by Chris Marshall:
Holy schlamoly, it’s time for the 1960s! It feels like I’ve
been doing this project my entire life, but I’ve actually been watching the movies
for only a month a half. I’ve watched a lot of movies this year in addition to
The Oscar Project, though. In fact, as of the time I’m writing this post, I
just watched my 100th movie of the year!
I thought about dedicating a post just to that milestone,
but I ultimately decided to incorporate it into this interlude post. I figured
I’d already said everything I have to say about the 1950s as a whole; it had
the beginning of modern musicals, some pleasant surprises, a lot of
long/overlong films, and a couple of major disappointments. For those of you
who don’t want to read about my year of movie watching in excruciating detail,
my Best of the 1950s list is at the bottom of the post.
So yeah, nobody wants to read that all over again. But how
do I know I’ve watched exactly 100 movies this year? Well, at the beginning of
2012, I decided I’d keep a log of every film I watched for the entire year. I
had to put some rules into effect, though. First, I have to watch it from
beginning to end for it to count. If I watch, as I did Saturday night, the last
two-thirds of I Am Bruce Lee, that
doesn’t go on the list. If, hypothetically, I see The Avengers in the theater and fall asleep after 30 minutes, that
also doesn’t count.
I started out pretty slow, watching only eight movies in
January and four in February[1].
Then, for the first 25 days of March, I watched only three more. But starting
on the day I returned from spring break, March 26, everything changed. I
resolved to actually sit down and watch
something. I realized that if I cut out all the time I spent puttering around
on the Internet, I could easily watch a movie a day. Sometimes more.
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| Bob Hope took a dive for the short-end money. |
For once in my life, I actually stuck to a resolution. Since
March 26, I have watched 85 movies, a rate of 1.3 per day[2].
I’ve had to change my life remarkably little to achieve this feat. Granted, I’ve
had to spend a lot less time at school since I came back from spring break, so
that helps immensely. But really, my original plan worked. Sometimes I would
spend 15 or 20 minutes mired in a single comment section, never posting
anything of my own but marveling at the insanity that anonymity brings out in
people. That wasn’t enriching my life any, so I decided to stop. It’s both
amazing and sad how much time that freed up.
One hundred movies. That’s 182 hours and 42 minutes, which
equals out to 5.1% of the year so far. I admit that’s a large number, but it
pales in comparison to the number of hours I’ve slept, and sleep is a true waste of hours. The Oscar Project
on its own has accounted for 73 hours, 53 minutes (36 films at an average of 2
hours, 3 minutes each). That average is going to rise considerably, though,
since Hollywood started realizing that making a 3 hour movie means automatic
Oscars.
Out of those 100 films, 13 have been documentaries, probably
a lower percentage than I’ve typically watched since I became a “serious” movie
watcher several years ago. This is mostly, I think, because whenever a
documentary that I really want to see comes out, I watch it as soon as
possible, while I have a bad habit of putting off narrative films, especially
since so many more narrative films are released.
Another goal I’ve had is to watch mostly movies I haven’t
seen before, which I’ve been successful at. Of these 100 movies, I’ve watched
91 for the first time, and four of the remaining nine have been Best Picture
winners that I’ve previously seen. Then there was Groundhog Day, and that served an extremely utilitarian purpose,
since that endeavor allowed me to see anything I wanted in the theater.
And I’ve taken advantage of that, but not to the extent that
I would have liked. Maybe it’s just a bad time of year, but it seems like
Gateway hasn’t had as good a selection as they did last year. There have
certainly been some gems, though. I never would have been able to see Tyrannosaur or The Kid with a Bike at a theater in Mississippi, but still, most of
the films I’ve seen in the theater have been pretty mainstream fare.
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| William Wyler owns my life. |
Both of those films I just mentioned are foreign (though
only The Kid with a Bike is foreign
language), but I’ve only done an average job of watching non-American movies.
Eleven different countries are represented on the list; the problem is that two
countries (UK and USA) make up 89 of the films. Canada, Finland, Indonesia,
Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Romania, and Thailand are represented with a single
film, while France has three. I’m shocked that I haven’t watched a single Japanese
or Korean movie all year; I tend to enjoy much of their work.
89 is also the number of different directors whose films I’ve
seen. Only William Wyler makes three appearances (all due to The Oscar
Project), and not counting the other multiple Oscar winners, I’ve only seen
multiple films from Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, and Nicolas Winding Refn[3].
This will change fairly soon, though, because I’m announcing
my next “project” after I finish the Best Picture winners, the Director of the Week
Project. Rather than a daily post about each movie I watch, I will watch five
films each week by a single director, followed by a (longer) weekly post about
what I’ve seen. Since I plan on having a Real Job by then, this will allow me
to reduce my movie watching and blog writing workload while still maintaining a
regular writing schedule. I already have my movie lists written out, even.
Wow! This is now by far the longest post so far. I didn’t
mean for that to happen, but hey, that’s life. Without further ado, here’s my
top 10 of the 1950s.
- All About Eve (1950)
- On the Waterfront (1954)
- Marty (1955)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- From Here to Eternity (1953)
- Gigi (1958)
- Ben-Hur (1959)
- Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
- An American in Paris (1951)
- The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
There were some really tough decisions this time around.
Again, my main criterion was how much I enjoyed
the movie. I understand completely that on most levels, The Bridge on the River Kwai was a better film than Marty, but I liked watching the latter
more. Really, the only easy decision was putting The Greatest Show on Earth in last place. This decade surprised me
on several levels. When a movie I liked as much as Gigi only merits sixth place, I think that’s a good sign. I just
hope the 1960s follows suit.
[1] Or
15 in February, depending on how you count. I watched Groundhog Day for 24 straight hours (12 screenings) on Feb. 2 at
the Gateway Theater in order to win a year’s worth of free movie tickets. I
decided to count it only as a single film, however.
[2] Another
rule: each movie gets attributed to the day in which I watch the majority of
the film. If I start a two hour movie at 11:01 p.m. on Monday, it gets marked
as Tuesday. If I start it at 10:59, it counts for Monday. I like to be
consistent.
[3] Refn’s
Drive is one of the best I’ve seen
this year—Oscar winners included.
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