Greatest Movie Moments NOT by AFI

AFI really annoys me. As they released their ten-year update on the "100 Best American Movies of all Time", they hopelessly confuse the artistry of film making with popular buzz around Hollywood. Well you can't really say confuse, I'm sure they know exactly what they're doing. I just have to keep repeating the mantra: it's a business, not a museum. You will have your Brittney Spears hype living long after some unknown Indie band because she sells and they are forgettable.

All we know about the list is that 'expert' judges were surveyed. But seriously. What expert would place "Titanic" on a list when the most memorable things about the movie were the Celene Dion theme song and a sweaty hand slapping a fogged window?

Because everyone loves a good movie argument, here are my own opinions about the list which many of you might disagree about:

The Big Jumpers
Most surprising was the gigantic leaps some of these movies made around the list. "Raging Bull" moved up 20 spots to #4, "City Lights" up 65 to #11. I haven't seen either, so I will reserve criticism, even though I don't understand how a past entry can move into the top five when a masterpiece like "The Graduate" drops out. (Okay, I'll admit it, I'd definitely take Dustin Hoffman's young performance over any Robert DeNiro one any day, but maybe that's because I'm a girl.)

One jump I did approve of was "The Searchers" moving up 84 spots to #12. I think this and "High Noon" are possibly the best Westerns of all time, so I was happy to see it get some recognition.

Absentees
Here's where I start getting upset. Looking at the ballot, there are a lot of movies one could argue should have been on the list. I'll keep my rant to the ones removed, notably "Rebel without a cause" (#59 in 1997) "Amadeus" (#54) "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (#64) "Giant" (#82) and "My Fair Lady" (#91). I'll remove the last two on account that I'm a Texan and a fan of musicals, but the other three are all classics. James Dean's teenage rebellion may seem hopelessly bland by today's standards and perhaps musical aliens isn't as exciting as skin eating ones, but can you seriously say either one was worse than "Titanic" or "The Sixth Sense"?

A much better list we can all agree on
I have to stop before I throw a silent fit in my cubicle. I've accepted this tenth anniversary list much sooner than I did the last one because one thing struck me about ranking top movies. You have to consider all the elements of the movie in the process, not just the acting or directing. The script, the special effects, the statement it makes on society, the box office draw--these all relate to the lasting impact of a film. As much as I hate Titanic, it did have good special effects and the soundtrack managed to connect to the audience more than any other. As much as we all hate M. Night Shyamalan, you have to admit his first movie had a really good twist there at the end.

The problem with this list is that no one really judges movies based on all their elements. Who cares about sound editing? We want to be entertained. All we care about--all we talk about--are those scenes we can recreate with our friends. The Guardian released its own list awhile ago that I like better. They just singled out the top 100 best movie moments and I think it's funny how different this list is from the AFI one. Some movies who barely made it on AFI, more than probably didn't make the ballot, are on this list because they entertain, if only for a single scene.

Also, notice that this list removes from the discussion the eternal movie debate that is Citizen Kane. Sure it's the best movie of all time, but where is that jaw dropping scene we all remember? (And no, a child's sleigh does not count).

The top 10:
10. "Some Like it Hot" final reveal scene with Jack Lemmon
9. "Planet of the Apes" Finding the statue of liberty in the sand
8. "Casablanca" Airport goodbye scene
7. "The Great Escape" McQueen jumping the barbed wire on a motorcycle
6. "Blade Runner" Batty's Dying scene in the rain
5. "Apocalypse Now" Dawn Helicopter Scene
4. "2001" Bone into Space station transformation
3. "The Third Man" Harry Lime appears
2. "Psycho" Shower scene
1. "The Usual Suspects", when Kujan realizes he's been duped.

So with that, I'll leave it to you to argue with me. But admittedly the greatest thing Hollywood ever did was convince the world they knew what they were talking about. Ciao.