century club

The American Film Institute has just revealed their newly edited list of the best 100 American films of all time to commemorate the tenth anniversary of their initial list. The first list was released around the time I'd just discovered film and I remember my mother would take me to Blockbuster and we would cross off at least two a time and I would gorge on the supposed finest in American cinema. Well, my tastes and knowledge of cinema has significantly evolved since that formative period and looking at the list of the eighty or so films that I eventually saw, I'm perplexed by the absence of some notable films that are just as deserving and powerful as the ones included. The criteria for inclusion is rather vague, but you wonder if nominated films like "Shrek" or "Pirates of the Caribbean" are films that have some weight and timeless resonance. I'm not sure I want my generation of film to be remembered for an ogre. These lists are often meant for discussion and frustration, so I'll begin with films that should have been on the first list:

Five films that should have made the cut:
1. "Badlands", dir. Terrence Malick
A dreamy and somber riff on bandits as heroes, teenage love, and the Old West--true American cornerstones.
2. "Nashville", dir. Robert Altman
Yes, "MASH" is good but Altman had a better run in the 70s with "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", "The Long Goodbye", "The California Split", but he was at his most articulate on the American mosaic in this masterpiece.
3. "Dog Day Afternoon", dir. Sidney Lumet
My favorite Pacino performance and a great movie about New York in the late 70s in all of its filth, sweat, and heat.
4. "Shadows", dir. John Cassavetes
American independent cinema at its finest and a more relevant look at interracial love than Hepburn and Poitier could have ever touched.
5. Any Hal Ashby film from the 70s.
Ashby's oeuvre in the 70s is always hideously overlooked. His peak period was poignant, moving, and peppered with a dash of rebellion. They're films that really speak about something but do it with humor and true sense of humanity.

Thanks to Wikipedia, you can look at a comparison chart of films that made it this time and the films that were removed.

I'm curious why more modern films don't make the list. Perhaps there's that old tension that exists in art between what is perceived as older is better and newer as less significant. Not so, I think. If this argument is to be made, then I don't know if some of the new choices justify the revisions. Do "Toy Story" and "The Sixth Sense" reveal something us as a culture?

Here are five films of the past decade or so that should have made the list:
In no particular order...
"Election", dir. Alexander Payne
Tracey Flick is the embodiment of the new overachiever that I not only went to high school with but in a way has become the new expectation for students across the country. We've always been told that if you work hard it will pay off, but what happens when the football player becomes the new golden god at school? Payne is deft in his observation of high school nowadays and Reese Witherspoon has never been this good since.

"Boogie Nights", dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
It's pastiche cinema at its finest. Touches of Scorsese, Altman, and "I Am Cuba" are all over this brilliant film about the American Dream in all of its porn-soaked glory.

"Lost in Translation", dir. Sofia Coppola
My personal favorite American film of the past five years, this film is as close to perfect as a filmmaker can get. Sofia Coppola confidently expresses her depth and cinema knowledge in this quiet masterpiece. It's funny, relevant to a young generation of people who are not sure who they want to be, and crafted with an ease and capable hand.

"Brokeback Mountain", dir. Ang Lee
In the new millennium cowboys fornicate in tents and kiss hard around corners so their wives won't catch them in their secret passion. A beautifully directed, written, acted, and edited film, this is the film that will be forever be remembered as an exceptional piece of film and not the "gay cowboy" movie.

"25th Hour", dir. Spike Lee
This may not be a perfect film but not only does it allow for one of the best actors of the past decade to shine (Edward Norton needs an Oscar!), but Lee dares to go where no other filmmaker would go after Sept. 11. His New York is still fraught with racial complexities but now an emptiness pervades a part of the city and an uncertainty about life after 9/11 is palpable.

Are there any you think should be included?