American Film Institue's Top 100

In 2007, the American Film Institute published their 10 year anniversary version of "100 Movies...100 Years." The list was compiled by 1500 film critics and includes some of my most cherished titles. Reading the list I realized that I have yet to see many of the movies that have helped to define the American cinema. This gave me inspiration to watch these movies I have missed, as well as those that I have already seen before.

Recently I was accepted into Arizona State University's Film and Media Studies program. My ultimate goal is to gain the knowledge to critique movies and give my opinion of their quality. It was brought to my attention, however, that I do not necessarily need a diploma to review movies. Therefore, I have decided to get a head start on my future career.

One of my pet peeves when reading critics is how they seem to forget the many different purposes of movies. They seem to think the only movies worth watching are the truly fantastic ones that are few and far between. They forget that a movie can be enjoyable without winning every major award. Hence the success of the "Scary Movie" franchise. They always seem to make a bunch of money despite their horrendous stories, directing, acting, and everything else. The majority of movies rely on the sheer entertainment value to lure viewers. Examples of these are any of the movies in the recent super hero craze.

I am attempting to complete the AFI's Top 100 in one year, which will require me to watch an average of two movies every week. I will also attempt to dedicate one blog to each individual movie. This will allow me to provide you, the reader, with my own personal rating of each movie as well as a another rating. This secondary rating system for each movie will involve my wife, Erin. That rating system will be determined by the length of time that Erin actually stays awake during the movie. In theory, the longer she stays awake the better the movie is.

Well, I am off to start my journey through the best movies of all time! First up:

100. Ben-Hur