Last week, the American Film Institute provided a new 100 Years … 100 Movies countdown to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their original list. Before this latest list was revealed, a writer for our local rag questioned whether anyone besides he had actually seen the 400 nominees. For the record, I’ve seen 367 of them and, as a point of reference, I’ve seen 371 of the original 400 nominees (my mini-list of ignorance includes ten which are on both of these AFI nominee lists, which are available for download). Even though lists like these are controversial, they do generate discussions about movies and may introduce titles to those that are looking for recommendations, which can never be bad.

Almost every movie discussion board I’ve ever visited on the Internet includes threads, if not an entire folder, dedicated to the subject of best movies, the top ten or top 100, by decade, by genre, A to Z, and so forth. Frequently, the newest participants to such sites introduce themselves and/or feel compelled to announce their favorites, boldly proclaiming that their list of "the greatest movies ever made" is the most comprehensive etc. (even if the number of films that they’ve seen in their lifetime is relatively small). I guess it’s human nature. We form opinion about everything (and everybody?) that touches our lives and, since watching movies is something that almost everyone does, there’s a plethora of opinion "out there". The Internet enables all of us wannabe writers to express our thoughts, anonymously if we choose, and we can also join on-line communities populated with persons with whom we share common interests be it politics or investing, or leisure activities like sports and movies. Any one person’s top movie list, and even "consensus" compilations such as AFI’s, has its faults, but passionate debate about one’s ideas can be invigorating and educational, if kept civil.

Even after viewing some 2,000 movies during the past 4 years, and writing reviews (the majority of which are full synopses) for about 70% of them, the only list that I’ve compiled to separate the wheat from the chaff is the section of my website that I’ve dubbed Essential Films. A couple of months ago, David Roeder (a business reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times covering real estate development and the financial markets) labeled me "something of a movie geek" but also wrote that I’m "full of great ideas if the latest film releases leave you cold, and you're looking for rental suggestions" and that my "compendium of "essential films" will help you fill any gaps in your movie background." Earlier this month, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s on-line edition listed my site in their Lifestyle (flicks) section "Because sometimes even die-hard film fans need a break from IMDb.com." continuing that "The Classic Film Guide is one movie lover's look at the movies that made history." To the extent that my list (or site) provides you with suggestions of films to see, then my efforts have not been in vain.

While I will unabashedly admit that my list of Essential Films includes many of my favorites, you should know that movies which I don’t personally like (or feel are overrated) also appear on it. I’ve tried to be as objective as possible and have only included films that I’ve seen on the list. Thankfully, I receive recommendations from film fans all the time, and I’m still adding titles, if infrequently. Since I made an editorial decision to include only English language movies, many of the e-mails I receive contain foreign film suggestions. Only five silent films made my ledger, but that’s probably more a statement of my ignorance than anything else (I’ve probably seen less than 200 feature length silents, and my list excludes short features). On the other hand, more than 100 movies from the 1930's, 110+ from the 1940's, 80+ from the 1950's, and 50 from the 1960's appear on list; films from these four decades comprise 80% of the total. Some titles are not (yet) available on DVD, but most of these can be seen on TCM; therefore, you may not be familiar with all of these unless you watch the channel:

The Crowd (1928), Hell's Heroes (1930), Five Star Final (1931), A Free Soul (1931), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), The Mouthpiece (1932), One Way Passage (1932), Red Dust (1932), Bombshell (1933), Penthouse (1933), Anthony Adverse (1936), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), These Three (1936), They Won't Forget (1937) – airing Sept. 29th, The Citadel (1938), Four Daughters (1938), Three Comrades (1938), White Banners (1938), Bachelor Mother (1939), Midnight (1939), Wuthering Heights (1939), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), The Mortal Storm (1940), The Westerner (1940) – airing August 21st, The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), Hold Back the Dawn (1941), One Foot in Heaven (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Major and the Minor (1942), The Human Comedy (1943) – airing Sept. 12th, The Corn is Green (1945) – airing Sept. 12th, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) – airing Sept. 8th, The Farmer’s Daughter (1947) – airing June 28th and August 27th, A Foreign Affair (1948), The Search (1948), Intruder in the Dust (1949), Ace in the Hole (1951) – airing Aug. 26th and Sept. 27th, and The Mating Season (1951) – airing July 9th.

Thankfully, most of the other titles on my essential films list are available on DVD, and through Netflix, so if you see any with which you are unfamiliar, check ‘em out!