Something occurred last night. I was reading a few film lists, just seeing where my favorites stood, just killing time when I managed to find a list online that had Citizen Kane at number 88, just under Kill Bill Vol. 2. This really bugged me, as I am one of those trivial punks who would become enraged over something so pointless. I then decided that maybe it's time for me to do a Greatest Movies List.
As I mentioned in the previous article, lists are a lot of work, and I don't think I would be able to do 100 of those so easily. I then decided that I can offer a more open, free way of sharing my favorite works of great cinema by simply creating an article series and tagging it Greatest Films Ever Made (or G.F.E.M. for short). My hope is to give people a topic of discussion and debate and to maybe even reach an audience with these films in hopes that they may inspire others as they have inspired me.
I have not officially decided which film I will cover first, but I will say that they will not all be older movies, and they will not be in any particular order. There is not a fixed number of them that I will do but instead, as I decide to write an article I will carefully consider which film I will do next, and make an honest, and hopefully persuasive, argument for that movie.
One reason I'm doing this is because I believe that the truly great movies are lost on many people my age. People in their late twenties who love movies and stare in ignorant bliss as they enjoy mediocrity (or worse) and settle for it. My dream is to at least help to spark a revival of the great films in my generation and younger, so that they can persist and continue to prove that the movies are the one truly great American artform. We've lost everything else. Our TV is borrowed from overseas, the rock band that is generally voted the greatest is from the UK; if we do not embrace our achievements, we will lose our culture.
Films are the closest thing we have to time travel, as we have a chance to glimpse into the past and experience decades gone by, attitudes forgotten and culture in reverse. Let us not forget that the movies are too an art, and many should be embraced just as we embrace a framed masterpiece in a gallery. It's not trivial; films mean something, and the fact that this idea is lost on so many people of this day saddens me. Therefore, I hope that this coming series inspires and offers readers a chance to discover the great films that may have been overlooked.
I am also announcing a new ratings platform. Thus far, over the past six months or so, I've used a standard 5-star system to rate my reviewed movies. I've decided that I will take this a little further and offer a category-based rating platform to more greatly examine a film by its individual parts. These will be under five categories: Performances, Screenplay, Visuals, Sound and Novelty Factor. The first four are pretty self-explanatory. Performances are how the actors perform in their roles, Screenplay includes the writing and the story, and Visuals encompasses everything you see and includes directorial and SFX styling. Novelty Factor is a little more of a wild card category that covers that inexplicable quality that some films have, as some films are entertaining and it can be difficult to pinpoint why.
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