10 Top 10

AMC played the AFI 10 Top 10 special last night. It was a ranking of the 10 best movies in 10 different categories (see http://www.afi.com/10TOP10/). Lists always stimulate discussion and calling something one of the best inevitably leads to an argument. So, it is time that I weighed in with some observations.

1. They had to stretch to come up with 10 categories. They easily could have combined science fiction and fantasy, or fantasy and animation. The epic could have been eliminated or combined with western, gangster and court room drama to form one category. But I understand the symmetry of 10 Top 10.
2. Is sports movies a category? Really. There are some great sports films, but are there so many that they need their own genre?
3. There was some serious stretching going on to get to 10 films in some of the categories. Sports is a good example. Caddyshack came in at #7, but without this artificial genre demarcation it would not have made the top 200.
4. There are some film categories that could have been included that were not. There could be a top 10 musicals list; a top 10 Christmas films list; a top 10 silent films list; or a top 10 horror movies list.
5. Some filmmakers and studios are so well represented that they could have had their own categories. Top 10 Disney films (after all, 9 of the 10 animated films are from Walt Disney). Top 10 Alfred Hitchcock films (the mystery category lists four of Hitchcock's classics). Top 10 James Stewart films (There are six Stewart films in four of the categories).

There are a lot of movies that do not appear on these lists, but should. There are a lot of movies that have no business being on any "best of" lists, but here they are. There will always be an argument about which is best, funniest, scariest. And that is why the list is so much fun.