The AFI’s Top 100 Stirs Film Lovers’ Uprising

I concur with Kenneth Turan’s on-the-money reading (no Sturges? no Astaire-Rogers?) of the distortions of the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time (“AFI’s Top 100 List: The Ultimate Pitch,” June 17).

As he noted, there are outrageous omissions from the silent era, and I would add to those he cited: “Greed” (1921), by Erich von Stroheim, one of the most ambitious and powerful American movies ever made; “Sunrise” (1927), directed by F.W. Murnau, not only one of the most beautiful films ever to emerge from Hollywood but also one of the most influential; and “Intolerance,” the great epic from D.W. Griffith, with its groundbreaking editing style and interconnecting stories.

The small number of important films pre-1930 on the list indicates that the voters in this “exercise” lack an awareness of American film origins and its history (the alleged purpose of the list in the first place).

JOSEPH PUTERBAUGH, Santa Monica

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I read Turan’s article with great interest. Although I did not watch the broadcast--since I was already so appalled by the list of the 400 movies from which the final choice was to be made--I thought the points he made were all well-taken.

Among the directors whose work was omitted from the original list that might have escaped his attention are Rouben Mamoulian and Frank Borzage, although Mamoulian directed some of the most brilliant pictures of the early sound period--like “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Love Me Tonight”--and Borzage was probably the greatest director of romantic movies, for example “Seventh Heaven,” “Liliom” and “Three Comrades.”

But the most shameful omission of all, in my opinion, was Robert Flaherty, who not only virtually invented the documentary genre but was as epochal a figure as D.W. Griffith or Charlie Chaplin. Since both the original and final lists included Disney animation features, why exclude documentary? But then why exclude experimental films? I am not exactly a fan of Stan Brakhage’s movies, but any account of the history of American movies that would leave them out--or the works of Kenneth Anger or Shirley Clarke--is simply irresponsible. Since when is American cinema just Hollywood?

DAVID CLAYTON, San Diego

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Once again, Kenneth Turan has bombarded us with his negative point of view. Grow up, Ken! On any “best” list, there are bound to be differences of opinion. On my list of Top 10 film critics--lo and behold--you’re not on it!

I agree with James Cameron: impeach!

ANITA NEWTON, Reseda

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I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw No. 44 on the list: D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” the film that single-handedly resurrected the Ku Klux Klan from the dustbin of history while portraying black men as lazy, slow-witted, rapist brutes?

Regardless of its technical merits, this film was then and is now repugnant. A week after a man is dragged to his death in Texas by men who claim white supremacist views, AFI extols one of the most outright racist movies in American history. The list is tainted.

BRENT SINGLETON, Los Angeles

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What is the justification for the inclusion of seven obviously British films? I’m referring to Carol Reed’s “The Third Man,” David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Doctor Zhivago” and Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange,” “Dr. Strangelove” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

These were all considered British films at the time of their original release, as have been all of Kubrick’s British-made films, including the current “Eyes Wide Shut,” and have been embraced by the British film industry as native products.

This is not meant to take away from the indisputable greatness of these films, but their dubious inclusion on the master list unfairly eliminated equally valid American films, such as those noted by Turan.

RICK MITCHELL, Los Angeles

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Maybe we should wait 10 years before a movie could be considered one of the 100 best. This would leave room for the original “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” “Jane Eyre” and “How Green Was My Valley.”

BILL SIMPSON, Rancho Palos Verdes

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It is clear that the majority of the 1,500 voters were born after 1940. Sixty-eight of the films on the list are from 1950 on. Of the remaining 32 films, 16 are TV staples. Did any of the voters have to see any of the 400 nominated films, or was it like the Academy Awards--a popularity contest?

Do we know how those great film critics Bill Clinton and Al Gore voted?

TERRENCE BEASOR, Santa Monica

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The lack of erudition in the nominating and selection process is astonishing. By making this list such a blatantly commercial enterprise, the AFI has further diminished its claim to be a serious, scholarly institution and not just another booster-arm of the motion picture industry.

DAVID JACOBS, Los Angeles

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“Stagecoach”? “Unforgiven”? Over such films as “The Crowd,” “Grand Hotel,” “Dinner at Eight,” “Gabriel Over the White House,” “Our Daily Bread,” “The Thin Man,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “The Great Dictator,” “Around the World in 80 Days”? C’mon.

WILLIAM K. WILSON, Los Angeles

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Does any serious film historian feel that “Platoon” is a better antiwar film than “Paths of Glory”? If influence on future movies was one criteria, how can you omit “42nd Street,” which single-handedly saved the movie musical in 1932? And who in their right mind would prefer the film version of “My Fair Lady” to the delights of “Gigi” (which won nine Academy Awards)?

The AFI deserves “The Grapes of Wrath.”

JOHN EVEREST, Burbank

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Rather than listing the 100 best American films, the AFI seems to have chosen the 100 most culturally significant films. This would have been fine had they so titled the list. But they did not.

That the AFI was more interested in the cultural significance and pop value of a film rather than its quality is clear. Why, for instance, choose “Star Wars” over “The Adventures of Robin Hood”? Or for that matter, why have Chevy Chase and Julia Roberts doing color commentary?

But the real smoking gun can be found on the cover of the booklet put out by the AFI and Target that is being given away at Target stores. On the cover they have listed a number of quotes from some of America’s greatest films, bits of great dialogue. Among them are the following: “You talkin’ to me?,” “Top of the world” “Rosebud” and “Play it again, Sam.”

Anyone who knows anything about film knows that in “Casablanca” Bogart never actually says, “Play it again, Sam.” It is pure cultural legend. That the good people at the AFI don’t seem to know this says more about their list than anything else.

BRIAN DALTON, Downey

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Turan’s article would seem to carry the same credibility that he attaches to the AFI list. As is the custom of critics, the alternatives are not set forth. Which of the 100 films listed should not be there? He doesn’t say.

BOB TODD, Newport Beach

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The AFI list rather grandly points out a manifest truth: Film taste is purely subjective. While one can argue its additions and omissions until doomsday, it’s certainly not going to have much effect on most videotape collections.

MIKAEL ROMANO, Valley Village