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52 Classic Movies in 52 Weeks January 1, 2009
In 2008 I did the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge in which I attempted to read a book a week and write a review about it. Instead of repeating that exercise again, I've decided to do something a little different by taking in 52 movies during the 52 weeks of 2009.
Of course, just watching 52 Will Ferrell movies would kind of miss the point. I want to use this as an opportunity to see some of those movies that I've always thought I should have seen, but never did because I picked up something with guns and tight clothes. Any such list of "classic" movies would be arbitrary, so when building my checklist I took the easy way out and decided to just use the 2007 edition of the American Film Institute's "100 Years... 100 Movies," which you'll see reprinted below in chronological order. I've gone ahead and crossed out the movies that I've already seen.
1916 - Intolerance1925 - The Gold Rush
1927 - The General
1927 - Sunrise
1931 - City Lights
1933 - King Kong
1933 - Duck Soup
1934 - It Happened One Night
1935 - A Night at the Opera
1936 - Modern Times
1936 - Swing Time
1938 - Bringing Up Baby
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath
1940 - The Philadelphia Story
1941 - Sullivan's Travels
1942 - Casablanca
1942 - Yankee Doodle Dandy
1944 - Double Indemnity
1946 - It's a Wonderful Life
1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives
1948 - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1950 - Sunset Boulevard
1950 - All About Eve
1951 - A Streetcar Named Desire
1951 - The African Queen
1952 - Singin' in the Rain
1952 - High Noon
1953 - Shane
1954 - On the Waterfront
1954 - Rear Window
1956 - The Searchers
1957 - The Bridge on the River Kwai
1959 - Ben-Hur
1960 - Psycho
1960 - The Apartment
1960 - Spartacus
1961 - West Side Story
1962 - Lawrence of Arabia
1962 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1966 - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
1967 - In the Heat of the Night
1969 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1969 - The Wild Bunch
1969 - Easy Rider
1970 - MASH
1971 - A Clockwork Orange
1971 - The French Connection
1971 - The Last Picture Show
1973 - American Graffiti
1975 - Nashville
1976 - All the President's Men
1978 - The Deer Hunter
1989 - Do the Right Thing
What I plan to do is start at the top of the list above and work my way down, watching at least a movie a week and writing up a short blog post about each. There's more than 52 movies on that list that aren't already scratched off, but if I don't get ahead I'll probably carry it over to next year until I've made it through.
And again, like with the book challenge, I'll invite you all to participate as well. I believe we have Jeremy and Paul (a.k.a., "Yotsuya") from PlanetCrap.com ready to go already, plus a few other folks who are going to do one or two movies a month. If you want to play along, let me know and I'll include links to your weekly updates.
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Tags: 52 Movies in 52 Weeks, Movies
Comments
Posted by bethany actually on January 1, 2009 4:56 PM:
You've never seen Casablanca!? Or It's A Wonderful Life?! Or Rear Window, or The Sound of Music?!?
I admit I'm a little surprised you have not seen Jaws. You just seem like the type of guy who would have not only seen that movie but memorized lines from it. Sorry if I have you pegged wrong. ;-)
Wow, you have some treats ahead of you! Some of these movies are so familiar to me, I can't even imagine seeing them for the first time. However, there are many on the list I have not seen either. Hmm, I'll have to think about doing this too.
Posted by Jamie on January 2, 2009 7:21 AM:
Yeah, I know. Those are the kinds of reasons I'm doing this.
Posted by Athryn on January 2, 2009 7:47 AM:
I am shocked that you haven't seen Lawrence of Arabia. You simply must watch that one, it's one of my favorite movies of all time.
Posted by Rachel on January 4, 2009 9:49 PM:
Wow! Some great movies up there you haven't seen yet.
Rear Window and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are among some of my very favorite movies... and Jaws... classic!
Now movies like The Sound of Music and It's a Wonderful Life well... there's a saying that goes around our home... it might be a wonderful life, but that's a craptastic movie! The Sound of Music just annoys me.
Good Luck!
Give us reviews on at least a good chunk when you get around to watching them!