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In Reply to: Please (seriously) excuse for me for disagreeing, but i hate 'Wonderful Life' -nt- posted by late on December 07, 2001 at 07:03:05:
I believe you misconstrued JAD's statement when you disagreed. There
should be no disagreement as he said that his FAVORITE film was
"It's A Wonderful Life",it seems to me that this was based more on subjective considerations
than any overwhelming objective criteria. I
also don't particularly care for "IAWL", but I wouldn't consider it
proper to disagree with him or anyone else about their
favorite film. I might, however, take issue with someone who proclaimed a certain film as "Best" or "Greatest" and ask for some
kind of objective justification. - AH
Follow Ups:
Thanks for the clarification, AH, you've crystalized my thoughts most coherently.Any sort of subjective assesment of film is purely opinion. So long as the cameraman hasn't cut off the actors' heads and the dialogue is audible I guess any film could conceivably be nominated for best film ever.
How would one go about judging the greatest work of art of all time? The Mona Lisa or Starry Night? Dada or Impression? Pat's or Geno's?
Just don't tell me you don't like "It's A Wondeful Life" after I've had a few, you'd be in for a long night.
Judging works of art as the greatest often generates a certain
amount of controversy, especially when there are multiple contenders
for the honor, and those works of all of exceptional quality and
adherents of each have compelling arguments.
A couple of years ago, the American Film Institute (AFI) released
a list of the TOP 100 American Films of the 20th Century. Selection
was performed by AFI's "blue-ribbon panel" of more than "1500 leaders
of the American movie community".
I provide you with the TOP 10 from that list: 1)Citizen Kane; 2)Casablanca; 3)The Godfather; 4)Gone With The Wind; 5)Lawrence of
Arabia; 6)The Wizard of Oz; 7)The Graduate; 8)On The Waterfront;
9)Schindler's List; 10)Singing In The Rain.
One of my picks for contention of the greatest film, was "The Ten
Commandments" -1956; this film was not only not included in the TOP
10, it failed to even make the TOP 100! You can imagine how irked I was; however,
I did receive some consolation when I later read a pooh-poohing
letter of the list from a likewise irked NYC gentleman in USA Today newspaper. - AH
... but overall the AFI list is dead-on. IMHO, neither of Cicil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" (silent '23 or sound '56) is deserving of a slot on the top 10, but then again, I'm no fan of pompous religious films which Hollywoodize history or mythology through saccharin preachiness and spectacle. Perhaps the silent version of "The Ten Commandments" deserves recognition as a passionate undertaking at great expense (i.e., in 1920's dollars) and certainly DeMille's lost city should be preserved and restored (see link), but the hammy performance of Charltan Heston in the 1956 version combined with some of the stagey sets (i.e., painted backdrops) and dialogue hasn't aged well from my perspective. His best acting was achieved in the hands of Orson Welles in "Touch of Evil" made around the same time. Although believing Heston as a Mexican detective is somewhat a stretch, his understated acting was also stretched by the role and deserving of praise.AuPh
#7 "The Graduate" don't deserve that ranking, as with "American
Graffitti" and "Pulp Fiction". Sorry we don't agree on "TTC"
1956. Imagine how VK feels about "Schindler's List" at #9.
Regarding Heston's underacting in "Touch Of Evil"; a perfect counter-
point to Orson's melodramatically overstated role, yeah, Big Boy
we got the black/white, good/evil dichotomy point from the getgo, hammer down through the your heavy handed direction!
Overall, a good, if not great film, though. Enjoyed the declining
genius' puton at the Magic Castle too. - AH
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