It's the Sunday
Showdown: continuing my comparison of the
American Film Institute's and Internet Movie Database's Top 100 films.
#54: M*A*S*H* (AFI) vs. To Kill A Mockingbird (IMDb)
This was my first experience with
the movie M*A*S*H*. As a matter of fact, until about 10 years ago, I
didn't even know that there was a movie M*A*S*H* - I thought it was just
a TV series from when I was a kid that I hadn't been allowed to watch. I wasn't
looking forward to viewing the movie, to be honest. Sandwiched around so many
other war films – The Deer Hunter, The
Pianist, Paths of Glory – I thought this would be another tear-jerker about
the atrocities of war.
Uhhh… nope.
I have to say, I quite liked it. A black comedy; quite irreverent; very sassy. Right up my alley. Talented cast (that did not include Alan Alda, to my surprise), quick-witted script. But do I think it was worthy of being in the top 100? I just don’t know. I don’t think so.
I have to say, I quite liked it. A black comedy; quite irreverent; very sassy. Right up my alley. Talented cast (that did not include Alan Alda, to my surprise), quick-witted script. But do I think it was worthy of being in the top 100? I just don’t know. I don’t think so.
And it’s up against To
Kill A Mockingbird the great classic about justice and prejudice. About
race and class and the building of a new America. Everything opposite of irreverent and sassy.
Yawn. Did you say something?
I was dozing during all the pro-justicing and anti-prejudicing.
To Kill A Mockingbird
was fine. My 8-year-old watched it with me and liked it pretty well - after all the story is, at it's heart, one about a daughter's relationship with her father and brother. Gregory
Peck gave a commanding performance – as
always. It’s a fitting film for Harper
Lee’s autobiographical classic.
But it didn’t really do anything for me cinematographically.
So again I have to ask the question: Top 100? Really?? Not only that, it’s #54 on the IMDb list, but
it’s #25 on AFI’s list (against
The Usual Suspects, if you’re
curious). Top 25 movies of ALL time?
Definitely not for me.
So… in what I’m sure will be an unpopular decision amongst
my three movie-fanatic friends who actually read the Sunday Showdown (hey
Denise, I’m including you in that three!): I
choose M*A*S*H* as my pick.
In a world full of nobility, justice, and truth, somebody
has to stand up for the irreverent and sassy.
AFI’s Top 100
|
IMDb’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
|
|
26
|
21
|
|
#54
|
M*A*S*H* (1970)
|
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
|
#55
|
North by Northwest
(1959)
|
The Pianist (2002)
|
#56
|
Jaws
(1975)
|
The Lives of Others (2006)
|
#57
|
Rocky
(1976)
|
The Departed (2006)
|
#58
|
The
Gold Rush (1925)
|
Memento (2000)
|
#59
|
Nashville (1975)
|
City
Lights (1931)
|
#60
|
Duck Soup (1933)
|
Aliens
(1986)
|
#61
|
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
|
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
(2004)
|
#62
|
American Graffiti
(1973)
|
Requiem
for a Dream (2000)
|
#63
|
Cabaret (1972)
|
Das
Boot (1981)
|
#64
|
Network (1976)
|
The Third Man (1949)
|
#65
|
The
African Queen (1951)
|
L.A. Confidential (1997)
|
#66
|
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
|
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
|
#67
|
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
|
Chinatown
(1974)
|
#68
|
Unforgiven (1992)
|
The
Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
|
#69
|
Tootsie (1982)
|
Modern
Times (1936)
|
#70
|
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
|
Life
is Beautiful (1997)
|
#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)
|
So five in a row for AFI.
Score is 26-21. Next week The Deer
Hunter vs. Double Indemnity.
Russian Roulette vs. Billy Wilder. Hard
choices.
