Yesterday I hit another meeting of the Second Sunday Fanzine Fans of Yesteryear, where Bruce Townley happened to mention his ten favorite movies.
To paraphrase myself, I said something like, Man, that’s not enough, and told them about the time in the late 70s/early 80s when John Law and I sat around and easily tallied up our 100 Fave Films.
Bruce is into movies (you can find many movie moments in his zine Oblong, a file of which is available free online), and he just sent me a list where he has expanded on ten, but weeded that potential 100 down to 25. If you’re also a cineaste, you’ll enjoy browsing through, I’m sure.
Any fan’s list will be — ought to be — different. I’m more of a Wild Bunch/Enter the Dragon/Saragossa Manuscript/North by Northwest/Big Trouble in Little China/My Dinner with Andre/Arsenic and Old Lace/Seven Samurai/Mr. Vampire type myself. Several off Bruce’s selection would make my Top 100, of course.
Offhand, I think the most recent film to shoot its way into my faves would be John Wick.
But now Bruce Townley, saying, “For your consideration here’s my, more or less, Top 25 films”:
THE 400 BLOWS
BEDAZZLED [1967]
THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI
CHINATOWN
CITIZEN KANE
DINER
DR. STRANGELOVE
ERASERHEAD
FORBIDDEN PLANET
THE GENERAL [1927]
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
HE WALKED BY NIGHT
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (a tossup with SWORDSMAN II)
LA STRADA
M [1931]
THE MALTESE FALCON [1941]
A MAN ESCAPED
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?
SPIRITED AWAY
SUNSET BLVD. (tossup with SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS)
THIN BLUE LINE
THE THIRD MAN
YOJIMBO
Bruce even put them in alphabetical order. Damn. . . .
