Entertainment Weekly ranks its 'new classics'
Every year, the American Film Institute publishes a top 100 movies of all time.
Most are older than dirt and the treasured few in the top 10 pretty much remain the same year in and year out. Citizen Kane is always the No. 1 movie of all time.
Once in awhile AFI will slide a new flick onto the 100 list but not often enough. I don’t know about you but I’m bored with the whole thing. Entertainment Weekly is obviously bored, too, and the magazine did something I didn’t do. They acted.
The July issue focused on what EW calls the “new” classics. These are films from the last 25 years. Though I don’t agree with the entire list, it is a focal point where we can start a discussion.
Below is their top 10. I added my comments to their picks. You can get the magazine if you want to read theirs.
Films I’d rather see in the top 10 follow. Then, I comment on films that are missing. Following that is EW’s entire list.
Let’s dialogue on this one. The subject of favorites is varied and fascinating.
Just going through the Oscar best picture lists for the last 25 years you can see other good films that were left out and that will help crank up the debate:
1. Pulp Fiction — Quentin Tarantino turned pulp fiction into pulp movies and introduced a concept that has been copied ad nauseam. It is violent and disgusting and has dialogue and situations unheard of before 1994. Outrageous and original, EW gets no argument here.
2. The Lord of the Ring trilogy — Again, no argument. The ultimate in fantasy films with a special effects and character style that will be copied for decades. For five years, Peter Jackson’s name generated a hushed reverence among those who love movies. We were in awe of his three films. All the Oscars from year three’s The Return of the King are deserved.
3. Titanic— James Cameron’s ice-water-in-his-veins gamble paid off. The one film in Entertainment Weekly’s top-10 list that fits the classic AFI classic movie mold. Titanic had it all — a throwback to the old days hero, an independent heroine, a world-class villain and stunning sets and effects.
This is where EW’s list gets iffy.
4. Blue Velvet — Picking this as No. 4 makes about as much sense as a David Lynch movie. Those familiar with Lynch’s creations will find that funny as well as correct. Though I love the movie, it wouldn’t be on my top 10.
The EW No. 5 pick isn’t bad. I wouldn’t put it in the top 10 but you can argue that Toy Story did put Pixar on the map
5. Toy Story — Yes, being the first entirely computer-generated animated feature is extraordinary. Even more remarkable is the film’s terrific script, child-like sense of humor, and the animated vocal efforts of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and the rest of a stellar cast rocked.
6. Saving Private Ryan — Good pick. In fact, it could easily be higher on the list. Steven Spielberg’s D-Day landing scenes are the most intense and inventive battle sequences ever done. Normally when movies end, the chatter starts and the cell phones light up. I’ve been to funerals that are noisier when people got up to leave. The stunned silence said it all. And this is the performance that should have netted Tom Hanks an Oscar, not Forrest Gump. In fact, it may be the best Hanks ever.
EW takes another left turn here.
7. Hannah and Her Sisters—I love Woody Allen movies, and this pick could be interchanged with three or four other Allen classics. There is no doubt about Allen’s ability to create rich, complicated characters and to turn common problems into extraordinary explanations of life’s deepest mysteries. Those skills make him the best screenwriter of his generation. Hannah wouldn’t be in my top 10, but I can certainly understand how it got there.
8. The Silence of the Lambs—The only film on the entire list that competes with Pulp Fiction for a legitimate shot at No. 1. No villain in movie history measures up to Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter. And Jonathan Demme’s ramps the tension level up to heart attack territory and keeps it there.
9. Die Hard—The granddaddy of the current crop of big-budget action flicks is also the most fun of the Die Hard movies and maybe the most fun of any action flick in the last 25 years. Maybe. One thing is clear no one—not even Bruce Willis—has been able to duplicate its success.
The last number in the top 10 is the biggest head-scratcher of all.
10. Moulin Rouge—huh? Clever. Funny. Yes. But a top-tenner? Nope. Writer/director Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom from 1992 is a better movie and if you have to pick a Luhrmann movie, it makes more sense than Moulin Rouge.
I’d stick The Matrix and GoodFellas in the top 10 for sure. And would be tempted to put Schindler’s List and Fargo there, too. There is even an outside argument for putting The Sixth Sense into the top-10.
There are also some glaring omissions. The most notable is The English Patient. I wouldn’t have included it either but this is the kind of movie these publications go ga-ga over. Also not on the list: Braveheart, Forrest Gump, and Philadelphia.
I’m also disappointed to not see Jurassic Park and Independence Day. Or Monster’s Inc.
Outside of A Room with a View there aren’t too many artsy-fartsy films.
Just going through the Oscar best picture lists for the last 25 years you can see other good films that were left out and that will help crank up the debate:
The Big Chill
The Right Stuff
Terms of Endearment
Amadeus
Prizzi’s Honor
Dangerous Liaisons
Working Girl
Born on the Fourth of July
Dead Poets Society
Field of Dreams
My Left Foot
Dances with Wolves
Ghost
JFK
The Prince of Tides
The Crying Game
Scent of a Woman
The Shawshank Redemption
Babe
As Good as it Gets
Good Will Hunting
Life is Beautiful
Shakespeare in Love
American Beauty
Erin Brockovich
Chicago
The Gangs of New York
Mystic River
Seabiscuit
Million Dollar Baby
Ray
The Queen
Some of these definitely belong in a list of new classics. What do you think?
And I also really loved Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay for Adaptation. I could keep going, but you get the gist.
What else do you think is missing? What would you subtract? And give me your own top 10s.
For a reference point, here is the rest of Entertainment Weekly’s list:
11. This is Spinal Tap
12. The Matrix
13. GoodFellas
14. Crumb
15. Edward Scissorhands
16. Boogie Nights
17. Jerry Maguire
18. Do the Right Thing
19. Casino Royale
20. The Lion King
21. Schindler’s List
22. Rushmore
23. Memento
24. A Room with a View
25. Shrek
26. Hoop Dreams
27. Aliens
28. Wings of Desire
29. The Bourne Supremacy
30. When Harry Met Sally
31. Brokeback Mountain
32. Fight Club
33. The Breakfast Club
34. Fargo
35. The Incredibles
36. Spider-Man 2
37. Pretty Woman
38. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
39. The Sixth Sense
40. Speed
41. Dazed and Confused
42. Clueless
43. Gladiator
44. The Player
45. Rain Man
46. Children of Men
47. Men in Black
48. Scarface
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
50. The Piano
51. There Will be Blood
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad
53. The Truman Show
54. Fatal Attraction
55. Risky Business
56. The Lives of Others
57. There’s Something about Mary
58. Ghostbusters
59. L.A. Confidential
60. Scream
61. Beverly Hills Cop
62. Sex, Lies and Videotape
63. Big
64. No Country for Old Men
65. Dirty Dancing
66. Natural Born Killers
67. Donnie Brasco
68. Witness
69. All About My Mother
70. Broadcast News
71. Unforgiven
72. Thelma & Louise
73. Office Space
74. Drugstore Cowboy
75. Out of Africa
76. The Departed
77. Sid and Nancy
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
79. Waiting for Guffman
80. Michael Clayton
81. Moonstruck
82. Lost in Translation
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
84. Sideways
85. The 40-Year Old Virgin
86. Y Tu Mama Tambien
87. Swingers
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
89. Breaking the Waves
90. Napoleon Dynamite
91. Back to the Future
92. Menace II Society
93. Ed Wood
94. Full Metal Jacket
95. In the Mood for Love
96. Far from Heaven
97. Glory
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley
99. The Blair Witch Project
100. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
This story was originally published August 11, 2008 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Entertainment Weekly ranks its 'new classics'."