Saturday, January 10, 2009

Groundhog Day

Sometimes you post something at just the right time. In my previous post (scroll down) I mentioned that I considered Groundhog Day one of the best movies of all time. I backed up my assertion by referencing conversations I've had about the movie with my buddy Mike and then linking to Jonah Goldberg's homage to the movie at National Review.

Then, right on cue, the New York Times earlier this week published Stanley Fish's Ten Best American Movies and he includes Groundhog Day. Fish is some sort of post-modernist literary theorist so there was some talk between Jonah and Mark Steyn on The Corner about how non-post-modernist Fish's list was. Steyn mentions Fish's inclusion of Meet Me in St. Louis, about as corny (but wonderful) a movie as can be, as perhaps some sort of joke Fish was pulling on his readers. But is Fish any different from most people who make up these lists? How often do you find movies from the past ten or twenty years on these lists? Answer: rarely. Almost all of us go back to the past when we consider the movies we love best, which is pretty fair evidence that they don't make 'em like they used to. Fish may be a post-modernist but he knows an enjoyable movie when he sees one.

So what do I think of Fish's list? Not bad. We agree on Groundhog Day. Besides that, Fish includes a lot of very good movies, some great. The Best Years of Our Lives, Sunset Blvd., Shane, Meet Me in St. Louis and Red River are all very fine movies though I certainly wouldn't put them in my own top ten.

Raging Bull
I consider to be highly overrated. Certainly Scorcese's talents are fully on display here but is the movie really that enjoyable? I got much more enjoyment out of Goodfellas, Mean Streets, and Taxi Driver than Bull.

Vertigo is also a fine movie but Hitchcock probably did a dozen things better. Off the top of my head I think of The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent, Rebecca, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, and North By Northwest as being superior to Vertigo.

I've never seen A Tree Grows in Brooklyn so I can't comment on that.

That leaves Double Indemnity and here Fish is on to a real gem - I love this movie, film noir at its very best. If is not in my top ten then it is very close. Fred MacMurray is perfect and Barbara Stanwyck even more so - she is the femme fatale of all-time. What man would not follow her down to his doom? He may even know it's coming but oh what a ride. If you've never had the pleasure, see Double Indemnity. A clip from the movie of MacMurray and Stanwyck's first encounter to whet your whistle:



My own movie top ten list will be forthcoming. I know you await with bated breath.

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