Great Expectations

So, the AFI list came out last week, and most of the things I hoped for came true. My overall percentage actually went up by 1%, although most of that was in the bottom 50 films. Oh well. "Star Wars" went up and "Gone with the Wind" went down, although they didn't pass one another, sadly. Also, "The Fellowship of the Ring" got on the list, at number 50 (way too low), but I think that might have to do with the fact that all three lists were on the nomination list, so I think some votes were lost that way to the overall trilogy, since I'm sure most people didn't vote for more than one of the films.

Sadly, "Citizen Kane" retained its top spot, but at least I've seen it. There were some interesting developments, one of the most interesting being that "The Searchers" made it to # 12, from its previous spot in the Bottom 10. Also, "Intolerance" took the place of "The Birth of a Nation" as the oldest film. "Intolerance" jumped to the number 49 spot from previously not being on the list. "The Matrix," which I was sure would make it, didn't manage to climb on the list. I'm not really sure how film people can convince themselves that it wasn't both a great movie and important to movie history, but then, they're probably all old. There were 43 new movies available for addition to the list, but only 4 managed to make it, and all of those #50 or lower. 19 other new films were added to the list, but they were all previously available.

The economist and philosopher in me want to know the constituancy of the voters to find out their ages, race, and other pertinant information to try to see if there are reasons for the way they've voted, and to find out if average ages and what not have changed since the first list. I have to imagine that the average age of the voters is fairly old, which is fine, but I think it does skew things a little bit. There are a ton of movies from the 70's, which I think might have something to do with the fact that many of the voters could sympathize with movies of that age, since that's when they were coming of age. But I could be wrong. I'll probably never know.