Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb (#71)

Sunday Showdown... #71 AFI's Saving Private Ryan vs. IMDb's Monty Python & the Holy Grail

I know it’s nearly impossible to believe I had never seen Saving Private Ryan. But for nearly 15 years I have been actively avoiding watching this movie.  Even for Sunday Showdown I avoided it – watching movies all around it on the list rather than just suck it up and watch. Netflix wondered if I was going to buy it, I had it so long.

In my defense, the one thing I remember about when Ryan came out in the theaters is my Great-Aunt Wynell saying that my Great-Uncle Wendell (then in his late 70s) wouldn’t/couldn’t see it because he had served in the Normandy Invasion.  Saving Private Ryan was a scene he knew all too well and had no desire to revisit even fifty years later.  My Uncle Wendell passed away just this past Spring; definitely one of the Greatest Generation.

I didn’t want to think about young men like Uncle Wendell dying. That’s why I had avoided Saving Private Ryan. But I did watch it, and didn’t enjoy it, although I could appreciate it for the snapshot of history it was. It’s hard for me to watch when I know everybody ‘s going to die, it’s just a matter of when. Dealing with suspense is not my strong suit.

But wait… isn’t there another movie I’m supposed to be comparing this with?… Oh yeah, Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Really, there’s no comparison, is there?

Although I can quote probably more lines from that movie than any other film that doesn’t star Harrison Ford, Holy Grail just didn’t really do it for me. Maybe looking at it through 40-year-old eyes rather than 20. Or maybe it’s just that Monty Python is kind of like ex-boyfriends: better remembered with nostalgia than viewed in the present.

After 34 Showdowns, the score stands at AFI -18, IMDb - 16

	AFI’s Top 100	IMDB’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
#58	The Gold Rush (1925)	Memento (2000)
#68	Unforgiven (1992)	The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
#69	Tootsie (1982)	Modern Times (1936)
#71	Saving Private Ryan (1998)	Monty Python & the Holy Grail (1975)
#72	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)	Back to the Future (1985)
#73	Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)	The Prestige (2006)
#74	Silence of the Lambs (1991)	Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
#75	In the Heat of the Night (1967)	Raging Bull (1980)
#76	Forrest Gump (1994)	Cinema Paradiso (1988)
#77	All the President’s Men  (1976)	Singing In the Rain (1952)
#78	Modern Times (1936)	Some Like it Hot (1959)
#79	The Wild Bunch (1969)	The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
#80	The Apartment (1960)	Rashomon (1950)
#81	Spartacus (1960)	All About Eve (1950)
#82	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)	Amadeus (1984)
#83	Titanic (1997)	Once Upon A Time in America (1984)
#84	Easy Rider (1969)	The Green Mile (1999)
#85	A Night at the Opera (1935)	Full Metal Jacket (1987)
#86	Platoon (1986)	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
#87	12 Angry Men (1957)	Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#88	Bringing Up Baby (1938)	The Great Dictator (1940)
#89	Sixth Sense (1999)	Braveheart (1995)
#90	Swing Time (1936)	The Bicycle Thief (1948)
#91	Sophie’s Choice (1982)	The Apartment (1960)
#92	Up (2009)	Goodfellas (1990)
#93	The French Connection (1971)	Downfall (2004)
#94	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Gran Torino (2008)
#95	The Last Picture Show (1971)	Metropolis (1927)
#96	Do The Right Thing (1989)	The Sting (1973)
#97	Blade Runner (1982)	Gladiator (2000)
#98	Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)	The Maltese Falcon (1941)
#99	Toy Story (1995)	Unforgiven (1992)
#100	Ben Hur (1959)	The Elephant Man (1980)

Next week, more WWII joy with Life is Beautiful vs. the never-pleasant-to-watch Clockwork Orange. Sigh. More Kubrick.

Things I Learn From Teaching College

Another day of speeches. Had the usual "Give blood" and "Don't text and drive" "Legalize marijuana/Don't legalize marijuana". But my favorite (although not necessarily the highest grade) was persuading the audience to own a gun.

Her arguments were good, but her visual aids were what pinched it for me.  Loved them.

13 Politically Incorrect Gun Rules for Conservatives

From the website "Why Gun Rights?"

1. Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians.

2. It’s always better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

3. Cops carry guns to protect themselves, not you.

4. Never let someone or something that threatens you get inside arms length.

5. Never say, “I’ve got a gun.” If you need to use deadly force, the first sound they hear should be the safety clicking off.

6. The average response time of a 911 call is 23 minutes; the response time of a .357 is 1400 feet per second.

7. The most important rule in a gunfight is: Always win – cheat if necessary.

8. Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets … You may get killed with your own gun, but he’ll have to beat you to death with it, because it’ll be empty.

9. If you’re in a gunfight:

• If you’re not shooting, you should be loading.
• If you’re not loading, you should be moving.
• If you’re not moving, you’re dead.

10. In a life and death situation, do something … It may be wrong, but do something!

11. If you carry a gun, people call you paranoid. Nonsense! If you have a gun, what do you have to be paranoid about?

12. You can say ‘stop’ or ‘alto’ or any other word, but a large bore muzzle pointed at someone’s head is pretty much a universal language.

13. You cannot save the planet, but you may be able to save yourself and your family.

Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb (#69 & #68)

On vacation, so I’m skipping around a little for this week’s Sunday Showdown – I just couldn’t stomach Saving Private Ryan or Clockwork Orange. I’ll have to watch those when I’m in a tougher frame of mine. So this week:

#69: Tootsie vs. Modern Times

#68: Unforgiven vs. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Hoffman at his finest.

I had never seen Tootsie – and I have to say that I did enjoy it, kinda. I don’t have much use for Dustin Hoffman in any area of my cinematic life – he annoys me on all possible levels.  Except, it seems, for when he’s trying to be a purposely annoying woman – then he doesn’t annoy me. Go figure.

Regardless, I don’t think Tootsie deserves to be in any top 100 list – despite whatever social commentary it might have been about life or gender communication or fashion in the 80s. So Charlie Chaplin’s brilliant Modern Times definitely wins it for me. And lest you have any doubts about its hilarity:

And #68: Unforgiven vs. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was really no more tricky for me.  Unforgiven was IMDb’s  #99 – up against AFI’s Toy Story. It lost. It loses here again too.

Treasure...

This was my first time watching Treasure of Sierra Madre, and truly what a treasure it was. I enjoyed it and watching Humphrey Bogart stretch his acting chops was bliss.  Everyone should see this movie. A pure classic. (Plus the original line, “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges…” – what more could you want?

	AFI’s Top 100	IMDB’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
#58	The Gold Rush (1925)	Memento (2000)
#68	Unforgiven (1992)	The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
#69	Tootsie (1982)	Modern Times (1936)
#72	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)	Back to the Future (1985)
#73	Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)	The Prestige (2006)
#74	Silence of the Lambs (1991)	Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
#75	In the Heat of the Night (1967)	Raging Bull (1980)
#76	Forrest Gump (1994)	Cinema Paradiso (1988)
#77	All the President’s Men  (1976)	Singing In the Rain (1952)
#78	Modern Times (1936)	Some Like it Hot (1959)
#79	The Wild Bunch (1969)	The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
#80	The Apartment (1960)	Rashomon (1950)
#81	Spartacus (1960)	All About Eve (1950)
#82	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)	Amadeus (1984)
#83	Titanic (1997)	Once Upon A Time in America (1984)
#84	Easy Rider (1969)	The Green Mile (1999)
#85	A Night at the Opera (1935)	Full Metal Jacket (1987)
#86	Platoon (1986)	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
#87	12 Angry Men (1957)	Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#88	Bringing Up Baby (1938)	The Great Dictator (1940)
#89	Sixth Sense (1999)	Braveheart (1995)
#90	Swing Time (1936)	The Bicycle Thief (1948)
#91	Sophie’s Choice (1982)	The Apartment (1960)
#92	Up (2009)	Goodfellas (1990)
#93	The French Connection (1971)	Downfall (2004)
#94	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Gran Torino (2008)
#95	The Last Picture Show (1971)	Metropolis (1927)
#96	Do The Right Thing (1989)	The Sting (1973)
#97	Blade Runner (1982)	Gladiator (2000)
#98	Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)	The Maltese Falcon (1941)
#99	Toy Story (1995)	Unforgiven (1992)
#100	Ben Hur (1959)	The Elephant Man (1980)

If you’re keeping score, AFI is ahead 16 to IMDb’s 15. Next week should be #71: Saving Private Ryan vs. Monty Python & the Holy Grail and #70: Clockwork Orange vs. Life is Beautiful. But if I'm still feeling all wimpy it may be another skip-around.