Re: http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time....this on the net from apparently over 800 of America's "most respected film critics
Turns out to be mostly the traditional American big box office trash flics, but I was a bit encouraged that "Whiplash" made it toward the bottom of the list -- but a quite worthy small film that I stumbled upon despite its minimal publicity. Also, Dr. Strangelove" made it -- though not on my all-time-all-nations' top 50 list, certainly on my top 50 list of American flics.
And that's the crux of the problem here: Americans narrowing the greatest of anything to be the greatest of only American stuff. We have the same criteria self-imposed on our political judgment: the greatest country, greatest system, greatest leadership, etc, etc. A political example: our current choice of the ego-maniacal, rhetorically challenged bizarre egocentric we chose to sleep next to the "red phone" that can summon the slaughter of millions at 3 a.m. or any time the impulse strikes him.
OK, back to the flics: Where were the actually great classics? Where were the Fellini's, the Bergman's, the Resnais', the Eisenstein's, and Kurosawa's. etc., etc. (Kurosawa's "The "Seven Samurai," my top all-timer, but don't be embarrassed if you never heard of it, because it's lamentably not the the choice of America's box office and TV masters.)
You may be prompted to suppose that such as this comes comes from a generally unAmerican perspective. But that's not so. I choose to live here, I am grateful that my Norwegian grandparents immigrated here, I am impressed by America's bountiful resources, but not particularly impressed by how we've decided to share them amongst our own population, nor by our predilection for war -- nor by our narrow perspective on "great" cinema.
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(Article changed on September 3, 2017 at 22:24)
