What I Learned From The Best Of The Best

  [100th Post!]

So awhile ago I watched the top 100 movies of all time. When I say awhile ago, I mean, like, a year and a half ago. It hurts a little to write that. And when I say the top 100, I mean, like, the top 120... or so.

I had just graduated college and I was stuck. I didn't know it right away, mind you. But I was.

I had spent five years periodically slogging through and/or relishing the best the world had to offer in literature, art, history, philosophy, and religion. I honestly didn't know what to do next. Despite being lost, I did however have one advantage that I realized not many people have: lots and lots of free time. I was still part-time at Costco (read:depressingly so).

So, in true BYU fashion, I said to myself "What the flip?! Might as well." So I did a quick surf of the net and found that every "Top 100" list I found was slightly different. I quickly got over my annoyance and decided to make my own using the two I found most appealing: AFI's Top 100 and IMDb's Top 250.

Both lists contained movies I had already seen before, so I didn't bother re-watching those, save a few that I hadn't seen in quite some time (my brother and sisters will recall the JAWS incident that had kept me away for so long). And luckily, there were very few that I wasn't able to find in one form or another. So combining a collection from both lists, I still ended up watching over 100 new (to me) movies.

Sorry if this next part reads a little bit like a Buzzfeed article, but it is a list after all. And it's a long one, so because of your short attention spans, you've forced my hand.

Without further ado, I give you what I learned from my experience:

1. Prejudice
I had a prejudice toward black and white films that I didn't know about. I began, I'm embarrassed to admit, with more recent movies. They were ones I had at least heard of, or had exciting covers. I know, I know, I 'm supposed to sound all cultured and high and mighty and say I went straight for Italian Neorealism, but a guy's got to start his education somewhere. And even the smartest kids start out reading Dr.Seuss.

From these more recent movies, I learned how much I've been missing out on pop culture references that I was supposedly "in" on. Take DeNiro for example. Everybody knows the line. It's everywhere. And while I knew it was a famous DeNiro line, I had no idea where it actually came from. Now I do. Now, I'm "in" on the reference for real. And I have to say, it feels gratifying.

2. Older Than Your Grandma 
As I progressed further back into the annals of film history, I suddenly couldn't avoid them anymore. I would have to start watching some black and white ones and some color films with old-fashioned looking covers. Try to tell me that these don't look at least a little boring:

I know, right?

Much to my chagrin, my prejudices were obliterated in the best way possible. As chance would have it, one of the first "old" movies I watched was A Place in the Sun. Call me a sucker for young Elizabeth Taylor. I sat down on a Friday night by myself like some elderly cat lady with a blanket over my lap. 120 minutes later I was yelling at the screen, practically in tears over what has to be one of the most insane endings to a movie in all of history. I immediately wanted to watch it again, that is, after I could somehow manage to pull my foot out of my proverbial mouth.

Despite my amazing first experience, I still found myself wondering if perhaps that movie was simply a fluke. "It was great, but these others are probably snooze fests." And yet I was wrong. Over and over and over again. I can't tell you how wrong I was. Each movie that I watched seemed to poke me right in the eye and rub in the error of my ways.

3. The Moment(s)
It's safe to say that as time progressed, I began being less dumbfounded at each new discovery, and I started to appreciate these films more. And after thinking about what I was witnessing with skills I had honed to razor-precision during my tenure at BYU, I did something I never thought I'd do in the "real world." I analyzed.

*gasps from the crowd*

Something I noticed right away in my analysis, and probably the most obvious, was that older movies have an entirely different pace than more recent films. This change can be most accurately demonstrated in another of my Highly Technical and Polished Graphs (TM):

Here the (y) axis is the viewer's excitement level and the (x) axis is the length of the film. The graph on the left represents our new, more modern conception of how movies should be. The graph on the right represents the average plot escalation for older films. All of this data is based on extensive research with a standard deviation of .33 (repeating of course).

I don't really know if I have thoughts as to one being better than the other. They're just different. The new way robs them of a powerful climax since the whole thing is exciting. Whereas the old way takes a lot longer to get going, but once things start to escalate, it is insane how exciting they get. The other difference is that newer movies are filled with pointless fluff in the denouement, whereas in old movies, you are getting little bits and pieces of information until the very moment the screen goes dark.

4. Moral of the Story
Not only do these movies eradicate the stereotypes that I had constructed, they transcend them. I thought black and white movies would somehow be morally simple. I assumed that old-fashioned people couldn't handle dark moral complexity like more modern audiences. What I realized is that I've had it the other way around this whole time and didn't know it. WE are the ones who can't handle or don't appreciate moral complexity in cinema. (Luckily, this problem isn't as apparent in TV.) But just try to think of a truly morally complex character in recent cinema. You probably can't.

Something they understood "back in the day" is that we love stories about people who are essentially bad, but somewhere along the line they make a good choice or two. Ya know, kinda like us. Kinda like real people. But no, today we are content with our Supermans and Will Turners and Katnisses. Or on the other side of the spectrum, our Corleones, Vincent Vegas, and Tyler Durdens. Don't get me wrong, I like all of these characters. But if On The Waterfront were released today, people would complain about how unlikable the main character is. And he is an unlikable character. He is a crappy guy that makes a good decision or two. And despite his shortcomings, I'll be damned if you aren't rooting for him by the end.

5. The Pain Sets In
Despite my newly opened mind, there were still some movies on the list that I thoroughly disliked. One that comes to my mind immediately is Raging Bull. I know it's a Scorsese film, but I honestly couldn't stand it. I get that it's supposed to be the way that it is, I know it was on purpose, but it just wasn't for me. The main character has no redeeming qualities and you come away from the film feeling depressed and angry--in a bad way. I've come away from other movies feeling something similar, but I loved how depressed and angry I was. After Raging Bull, I just wanted to forget it.

There were also a few musicals that I had to fast forward through large portions of. Not because they aren't classics,  but again, not for me. I'm looking at you An American in Paris. I have a hard time with movies that sacrifice story in favor of 18 minute dance numbers. But still, I watched all the musicals despite my misgivings. And to be fair, I also fast-forwarded through the twenty minute wandering through the desert scene in Lawrence of Arabia.

6. For Teh Lulz
This is a small thing, and closely related to #2, but I find it astounding that we think the same things are funny as people thought were funny 100 years ago. Charlie Chaplin is incredible. I was laughing deep belly laughs at both Modern Times and City Lights. And don't forget Some Like It Hot. Fantastic! Brings a smile to my face just thinking about it.

7. Heey LADIES!
Which brings me to my final lesson. Romance. Man, what happened? We used to know how to add romance to movies! At some point we conflated sex with romance. Despite non-existent sex scenes in older movies, there was still passion and desire. Hollywood has forgotten that sex is incidental to romance. Call me naive, but I don't think people go to romantic comedies to see if there will be a sex scene. They go to see the falling in love part, not the sweaty, fleeting consequence.

A good example is The Best Years of Our Lives. In addition to being an excellent post-war film, it is also wonderfully romantic. And who can forget Annie Hall? I think I related a little too well to little Alvy Singer. I don't know if that was supposed to happen, but it did.

On a related note, they don't quite make them like they used to. I don't know what it is, maybe something about how the romance was presented, but I think as a man you can't help but fall in love with the leading ladies.

From left to right: Lauren Bacall, Anne Baxter, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Russell, and of course Audrey

Veronica Lake, Anne Baxter, and no one could leave out Grace Kelly

So a quick recommendation, besides watching any of the movies mentioned above (honestly, you can't go wrong), I would immediately recommend watching All About Eve. It's one of my favorite movies now. And after watching you'll also understand why Anne Baxter appears twice in the photos above.

You made it to the end, congratulations. Feel free to ask me any questions about my experience in the comments. I'm no expert, but I'll do my best to answer.

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