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2:06 pm - Weds 1/7/04
My Favorite Movies, Etc.

My Favorite Films Of The Year

1. Lost In Translation

2. Return Of The King

3. American Splendor

4. Spellbound

5. Capturing The Friedmans

6. Kill Bill (Vol 1)

7. A Mighty Wind

8. Finding Nemo

9. Master and Commander

10. School of Rock

What occurs to me, looking at this list, is how many of these movies (American Splendor, Lost In Translation, Spellbound, and Capturing The Friedmans) I wouldn't have seen in the theater if I were still in Lansing. They either wouldn't have made it there, or would have came and went so quickly I would have missed them.

Favorite Films Of All Time

1. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

2. The Godfather

3. Cool Hand Luke

4. The Graduate

5. Pulp Fiction

6. Jaws

7. Raiders Of The Lost Ark

8. Kramer Vs. Kramer

9. Dog Day Afternoon

10. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Looking at this list, the first thing I noticed were the "repeaters"--Spielberg (E.T., Jaws, Raiders), Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate, Kramer Vs. Kramer), Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy), and Al Pacino (The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon)--then I noticed the distinct lack of romance. Then I noticed that none of these films were made before I was born.

Top Ten Films In My (Small)Video/Dvd "Library"

1. The Terminator

2. Fame

3. Chasing Amy

4. Amelie

5. The Graduate

6. Resevoir Dogs

7. All That Jazz

8. Raising Arizona

9. Clerks

10. Almost Famous

Here I notice that there's only one "repeater" (Kevin Smith--Clerks and Chasing Amy).

Something I just noticed about this list is that, unlike the "Favorite Films Of All Time" list, these are all, except for The Graduate, films I saw at the theater first.

It might seem strange that only one film (The Graduate) is also on my "Favorite Films of All Time" list (Though most the others could either be "alternates", or else part of the next ten favorites). But there are a couple reasons for that; Before Dvds, I had a small collection of maybe 40 or 50 videos, and did have most of the "all time favorites", but sold them off (It seemed like a good idea at the time).

Now, a lot of what I have is dictated by the bookstore--What's available when I have my monthly book credit, what's on sale, and in the case of the videos (Raising Arizona, Clerks, and Almost Famous), what I snapped up when we moved out of the video-selling business (Now the only videos we sell are kids stuff and exercise tapes).

Well, I could babble on about this stuff--My ambivalence about buying movies, which movies I choose to own and why, common threads I notice in the various movies that "speak to me", etc--but to be quite honest, I've grown weary of this game (I imagine you have too), and I think instead of writing about movies, I'm going to watch one instead (Mark and Jane taped the HBO movie Normal for me. I also have a promo copy of Nicholas Nickleby, and a Chinese martial-arts/fantasy movie called Hero that Tim G. loaned me, all sitting on my tv table, waiting to be viewed).

 

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