“AFI’s 10 Top 10″: Epic
Kudos to the AFI for including Kirk Douglas in the program. The host for this segment doesn’t sound as smooth as he did before a stroke, but he still represented well.
For the last time, here are the names and titles of the movies, the celebs who weighed in on the picks and my take.
10. “The Ten Commandents” (1956)
Leonard Maltin
When it comes to Cecil B. DeMille’s masterpiece, where do you go from here?
9. “Reds” (1981)
Lesley Ann Warren, Elizabeth Perkins
This is above “The Ten Commandments”?
8. “Saving Private Ryan” (1998)
Steven Spielberg (producer/director), Ed Burns (Pvt. Reiben)
Never thought of it as an epic, but I’ll buy it.
7. “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930)
Gabriel Byrne, Leonard Maltin
6. “Titanic” (1997)
Jessica Alba, Daniel Stern
It’s a great movie, but I still really don’t care for the ending.
5. “Spartacus” (1960)
Kirk Douglas (producer, Spartacus)
It’s still one of the most amazing scenes in movie history: Everyone standing up at the end to say, “I am Spartacus”
4. “Gone with the Wind” (1939)
Elizabeth Perkins, Vanessa Williams
Huh? How is this not in the top 3? It’s one of the greatest and most popular movies ever, the very epitome of the sweeping epic.
3. “Schindler’s List” (1993)
Steven Spielberg (director/producer)
It’s an incredible movie – probably a better movie than “Gone with the Wind” – but not necessarily a better epic movie. Liam Neeson’s crying scene is just so incredible: “I didn’t do enough.”
2. “Ben-Hur” (1959)
James Woods, Cameron Crowe, Martin Scorcese.
Scorcese said the chariot race is ”one of most artfully crafted sequences in movie history.”
And Charlton Heston was the king of epic ations.
1. “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962)
Gabriel Byrne, Dominic Monaghan, Susan Perkins
The color and vitality and spectacle is pretty amazing.
It’s nearly impossible to argue with a choice that offers such a visual spectacle and truly great acting.
-BAM
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I’ll tell you what “Reds” doing on this list: the AFI is giving the lifetime achievement award to Warren Beatty. That’s the only reason this movie made the list instead of something like “Glory” which is definitely an epic if Saving Private Ryan is. I think they just didn’t want to glorify war by doing a top ten War movies list.