Sixth Sense
Swing Time
Sophie's Choice
The Last Picture Show
Do the Right Thing
Blade Runner
Toy Story

123 out of 123 movies watched

Movies I Have Yet To See
~I have seen all the movies~

A deer has to be taken with one shot. I try to tell people that but they don't listen.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Universal
Cast: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep
Director: Michael Cimino
182 minutes
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor – Christopher Walken
Best Director
Best Film Editing
Best Picture
Best Sound
Best Leading Actor – Rober De Niro (nomination)
Best Supporting Actress – Meryl Streep (nomination)
Best Cinematography (nomination)
Best Original Screenplay (nomination)

I did not like this movie. This was supposed to be the one I was supposed to like but ended up being one I had to suffer through. At least I got to see the infamous Russian roulette scenes. Christopher Walken was good in this movie portraying a man who snapped after living through one of the roulette session at a Vietnamese prison camp. Otherwise, I felt the movie was disjointed. Oh, and this is a definate anti-war movie.

When it comes dying for country, it’s better not to die at all.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Universal
Cast: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray
Director: Lewis Milestone
133 minutes (restored Library of Congress version, the one I watched)
Academy Awards
Best Director
Best Picture
Best Cinematography (nomination)
Best Writing (nomination)

I was very surprised with this movie. This was the one I thought I was going to suffer through but instead I liked this one and suffered through the Deer Hunter. This movie was also surprisingly accurate in details. The one interesting thing about this film was the fact it was viewed through the German soldiers’ viewpoints during World War I. This was one of the classic plots of a young soldier goes to war for the first time and becomes the experienced veteran. It was a great flick and I’ve added it to my DVD Aficionado wish list.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
United Artists
Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
202 minutes (Redux version)
Academy Awards
Best Cinematography
Best Sound
Best Supporting Actor – Robert Duvall (nomination)
Best Art Direction-Set Direction (nomination)
Best Director (nomination)
Best Film Editing (nomination)
Best Picture (nomination)
Best Adapted Screenplay (nomination)

Yup, I liked this movie, which is good or else my dad would have killed me. Of course, throughout the movie, I was looking at Martin Sheen and thinking how his son Charlie Sheen looks almost exactly like him. Anyways, good flick. Robert Duvall’s character was a crazy mofo and I’m guessing even crazier than what people are used to with his added scenes in Redux. Another movie added to the wish list.

I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
MGM
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood
Director: Stanley Kubrick
141 minutes
Academy Awards
Best Special Visual Effects
Best Art Direction-Set Direction (nomination)
Best Director (nomination)
Best Original Screenplay (nomination)

Oh my god… I was utterly bored. The only entertaining part was the beginning with the crazy apes. The rest of the movie bored me to tears. Ugh. And, no, the line "Good morning, Dave." was never ever uttered by HAL in this movie.

[disnut8]

OK - of your seen movies, I haven't seen:

All Quiet on the Western Front
The Deer Hunter

There are a lot on your unseen ones that I haven't seen.  But......

I'm sure you saw:

Gone With the Wind (maybe you dodged it whenever I watched it)
It's a Wonderful Life (I know Keith Saunders made everyone watch that while he was bunking with us)
Tootsie - come on - Dorothy Michaels?
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I seem to remember Dad leaving and us finding out what the third stage was.
Dancing With Wolves - I KNOW you saw that one.  You liked it.  Ta-ta-ka

Of the ones on your haven't seen list, here's the ones I would recommend as not being a suffer through.

All the above

Casablanca - it's been so hyped as a romantic movie but I was surprised about how much miltary history there was in there.  Totally knocked me off my feet.

Singin' In The Rain - I watched this recently and it is a stupid not very well acted movie.  But watch it for the dances of Gene Kelly and Donald O'Conner.  Debbie Reynolds is a throwaway.

The Bridge on the River Kwai and Patton - two war movies that I will watch.

Psycho - everyone knows the ending but imagine yourself back when the film was first released.  And then rent The Birds.  THAT movie freaks me out.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  Jack's a bit over the top but there's not a single shoddy performance in there.

My Fair Lady - it's musical, it's a "chick flick", Audrey Hepburn lip syincs her songs, Rex Harrison talks his songs but it works.  BTW - Julie Andrews had played this part on Broadway and went it went to film, she wasn't even considered for the part.  Instead, she played Mary Poppins that year.  Come Oscar time, both she and Audrey Hepburn were up for their respective parts.  Julie Andrews won.  Justice was served.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - oh boy, probably the best performance ever of Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier.  Don't even know who played the daughter.  Doesn't matter.

Yankee Doodle Dandy is cute but James Cagney is better than that.

Snooze films of your haven't seen list:

The African Queen - I wanted to throw both Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn off the boat.

The Grapes of Wrath - it's just soooo depressing.  Henry Fonda is great, though.

Doctor Zhivago - I'm surprised that I gained that 15 hours of my life back.  Oh, the movie was only four hours?  Seemed like 15.

King Kong (1933) - OK, it won't be a snooze but you will luagh your ass off at it.  Yeah, it was 1933 but this type of stuff should be at the Sci Fi Drive Inn at MGM Studios at Disney World.

Amadeus - we tried but it was off in fifteen mintues.

American Graffeti - as Randy jackson would say "it just doesn't give me the yo factor".  Too many characters, too much to read into.

Have fun with your movie watching!

[jitspoe]

That's quite a project.  It would probably take a lifetime for me to get through all those.

Hmm, there's an "Easy Rider" movie?  Wonder if they have one for Salad and The Mall.  OHIO!

[elmono311]

I'm sure you saw:

Gone With the Wind (maybe you dodged it whenever I watched it)
It's a Wonderful Life (I know Keith Saunders made everyone watch that while he was bunking with us)
Tootsie - come on - Dorothy Michaels?
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I seem to remember Dad leaving and us finding out what the third stage was.
Dancing With Wolves - I KNOW you saw that one.  You liked it.  Ta-ta-ka

I don't remember seeing any of those movies. I saw about 3/4 of It's a Wonderful Life in school but we never finished it so it doesn't count. And I highly doubt I paid attention to Gone With the Wind when you had it on.

[disnut8]

That's quite a project.  It would probably take a lifetime for me to get through all those.

Hmm, there's an "Easy Rider" movie?  Wonder if they have one for Salad and The Mall.  OHIO!

Oh yeah.  Easy Rider.  Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper (who both wrote it and Hopper directed it).  Then Jack Nicholson as a lawyer.  He doesn't even show up until about halfway into the movie.

That's one to put on the Not to Snooze To list.

[elmono311]

Saving Private Ryan better be on the gorram new list. It's not on the current one because that list came out in 1997 and SPR came out in 1998. I can possibly see Braveheart and/or Gladiator being on the new one, too.

[elmono311]

Cross another one off the list. Today in my film class we watched Dr. Strangelove.

I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Columbia Pictures
Cast: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott
Director: Stanley Kubrick
96 minutes
Academy Awards
Best Actor – Peter Sellers (nomination)
Best Director (nomination)
Best Picture (nomination)
Best Adapted Screenplay (nomination)

Finally got to see the famous image of Slim Pickens riding that nuclear bomb to its destination. This film was interesting and was a sure-fire satire of the situation during the 60s, during the height of fear of nuclear war. This was a much better Kubrick film after watching the travesty of his other Top 100 movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. In my opinion, though, this movie didn't really affect me much, probably because the subject matter wasn't a concern during my lifespan but I'm sure this film was groundbreaking when it came out.

[LostArtofRolando]

George C. Scott's character was supposed to satire Gen LeMay, who made SAC famous... I also went to LeMay Elementary... the man later ran for VP with George Wallace on the platform of nukin 'Nam... I'm sure I probably mentioned how weird this "American Hero" was by now.

[elmono311]

Yeah, that's what I read in the trivia on IMDb. Peter Sellers was also supposed to play Kong but he broke his ankle or whatever.

[LostArtofRolando]

I love Peter Sellers, the Pink Panther movies cracked me up.

[elmono311]

Saw another one in my film class

I goddamn near lost my nose. And I like it. I like breathing through it.
Chinatown (1974)
Paramount
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
Director: Roman Polanski
131 minutes
Academy Awards
Best Original Screenplay
Best Actor - Jack Nicholson (nomination)
Best Actress - Faye Dunaway (nomination)
Best Art Direction/Set Direction (nomination)
Best Cinematography (nomination)
Best Costume Design (nomination)
Best Director (nomination)
Best Film Editing (nomination)
Best Original Score (nomination)
Best Picture (nomination)
Best Sound (nomination)

This was an interesting film noir movie, and I loved Jack Nicholson in this movie. You didn't know whodunnit until the end. The film had all the usual film noir elements. And what really set the tone in that way was Jerry Goldsmith's score. All and all, a good movie.

[elmono311]

Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson... yeah, I watched The Graduate after a long break from going further with this list. Heck, the new 100 Movies comes out in less than a week on June 20 so be prepared for this list to expand when I merge them. Anyways, on to my thoughts (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is next)

Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.
The Graduate (1967)
Embassy Pictures
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross
Director: Mike Nichols
105 minutes
Academy Awards
Best Director
Best Actor - Dustin Hoffman (nomination)
Best Actress - Anne Bancroft (nomination)
Best Supporting Actress - Katharine Ross (nomination)
Best Cinematography (nomination)
Best Picture (nomination)
Best Adapted Screenplay (nomination)

A man having an affair with a married woman who goes on to have an affair with the woman's daughter. Interesting. I liked the cinematography in this movie as well as the constant use of the muted dialogue in various situations. Also, I was watching the end and everything at the end of Wayne's World II makes so much more sense now considering it parodies the entire end of this movie. However, this movie didn't cut it for me. It did hold my interest but I couldn't believe for one second how fast Ben and Elaine fell in love. It seemed pretty quick to me unless I missed a passage of time somehow. That point kind of ruined the movie for me unless someone here proves me wrong then I can re-evaluate my position.

[disnut8]

elmono - your father last night when we saw a commercial for the AFI's Top 100 Movies of All Time special that's on next Wednesday night - "Didn't they just put out a list?"  Me - "yeah, back in 1997".  Father - "I'm sure I saw something recently on it".  Me - "ummm, could that be on superplanet and , oh I dunno, your son's list that he's been working through?"  Father - silence.  Me - wait for a few minutes (cause the male pride has to get swallowed slowly, ya know".  Me - "anyway, he just watched The Graduate and says Saving Private Ryan better be on the list."  Father - silence.

Hehehehe.  Can't wait for Wednesday night to watch the special.  Anyone want to get into the pool of how many times Rich says "I have never heard of that movie"?  100 movies.  Don't count the ones that he just will say, "looks dumb" or "yeck!" - just the ones he's never heard of.

I pick 18.

[Supermercado]

Another interesting thing may be whether he or I have heard of fewer. I imagine my number will be pretty high, too.

[elmono311]

Alright, then it's on. Keep track of the movies you've never heard of from the new 100 movies list and post it here.

[Supermercado]

Just make sure to post the list here.

[elmono311]

I probably will

[elmono311]

It never occurred to me that I would fall in love with a Negro, but I have, and nothing's going to change that.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Columbia
Cast: Spency Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn
Director: Stanley Kramer
108 minutes
Academy Awards
Best Actress - Katharine Hepburn
Best Original Screenplay
Best Actor - Spencer Tracy (nomination)
Best Supporting Actor - Cecil Kellaway (nomination)
Best Supporting Actress - Beah Richards (nomination)
Best Art/Set Direction (nomination)
Best Director (nomination)
Best Film Editing (nomination)
Best Music (nomination)
Best Picture (nomination)

Hmmm, didn't know I rented two movies that came out in the same year. And both of them about a man loving a woman he shouldn't be. Interesting theme there. Oh, and I forgot to do the whole pick one to suffer through thing I was doing earlier. Anyways, it was really interesting seeing how the racial climate was back then. Good performances all around by those involved... except from Katharine Houghton, who played the white woman in love with Sidney Poitier's black man. It sounded like she's used to stage productions where you have to really project and exagerrate your voice. Very touchy subject at the time but I liked how they handled it and showed that it doesn't matter what skin color a person is, it's all about who the person is. That was a big big message for the times and I can see why it was so controversial. Some interesting facts: It is mentioned that a white person marrying a black person is illegal in 16 or 17 states. However, by the time the movie came out, Loving v. Virginia declared such laws unconstitutional. Also, a line about Martin Luther King, Jr. was cut during its theatrical run as he was assassinated while it was still playing in theaters.

Hopefully the next one I pick up is The Godfather but people hate me and it's always checked out.

[elmono311]

Oh, yeah, a footnote: I think it's an atrocity they remade this movie a few years back with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher called Guess Who... and it was a comedy...

[elmono311]

*sigh* Still no Godfather available to check out. I'm beginning to think the video store never even got it back. Anyways, here's Taxi Driver.

You talkin' to me?
Taxi Driver (1976)
Columbia
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd
Director: Martin Scorsese
113 minutes
Academy Awards
Best Actor - Robert De Niro (nomination)
Best Supporting Actress - Jodie Foster (nomination)
Best Original Score (nomination)
Best Picture (nomination)

The story of a man and his trip down the path to insanity. Heck, it was neat actually going through the whole experience with Travis Bickle. He's pretty sane to begin with, as sane as a former Vietnam War Marine can be, but one gets to see the downward spiral Bickle goes through as he drives his taxi in New York City and coming across many a strange people and seeing the scum of the city. Good thing New York City has been cleaned up since 1976 but I don't think I'll be traveling at night in cab there anytime soon. It also shows America's hero worship in that this man murdered a few people and was hailed a hero because they were bad... although Bickle was friggin insane when he did it and was actually out to assassinate a presidential nominee, which failed. All in all, an interesting movie that had to have been quite controversial when it released, especially using a then 15-year-old Jodie Foster as a prostitute. When I said she looked like she was 12 in the movie, I wasn't far off.

[Supermercado]

You should just download The Godfather and be done with it. I know you don't like watching stuff at your computer but it's a bigger injustice to not see it than watch it in a non-preferred location

[elmono311]

Download it and get nailed by the MPAA. The digital rights people are already keeping an eye on us. And I have watched a few of these movies on the computer so ha!

[LostArtofRolando]

Taxi Driver was awesome.   So was Godfather.  They show it on tv all the time...

[Supermercado]

Definitely can't watch The Godfather on TV, though.

[LostArtofRolando]

yeah but you won't get nailed by the MPAA AND it's better than nothing.