Top 100 Films: A Preparation

 

Five years, or so ago, I decided that I needed to make a listing of my 100 favorite movies. I was working in an office at a time and even had 2 of my coworkers make their own lists.  I worked on it painstakingly for several months and when I completed it, I promptly lost the list.  #ADHDLIFE.  

Sometime during Co-vid, my wife found a small notebook of mine that had 100 favorite movies scratched on it.  It unfortunately did not have the completed list , but it did have the names of over 150 movies and some rankings and notations.  I always intended to revisit the list every 5 years or so, but this feels more like starting over than revisiting.  

For the past few weeks, I have been laying out a groundwork for determining my top 100.  This process will include watching many of them again to see if they still resonate with me,  sorting movies into different groups, and ranking them by group while continuing to develop a philosophy for establishing the final ranking.

An important decision I'll have to navigate  is how exactly  I'll be  evaluating the movies.  Am I basing their  rank on their current importance, their historical importance, or simply  the quality of the film, or some hybrid form? I know this isn't going to be a  best film list, but I do  tend to base a film's quality with how much I enjoy watching it. 

Fortunately, I already have the top 15 worked out and can easily carve out the top 25 without much difficulty.  The tricky part, I expect, will be ranking from 26 to100 and  thus deciding what films don't make the cut. 

I decided  that it might help out thing considerably to pick what I think the 100th movie will be early in the process.  This way I can have a yard stick of sorts as if to to say "okay, I like this film better than 100 so it must be in the top 100." or "This film is not as good as 100, so it must not be in the top 100." Of course this is just a starting point and the film I pick as the place holder, may end up being ranked significantly higher or lower.

I think at this time that the film I would rate as 100th would be the 1996 film, The Spitfire Grill. The Spitfire grill did not make my top 100 movie list, the last time around.  The more I think about it, the more I think it should have.

Spitfire was release by Castle Rock and has a very Castle Rock feel to it.  In some ways it is an odd film, and does not always go where I want it to.  There are even certain parts of the movie, I don't like to watch on repeat viewing. These may be among the reasons why Spitfire did not make the cut on my original list.

Here are some reasons I have thought about revising my assessment.

The Cast: Marcia Gay Harden and Will Patton while secondary to the plot, anchor an excellent cast. Ellyn Burstyn does an excellent job as the irascible owner of the grill, and every time I watch this film, I am surprised that Allison Elliott did not become a Hollywood legend because she is a force to be reckoned with here.

The Cinematography: This like A River Runs Through It, Brave Heart, and Secret of Roan Inish, is a spectacle for the eyes.  The Atlantic North East is majestically shown in this film.

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The Story:  The plot in many ways is predictable but that does not diminish how rewarding it is to watch. Like I said earlier, the movie does not always do what I want it to do; but, what it does, it does skillfully and memorably. While the movie doesn't have the redemption arc I want for it, it portrays redemption in a broader more wholistic way.

In short, it is  a flawed film with a high rewatchability level.  It will be interesting to see where it lands on the eventual list.

I expect the process of making a new list to take me at least a year.  I hope to use this blog as a way of talking about some of these films and then eventually presenting the list here in one way or another,

Love,

Dave

23 23 Mariska Hargitay

As you know this is the year 2023.  My father and I were each born on the 23rd day of our birth month.  I decided that this year on the blog each month on the 23rdI would feature someone famous or otherwise who was born that day.  I am writing this on February 23rd and postdating it on January 23rd as I clean forgot about doing this for January.  

Mariska Hargitay was born on January 23rd, 1964.  I was born on September 23rd, 1964.  She and I have the 23rd and 1964 in common.  She is now 59 and I have 8 months (or so) to have that in common with her as well.  

 

                                                        This is the go-to pose of her SVU character

Hargitay's mother was actress Jayne Mansfield who died when Hargitay was 3 years old.  Hargitay is best known for her role as Olivia Benson on the Law & Order spinoff series, Law & Order SVU.  

On January 23rd, 1964 the # 1 single in the United Kingdom was Glad All Over by The Dave Clark 5.

Jim Kaat Full Baseball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech and Jim Kaat on Dick Allen

Amy gave me some White Sox Ticket vouchers as a Christmas gift and while I am excited for the future of the White Sox, I still love the past of the White Sox. Here are some videos featuring HOF pitcher Jim Kaat, The former White SOx hurler. The first is his induction speech at the Hall if Fame last summer.

 

The second is an interview he did on the MLB network after the passing of Dick Allen.

 

I was very glad to see Kaat finally make it to Cooperstown. It's too bad Allen did not make it in his lifetime, I hope that He will make it soon. Love, Crazy Uncle Dave

Snow Kidding!

These "kids" are now 17 to 23

 

The Music of Poetry - The Pain That plagues Creation

Hello, Poetry Fridayers.

On the Poetry Friday that took place on June 30th, 2022.  I shared the inaugural Poetry of Music post and stated I wanted to share songs that were more like poems set to music about once a month or so.  6 months later, here I am sharing the next installment. I landed a lot closer to the or so part of my prognostication than the once a month part.  

Today's song comes from the  late Mark Heard, producer, singer, songwriter, and poet all wrapped into one.  Mark Heard died in the Summer of 1992 a few weeks after having a heart attack while performing at the Cornerstone Music Festival in Bushnell, Illinois.

My last post contained a bit of a lament on some of  the present difficulties associated with my life at this  time.  The Pain That Plagues Creation is a haunting  reminder that while  life is  fraught with difficulty it also equally fraught with hope.. 

The Pain That Plagues Creation

By Mark Heard

As this planet falls around the sun

Trapping us in the orbit

Creation groans in unison

Like a race of frightened orphans

The darkness of this raging storm 

Is covering up our portals

But a yearning for the light is born

In the heart of every mortal

And day to day we ache

With the pain that plagues creation

Night to night we lie awake

And await its restoration

Heaven knows our lonely ways

Heaven knows our sorrows

Heaven knows the things that we don't know

And the joy of eternal tomorrows

But through this glass we dimly see

This world as it was made

And the good we know must surely flow

From the heart of a kind creator

And day to day we ache

With the pain that plagues creation

Night to night we lie awake

And await its restoration

So hold on in this restless age

And do not fear your shadow

Your alternating tears and praise

Are prayers that surely will matter

And day to day we ache

With the pain that plagues creation

Night to night we lie awake

And await its restoration

 The Pain that Plagues Creation appears on the Mark Heard album, Eye of the Storm.  You can find the lyrics by clicking here.

Thanks for Catherine Flynn for hosting this weeks Poetry Friday at Reading To The Core.  

Thanks also to my wife Amy for listening to me read the lyrics to her even though we had already said good night.  

Love, Dave