Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb (#56)

2012 will be finished in less than two hours. I’ve been frantically watching films all day to get my movie list total for this year up to 150. I’m going to make it, but barely.

Sunday Showdown: continuing my comparison of the American Film Institute's and Internet Movie Database's Top 100 films.  #56: Jaws (AFI) vs. The Lives of Others (IMDb)

I saw The Lives of Others last year for the first time and really enjoyed it.  It’s a foreign film that won multiple awards in 2006, but somehow I had missed it. I immediately told all my film buddies – and history buff friends – about it.  The East German secret police was not a common subject matter (at least for me) in films, and I was intrigued.

Basically, it comes down to this: if you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s not perfect – it sometimes drags, but I’m not sure if that is due to the nature of subtitled films, or the pacing of the movie itself. Either way, well worth watching.

Zoom in, dolly out. I can see it now.

But against Jaws….

To be honest, I had forgotten how truly great a film Jaws is. It’s about a shark, sure. But it’s so much more than that: storytelling at its finest. Perhaps Spielberg at his finest. 

And some of the individual shots in Jaws? Just as wonderful today as when Jaws became the first-ever blockbuster film in 1975. I was amazed at how many of those great shots there were in the movie. It’s one of the mistakes people make when they forget that Jaws is much more than just a film about a shark.

Roger Ebert once called Jaws “One of the most effective thrillers ever made.” No argument here.

So, as we finish out 2012, AFI leads by a slim margin: 24 to IMDb's 21. 

	AFI’s Top 100	IMDb’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
	24	21
#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)

Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb (#57)

Sunday Showdown: continuing my comparison of the American Film Institute's and Internet Movie Database's Top 100 films.

Dead. Dead. Dead.

Ok, so I screwed up. I thought this week #57 was Jaws vs. The Departed, so that’s what I watched.  And really, it’s hard to beat Jaws, so I didn’t really think The Departed had a chance. 

As I’ve said before, mob/gangster epics are definitely my least favorite movies. Everyone having a Boston accent just makes it worse. The graphically personal violence, the use of f-bombs in every other sentence, and the subconscious knowledge the film is not going to end well for anyone, make these movies difficult for me to watch. 

The Departed is no different. I don’t think there are ANY white males who make it through the film alive. (As a matter of fact, I am convinced Martin Scorsese created the entire film around the plan to kill off one of the main characters in the most random, unexpected way possible, but I digress.)  I actually enjoyed… well, maybe not enjoyed… but at least appreciated the first ¾ of the film. But then everybody died. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. After we got to like the 7^th assignation shot to the head, I was pretty much done. They're the Departed... I get it already.

So, compared to Jaws, The Departed was definitely not going to win.

aka Jaws

But, this week’s match up was NOT Jaws vs. The Departed. It was ROCKY vs. The Departed. (Next week is Jaws).  The good news for me: I’ve seen Rocky enough times to know the verdict doesn’t change. Rocky wins. 

Rocky is not my favorite of the Rocky films. (If I was to rank them in order of my favorites, it would be:  Rocky IV, Rocky III, Rocky Balboa, Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky V. But again, I digress.) But even not being my favorite, I still give Rocky my vote over The Departed. After all it’s the under-dog hero, sports cinema classic of the universe. 

I will watch it again this week to make sure, but I doubt my vote will change. 

So, just when I thought IMDb might tie it up for the first time, AFI pulls ahead again 23 to 21.

	AFI’s Top 100	IMDb’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
	23	21
#57	Rocky (1976)	The Departed (2006)
#58	The Gold Rush (1925)	Memento (2000)
#59	Nashville (1975)	Bright 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)

Next week is Jaws vs. The Lives of Others.  The Lives of Others is a fabulous film and if you haven’t seen it, you should. Like right now. But against Jaws? I think you’re gonna need a bigger boat… er, film.