Reflections in a Golden Eye

I was, as they say, otherwise engaged, during the mild brouhaha that accompanied the announcement of the American Film Institute's latest list of the Greatest 100 Films list. Now, a few weeks later, finding myself at last in catch-up mode, a quick perusal of the list leaves little surprises; it’s not much different than the first. Although it’s a bit discouraging to see new additions like The Sixth Sense and Titanic bumping Stagecoach and The Manchurian Candidate off of the list. But, of course, this isn’t exactly the Sight & Sound Survey. As before, it’s a list that is provides a great introduction to all that is good about American ci-ne-mahh. And it celebrates dozens of truly great American film. Too bad it ignores dozens of other truly great American films in order to honor such favorites as, Toy Story, for instance (OK, a good movie, to be sure, but let’s face it: it’s not From Here to Eternity).

What makes this list so valuable to me is that it inspired a lot of film buffs and bloggers to reply with lists of their own. Sure, they are all reflections of personal choice (just like the one you’re going to see momentarily) but they all reminded me of some real gems that I hadn’t seen in a long time or, better yet, have never seen before.

It’s impossible for me to offer up a list of Best Films. I just can’t do it in a way that would garner respect and admiration among the high-minded and serious movie scribes.
As I have mentioned before, yes, on my list you will find all the usual suspects (Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Singin’ in the Rain) but they settle in next to the likes of The VIPs and Star!

Growing up an Air Force brat, I was lucky. An adolescence spent at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio provided me with five on-base movie theaters which showed just about everything you could hope to see. Premium movies got the prized Sunday-Monday or Thursday-Friday slots, everything else played one night, and then moved on to the next theater a few blocks away. Admission was something like 35 cents. If you liked a certain movie a lot (such as Airport, Chisum, Butch Cassidy...), you could catch it several times during its on-based rotation. I recall countless nights and matinees spent with my best pal Lester or with my parents (both avid moviegoers). It was at the Fairchild, The Chaparral, the Corral, among other Uncle Sam bijous, where I saw everything from Half a Sixpence and Planet of the Apes to Count Yorga, Vampire and What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? One day it was Z, the next day is was Yours Mine and Ours. Custer of the West. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. The first Italian Job.

There’s probably a much longer story here, about coming of age at the movies amidst thousands of troops who are one night watching Doris Day frolic through Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? and then shipping off to Vietnam a day later. But we’ll save that for another post.

There was something else about all those movies and movie theaters at Lackland: on occasion, there would be festivals during which over the course of a week you could see all of the James Bond movies (there were only five at that point, but still…. I saw Dr. No I don’t know how many times) or take in a big helping of Clint Eastwood (the Man-With-No-Name trilogy PLUS Hang ‘Em High and Coogan’s Bluff). I also recall the very big deal surrounding the premiere of Patton. We got it on base a few weeks before its commercial release.

After Lackland, my father was transferred to Ankara, Turkey where about a dozen theaters were showing primarily American and European movies from the 60’s and early 70’s. Big beautiful theaters and modern little cinemas where every movie had an intermission. I could see Tobruk, Two for the Road, and a Sound of Music with most of the songs lopped out, all in the course of a weekend. Two days later it was Dr. Zhivago and Die! Die! My Darling! followed by Justine and the remake of Stagecoach. And all with Turkish subtitles. Also, since there was no rating system in place, as high school sophomore I could walk right into Midnight Cowboy and The Music Lovers.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make: as a kid, I devoured movies. Good and bad. And I still do. Thus any list I would offer can only be on of my all-time favorites. I’m perfectly capable of jotting down my selection of “the Best” but where’s the fun in that? Some of them I would probably never watch again. Did someone say L'avventura? Sorry, life’s too short.

I have been thinking about my own 100 list for quite some time. But what criteria would assure a truly representative list? Finally, it boiled down to this: Did I (a) love it? And/or (b) admire it? Would I happily see it again? Have I already –happily—seen it again? And again? Would it make the Desert Island list? If I am channel surfing at 3:30 a.m. and ran across it, would I settle in and watch, even if the DVD already sits in my library? An affirmative answer landed each title on the list. But I then had almost 200. I had to get ruthless. This, as it turns out, was no easy task. So, I decided to offer up my list of favorites that did not make the AFI list, or Sight & Sound. And none of them won the Oscar for Best Picture. All of those great movies, from Casablanca to Lawrence of Arabia to Chinatown and Raging Bull….well, they get a lot of love, anyway. Here, then, is my list of much-loved Runners Up. The List could change tomorrow, but here we go:

1925 Ben-Hur
1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc
1933 The Invisible Man
1933 Queen Christina
1935 Top Hat
1935 The Bride of Frankenstein
1936 Way Out West
1938 Holiday
1938 Alexander Nevsky
1938 The Dawn Patrol
1939 The Hound of the Baskervilles
1939 Stagecoach
1939 The Women
1939 Tarzan Finds a Son
1940 The Philadelphia Story
1944 Laura
1945 Mildred Pierce
1944 Cover Girl
1946 Notorious
1948 The Red Shoes
1949 On the Town
1954 A Star is Born
1954 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
1956 The Ten Commandments
1956 Giant
1958 Auntie Mame
1958 Suddenly, Last Summer
1958 Touch of Evil
1961 Breakfast at Tiffany’s
1961 La Dolce Vita
1962 The Manchurian Candidate
1962 Dr. No
1962 How the West Was Won
1963 8 /12
1963 The Birds
1964 The Americanization of Emily
1965 Dr. Zhivago
1965 The Great Race
1966 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
1966 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967 Two for the Road
1968 Star!
1968 Romeo & Juliet
1968 The Lion in Winter
1969 The Damned
1969 They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
1970 Chisum
1971 McCabe and Mrs. Miller
1971 Death in Venice
1971 The Garden of the Finzi Continis
1973 Cries and Whispers
1973 Ludwig
1974 Amarcord
1975 Barry Lyndon
1977 Julia
1977 The Turning Point
1977 New York, New York
1978 An Unmarried Woman
1979 Manhattan
1979 The Marriage of Maria Braun
1981 Chariots of Fire
1982 Victor/Victoria
1982 Veronika Voss
1983 Fanny and Alexander
1983 The Right Stuff
1983 Tender Mercies
1985 Ran
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters
1986 A Room with a View
1987 Maurice
1987 Law of Desire
1988 Hairspray
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
1990 Dances with Wolves
1992 Howards End
1992 The Last of the Mohicans
1993 The Age of Innocence
1995 Clueless
1996 Fargo
1997 Boogie Nights
1998 The Thin Red Line
1999 Topsy Turvy
1999 All About My Mother
1999 Election
1999 Magnolia
2000 Tigerland
2000 Almost Famous
2001 Gosford Park
2001 Ghost World
2002 The Hours
2002 Far From Heaven
2002 Y Tu Mama’ Tambien
2003 Kill Bill 1
2004 Bad Education
2005 Brokeback Mountain
2005 Pride & Prejudice
2005 Munich
2006 Volver
2006 Casino Royale