My Filmic Valentine

The more observant among you may have noticed the appearance of a new page cryptically labeled “B100.”  Yes, I’ll wait while the rest of you have a look.  Okay, good.  This is a list of my 100 more or less favorite films.  I say “more or less” because even the short list was about twice as long, and it was like pulling teeth to get it down to 100.  (Forget about a Turafish-style top ten!)  If I had finalized the list on a different day, there might have been several different entries, and I’m sure those who know me well are going to look at it and say, “Hey, where’s [fill in the blank]?”  They’re listed alphabetically, because trying to whittle it down that far was tough enough without trying to rank them.  But if I did, the top three would probably be Where Eagles Dare (#1 for sure), It’s a Wonderful Life, and Casablanca.

This is not—I repeat, NOT—my list of the supposed 100 greatest films ever made.  As I’ve grown older and, one hopes, wiser, I’ve come to realize just how subjective these things are, and to say of certain films not “that was terrible” or “I hated it,” but simply “that wasn’t really my cup of tea.”  Mind you, there are plenty of films about which I DO say “that was terrible” or “I hated it,” but I think it’s important to make the distinction.  These are my (more or less) favorite films.  If you like them, too, then you’re free to consider them the best, but that’s up to you.  I make no grandiose claims for them, although there are a number that I have taken pleasure in championing over the years (and no, guys, The Moonshine War didn’t quite make it…although thanks to my friend Gilbert, I now have the Warner Archive DVD!).

Some of these films (e.g., A Night at the Opera, It’s a Gift, Goldfinger) were included at least partly to represent the overall bodies of work by artists I admire and/or enjoy.  Conversely, there are other filmmakers (e.g., Truffaut, Bergman, Frankenheimer) and studios (e.g., the genre films of Hammer, Universal, AIP, and Toho) that I prize more for their oeuvres in general than for specific films, so you will find them perhaps shockingly underrepresented on the list, if at all.  So be it.  It ain’t because I don’t love ’em, it’s just tough to single out one or more favorites (e.g., Bride of Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, Truffaut’s Stolen Kisses, and several Frankenheimer films, all of which narrowly missed making the cut).  There are also a number of sequels that I dearly love (e.g., The Empire Strikes Back, French Connection II, The Godfather Part II and the remainder of the Lord of the Rings trilogy), but just aren’t quite as special to me personally as the originals.

As time goes by (to quote one of the films), you’ll be reading more about these, but rather than try to editorialize on all 100 of them at once, I’ll be breaking them down into more manageable groups of ten.  If I’m doing this right, you’ll not only be entertained and enlightened about the backgrounds of some of these films and why I love them, but also get some ideas for further viewing of your own.  Meanwhile, the list can speak for itself as a conversation piece and a window into the mind of the Word-Man.  Hope you enjoy looking it over.