Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I CAN'T BELIEVE MY GRANDMOTHER ACTUALLY FELT ME UP:  Well, it's it's a Tuesday night in June, so we're all set for the American Film Institute to take over CBS once again for a three-hour countdown of something like the Top 100 Heroes & Villains in film history, or Top 100 Inspiring Films, Top 100 QuotesTop 100 Songs, a revised Top 100 Films of all time or its genre-specific Ten Top Tens.


Except we're not, because the AFI and CBS stopped doing these things in 2008, and it's an NCIS/NCIS:LA/48 Hours Mystery block instead today.

I'm not the only person who misses the annual broadcasts, and, really, was the advertising revenue that poor? Did the American Film Institute lose the desire to promote itself?  Did they run out of themes for a Top 100?

Well, if it's the last one, I can help: why not an AFI's Top 100 Youth Films?  Define the genre as "movies about featuring characters of school age, often dealing with issues of maturity and identity" and okay there may be some definitional issues, but why not have a night for Back to the Future, Animal House, Rebel Without A Cause, and The Last Picture Show to duke it out, where we can complain about Dead Poets Society being overrated compared to Dazed and Confused and School Daze? Television, make this happen.

15 comments:

  1. Tosy and Cosh9:39 AM

    My pitch on Twitter was for action scenes. Sure I'm playing to the cheap seats but . . . I don't care. I love a good action set piece!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I took a special topics film class in college (around 1999 or so) that was bascially this topic. Films we watched:

    Fast Times at Ridgemont High
    Heathers
    Dazed and Confused
    Pump Up the Volume
    Footloose
    Risky Business
    The Breakfast Club
    Lucas
    Clueless
    Disturbing Behavior
    and I think, maybe, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    And the professor wanted to add, but did not have time to include:
    Bring It On
    Can't Hardly Wait

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awesome list! (Why didn't my college have this class?!)  Most of my teen favorites are on there, including those that are sometimes forgotten like Can't Hardly Wait and Pump Up the Volume.  I'd also add Say Anything (one of my favorite movies of any genre), Some Kind of Wonderful, and Mean Girls (which came out after the time of your class).

    ReplyDelete
  4. The weirdest thing about the class was that I was older than my classmates by about 4-5 years, which is A LOT at that age. So, I'd seen Heathers as 15-year-old, and pre-Columbine. They were coming to it new at age 19, post-Columbine. In that context, I saw a VERY different movie than they did.  Some of them even found it reprehensible.

    Also (and this is going to require skating near the edge of the no-politics rule), but because of where the class was (Deep South) and when (late 90s instead of post-70s), the class got REALLY focused on one plot point in Fast Times and discredited the entire movie because of its inclusion and depiction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Watts1:41 PM

    It occurs to me I could watch clips from high school dance/prom scenes for a good two hours, easy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Maret2:10 PM

    I'm with Sue. I want to take that class. 

    ReplyDelete
  7. Marsha3:55 PM

    I want to take the class too. Agree on the lack of inclusion of Say Anything. 

    Other movies needing inclusion:

    Better Off Dead
    Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
    Ferris Bueller
    American Pie
    American Graffiti

    ReplyDelete
  8. Watts5:04 PM

    Little known gems that I'd add -
    Three O'Clock High
    My Bodyguard
    Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
    Angus

    Flawed but interesting -
    The Chocolate War

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous6:22 PM

    Dead Poets Society is overrated compared to almost every movie of this type, for what it's worth.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Joseph Finn6:24 PM

    Deleted an earlier one because I read your description more carefully.  Of COURSE they were hung up on the matter of factness of that plot line.

    ReplyDelete
  11. bill.9:38 PM

    I'll have Watts' list (with a giant gold star next to My Bodyguard) and add Gregory's Girl.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Breaking Away, for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh, yes, Gregory's Girl is a gem. I just found out recently they made a sequel, but I haven't the heart to watch it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Marsha11:46 AM

    But the cast is very nice to look at.

    ReplyDelete
  15. bill.5:30 PM

    Gregory's Two Girls. I've heard it's horrible. The trailer doesn't look promising.

    ReplyDelete