My apologies to those dedicated few, who've expressed an interest in following this blog, and have waited patiently, or impatiently, for further posts to appear. Of course, the holiday season derailed me for several weeks; hopefully I'll get this blog back on track, sooner than later. My new year's resolution to have a script for a microbudgeted genuinely independent movie, that is, one I can go produce and direct myself, finished and ready to shoot by the end of this year, won't exactly help, in my endeavor to create new blog posts on a regular basis, any more than my bad health does; but as author and screenwriter Peter Carey once advised, "bite off more than you can chew, and chew like hell." (Peter Carey was describing the process behind the making of the deeply underrated 1985 Australian movie BLISS, and I'm actually not sure he meant the striking phrase to be taken as advice, at all, by anyone, ever, but that's how I took it.) (And by the way, I cannot recommend BLISS highly enough; it's a very strange, very funny, and, as I said, very underrated movie, and it's - hold on, let me check - yes, it's available to watch "instantly" at Netflix, as I write these words.) (The BLISS I speak of, is the second movie that comes up, when you search that title at Netflix; I have not seen, and cannot vouch for, the heavy Turkish rape drama that appears first, though it does look intriguing, doesn't it?)
In this post I'll answer multiple requests from several readers who asked me to share the list I mentioned in my first post; the list I've created of "masterpieces," that is, movies acknowledged by the Oscars that I've seen at least three times, and at least once since 2008, and still look forward to enjoying again (a "mechanical" approach to defining "masterpieces," which seems to work much, much better, than simply trusting my judgment following one screening, though of course it is considerably more time consuming).
So though I still have about 2900 movies left to watch, or try to watch, before I can call this list complete, here are the titles I've confirmed as of January 1st, 2012. (I'm trying to see five movies a week, but at that rate this project will still take something like twenty years to complete; perhaps I'll plan to post the list as it currently stands, at the beginning of every year... though someone might have to remind me.)
The list is arranged in chronological order; each title follows its year of release. If multiple versions of a movie are available, I've noted which "cut" bears my stamp of approval, with a note at the end of the line in italics, like this sentence. (If a complete line, date and title, are parenthesized, like this sentence, that means it's a personal favorite I've seen many times in my life already, but have not yet managed to get around to seeing again since I began this project, so they aren't quite "confirmed," in the same sort of final way, as the rest of the list; I include them because they're movies I do truly love, and that last screening, just to make sure I still like them, is pretty close to obligatory.)
1927 Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness
1934 The Thin Man
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 My Man Godfrey
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1939 The Wizard of Oz)
1939 Gone with the Wind
1940 Fantasia
1941 Citizen Kane
(1942 The Jungle Book)
1942 Casablanca
1944 Double Indemnity
1944 Hail the Conquering Hero
1944 Laura
1945 Mildred Pierce
1946 The Blue Dahlia
(1946 The Stranger)
1946 Song of the South
1949 The Third Man
1953 The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
1954 Rear Window
1954 Them!
1955 Bad Day at Black Rock
1955 Pete Kelly's Blues
1955 Rebel without a Cause
(1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much)
1960 Psycho
1961 Yojimbo
1962 Mondo Cane
1962 Lolita
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1963 The Birds
1964 7 Faces of Dr. Lao
1964 Mary Poppins
1966 Fantastic Voyage
1968 Planet of the Apes
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
1968 Rosemary's Baby
1969 The Wild Bunch
1969 Fellini Satyricon
1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
1971 Straw Dogs
1971 A Clockwork Orange
(1972 The Ruling Class)
1972 Deliverance
1972 Sleuth
1973 Manson
1973 The Exorcist any version is fine
1975 Nashville
1975 Jaws
(1975 The Day of the Locust)
1976 Taxi Driver
1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind I'm not "up" on the various cuts - yet...
1979 Alien original theatrical release cut
1979 The Amityville Horror
1979 The Black Stallion
1979 Being There
1979 All That Jazz
1980 Heaven's Gate the really long version - is the mangled short version even available?
1980 Altered States
1981 Excalibur
1981 Outland
1981 Dragonslayer
1981 An American Werewolf in London
1981 Pennies from Heaven
1982 Poltergeist
1982 Blade Runner as far as I can tell, every available edit, is just as great as the rest
1982 Tron
(1983 Never Cry Wolf)
1985 Brazil the theatrical cut, and the "director's" cut, are both great; avoid tv versions
1985 Return to Oz
1985 Legend the original theatrical version is way, way better than the longer "European" cut
(1986 A Room with a View)
1986 Aliens the director's cut is too slow and long; see the original theatrical version first
1986 The Fly
1986 Blue Velvet
(1986 Betty Blue) I still need to triplecheck, but I think I prefer the short American version
1987 Matewan
1987 Full Metal Jacket
1987 Robocop
1988 Beetle Juice
1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit
1988 Die Hard
1988 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
1989 Do the Right Thing
1989 The Abyss the director's cut is twice as good as the shorter theatrical version
1990 Dick Tracy
(1990 Wild at Heart)
1990 Henry and June
(1991 The Silence of the Lambs)
1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1992 Unforgiven
1994 Ed Wood
1995 Seven
(1996 Twelve Monkeys)
1996 Fargo
1997 L.A. Confidential
1997 Starship Troopers
1997 Jackie Brown
1998 The Truman Show
1998 Out of Sight
1999 Being John Malkovich
1999 American Beauty
2000 Vatel
2001 Amelie
2002 Minority Report
2002 Adaptation
2005 War of the Worlds
That's where the list stands, as of now, on the cusp between 2011 and 2012. Now you tell me where I'm wrong. (Please! I value your input!)
For the convenience of those among you who intend to go see which movies you can watch right now, at Netflix, I'll make the list for you. Here are the titles from the above list that are currently available for "instant play" at Netflix, in chronological order, separated by commas: My Man Godfrey, Double Indemnity, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Stranger, The Third Man, Them!, Fellini Satyricon, A Clockwork Orange, The Ruling Class, The Exorcist, The Black Stallion, An American Werewolf in London, Blade Runner, A Room with a View, The Fly, Betty Blue, Robocop, Die Hard, Jackie Brown, Being John Malkovich. (I know, it's a paltry few, by comparison to the length of the list, but that's an accurate snapshot, of the current state of things at Netflix...)
(I've also been asked to include a "reading list," that is, a list of the books that provided source material for the literary adaptations among these movies; that's a good idea, but right now I have to rush off to an acupuncture appointment - the reading list will be my next post.)
