AFI's 100 Years - 100 Movies (CBS Television Special)
In 1998, the American Film Institute undertook to determine, by vote of 1,500 of America's movie professionals, filmmakers, historians, critics, agents, actors, executives, and the like, bona fide film people all, the 100 Greatest American Films of All Time. That is, by commemorating the last century, which encapsulates the entire history of American narrative film (not really a century, beginning in the teens, and extending through the end of 1997 for voting purposes---you do the math), the AFI attempted to establish a definitive list of the top 100 by a popular vote of the industry. The result was aired on CBS in June 1998, in this 145-minute TV special. Top-loaded as it is with sentimental favorites, the list serves best as a celebration of American film, with short clips of favorite moments from the films, annotated by filmmakers as august as Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet, among many, many others. Learn what makes Dustin Hoffman or Burt Reynolds weep, if you must. But as a list of the "greatest" American films of all time, the list is greatly lacking---no Buster Keaton, no Lubitsch, scant silents... these are a few of the objections a knowledgeable filmgoer might make. Better to use this program to whet one's appetite for more films, to re-view past favorites, and explore those of others, to argue with it for its omissions and slights. That's if one can get past the constant reminders of our hosts, Jodi Foster, Richard Gere, and Sally Field, that what we are seeing are THE GREATEST AMERICAN FILMS OF ALL TIME.--Jim Gay