Silver Screen Gold: The American Film Institute prepares to release the next installment in its 100 years series: ‘100 Years, 100 Cheers’
It’s a problem many students know well: Classes let up a little and work doesn’t start until tomorrow which means there’s finally some time to decompress. Under the circumstances, some students opt on the old standby, watching movies. But the question always follows, “which one to watch?”
When all the movies in the private collection seem old hat and the neighbors are out of town, there’s only one path left.
It’s time to go to the video store.
With its seemingly endless stock of movies, what to watch becomes an even more difficult problem. The new releases you either watched on the big screen or don’t know anything about, and you don’t want to watch a dud (“Gigli” comes to mind). Well if you are lucky, the video store may have a place dedicated to The American Film Institute (AFI) and their pick of the top one hundred films of all time. (Of course, if they don’t, the list is available at www.afi.com).
AFI was created in 1967, two years after President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation that created the National Endowment for the Arts. President Johnson specifically paid attention to the purpose of AFI in his address on the legislation.
“We will create an American Film Institute that will bring together leading artists of the film industry, outstanding educators, and young men and women who wish to pursue this 20th century art form as their life’s work,” Johnson said.
According to their Web site, AFI has four goals:
1) Training the next generation of filmmakers.
2) Presenting the moving image in its many forms to a national and international public.
3) Preserving America’s great movie heritage
4) Redefining the moving image in the new digital era.
In an effort to reach the goal of preserving American’s great movie heritage, AFI chose what they deemed the best 100 movies of the first 100 years of cinema history (1896-1996). The final one hundred were chosen from a list of four hundred (the list of four hundred can also be found at www.afi.com in case you have watched the top one hundred) and were picked by ballot which was distributed to over 1500 experts across the film community, according to the Web site. The list can be found in at www.afi.com under film & events.
The judging criteria for the top 100 include: Feature-Length Fiction Film (narrative format typically over 60 minutes in length), American Film (English language film with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States), Critical Recognition (formal commendation in print), Popularity Over Time (including figures for box office adjusted for inflation, television broadcasts and syndication, and home video sales and rentals), Historical Significance (a film’s mark on the history of the moving image through technical innovation, visionary narrative devices or other groundbreaking achievements), Cultural Impact (a film’s mark on American society in matters of style and substance) and Major Award Winner (recognition from competitive events including awards from organizations in the film community and major film festivals).
Every year since the release of AFI’s Top 100 Movies list, the institute has released other genre and topic specific lists. Some of the lists include AFI’s top 100 movie Quotes, AFI’s 100 Heroes and Villains, (50 heroes and 50 villains), 100 Songs (best songs from the movies), 100 Passions (celebrates matters of the heart), 100 Thrills (thrilling movies that get the adrenaline pumping), 100 Laughs (funniest movies of all time), 100 Stars (actually on 25 male and 25 female presented by 50 of the stars of today), 100 years of Film Score (top 25 soundtracks and who composed them). A jury made up of movie professionals will decide which movies make the final cut for AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Cheers list later this year. For more information on AFI, visit their Web site at www.afi.com.
-nealmsnow@cc.usu.edu