AFI Update

[OscarGuy]

Another statistic. Last time out, there were 33 Best Picture films on the AFI list. This time, there were only 27.

And it's not just a matter of six fewer Oscar winners. There have been nine additional Best Picture winners since the previous special. (78 vs. 69.) Percentage-wise, that works out to 48% of Best Picture winners on the list last time. This time, it's only 35%.

Technically, you can count Fellowship of the Ring as the position for RotK. Because we all know it's likely the voters just picked one flm of the trilogy to represent the entirety of the trilogy.

[Penelope]

1982 has four films on the list, none of which won the Oscar for best pciture: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Tootsie, Sophie's Choice and Blade Runner.

Didn't notice that. Okay, so 1969 and 1982 are now tied for the most films on the AFI 100.

Should make the "ageing geeks" feel validated.

And, yet, the truly best film of 1982 is not represented: Victor/Victoria.

[rain Bard]

1982 has four films on the list, none of which won the Oscar for best pciture: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Tootsie, Sophie's Choice and Blade Runner.

Didn't notice that. Okay, so 1969 and 1982 are now tied for the most films on the AFI 100.

Should make the "ageing geeks" feel validated.

[rain Bard]

1969 = most overrated movie year ever, et al.

If only Radley "Camille 2000" Metzger could've been invited to the party. (EDIT: Oops, forgot it's Italian.)

My favorite American film from 1969 is SALESMAN. Are documentaries exclicitly inelgible for these AFI lists? Rosenbaum included a few in his alternate list back in the day...

[Big Magilla]

1982 has four films on the list, none of which won the Oscar for best pciture: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Tootsie, Sophie's Choice and Blade Runner.

[Sonic Youth]

And one final observation:

When we're this far from Oscar precursor season, we're so starved for analytical discourse, we'll even take an AFI list seriously.

[Big Magilla]

Taking the AFI/Oscar corrrelation a step further, the AFI now agrees with Oscar only 17 times taking into consideration the placement of films that won Oscars in their given years.

AFI’s best of each year based on Oscar eligibility


1927/28 Sunrise
1928/29 none
1929/30 none
1930/31 City Lights
1931/32 none
1932/33 King Kong
1934 It Happened One Night (in agreement)
1935 A Night at the Opera
1936 Swing Time
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1938 Bringing Up Baby
1939 Gone With the Wind (in agreement)
1940 The Grapes of Wrath
1941 Citizen Kane
1942 Sullivan’s Travels
1943 Casablanca (in agreement)
1944 Double Indemnity
1945 none
1946 It’s a Wonderful Life
1947 none
1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1949 none
1950 Sunset Boulevard
1951 A Streetcar Named Desire
1952 Singin’ in the Rain
1953 Shane
1954 On the Waterfront (in agreement)
1955 none
1956 The Searchers
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai (in agreement)
1958 Vertigo
1959 Some Like It Hot
1960 Psycho
1961 West Side Story (in agreement)
1962 Lawrence of Arabia (in agreement)
1963 none
1964 Dr. Strangelove
1965 The Sound of Music (in agreement)
1966 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967 The Graduate
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
1969 Midnight Cowboy (in agreement)
1970 M*A*S*H
1971 A Clockwork Orange
1972 The Godfather (in agreement)
1973 American Graffiti
1974 Chinatown
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (in agreement)
1976 Taxi Driver
1977 Star Wars
1978 The Deer Hunter (in agreement)
1979 Apocalypse Now
1980 Raging Bull
1981 none
1982 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
1983 none
1984 none
1985 none
1986 Platoon (in agreement)
1987 none
1988 none
1989 Do the Right Thing
1990 GoodFellas
1991 The Silence of the Lambs (in agreement)
1992 Unforgiven (in agreement)
1993 Schindler’s List (in agreement)
1994 The Shawshank Redemption
1995 Toy Story
1996 none
1997 Titanic (in agreement)
1998 Saving Private Ryan
1999 The Sixth Sense
2000 none
2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2002 none
2003 none
2004 none
2005 none
2006 none

[Eric]

1969 is now the year with the most films on the AFI 100. There are four: THE WILD BUNCH, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and EASY RIDER.

1969 = most overrated movie year ever, et al.

If only Radley "Camille 2000" Metzger could've been invited to the party. (EDIT: Oops, forgot it's Italian.)

[rain Bard]

Kubrick, by adding SPARTACUS to his other three AFI 100 titles, now ties Spielberg as the director with the biggest slice of the list to himself. But Spielberg's titles are ranked higher (8, 24, 66, 71) than Kubrick's (15, 39, 70, 81).

Spielberg has FIVE films. You missed no. 56, Jaws.

Oops! Thanks for the correction there.

As for the classical music, I didn't mean to say it had been wiped completely from the list. I was just looking at the trend, with FANTASIA, AMADEUS and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS on their way out and only A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, whose use of Mozart I'd completely forgotten) to replace them. The other titles mentioned (PLATOON, etc.) are on both versions of the list.

[Sonic Youth]

Classical music, from Mozart to Stokowski to Gershwin, is out. Except for Verdi, via the Marx Brothers.

Well, there's also Barber's Adaggio For Strings in Platoon, Mascagni's Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana in Raging Bull and Mozart's Letter Duet in The Shawshank Redemption (celebrated in the show, it certainly must rank as one of the cringe-worthiest false scenes in movie history).

plus the classical pieces found in APOCALYPSE NOW, 2001, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and THE DEER HUNTER.

How well represented is rock music?

Pulp Fiction and Easy Rider, definitately. Do the Right Thing is rap/R&B. The Graduate is adult contemporary. Forrest Gump, Silence of the Lambs, Goodfellas and the Vietnam movies all use some rock music, though they're hardly rock films.

I've noticed that some of the best rock movies are British (A Hard Days Night, Sid and Nancy, Performance, The Commitments, Backbeat). This is Spinal Tap is American, but it's not going anywhere near the AFI list, unfortunately.

[rain Bard]

Yes, 1971 and 1939.

In 1939's case, that's down two from last time around (sorry, STAGECOACH and WUTHERING HEIGHTS). 1969 is now the year with the most films on the AFI 100. There are four: THE WILD BUNCH, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and EASY RIDER.

[Sonic Youth]

Kubrick, by adding SPARTACUS to his other three AFI 100 titles, now ties Spielberg as the director with the biggest slice of the list to himself. But Spielberg's titles are ranked higher (8, 24, 66, 71) than Kubrick's (15, 39, 70, 81).

Spielberg has FIVE films. You missed no. 56, Jaws.

Is James Dean over?

He's dead.

[rolotomasi99]

maybe someone already mentioned this, but 1976 has the best representation of oscars with four of the best picture nominees. 1967, 1975, and 1994 have three best pic nominees each. are there any others i am missing?

[Sonic Youth]

Another statistic. Last time out, there were 33 Best Picture films on the AFI list. This time, there were only 27.

And it's not just a matter of six fewer Oscar winners. There have been nine additional Best Picture winners since the previous special. (78 vs. 69.) Percentage-wise, that works out to 48% of Best Picture winners on the list last time. This time, it's only 35%.

[rolotomasi99]

Classical music, from Mozart to Stokowski to Gershwin, is out. Except for Verdi, via the Marx Brothers.

Well, there's also Barber's Adaggio For Strings in Platoon, Mascagni's Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana in Raging Bull and Mozart's Letter Duet in The Shawshank Redemption (celebrated in the show, it certainly must rank as one of the cringe-worthiest false scenes in movie history).

plus the classical pieces found in APOCALYPSE NOW, 2001, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and THE DEER HUNTER.