Top Ten Lists

A month or so ago, Neal over at Leftwich dropped this post on everyone who reads his blog. He asked for a top ten list of influences and we all sort of scrambled to figure one out.

Now, I don't like making top ten lists because they are constantly changing, but the reason I do like them is that it forces you to evaluate, even for a moment in time, what your tastes and influences are.

I've been on the lookout for a research assistant for a screenplay I'm working on and the first round of entry consisted of listing your top ten favorite movies. It gives you an idea of the type of person they are and how they would be to work with.

I was told by Charlie, one of the girls we met at our convocation down at Snow College, that her entire office had been working on theirs and I decided I would share my list and then ask everyone who reads this blog to post theirs in the comments.

So, here's mine and all of them are hotlinked to the IMDB. And these are in no particular order. Also, the Star Wars movies are excluded from this list as well as the Indiana Jones movies. They are above my list, I just like them too much and for different reasons.

1) Seven Samurai
2) Casablanca
3) Citizen Kane
4) American Graffiti
5) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
6) Jaws
7) Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
8) Raging Bull
9) Magnolia
10) The Godfather

I don't know. As I get this list together, I've already got a list of honorable mentions that I want to put together. I've even got a few questions for myself. Such as, "Where's all the Hitchcock and Kubrick you dumbass?" And, "I can't believe you forgot Charade and Goodfellas, or even Double Indmenity." And I'm wringing my neck because I forgot to put the Third Man on the list as well as The Last Temptation of Christ.

God-damn these lists. I tried to pick movies that for 1) I watch frequently (other than Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I can't stress that enough) and 2) I try to get other people to watch alot. (FUCK! I forgot Glengarry Glen Ross and Network!)

Maybe a better list would be filmmakers. Filmmakers who will park my ass in a theatre seat no matter what. Why don't we save that one for next week?

UPDATE: I actually let out a roar of anger that I left DARK CITY off of my list. The fact that I did both confuses and infuriates me.

UPDATE 2: I put steves list below this post so it's in better context.