#72: Shawshank Redemption vs. Back to the Future
I would like
to say that this week’s Sunday Showdown is so late because I had such a hard
time deciding which movie was better. But please. There is no universe in which
Back to the Future is better than The Shawshank Redemption. It’s only #72 on AFI’s list, but it is the #1
movie on the IMDb list – much closer to where I think it should be.
Really, what
got me all discombobulated and thinking this week is a friend of mine calling Back to the Future a “perfect movie.” He
defied me to find something wrong with it. It has a little bit of everything, my friend argued:
action, fantasy, comedy and romance. It reeks of Robert Zemeckis and Steven
Spielberg. And what a pleasant smell that is.
 |
| Too goofy for perfection |
But perfect?
No. For me, the movie has a kind of
goofy vibe that isn’t terribly appealing – something similar to, but not
exactly the same as, slapstick comedy such as The Three Stooges. I like
Michael J Fox as much as the next person, but he’s not masculine enough a hero
for me, there’s never any real sense of peril in the film, and the romance is
between the kid and his… mother?
So no, not
perfect at all. I hadn’t seen the movie in probably 20 years. That just shows
how perfect it’s not. For me, at least.
When my
friend says Back to the Future is a “perfect
movie” what I think he means is that it is a favorite movie of his. But favorite seems like too tame a term for
how good he thinks it is. (He’s probably seen it a dozen times, owns it on blu ray,
and writes about it in his private diary.)
Of course, I
am not mocking him for his delight in Back
to the Future, even though I don’t share it. If perfection is measured by how many times
you’ve seen a movie or writing about it in your super-secret diary, well then The Matrix and The Fifth Element are absolute perfection in my book.
AFI’s Top 100
|
IMDB’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
|
|
#58
|
The
Gold Rush (1925)
|
Memento (2000)
|
#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 is
Saving Private Ryan vs. Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Believe it or not, I have never seen Saving Private Ryan. It is the type of movie (sad, realistically
graphically violent) that I tend to avoid whenever possible. I successfully avoided
it for 14 years, but doesn’t look like I’ll be able to any more. I can’t see how it wouldn’t beat Holy Grail. That’s a funny movie, but
really just sheer nonsense.
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