Intro To The Project

Dear Avid Reader,

Smooth segue intros are for lame advice columnists. Let's just jump right in shall we?
I'm gonna try to watch an awesome movie each week. I will then blog about the movie and the merits of what makes it awesome. That's pretty much it.

What sparked this idea is that I realized whenever it comes time to consider what movies are the greatest of all time, there seems to be a mold the films that are forged from. It's usually movies that attempt to reveal a larger truth, or they're epic in scope. The movies are hopeful but tinged with melancholy. They are almost always dramas. I say "almost' because they will usually include a few token off-dramas to the list. You know, to keep it honest. But when a romantic movie is picked, it's usually old film (read: It Happened One Night). The horror representative is always a Hitchcock flick. Comedy is always Marx Brother. Why? Have these kinds of movies never progressed past 1950? 1980?

And where are the slasher films? And the action films? Where are the weirder independent films? In essence my question is, why is that the assumption of greatness is so narrow?
And thus we begin our project. The goal, to watch movies and discuss why greatness should be a bigger tent than it is. Awesome, for the purposes of this project, means movies that are undervalued because the generally accepted criteria of what makes a "great" movie is snobbish. I'm sorry I shouldn't say snobbish. Stupidly restrictive and totally weak.

Now there are some limitations of this project. I am aware that this is a list that I, an individual, have created. So I accept that this is not a definitive list of the top 52 most awesome movies. There are others that may be more "awesome". However, I do feel like the movies I have selected allow for an examination of a wide variety of movie. By watching these 52 movies, the smallness of what is generally accepted as "great" will become apparent.

Or maybe this can just be an excuse to do something fun during the work week. I've been kind of bored latley.

I feel like I should set some conventions up. Here are some common themes that I intend to return to:


1) If Everyone Likes It, It Just Might Be Good


I do not believe popularity should be the only consideration when determining if something is of good quality. I also do not believe that if something is popular it is necessarily of bad quality. Mass appeal is generally looked at with suspicion when it come to credibility in art. I blame college radio.

I guess I will probably end up sounding like a cranky populist in most of the entries. Or worse, a trashy movie apologist. But my thought is that if people really like it, it just might be great. It seems so simple but I predict this idea will meet the most resistance. Take this as a fair warning and an attempt to absolve myself preemptively of criticism.


2) The AFI Top 100 and The Oscars

I have watched all of the movies on both the AFI Top 100 lists (1998 and 2007). I try and stay up on the Academy Award nominees each year. I like both the AFI and Academy. The problem is that institutions like these are why greatness is so narrowly defined. They are why don't see a lot of dance in movies any more. They perpetuate the idea that dramatic acting is more meaningful than comedic acting. And they place no value on understated acting. They want acting that they can see (i.e. "serious" acting).

Let me put it this way: the AFI and Academy are trying to kill musicals in this country. And I refuse to let them get away with this.

Anyways, I'm gonna be using these two institutions for comparative grounds. There are other film organizations that are in the world, and maybe other organizations deserve more criticism than these two. However, I am not as familiar with them and I am lazy.


3) Stupid Nostalgia

Here is some truth: movies that come out now are generally better than movies released in past. You just started an argument with me in your head.

I assume your knee-jerk response to my truth bomb was disagreement. Why? We as humans are faster and stronger than people of the past. We live longer, we are smarter. So why assume that we are regressing when it comes to making movies? I mean we make them in color now for starters. Color is better than black and white. I will not argue about this.

And yes the movies of the past informed and taught the movie-makers of today. Why is this important to the conversation of greatness? So what if the movies of today are building on the movies of the past. If I asked "what is the greatest toaster of all-time", no one would submit a bunch of old toasters that only could only cook one slice. Heck no! It'd be the ones that can cook twenty slices. The greatest toasters can determine darkness within a millionth of a degree thanks to a digital display that includes a stock ticker crawl along the bottom. You may think art is very different from material products, like toasters, but you'd be absolutely wrong. They are basically the same thing.

And don't try and find me and argue that you would pick the one-slice toaster. I won't stand for being lied to. Especially concerning art/toasters.


4) Permission

I publicly give myself permission to be sloppy with the blog. When I blogged before I spent too much time worrying about it. I want to change this. I mean look at the intro for this post. Pretty freaking stark. Well, I didn't feel like writing a gentle, witty descent into what this post is about. So I didn't write one. It makes the whole thing easier if the edges are unfinishe. I mean it's not like I'm getting paid.

And isn't the whole point of this blog that the general definition of "good quality" maybe too narrow. Maybe intros are overrated. Yeah. That idea is pretty rad. I'm liking this project already.

I wonder why I felt the need to set-up conventions. I'll most likely end up abandoning them. It's too late now. I refuse to rewrite this blog post.

Check it out. I'm gonna do the same thing I did with the beginning here at the end.

Clever, "wrap-it-up" endings are for hacks. Hacks that get paid.

Till Next I Blog,

James

P.S. I hope to use the word "awesome" less than the title of the blog would suggest. Of course this may be the most impossible goal ever. I mean I assume a lot of the time I will be trying to define words like "good" and "quality" using poorly understood Socratic methods.