How Many Films of Sidney Lumet Have You Seen?

Originally posted on THE SOLUTE

Welcome to a new series called How Many Films of _____ Have You Seen, in which I pick a director each week, discuss him and my experiences with the director and list the films that I have seen of that director. Then you tell me how many and which films you’ve seen and from there we make recommendations, discuss and maybe dive into the auteur theory. This is a space where we can open up about the holes in our film viewing and not get beaten up by a million responses of “you haven’t seen ______? How dare you!”

This week I am posting about Sidney Lumet to promote a talk I’m co-leading about Sidney Lumet at DC Cinema Lounge this Monday at 7 PM in Washington DC. Teaism is located by Archives/Navy Memorial metro. Please come so we have people to discuss with. https://www.facebook.com/events/2095973147393902/

This week’s director Sidney Lumet.

Murder on the Orient Express

 Overview:

Sidney Lumet consistently made films that have stood the test of time from 1957 with a sensational debut in 12 Angry Men to his sleeper critical darling 50 years later in 2007. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Unlike Francis Ford Coppola or William Friedkin (the 70s), Blake Edwards (60s), or Brian de Palma (70s/80s), or Clint Eastwood (00s) who were among the most critically praised over the course of a single decade, Lumet was never associated with the greats of any one decade even though they made films in other eras. A child of stalwarts in the Yiddish theater scene, Lumet worked as a child acting in Yiddish theater but also taking a keen interest in every department. When he returned from the war, he set his sights on putting those experiences into directing.
 
He cut his teeth in live TV which perhaps gave him the workmanlike quality of serving the project rather than trying to infuse his personal style into (in most cases) already-adapted material. Lumet was most comfortable in gritty urban settings (although many films such as The Hill or Murder on the Orient Express were exceptions) and had a great gift for suspense but if there was a singular trait, it was possibly his gravitation toward and handling of socially significant material. This quote is a good guide to Lumet’s work:

"While the goal of all movies is to entertain, the kind of film in which I believe goes on step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of their own conscience."

 What Most People Believe Are the Essentials:

12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Verdict

2nd tier: Pawnbroker, Murder on the Orient Express, Fail Safe, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Prince of the City.

My number: 8

12 Angry Men, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, The Verdict, Prince of the City. Pawnbroker (Additionally, I saw the Richard Dreyfus TV reproduction of Fail Safe)

My Favorite: Network is a masterpiece based on just how eerily prescient in its foreshadowing of the media’s influence in the present day, but it’s also a great stand-alone morality play. Like much of Lumet’s work there’s a theatrical quality with characters (particularly Ned Beatty in what might be the best one-scene appearance ever) going for mythological performances rather than naturalism. While Peter Finch’s Howard Beale has the quote “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore”, nearly every character except William Holden’s Murrowesque executive is pretty much an epic lunatic. There’s also the cryptic romance between William Holden and Faye Dunaway’s characters that is so deliciously twisted.

Underrated: Murder on the Orient Express. The 2017 remake upped the thriller angle to it (perhaps wisely so), but the original has an aura of continental sophistication with an admirable adherence to the source material. Has a novel mystery ever been bought to life better? (I honestly don’t know, so correct me in the comments) It’s a fun mystery with one of the best ensembles ever assembled on screen. And no offense to Kenneth Branagh, but Albert Finney is the better Poirot: A big presence and idiosyncratic without being hammy.

Overrated: Prince in the City seemed bloated with characters who all made little mark on the story and felt static in terms of plot movement. I’ve never been able to get particularly invested in mole/informant-type plots because it lends itself to such easy plot twists that there’s little reason to be surprised.

What I might approach next: Serpico is the most high-profile film I haven’t seen, but after Prince in the City I am burned out on crooked cop stuff. Find me Guilty seemed like a flop. Because it has the great Rod Steiger and deals with the Holocaust in a curious way, I’m very curious about The Pawnbroker. The Fugitive Kid might be interesting because of the amusing anecdotes I read between Marlon Brando and Sidney Lumet in Lumet’s book Making Movies. I also would be interested in watching The Hill to compare and contrast it against other prison escape movies of that era.

If you need help remembering what he’s directed, here’s this handy-dandy list (credit to TCM):

1.Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead(2007)

2.Find Me Guilty(2006)

3.Strip Search(2004) as Director.

4.Gloria(1999) as Director.

5.Night Falls on Manhattan(1997) as Director.

6.Critical Care(1997) as Director.

7.Guilty As Sin(1993) as Director.

8.Stranger Among Us, A(1992) as Director.

9.Q&A(1990) as Director.

10.Family Business(1989) as Director.

11.Running on Empty(1988) as Director.

12.Morning After, The(1986) as Director.

13.Power(1986) as Director.

14.Garbo Talks(1984) as Director.

15.Daniel(1983) as Director.

16.Deathtrap(1982) as Director.

17.The Verdict (1982) as Director.

18.Prince of the City(1981) as Director.

19.Just Tell Me What You Want(1980) as Director.

20.The Wiz(1978) as Director.

21.Equus(1977) as Director.

22.Network(1976) as Director.

23.Dog Day Afternoon(1975) as Director.

24.Serpico(1974) as Director.

25.Lovin’ Molly(1974) as Director.

26.Murder on the Orient Express(1974) as Director.

27.The Offense(1973) as Director.

28.Child’s Play(1972) as Director.

29.The Anderson Tapes(1971) as Director.

30.The Last of the Mobile Hotshots(1970) as Director.

31.King: A Filmed Record … Montgomery to Memphis(1970) as Connecting seq dir.

32.The Appointment(1970) as Director.

33.The Sea Gull(1968) as Director.

34.Bye Bye Braverman(1968) as Director.

35.The Deadly Affair(1967)

36.The Group(1966) as Director.

37.The Hill(1965) as Director.

38.The Pawnbroker(1965) as Director.

39.Fail Safe(1964) as Director.

40.A View From the Bridge(1962) as Director.

41.Long Day’s Journey Into Night(1962) as Director.

42.The Fugitive Kind(1960) as Director.

43.That Kind of Woman(1959) as Director.

44.Stage Struck(1958) as Director.

45.12 Angry Men(1957) as Director.

 

Seven Classics I've Recently Watched For the First Time

Credit: Blu-Ray.com

The Verdict (1982):
Overview: The Verdict is one of the most praised courtroom dramas of all time. It sits at #4 on AFI's list of courtroom dramas and was nominated for best picture. Before I watched it, a friend also told me that this was a comeback of sorts for Paul Newman.
Did it Live up to the Hype? Yes. It transcends the typical courtroom drama because it's a very good character piece. Its also an epic showdown of good verse evil or, more specifically, the corporate industrial complex. It is also hard to argue that Paul Newman isn't the bomb here though it's a bit odd that he's cast opposite a much younger woman (Charlotte Rampling). I know Newman was a sex symbol but was septugernarian Newman a sex symbol? It's also worth noting that there's not as many court scenes here as your average film of this genre. There are only three court sessions and much of the action is Paul Newman and associate Mickey (Jack Warden) dealing with the aftermath of an impulsive bad decision, along with parallel scenes showing James Mason working his skeevey tactics

The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Overview: John Sturges' second greatest film next to "The Great Escape" and the film that introduced him to Steve McQueen. Its one of the great professional Westerns with a star-studded cast and one of the best instrumental theme songs ever written.
Is it worth the hype? Yes. The cast might seem bloated but there's enough space to develop all their stories. The Mexican town feels as boxed in and fake as one of the alien planet sets on Star Trek but its a film rich in color and it feels in place for its time period. Its also a film with action scenes that are of higher caliber than many Westerns that came before it (though its not as impressive as Sergio Leone or Sam Peckinpagh would later take the genre)

Being John Malkovich (1999)
Overview: The film was a bizarre mobius strip of a premise that somehow was woven together into an entertaining comedy but it also hit people by surprise since writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze were such unknowns (though Jonze had made a name for himself in commercials). It was as extraordinary debut for both talents.
Did it love up to the hype? Yeah, yeah and ye, which is to say I watched it two and a half times. The three central characters are wonderfully formed comic creations (Cameron Diaz has never been less sexy and Catherine Keener has never been more sexy, which is to say quite a bit of character work), the film's world building is so strong that its mythology (I.e. how did Merkin guide Malkovich's parents? what happens to the kid? etc) can be debated for pages and pages, and it packs a lot of humor and sentiment into one of the most avant-garde comedy premises ever seen in a mainstream ilm.

Credit: UWMBored.com

The Princess Bride (1987)
(Note: I did see when I was 11, still a very very long time ago)
Overview: The film is a classic because it is an archetypical fairy tale that was likely THE fairy tale for an entire generation of kids who grew up in the '80s. It likely wasn't just the kids who grew up remembering the film but the parents too as it is layered with an air of wit and irony that many people of all ages can appreciate. On top of that, many of its lines and scenes are iconic parts of movie history at this point.
Did it live up to the hype? I was quite pleased. Because I wasn't dying to check out 1984-1985 when SNL came out on Netflix (only to be later pulled) and I have never seen Soap, this is the only time I ever found Billy Crystal funny in an original way (most of his stuff seems to repeat the same shtick), but the cast is well-placed with every role. The mix of dry irony and humor became much more apparent. Westley wasn't so much a star-struck lover or a passionate warrior as he was a pragmatic and logical guy who seemed genuinely surprised by his fate (becoming the deadliest pirate on the high seas) which made him pretty amusing with a role that's hard to do much with. The swashbuckling scene, which the actors apparently rehearsed for several months--and used a fencing instructor who personally worked with Errol Flynn-- is pretty disappointing when you know all that.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Overview: One of the best-made films of the 1970s and one that best encapsulated the counter-culture spirit retold the tale of a headline-generating bank robbery with the robbers as the most sympathetic parts of the stories, it's a high-water mark of Al Pacino and Sidney Lumet's careers.
Did it live up to the hype: Definitely a good movie but the level of hype for this one is pretty high. For me, it felt like it was trying too hard to Citizen Kane the character by peeling back layers of his past (first the female wife, then the male spouse, then the mother) through various encounters but didn't give them enough time, and like Prince in the City, too many cops and FBI men were cast on the outside. It was a sensational acting performance, however, and there was a very strong sense of tension. It also was an interesting inverse in terms of audience loyalties (although I do believe more bank heist movies lead us to empahize with the robbers over the cops)

East of Eden (1955)
Overview: Elia Kazan's epic film attempts a biblical allegory with depression-era California. How much more ambitious can you get than that? It was made a year after Kazan's landmark film "On the Waterfront" and is possibly the best film of the year it was released (1955 was a somewhat weak year) so it represents quite a hot streak. It was also one of only three films James Dean made before dying at the age of 24 causing him to be a legend since all three films have survived the test of time (all three made AFI's top 100 movies list in 1997).
Did it live up to the hype? It was a little different than I expected but it also lives up to the hype. The film is rich with the kind of symbolism that English lit student can revel in and debate. It also has a wonderful sense of towns and the dichotomy between blue collar agricultural work and urban vice is not only thematically interesting but historically accurate of the settlement of American West where many a state line has been drawn to warden off more salt-of-the-earth laborers from the mining communities and bordellos). The characters lean towards archetypical/allegorical over realism but I'd be hard-pressed to dismiss anything here as melodramatic,


The Shining (1980)
Overview: Stanley Kubrick has had a cult loving every one of his films since I first started logging into the internet in the late 90s and all of his films were on the top 250 on IMDB. The Shining is a landmark horror film and the first use of steadycam work. It's also considered one of the most famous adaptations of legendary author Steven King.
Did it live up to the hype? I saw Ready Player One earlier this year so i saw some scenes of it, and there are all sorts of references to it everywhere (like this mock video of Lorde's Royals)
so I had a lot to work with.

I thought the idea of setting a horror film in a hotel was a great idea because hotels are such creepy places are already and the film plays off that idea pretty well. The film overdoes the musical score to the point of distraction. If you're not hooked, the film's slow moments can pile on as well. For me, it wasn't until second viewing that I really felt entranced enough by the deep well of symbolism. And who isn't a sucker for highly ambiguous endings? 

Best Film Ensembles of All Time Part III: 11-20 Adam's List

This is Part III of a series in which Adam Spector of Adam's Rib and I count down out top 50 film ensembles of all time. Part I is here and Part II is here and the final ten are here. Because Adam and I went into so much detail, we split this entry into two with the other entry here. Part V is here.

Adam's List
11. The Sting 12. Dazed and Confused 13. Do the Right Thing 14. Eight Men Out 15. Fast Times at Tidgemont High 16. American Graffiti 17. Short Cuts 18. Glengarry Glen Ross 19. Prince of the City 20. The Royal Tenenbaums

 Orrin's Response:

In your attempts to disqualify certain films from my list for not being ensemble films, you make an interesting point. While we've both pointed to films with ensembles we admire (Dead Poets Society or Back to the Future fall into this category), the ensemble film itself is a genre of sorts both in how it's presented to the audiences and how those audiences look for familiar conventions (for example, the skillful spreading out of a narrative over several characters) within those films. 

Put in more commercial terms, an ensemble film is also how a movie is sold: Look at the posters to Grand Budapest Hotel or Emilio Estevez's Bobby and the main message is "look at how many stars we were able to get into one picture!"

I would argue that the "ensemble film" angle is pretty much the only reason anyone could possibly have gotten excited about the 2012 film The Avengers (or any of its subsequent sequels and pseudo-sequels) and why it's the fifth highest grossing film ever. 

Part of what we've applauded is bold ways of going about casting (in commercial terms, we can call this a gimmick although I don't think it deserves the pejorative connotation). Salt of the Earth used actual miners, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 used actual ex-convicts, Around the World in 80 Days loaded the cast with cameos, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (and Stephen Soderbergh's Informant also tried this) used a who's who of comic actors, but as you point out in the latter case, just putting in those people on screen doesn't equal great results.

An example is Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee's bold approach (or gimmick) was having a full cast loaded with more black people than I imagine audiences even knew of at the time. I imagine it was just Denzel Washington, Lawrence Fishburne (who worked with Spike Lee on his last film), Ossie Davis, Morgan Freeman, and that guy who won an Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman were the only black people audiences could name at the time, and he showed one could fill a great film with a dozen or so black actors all turning excellent performances. He even took a chance on his own sister and it worked! What's more, there's a lot of texture and color in all of the parts which must have been a game changer. And that's not to mention the humanizing turn of Danny Aiello.

Prince of the City, similarly, is a bold achievement in casting. It condensed a highly detailed police case with an incredibly dense source material, Robert Daley's 1978 account of an informant in the police department responsible for 52 indictments. The fact that the final screenplay has over 100 speaking parts must be a big deal as it's mentioned on both TCM and IMDB's trivia section (and pretty much any review of the movie if you google "over 100 speaking parts" "prince of the city"). But at the risk of offending the Sidney Lumet estate (and you for graciously lending me the DVD), this is another case where bold casting doesn't necessarily equal a great ensemble in my opinion. I don't really need to argue this through quantitative means because I got all the evidence I need when I went over to the IMDB page to write about the actors and couldn't remember any of them except for the ones I already knew (all three of them). All I remember about this film a mere three weeks after watching it is Jerry Orbauch has a sinister smile and that Bob Balaban is in the film with an inordinate amount of hair. And I'll go a step further and posit that because the ensemble fails, the film fails as a whole to justify its 3-hour running time (something that admittedly tries my patience more with home viewing). The film needed some of the color that say Danny Aiello or Ossie Davis bought to their parts.

A great example of a supporting role that adds color is in my favorite Coen Brothers film, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Charles Durning delivers a larger-than-life performance that plays on our imagination of Southern populist archetypes as Pappy O'Daniel. It was because of that performance that whenever I see Durning in a film's opening credits, I get a tinge of anticipation over what he will do. That's how character actors and ensemble pieces serve as gateways to other films. It's how Prince and the City (at least for me) failed to introduce me to a single intriguing actor, but how I started to get intrigued enough to decide to give The Sting a try. 

I'm glad I did because there are a million great things about both the film and its ensemble. Chief among them, Robert Shaw is a terrifying villain. His physical embodiment of the part was so masterful, that I half-believed he trained himself not to blink. It also helps that Charles Dierkop mirrors the gravity of his presence so well as a personal body guard. I also think it's interesting to note that Eileen Brennan is downright oozing with sexiness here and this is only seven years removed from her role in Private Benjamin where she's largely an asexual and menacing counterpoint to the happy-go-lucky troops under her command. There's also Robert Earl Jones in a part that treats race as such a non-issue, it almost feels like the part could have been written for a white person. I suppose that's good? But appropriately enough, this is largely about the lead and that's Robert Redford. I always found it odd that Paul Newman and Robert Redford are two actors of roughly equivalent caliber yet Paul Newman has nine Oscar nominations and Redford has one. I just looked it up and it's apparently this movie that Redford has his only Oscar nomination which is fitting since he really steals the show. His character is a guy who has to project confidence for a living, but Redford imbues the role with a definite sense of anxiety layered underneath and that adds a much needed sense of tension.

Lastly, Eight Men Out: I like this plenty as a movie, but I think I love it as an ensemble pick. It just looks so ridiculous on paper: Sherriff Pepper (the silliest character bar-none in the entire JamesBond series) as a baseball commissioner? You have rising stars Charlie Sheen and John Cusack in your cast but you're going to relegate them to supporting roles while having a nobody (D.B. Sweeney) as Shoeless Joe Jackson (the only character I knew of from this chapter in history)? Turns it out it's a far more interesting film to make Joe Jackson more of an uninteresting accessory and honing in on John Cusack as the main character because his character of Buck Weaver did actually have the free agency to at least decide something while Jackson sat on the fence. It's thematically appropriate to have the more charismatic actor steal the thunder. They don't have much Charlie Sheen here but after watching some episodes of Two and a Half Men, I don't mind never seeing that guy act again, though I found it a puzzling from a commercial perspective. Michael Rooker also is a striking image as first baseman Chick Gandil because he has the body type of a jock which is why it's understandable he might not have been cast in much else.

The other actor that I felt glued to here was David Strathairn who is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated turn in Good Night and Good Luck but who I have come to know on a weekly basis from the SyFy series Alphas (which made my top ten a few years ago) where he plays a Professor X type. It was really surreal to see him play a youthful athletic type and I was really impressed.

I didn't get around to watching Short Cuts, but, hey I've seen seven Robert Altman films at this point, and while I like his style just fine, I couldn't get myself to watch another one of his films because I know so much what to expect. To use a Passover reference, let me ask you the manishtana of movie questions (and feel free to imagine the voice of an 8-year old singing these words): "Why is this Robert Altman film different from all other Robert Altman films?, from all other Robert Altman films?"

The other film I never got around to watching was Dazed and Confused? Are you sure you're not confusing that with Slackers? They seem like the exact same thing?

Adam's response:

There’s nothing wrong with all-star casts in and of themselves, but like anything their worth depends on how they are used.  In 1974, Sidney Lumet directed Murder on the Orient Express, which came earlier on my list.  That worked because the actors although stars were right for their parts and served the story.  However, there were other films in that era, such as The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, and other disaster movies, where as you noted the all-star cats didn’t really add much and were more of a marketing gimmick.  Some later Woody Allen films, such as To Rome with Love, felt the same way.   It can be used to mask a mediocre story or production.

By contrast, filling the screen with unknown actors, especially if they are indigenous to that area, can lend a film authenticity.  For example, I recently saw Tanna, set on the remote Pacific Coast Island of that name, where the roles were played by members of a local tribe.  That may be an extreme example, but for Matewan, also earlier on my list, John Sayles said that he cast many actors from areas of West Virginia similar to where the film was set.      

That brings us to Prince of the City, on which we will likely never agree. Lumet cast many unknown New York theater actors.  Many of them were not heard from again in any major way, but I don’t think that takes away from their performances.  For that movie and for those roles they succeeded.   Together, they all successfully portrayed an insular world gradually closing in.    Treat Williams didn’t become the major star he seemed destined to be at one point.   Still here he has both the cockiness and vulnerability to be the tragic hero the film needs.    And the film was not without standouts, including Orbach who fit as a tough sarcastic New York cop so well he would return to it often for the rest of his life, Lindsay Crouse, and the aforementioned James Tolkan.

So let me move to where we do agree.  The Coen Brothers are masters at finding the right actors to bring color to supporting roles.  It started with their first film, Blood Simple, with M. Emmet Walsh as the greedy private eye.    They worked with Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, John Carroll Lynch, Peter Stomare, Ben Gazzara, Jon Polito, Tim Blake Nelson, and so many other That Guy actors.  You could argue that they cast their films like no one else.  Charles Durning in O, Brother Where Art Thou?, as you noted, has fun with Southern archetypes.  He did the same thing in The Muppet Movie as the villain, Doc Hopper.   

Source: HelensDelicious.Blogspot.com

The truth is that Durning is a true supporting actor who made the leading men, and the films, better, whether it was George Clooney in O, Brother Where Art Thou?, Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, or even the Muppets.  I am glad that he led you to The Sting, which was his big break.   Ironically, The Sting is often grouped together with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as both were directed by Gorge Roy Hill, and of course featured Paul Newman and Robert Redford.  But those two films are very different.  Butch Cassidy is a true buddy movie centering on the two title characters.  The Sting, as you noted, has so much more than the two stars.  Someday I need to go back and see more of Robert Shaw’s films, as I have only seen him in four.  The physical embodiment you speak of is both Shaw’s talent and a happy accident.  Shortly before filming Shaw hurt his knee playing tennis.  With little alternative, Shaw made the limp part of the character, which somehow added to the menace.  Besides the actors you note, there’s also Harold Gould, who steals every scene as the elegant Kid Twist, and Ray Walston who performs verbal gymnastics as the fake race announcer.     You had an insightful take on Redford, projecting confidence but with anxiety layered underneath.  He did the same in The Candidate and All the President’s Men.  

John Sayles excelled at ensemble casting, and I could have included much more of his films than I did.  Eight Men Out was such a nuanced, complex take on the Black Sox scandal that it could have only worked with a wide range of talented actors.  Sayles has never relied on star power, and it’s no accident that he relegated Sheen to the background while Sweeney and Cusack did more of the heavy lifting. Before this Cusack had been doing mostly teen films.  Clearly Sayles saw something in him that others missed.  Cusack’s final monologue perfectly captures Buck Weaver’s love for the game and the bitterness at the way he was treated.  Sayles discovered Strathairn and cast him several times.  It looked like Strathairn might become a leading man after Good Night and Good Luck but you get the sense that he prefers to let others have the spotlight.  

Source: AMC.com

 

Let’s close with your two questions (we need two more to fully merit your Ma Nishtana reference, but there’s one more entry left).  Short Cuts certainly shared the ensemble DNA of many of Altman’s signature films, Nashville in particular.   I included this because each smaller story could have worked as its own film, largely on the strength of the acting.  Altman combines stars such as Jack Lemmon, some of his usual suspects, such as Lily Tomlin and Lyle Lovett, with character actors. Jennifer Jason Leigh pulls off playing a phone sex line worker getting a caller off while simultaneously taking care of her young kids which such aplomb that it should have gotten her an Oscar nomination 22 years before she finally got one.  

Finally, while Richard Linklater directed both Slacker and Dazed and Confused, both are set in the Austin era, and both feature excellent ensembles, they are not very similar. The former, as noted earlier, goes from one set of characters to the next, never to return.  The latter is more of an American Graffiti type ensemble film, where the characters have their own adventures but they all connect.  Dazed and Confused created the Matthew McConaughey persona while also providing an early showcase for Ben Affleck and Parker Posey.   Linklater filled out the cast with up-and-coming character actors, including Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Joey Lauren Adams, Rory Cochrane and Wiley Wiggins.    Give it a chance.

 

Ranking Every Film in 2007 1-44: Part I

Here's a series I'm starting where I look at a year (Boxofficemojo and idbm provide yearly lists. It provides a good measure on your movie-viewing habits) and every film I've seen in that year and rank them. 2007 was possibly my most prolific year as a movie watcher at 43 1/2 films due to the fact that I was working a strenuous job at a crowded movie theater and would regularly plop into a movie after working a long shift. It was also a spectacularly awful and disappointing year overcrowded with sequels that failed to deliver (the tail-end of the three biggest moneymaking trilogies of the decade-Spiderman, Shrek, and Pirates all landed with a resounding thud), a slew of ambitious war films that were quickly forgotten (anyone remember The Kingdom? The Kite Runner? Can you tell the difference between Redacted or Rendition?), the sudden emergence of Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow as kings of a new brand of schlubby comedy, an overpopulation of Office cast members in films and a mistaken belief in the range of Michael Cera. I'm going to have a little fun with the credits so bear with me.
So here we go:

1. 3:10 to Yuma dir. James Mangold, starring Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Ben Foster, Alan Tudyk, Gretchen "Where I" Mol, Logan "Before he was America's favorite indie goth kid" Lerman-It was just a remake, but I thought the dialogue was Shakespearean, the acting was top-notch and the action was raw and authentic in a way that few films in this CGI Age are. 
2. Lars and the Real Girl, starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul "I couldn't cut the mustard on Parks and Rec" Schneider, Patricia "redheads can act too" Clarkson, Kelli "Never heard of her before but had to look her up because she's awesome" Garner-In seven words or less: Entirely original in concept, sweet, unconventional, inspiring.
3. There Will be Blood, dir. Paul T. Anderson (middle initial included because coincidentally one of the worst directors in Hollywood also has that name), starring Daniel "Super Annoying  Method Man" Day-Lewis, Paul Dano-I only saw about 60% of this film but could recognize its originality and perfection. The film's soundscape and visual detail are both striking. 
4. Michael Clayton, directed and written by Tony Gileroy, starring George "I'm an attention whore, want to hear more about my Italian Villa?" Clooney, Tilda "Ice queen" Stinton, Tom "That vaguely British guy" Wilkinson, Sydney "Also a famous director" Pollock-Well-deserving of a best picture nomination. A complex tightly-paced thriller that makes tackling corporate corruption seem sexy and exciting. The film was topical and asked questions to which there were no easy answers.
5. Sicko dir. Michael Moore, I generally don't find the movies to be the best way to expose myself to non-fiction, thus, I tend to judge them by entertainment value. Michael Moore has that in spades and he also (for lack of a better word [seriously, thesaurus, you're giving me nothing here]) arouses passion from his audience. 
6. The Great Debaters dir. Denzel Washington, starring Denzel Washington, Forrest "Hot off his Oscar win" Whitaker, and (I'm not kidding here) Denzel "If Forrest and Denzel had a love child" Whitaker, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett-Bell-Without even knowing the history behind the story, you can tell there's a little Disneyesque truth stretching to fit the neatly told story arc of an underdog beating the odds (i.e. Did they debate Harvard? nope, just USC). Still, I found the film delicate and nuanced with an unusually strong performance from Forrest Whitaker and the film's delving into the civil rights movement, feminism on a college campus and the intellectual struggle of undergraduate life all resonated for me.
7. Darjeeling Limited dir. Wes Anderson, written by Wes Anderson and Roman "I can never remember how many p's and l's go in that last name and have to look it up , uggh!" Coppola starring Owen "This was made right after his suicide attempt" Wilson, Adrian "Won an Oscar, Kissed Halle Berry, Haven't Done Much Since" Brody, Jason "The Nerdy Guy from Rushmore" Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Amara Karan, cameo by Bill Murray-I happen to think it's as profound and enjoyable of a film as the rest ofWes Anderson's output  and I challenge you to watch this film as if you've never seen his other films and tell me that the originality of Anderson's vision doesn't strike you here too.
8. Hairspray dir. Adam Shankman, starring Nikki "Lived on the same street as my cousins" Blonsky, John "Channeling his Inner Woman" Travolta, Christopher "No, seriously, the guy can act, dance and sing" Walken, Zac "American Teendom's Favorite Boytoy circa 2006" Efron, James "The Guy From X-Men Who's Not as Popular as Wolverine"  Marsden, Queen Latifah, Amanda Byrnes, Brittany Snow, Michelle "Seriously? I thought she was dead" Pfeiffer, Allison Janey, Elijah Kelley-An absolutely excellent piece of ensemble work with swinging music. I wanted to gag when they called the group of teens the "Nicest Kids in Town" but at least they were self-conscious enough to call Marsden's character "Corny Collins."
9. Juno, dir. Jason Reitman, written by Diablo "Ex-stripper" Cody, starring Ellen "Too short to be considered hot?" Page, Michael "One-Note" Cera, Jason "Justine's Brother" Bateman, Jennifer Garner, JK "The Deadpan King" Simmons, Allison Janney, Olivia "Damn you and your complicated last name" Thirlby-If you were around in 2007, you would be convinced that Diablo Cody was the second coming of the messiah for screenwriters. She's not all that, but Juno is a sharply acerbic, regionally specific, and bitingly funny script. 
10. Lions for Lambs, dir. Robert Redford, starring Tom Cruise, Meryl "I lost to Catherine Zeta-Jones at the Oscars" Streep, Robert Redford, Derek Luke, Michael Pena, and Andrew "Before he was famous" Garfield-It wasn't a very cinematic film as it took place in three mostly static locations in real time. It rates so highly with me because I found it thought-provoking and one of the few pieces of art I was exposed to that had something original to say about the war in Iraq and said it well. 
11. Charlie Wilson's War dir. Mike "Did you know he was once known as a comedian?" Nichols, starring Tom "Everyman" Hanks, Julia "Not as good as her brother" Roberts, Amy Adams, Philip "Damn you, I can never remember how many l's are in your name and always have to look it up" Seymour Hoffman, a cameo by Emily Blunt who does little other than stand on a balcony with her clothes off-If you go back in time to 2007, you'll see that this film had a lot of pre-release buzz and was touted as an Oscar contender. It didn't quite live up to that, but it was an interesting take on the American political hero and even the American dream. The apologetically sleazy congressman got a piece of legislation through that saved lives in Afghanistan. In the second piece of irony, it would lead to the Taliban, but who's counting? There was a definite sense of fun to the film. 
12. King of California, starring Michael Douglas, Evan "Definitely not a dude" Rachel Wood-Just watched this yesterday (which is what got me thinking about 2007). The deadbeat dad is a tired convention but not many movies are focused so solely on a father-daughter dynamic. There wasn't a separate plot with a love interest or any conclusion for the character other than her resolution of her feelings toward her dad. 
13. Bee Movie, produced by Jerry Seinfeld, starring Jerry Seinfeld, Matthew Broderick, Renee Zellweger, Patrick Warburton, Chris Rock, cameo by Ray Liotta-I might be alone but I don't think it was such a bad start for Seinfeld's foray into animation. The bee-on-human sexual undertones made me a little uncomfortable, but I thought the jokes were sharp as was the overall comic plot. It harkened to the days of Pixar's first films like Monster's Inc. and Toy Story that were permeated by an adventurous attitude of fully exploring the comic possibilities of a familiar-yet-foreign world. 
14. Spiderman 3, dir. Sam Raimi, starring Tobey "Who will always look 23" MaGuire, Kirsten Dunst, Bryce "My sister met her at summer camp once!" Dallas Howard, J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris, Topher "Amazing" Grace, Thomas Haden "Get me to the" Church "On time", Cliff "Won an Oscar in 1968" Robertson-We're only on #14 and getting to the films I wouldn't enthusiastically recommend. I never found Spiderman as colorful as some of the other superhero series with its obvious symbolism: The girl next door is literally the girl who lived next door, and James Franco is so broody and blatant he virtually was walking around with a "Future token villain" name tag. Then again, the Spiderman series showed it could have fun with stock characters. J.K. Simmons's newspaper editor was also very much a stock stereotype, but he was undeniably entertaining. So while the Spiderman series is flawed on the whole, the third installment was able to both have fun within its rigidly thought-out universe AND end in an emotionally satisfying coda. 
15. Elizabeth The Golden Age, dir. by Shepac Kapur, starring Cate Blanchett, Clive "Handsome" Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish, Jordi "My name requires not one but two spanish accent marks" Molla-This film is insanely high in terms of historic attention to detail. Even if it isn't and it turns out that the production team's research department was completely wrong about everything, it wouldn't matter because the atmosphere of the film felt so real and was so mesmerizing. The film is a more subtle than dynamic study of politics, war, sexual repression, idolatry (the kind where you look up to a person rather than the religious kind), and class. Look closely, it's all there. 
16. Eastern Promises, dir. by David Cronenberg, starring Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel A thriller intense enough that I can literally remember my heart beating from watching this movie 4 1/2 years ago. Something I can't remember years later is the plot which is what makes for a memorable thriller. I'm also not giving the film too many points for its most memorable set piece: A nude knife fight scene in a spa's steam room which felt a little self-indulgent to me. Still, it's kind of a weak year, so it's up in 16. Plus Naomi Watts always kills it. 
17. Waitress, starring Keri "Felicity Forever" Russell, Nathan "King of the Comic Con Geeks" Fillion-A charming story with a nuanced performance by Russell that echoed the depressed housewife performance by Jennifer Anniston in "Good Girl."
18. Knocked Up, dir. Judd Appatow, starring Seth Rogen, Leslie "I'm sleeping with the director but I can act too damnit" Mann, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Jonah "Cameoing in every movie I can" Hill, Kristen Wiig, Bill "Don't be a Player" Hader, Craig Robinson and nearly everyone from the Office and SNL in cameo roles-I tend to find Apatow a little overrated and think he's produced as many duds as he has genuinely enjoyable films. His films often are raunchy just for the sake of being raunchy and contain plots that meander off course. Knocked Up, however, was enjoyable on all levels and its winding plot was one of its biggest strengths. Hard to buy Seth Rogen as a suitable romantic match for Katherine Heigl but, then again, I'm not the first one to point that out. 
19. Across the Universe, dir. Julie Taymor, starring Jim Sturgess, Evan "Again, not a dude, see the middle name" Rachel Wood-Some of the appeal of the film depends on how much of a Beatlemaniac you are, and some of it depends on the beauty of the visuals and vocals. While the visuals and musical numbers are stunning and the efforts to encapsulate the entirety of the 60's within a few characters is admirable, most of the film's main characters (I'd be content never seeing another film with Sturgess in it) are bland and uninspiring. Some are expys of famous people with none of the charisma. Taken as a series of disparate scenes (like Fantasia), the film is highly enjoyable.
20. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead dir. Sidney Lumet, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan "Handsome" Hawke, Amy Ryan, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney-This film barely registers with me five years later. The premise is excellent, the ending was powerful, and it's always a delight to see Albert Finney in a film, but something about it didn't resonate that well
21. Bourne Ultimatum, dir. Paul Greengrass, starring Matt Damon, Joan "Amazing in  Pleasantville" Allen, Julia "What the heck is she doing here?" Stiles, David Strathairn-The Bourne series has never been interesting to me as anything beyond a series of well-executed action scenes. Why do I care about this character? Despite Damon's general awesomeness as both a leading and character actor, there just isn't enough pathos (yeah, I used a fancy word, deal with it) behind Jason Bourne to make a series. But then again, that action was hard to discount. Like Spiderman 3, Bourne Ultimatum ended on a high note with an emotionally satisfying conclusion. 
22. Blades of Glory starring Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Jenna "From the Office" Fischer, Jon Heder, Craig T. Nelson By no means, a memorable or ambitious film but one that was pleasant, funny, and delivered at its level of ambition. 
Part II where I mercilessly make fun of the bottom half of 2007

20 Best actor/director pairings of all time

While this is not the case with every actor and director, one can say that for every great actor, there's often a great director who mentored him to a successful film career, and for many great directors, there's that one reliable actor they go to again and again to get their material across.

1. Elia Kazan/Marlon Brando-All of the actors of today look up to DeNiro, Hoffman, Hackman, Duvall and Pacino and those actors all idolized Brando. Brando learned his craft at the actor's studio which was co-founded by Kazan and it was Kazan who discovered Brando on stage and fought for him to be cast into Streetcar Named Desire, which along with On the Waterfront became two of the best performances ever captured onscreen. With so many aspiring actors cutting their teeth on screenplays from the Kazan/Brando collaborations, it's hard to argue any other way.

2. John Ford/John Wayne-It's not just remarkable how much Ford and Wayne contributed to the Western, but how much they grew with the Western and evolved with the genre. Normally, with a genre, you have one director who accomplishes something big, and then the genre moves in a different direction as another filmmaker comes. Ford and Wayne didn't just create the preeminent Westerns of their day, but they evolved along with the genre. There's significant difference in John Wayne's stock character between Stagecoach and The Searcher with a lot of variation in between. They also ventured outside the Western for the Irish period piece, Quiet Man, which one John Ford an Oscar. Of their 22 films together, other highlights include She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, How the West Was Won, Rio Grande and Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

3. Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart-Frank Capra was the 1930's version of Spielberg and Scorsesee roled into one. He was the most respected, revered and commercially successful director of his time. His visions of homespun Americana gave hope to millions during the Great Depression. His two primary collaborators were Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart, and while I appreciate the Cooper/Capra pairings, I don't think anyone epitomized Capra's vision nearly as well as the wide-eyed Midwestern, Jimmy Stewart. Two of Capra's three entries onto AFI's 100 Greatest Films list, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life, featured Stewart front and center. In addition, James Stewart starred in You Can't Take it With You which won Capra his second best picture Oscar.

4. Martin Scorsese/Robert DeNiro-Under Scorsese DeNiro hasn played a musician (New York, New York), a sexual predator (Cape Fear), a depressed taxi driver (Taxi Driver), a boxer (Raging Bull) and more. Scorsese used De Niro at every possible opportunity. The only major films Scorsese left DeNiro out of the lead part in the 20th century were Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (a family melodrama centered around a female lead), The Color of Money (which couldn't have called itself a sequel if it didn't use Paul Newman, and Last Temptation of Christ (which used Willem Dafoe instead).

5. John Huston/Humphrey Bogart-The stories behind the films alone, of the two going drinking off in the primitive jungles of Africa, are worth hearing about. Huston's three most prominent films, Maltese Falcon, African Queen, and Treasure of Sierra Madre all feature Bogart in addition to the parody Beat the Devil. Huston also won Bogie his only Oscar in The African Queen.

6. Billy Wilder/Jack Lemmon-Wilder worked for 20 years before finding the perfect comic muse in Lemmon. Lemmon embraced cross-dressing in Some Like it Hot, the plight of the working class in The Apartment, and had five other memorable collaborations with Wilder. It was through Wilder, that Lemmon also got introduced to his other half (comedically speaking): Walter Matthau. Lemmon and Wilder tended to veer for the comic, but in Avanti! and Apartment, they approached dramatic elements as well.

7. Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio-Leo DiCaprio has grown so much in the three Scorsese collaborations from Gangs of New York to The Aviator to The Departed, it's amazing. In Gangs of New York he was just a capable actor with movie star looks, by Departed he was the preeminent actor of his generation.

8. Vincente Minelli/Judy Garland-Judy Garland was MGM's preeminent child star and most valuable commodity, but as she aged, the studio needed a movie made that would move her out of her teenage roles. Vincente Minelli, originally an art director, came along and had his biggest film to date, Meet me in St. Louis, that also introduced Judy Garland, as a full-fledged adult. They also got married (a union that didn't end particularly well due to her addiction to painkillers) and produced (for better or worse) future musical star Liza Minelli. They did make four other films together including "The Pirate."

9. George Lucas/Harrison Ford-If you don't count sequels, Lucas has had a sum total of 4 creative ventures which he has unleashed on the world and Harrison Ford was a part of three of them. Lucas discovered Ford in his 2nd film, and Ford returned the favor by turning his two main creative ventures, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies into massive successes.

10. David Lean/Alec Guiness-Erase the filmographies of David Lean and Alec Guiness and there's very little reason at all to celebrate British cinema as a seperate genre. The two worked together on six films and while Guiness wasn't the star in all of them, he played a part in all of Lean's greatest successes (with the exception of Brief Encounter). The highlight, of course, was the Oscar-winning film Bridge on the River Kwai, which brought Oscars to both Lean and Guiness.

11. Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly-Kelly was also the co-director but they took over as MGM's most prominent team and worked their way up the ranks at MGM as a directing team. At first they took over Busby Berkley's troubled production of Take Me Out to the Ballgame before scoring a homerun in On the Town. In 1952, they followed that up with the most memorable film of the MGM musical era with Singing in the Rain. Donen then had a sole directing credit with Kelly as the star for It's Always Fair Weather, and after that Donen went on to become a prominent director in his own right.

12. Sidney Lumet/Sean Connery-Connery's best films outside of Bond were with Lumet and that's the director where he learned to be a serious actor from. Their most memorable collaborations were The Hill and Murder on the Orient Express.

13. Howard Hawks/Cary Grant-Grant was the early prototype of an action star. He was known as a suave matinee idol who could be molded to play the lead in any romantic film. For his own part, Grant saw himself as a funnyman who enjoyed playing around with good dialogue and Hawks supplied that in abundance. Grant has his most memorable performances when he's able to show off his flair for good comic timing and Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels have Wings, and His Girl Friday showcase his finest moments.

14. Tim Burton/Jonny Depp-Jonny Depp had been in five movies including the Oscar-winner Platoon before breaking out in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. Although he only spoke 169 words of dialogue, Depp found his niche in off-beat behavior and Burton found a star that embraced his dark Gothic visions. The two have since worked together in Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeny Todd and have two more collaborations slated for 2010 and 2011, according to imdb.

15. Billy Wilder/Marilyn Monroe-Without him, she was barely capable of memorizing her lines in order, and it wasn't lost on Billy Wilder that his Aunt Mitzy could act better than Marilyn Monroe. "Then again," reasoned Wilder, "No one wants to pay to see my Aunt Mitzy." So Wilder learned to work with Monroe's weaknesses and the end result were two of his finest films in Some Like it Hot and Seven Year Itch. Marilyn Monroe was beautiful for sure, but Wilder made her look witty, alluring, and by all measures, a movie star.

16. Stanley Kramer/Spencer Tracy-Tracy provided "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" with a necessary counterweight. Amid all the comics running around, Stanley's character (a disheveled cop who flirts with the possibility of abandoning his post to chase after buried loot), was the one character with pathos. In three other films with Kramer, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Inherit the Wind, Spencer Tracy turned out his best work.

17. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen/Frances McDormand-The Coen brothers have elevated the careers of bit players like John Turturro, John Goodman, William H. Macy, and Steve Buscemi. They have also provided memorable turns for leading men such as Nicholas Cage, Jeff Bridges, Tom Hanks, Billy Bob Thorton and George Clooney. Let's not forget, however, that they let women join in the fun as well. In particular, Frances McDormand has been able to shine in one of the meatiest comic roles of the decade in Fargo. In addition, she's featured prominently in Burn After Reading, Man Who Wasn't There and had a small cameo in Barton Fink.

18. Stephen Soderbergh/George Clooney-Soderbergh gave Clooney his big break in Out of Sight and even after that bombed, the two kept working together in Ocean's 11 and pretty much everything else. The two have experimented together with the HBO's "K Street", Solaris, and The Good German and are often producing partners. Soderbergh's influence on Clooney is pretty well-documented and when Clooeny's not starring directly for Soderbergh, he could be starring alongside Soderbergh staples like Brad Pitt or with Stephen Gaughan who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Soderbergh's Traffic. A few negative points go to Soderbergh for all the alleged fooling around on the set of Ocean's 12 that Soderbergh and crew distracted themselves with.

19. Sydney Pollack/Robert Redford-Pollack and Redford were good friends and collaborators who shared socially-conscious attitudes towards filmmaking. Without Redford, one might reconsider just how far into the political realm Pollack might have gone in the first place. Redford and Pollack's collaboration in Out of Africa led to an Oscar for the film. As Pollack's recent funeral was an indicator, Redford considered Pollack one of his greatest friends and mentors.

20. Orson Welles/Joseph Cotten-Cotten was Welles' old chum at the Mercury Theater and put him in Magnificent Ambersons, Citizen Kane, and Touch of Evil. Wells and Cotten's best performances were in the British thriller The Third Man co-starring alongside each other, but it must be noted, it was directed by a third party.

Prediction on AFI's top 10: Courtroom and Sports genres

The other genre predictions are going to be significantly harder. I have studied academically and on my own the evolution of sci-fi, Western, film noir and musical genres so I have some experience in that, but sports and courtroom drama genres are completely unfamiliar to me to an extent. Yes, I have watched sports movies, but haven't engaged in much discourse over how the great sports movies rank with each other over time:

Courtroom Dramas:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird: The only courtroom drama to make the original top 100 list. It's the definitive parable about bravery and justice in our culture, and Atticus Finch was also named the #1 hero on AFI's list

2. 12 Angry Men, Sidney Lumet: The definitive courtroom drama, in my opinion. The simple premise of 12 men slowly being swayed by one reasonable man with a conscience embodies everything about our legal system into drama. Plus, it made the list

3. Inherit the Wind, Stanley Kramer-The courtroom speech practically made Spencer Tracy's career. I've heard actors and writers use the term an "Inherit the Wind speech" to describe a monologue so enthralling that it can be the hallmark of one's career

4. The Verdict, Sidney Lumet-One of Paul Newman's great roles, one of Lumet's great pictures

5. Anatomy of a Murder, Otto Preminger-A cult favorite that's been growing in reputation as one of the best films not to make the AFI top 100

6. Judgement at Nuremburg, Stanley Kramer-It was a seminal event, and the film had an all-star cast that earned Oscar nominations for practically everyone, and at least one Oscar win

7. Kramer vs Kramer, Robert Benton-This film beat out Apocolypse Now for an Oscar (which made the AFI list very high up and is unanimously hailed as brilliant) and yet, film buffs haven't named Kramer vs Kramer as a humongous Oscar mistake, which means the film must have some merit. It awarded Oscars to Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman, and gave a win to a nobody director over Francis Ford Copolla

8. A Few Good Men, Oliver Stone-One of the classics of the '90s that has still held up as has Oliver Stone's career. A hint that this might do well tonight is that Jack Nicholson's "You Can't Handle the Truth" speech was selected on AFI's top 100 quotes list.

The last 3 are between Man for All Seasons, Paths to Glory, and People vs Larry Flynt

9. Paths to Glory, Stanley Kubrick-The only Kubrick film that I personally can really get into, features one of those "Inherit the Wind speeches" expertly delivered by Kirk Douglas (who is still alive and serving as a TV panelist for the event, hint hint)

10. People vs Larry Flynt, Milos Forman-Sounds like a somewhat unconventional and offbeat choice the AFI could go for just to spice it up a little. The picture earned Milos Forman an Oscar nomination even though the film wasn't nominated.

I wouldn't be surprised if this one made it:

11. Man for All Seasons, Fred Zimmerman-This did get the director his second Oscar and won a Best picture award, and few Oscar buffs have labelled that as a mistake either. It's hard to count a Best picture winner out.



Sports films are a really, really difficult category to predict considering that the vast majority of sports films are not critically revered so even while Bill Durham, Field of Dreams, Bad News Bears, and Hoosiers might be the favorite film of all time for a lot of average joes, they weren't up there in terms of critical respect, so with that being said, it's easiest to start with the few films that are up there in terms of critical respect. After that I could go with films that won or were nominated for an Oscar (Chariots of Fire, Million Dollar Baby won, Seabiscuit, Breaking Away were nominated), I could go to films that are cult favorites, or I could go to films that embody the spirit of sport:

1. Raging Bull, Martin Scorsesee-It's Scorsesee's best picture and Scorsesee is like a God to many in the film community. Raging Bull was ranked as high as #4 on the AFI top 100 list last year.

2. Rocky, William Advelson-I could see Rocky taking best picture because Rocky is like the ultimate sports picture and Raging Bull is not necessarily a sports' film but about a man's demise. Rocky did make the top 100 list both times.

3. Hoosiers-Hoosiers features a legendary actor, Gene Hackman, and it was ranked #1 on ESPN for all-time sports films

4. Field of Dreams, Phil Alden Robinson-Field of Dreams is definitely everything a sports film should be, a favorite of many sports' enthusiasts and it has some commentary underneath the surface about the innocence of sport and the times. According to Mast and Ciwan's History of Film textbook, that escape into politics in the period was a step toward fantasy and to confront political and economic corruption was to dismantle the myth. Kevin Costner's character's efforts to personally heal himself through building a baseball field is metaphorical for healing the problems of the 20th Century. so it's got all that going for it.

5. The Natural, Barry Levinson-Well, I know it's considered a high mark in Barry Levinson's and Robert Redford's careers. People who were willing to bash Barry Levinson on a message board one day, stayed away from the natural.

6. The Freshman, Harold Lloyd-Pretty much every sports movie owes a debt to this silent film and every physical comic owes a debt to Harold Lloyd. His film pulls out all the stops and is a masterpiece, but it's up to the AFI to do their homework and be familiar enough with Lloyd to vote him in.

7. Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood-1) Clint Eastwood is hot 2) This film won an Oscar with few complaints and it's hard to deny an Oscar winner its due. It's also a film that transcends just the genre of sports.

8. The Champion, Ron Bozman-Kirk Douglas was in it, and gave one of his best performances, and it won 10 Oscars. Classics usually hold more sway when it comes down to it.

9. Slapshot, George Roy Hill: I feel like this film has enough critical pedigree (Paul Newman, George Roy Hill) and cult fans (I've heard questions about Slapshot be used in pub trivia nights on multiple occasions) to push it into the top 10. Plus, it's not about boxing.

10. Any Given Sunday, Oliver Stone: There's the option here of going with the cult favorites or the critically revered, but how about the film whose quality is just plain damn good. That's what Any Given Sunday is and although this would be a surprising pick, it might not be too late to appreciate the film's merits.

Another one:

11. Karate Kid, John Alvedson-One of the most commercially successful films of the '80s, spawned a number of sequels, and got Pat Morita an Oscar nom. The main question is: was the film any good? I personally saw it when I was young, I don't know how I'd respond to it if I rewatched it, and don't have time to find out