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June 21st, 2007

Categories: Movies and music

Either they ran out of movie lists of make or movies just aren’t getting enough attention. Last night the American Film Institute released an update to their wonderfully controversial 100 Greatest Movies list, allowing several new entries including the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” and “Titanic” replacing the incredibly racist yet technologically monumental 1915 “Birth of a Nation.”

The three-hour CBS special showed it’s real value in name alone: “100 Years, 100 Movies, 10th Anniversary Edition” making this tweak to the AFI’s flagship movie ranks more a celebration of their ten years rather than promoting the 110 years of movies (if they were, it would have been the 110 greatest movies).

Much of the list jumped around, such as John Ford’s “The Searchers” leaping from 96 to 12 and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” taking a position in the top 10 (above “Psycho”). Yet the top three films, “Citizen Kane,” “Casablanca,” and “Godfather” all retained their top spots (”Godfather” and “Casablanca” switched spots, now #2 and #3 respectively) revealing some weaknesses in the new ranking. Since these lists are supposed to be so subjective, I would have expected even greater differences between the two lists when, in fact, several recent movies made after the original list find new positions in place of new and old classics (”From Here to Eternity” and “Frankenstein” have gone bizarrely missing). Nothing was wrong with the original list except, it seems, possible lack of interest.

I took the original list to heart, spending my college years watching all of the original 100 Greatest Films. Now, of course, I get to plug the seven holes in the new list.

Read the full list and details at AFI.com.

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