Quoting VibroCount:

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Whether you love them or hate them, "best of" lists are certainly something we can all disagree on. But no movie-list maker (that we know of) has ever gone to the lengths of Brad Bourland, 58, of Austin, Texas. "The Best, Most Important and the Most Beloved English Language Films of the 20th Century" ranks an outlandish 9,331 films. He says it's not done yet, either. He deliberately stopped short, because he wants the public to help him make it an even 10,000.

The project began back in 2001, when Bourland started with the reasonable goal of rating 200-300 films.

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Wow! 9,331 films, all evaluated since 2001. Now that's watching a few films!

9331 movies, and not only one from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Japan, China ?

I had been told for so many years that John Wayne wasn't a good actor that I had just blindly accepted it.  I never stopped to think, hey, he wouldn't have been in like a gajillion movies if he hadn't been doing something right.  I'd likely still have that opinion if a very good friend of mine hadn't insisted we watch The Quiet Man for St. Patrick's Day last year.  Entertaining movie!  Later we watched one of Wayne's westerns, and that was entertaining as well.  So now I have lots of John Wayne movies in my collection. 

As far as his politics went, if he were still alive I'd tell him to stuff it.  I'm quite far on the left on most social issues, like many younger people (I'll be 35 this year).  But you know what?  I love old movies.

I've been wrangling with the question for the other topic of the best decade for film.  That's hard, even trying to figure which one would be the best one for me. 

There's a classiness to movies from the 30's through the 60's that you don't see any more - especially in romances.  To pick up a romantic film any more I have to sift through so many films that have no class at all and are all about crude and vulgar sex jokes and not romance whatsoever.  No more debonair heroes like Cary Grant, no more couples that light up the screen like Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers. 

I have a similar problem with horror movies.  I like monster movies and creepy movies. I have zero interest in stuff like Saw or Friday the 13th.  I'm sure for those who enjoy them there's something to them - we certainly sell the heck out of them at my shop.  Give me something starring Bela Lugosi or Vincent Price any day.

But I love modern movies too!  There are so many films that are among my very favorites that would never have been made back in the day.  Today there are so many different kinds of stories that can be told.  I loved Watchmen, I loved Brokeback Mountain - you would never see anything like that in the old days.  You wouldn't see Lord of the Rings because there just wasn't the ability to make a film like that.  These days you also have so many more countries with film making ability and therefore so many more voices and stories in movies.  That's some of what's great about modern filmmaking.

That's why I'm torn - there are so many things that are good about modern filmmaking AND so many about old movies (and equally true about the bad things) - that I can't say that either is truly better than the other.  I can say that I have almost no reservation about buying a film made before 1970 when it shows up in Big Lots $3 bin (and leaving almost everything made afterward), and that if I try to name great actors almost all of them will have been making films before 1970.  But if I start listing my all-time favorite movies more will be from the 90's and 2000's than the decades before.  So it must be a toss-up.

Quoting surfeur51:

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Quoting VibroCount:

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Whether you love them or hate them, "best of" lists are certainly something we can all disagree on. But no movie-list maker (that we know of) has ever gone to the lengths of Brad Bourland, 58, of Austin, Texas. "The Best, Most Important and the Most Beloved English Language Films of the 20th Century" ranks an outlandish 9,331 films. He says it's not done yet, either. He deliberately stopped short, because he wants the public to help him make it an even 10,000.

The project began back in 2001, when Bourland started with the reasonable goal of rating 200-300 films.

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Wow! 9,331 films, all evaluated since 2001. Now that's watching a few films!

9331 movies, and not only one from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Japan, China ?

I understand. English is not your first language. It's okay. 

Quoting TheMadMartian:

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That might have something to do with the fact that it is "The Best, Most Important and the Most Beloved English Language Films of the 20th Century."  I could be wrong, but I don't believe they make many english language films in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Japan or China? 

Of course, I saw that, and that is the point that is the more laughable. To choose to make a list of movies only in English shows how the author's mind is opened. His list appears to be the longest of the most trifling of all.

What is also laughable is your remark, pointing this to me as to explain other users how much  I'm stupid.  I hoped a discussion about the diversity of movies in the world, and I get just one more attack from you, immediately followed by your great friend.   

Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:

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What's wrong with ranking movies with certain criteria? Are all those year-end lists useless because they aren't open to other years?

I can understand that, and I'm not against "the 10 best movies of 2009", or even "the 50 best Italian movies". But when a list contains 9331 movies with such a criteria, it no more means anything, except to show a very narrow view of the diversity of world movies.

Quoting surfeur51:

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Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:

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What's wrong with ranking movies with certain criteria? Are all those year-end lists useless because they aren't open to other years?

I can understand that, and I'm not against "the 10 best movies of 2009", or even "the 50 best Italian movies". But when a list contains 9331 movies with such a criteria, it no more means anything, except to show a very narrow view of the diversity of world movies.

ROFLMAO.

Skip

That list seems a bit flawed i mean how is Jaws better than the Wild Bunch and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest so much higher than Chinatown.

Quoting surfeur51:

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Quoting TheMadMartian:

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That might have something to do with the fact that it is "The Best, Most Important and the Most Beloved English Language Films of the 20th Century."  I could be wrong, but I don't believe they make many english language films in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Japan or China? 

Of course, I saw that, and that is the point that is the more laughable. To choose to make a list of movies only in English shows how the author's mind is opened. His list appears to be the longest of the most trifling of all.

What is also laughable is your remark, pointing this to me as to explain other users how much  I'm stupid.  I hoped a discussion about the diversity of movies in the world, and I get just one more attack from you, immediately followed by your great friend.   

Don't you think it would be rather difficult for a single person to rate 10,000 films from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Japan, China and English-speaking countries.

After all, I don't imagine that there are very many people in the entire world who are conversant enough in all of those languages to be able to do a very adequate job of it, and I can't imagine reading subtitles for thousands of foreign films would be anyone's first choice.

It seems quite reasonable to me, that someone from Texas, would limit his endeavors to English-speaking films.

Perhaps you would care to take on the project you describe.  But if you do, please do not leave out the Iranian, Russian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, Indian, Egyptian, Morrocan, Greek, Turkish, Chilean, Brazilian, Indonesian, Croatian, Swedish and the whole host of other countries in the world as well.  After all, we wouldn't want to offend anyone by leaving them out!