THE FINGER ON THE PULSE OF THE MIDDLEBROW
It is certainly foolish to expect a populist magazine like Entertainment Weekly to come out with lists that are anything other than populist, but even if we allow that they will never publish "The Ten Best Béla Tarr Films You've Never Seen",* it's still the case that their recent list of the 100 Best Movies of the Last 25 Years is an exceptionally asinine misfire. For starters, there are only six films produced in a language other than English:
28. Wings of Desire
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
56. The Lives of Others
69. All About My Mother
86. Y tu mámá también
95. In the Mood for Love
No Three Colors, no Ran, no Yi Yi (indeed, only
To say nothing of the absence of deserving American and British pictures like Short Cuts, Mona Lisa, Trainspotting, Mulholland Drive, Dangerous Liaisons, Terence Malick's Thin Red Line and The New World, Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise/Sunset dyad, anything by Spielberg more interesting than the inevitable Schindler's List and Private Ryan, anything at all by Gus Van Sant or Terry Gilliam or Mike Leigh or David Cronenberg or Jim Jarmusch.
Hell, they couldn't even get do populism right: Robert Zemeckis's Who Framed Roger Rabbit is nowhere to be found, and his Back to the Future barely clawed its way on at 91 - one behind Napoleon Dynamite, three behind the first Austin Powers and half a list behind Men in Black. No Jurassic Park, no Princess Bride, no Big Lebowski, Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo, Kill Bill...
Not even Showgirls!
But they did manage to find room for Out of Africa, Fatal Attraction and Dirty Dancing on the list, for Pretty Woman, Speed, Rain Man, Shrek and Gladiator in the top 50, and for Titanic in the top 3.
These people are tastemakers, for god's sake. Couldn't they have put a little more effort into trying to make people aware of movies they might not have heard of before? Or is that what the unexpected appearance of Crumb at 14 was meant to handle? If not for the presence of Blue Velvet at a shocking 4th place, this list would have essentially no value whatever.
Your own picks for the best films since 1983, your own gripes about the EW list, or you can even try to defend it, if you like, in comments.
*In virtually every probable circumstance, no. 1 is Sátántangó.
Labels: film culture
also sprach Tim @ 11:40 PM
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In "defense" I'll quote Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night, when they were trying to pick athlete of the century:
"I didn't realize we were trying to be cunning."
Which I offer in response to your suggestion that the purpose of such a list in such a populist magazine is to do anything other than to remind people of the things they already knew that they loved.
Which, of course, does little to explain the presence of Crumb and Blue Velvet.
Also, I count two Asian films. Far too few, but two at any rate.
...and rounding out my initial reactions, any film from 2006 or 2007 is certain to be met with the question of "too soon?" But nowhere is this as out of line with reality as with Casino Royale being named the number 19 film of, essentially, my lifetime. There are films, like Eternal Sunshine and Children of Men, that are so groundbreaking and good that even I, with my reluctance to award praise without the passage of time, must champion and recognize as deserving of such a title. But Casino Royale? Divorced from the ludicrously low expectations that the previous three Bond films had fostered, would anyone really think all that much of this movie? 19th best?
More thoughts to come.
If I could interject before Will posts again...
Here in my apartment we decided the list was completely negated by the cutesy maneuvering of placing This is Spinal Tap at #11. Also, a list without Labyrinth means nothing to me.
Good eyes on the Asian thing. Thanks.
Personally, if I were feeling saucy, I might put Casino Royale down around the 90s. It is not, however, the best film of 2006 by any yardstick that makes even the remotest damn of sense - but there it is, the highest-rated film from that year and the third-highest of the entire decade.
And I'll repeat myself: they've got a bully pulpit, and if they say "Days of Being Wild is a great film," people will listen to them, and hence be exposed to something new and invigorating. Meanwhile, they're being told that Pretty Woman is a worthier film than Children of Men, which is the kind of opinion that damages me just because I know that it exists.
Rebecca: good catch on Spinal Tap. And I nearly name-dropped Labyrinth in the original post.
I also point out that Paris, Texas isn't in a foreign language. And that every time I look at the list I see something else that I hate.
Satantango should indeed be #1 (Werckmeister Harmonies should be #2 but now I'm just being a snob)
But seriously would it have killed them to throw Satantango on that list somewhere? Of course they haven't seen it, this is EW we're talking about, purveyors or culture perhaps but not art.
I'm not sure I understand the point of this list. "New" classics, does that mean Raging Bull doesn't make the list because it's already considered and old classic? And if we're excluding movies because they're already part of the cultural zeitgeist, then why the hell are #s 3,2,&1 Titanic, LOTR and Pulp Fiction?
I think the only reason Raging Bull was left out was because it was not made in the last 25 years... otherwise, even EW wouldn't be that stupid.
Things that are bullshit:
a) Amadeus not being on there, despite winning Best Picture in 1984, which you'd think in EW's mind would be all it takes to secure a spot.
b) ditto for Unforgiven.
c) Spider Man 2 and There's Something About Mary being included at all.
Things that are awesome:
a) Crash, A Beautiful Mind, American Beauty and Forrest Gump are NOT THERE despite their Best Picture wins.
b) Edward Scissorhands at #15!
Will: Paris, Texas is West German to its very bones, although you are right, I did say "language other than English"
Cameron: Unforgiven is #71, but Amadeus was another one of the obvious exclusions to me, and if Crash had been on the list, I would have been too busy having a rage-induced heart attack to post about the list at all.
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