AFI Misses the Mark - Again!
The compilers of irrelevant top ten lists over at the American Film Institute (AFI) have released their latest blog fodder. This is a milestone of sorts, as they have released a Top 10 list for ten different categories. A Top 10 of Top 10s, as it were.
In this case, the subject is "Classic Genres." The genres represented here are: Science Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Gangster, Epic, Sports, Western, Animation, Courtroom Drama, Mystery and Fantasy. Each genre received it's own Top 10. The winners in each category are:
The last time I checked, Courtroom Drama wasn't a genre. I understand what they were going for here, but genres are very vague to begin with and the lines can be drawn in many different ways. For instance, Courtroom Drama is probably a sub-genre of the Drama category. Who decided to make it a genre? Same goes with Romantic Comedy, a sub-genre of the Comedy category.
More disappointing are the number of genres left off this list. Where is the Musical genre? What about Action, Horror, War, or Silent films? It seems that if you are going to do Science Fiction and Fantasy as two separate categories, Horror should get its own.
And what happened to genres based on cinematic style, like Film Noir or French New Wave? Have we abandoned recognizing artistic form in favor of categorizing films by the simplest terms for consumer convenience at the local video store?
Then there's the categorizing of films. Who decided that Caddyshack (a screwball comedy) and Jerry Maguire (a romantic drama) were Sports films? Yes, there are sports in both, but only as a peg on which to hang the plot. It's like categorizing Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds under "Nature Film."
As always, I was also disappointed to see that films without a long track record were considered for voting. No offense to the great films of 1988 through the present, but if a film is less than 20 years old it hasn't stood the test of time. No matter how great Finding Nemo or The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring may be, they don't deserve to be on a list recognizing great film until they have been around for awhile.
Let me know your thoughts on the subject.
See the complete list of Top 10 Top 10s over at AFI.com.
In this case, the subject is "Classic Genres." The genres represented here are: Science Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Gangster, Epic, Sports, Western, Animation, Courtroom Drama, Mystery and Fantasy. Each genre received it's own Top 10. The winners in each category are:
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Science Fiction)
- City Lights (Romantic Comedy)
- The Godfather (Gangster)
- Lawrence of Arabia (Epic)
- Raging Bull (Sports)
- The Searchers (Western)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Animation)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (Courtroom Drama)
- Vertigo (Mystery)
- The Wizard of Oz (Fantasy)
The last time I checked, Courtroom Drama wasn't a genre. I understand what they were going for here, but genres are very vague to begin with and the lines can be drawn in many different ways. For instance, Courtroom Drama is probably a sub-genre of the Drama category. Who decided to make it a genre? Same goes with Romantic Comedy, a sub-genre of the Comedy category.
More disappointing are the number of genres left off this list. Where is the Musical genre? What about Action, Horror, War, or Silent films? It seems that if you are going to do Science Fiction and Fantasy as two separate categories, Horror should get its own.
And what happened to genres based on cinematic style, like Film Noir or French New Wave? Have we abandoned recognizing artistic form in favor of categorizing films by the simplest terms for consumer convenience at the local video store?
Then there's the categorizing of films. Who decided that Caddyshack (a screwball comedy) and Jerry Maguire (a romantic drama) were Sports films? Yes, there are sports in both, but only as a peg on which to hang the plot. It's like categorizing Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds under "Nature Film."
As always, I was also disappointed to see that films without a long track record were considered for voting. No offense to the great films of 1988 through the present, but if a film is less than 20 years old it hasn't stood the test of time. No matter how great Finding Nemo or The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring may be, they don't deserve to be on a list recognizing great film until they have been around for awhile.
Let me know your thoughts on the subject.
See the complete list of Top 10 Top 10s over at AFI.com.
posted by The FilmGuru @ 8:59 AM
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