Let's try this again...

...shall we? 

Last year, I attempted to watch all 100 of the Tenth Anniversary Edition AFI Top 100 Films in a calendar year.  It's a crazy little goal, but I think perspective, age, etc. are wonderful things, and seeing all of them in a year seems...not crazy.  To me.  It may to others.  I expect it does.

I stopped after about 27 in 2014, because LIFE got in the way, and then I just couldn't get started again...then...when things finally got a little saner, I had to watch 73 films in like 9 weeks.  That's more than I think anyone should/can do...and blogging that much would have been nigh impossible, so I'm back.  Trying it again in 2015.  Off to a good start already.  I've gotten through films 1-5 on this year's quest.  Huzzah!

OK.  Let's talk about how crazy I am.  Last year, I had (amazingly) only seen exactly half of the films in the list before I started, so I decided to break the year up by fives.  I would watch 5 films I hadn't watched, followed by 5 I had, and so on, until I got to 100. What sucks about that for this year, is I actually watched 15 movies I hadn't before, so this year, I start with the tally 65-35.  I didn't watch any new-to-me films in the top 100 last year, because I still had this notion in my head that I wanted to do this in a calendar year, even if I was 80 years old.

Can you imagine me trying to do this at this age?

Wait.  That's not the crazy.  Well.   Not the real crazy.  So.  Because I have the score at 65-35, I had to abandon the idea of 5 not watched, 5 watched and so on.  I toyed with the math.  I then came to the pattern that works best, and will probably help me get through this more easily.  I'm doing 5 I haven't watched prior, 5 I have, 5 I haven't...then 10 I have, 5 I haven't, 10 I have...to 100.  Yes.  I sat and did the pattern.  It works.  I end with 10 films I have watched before this year.

Oh, gentle reader, it gets so much more crazy.  ANYONE can watch the films 100-1 or 1-100.  Because I wanted to watch them 5 not watched, 5 watched, etc., that wouldn't work.  It takes a different kind of insane person to do what I did.  I created an Excel spreadsheet.  On it, I have columns with the following information: AFI Rank; Watched Previously; Title; Year Released; Personal Film # (2015).  That doesn't seem that out of line. Compose them all in their AFI order, then sort the data by the "Personal film #" column, and voila!  I can sort them by AFI Rank, resort them, and the ones I've watched go to the top of the list, in the order I've watched them, and the rest stay in order.  And, if I screw it up, I can always reshuffle the decks and start again....how simple.  The "Watched Previously" column was just an X in the cell.  Then, I just did a count function at the bottom of the column, and presto!  (That's 2 expressions like that so far - expect a 3rd) I didn't have to actually count.  I let technology do it for ME!   I broke the "AFI Rank" column of 100 down by groups of 10, and filled the cells with different colors, so that I could readily see that red is films 1-10, light blue is 11-20, and so on.  I'm visual, and I like to be able to see that easily.

Yes.  This is a visual representation of my brain.
My brain is Marty Feldman's eyes.

We're still barely skimming the surface of my crazy.

Remember the column marked "Year Released?"  Yeah.  I broke them down by what I defined as ERAS.  The first era was called "Pre "Snow White...""  because that was a breakthrough film, that kind of started the next portion of film history.  Turns out there are 11 films on the list from that era.  In case you were wondering.  Most of those are screwball comedies/silent films, which is why it got its own era.

Next, we have an era called "Snow White" to "Double Indemnity."   Often defined as Hollywood's "Golden Age," this era features a lot of advances in storytelling, technological breakthroughs, 2 of the greatest 3 films, and 4 of the top 10.  It also took place over only an 8 year period, and had 13 films included on the list, 7 of which  landed in the top 30.  I'm going to do a "Holy crap, look at the math on this" when this project is finished, but for now, that's a hell of an era.

Next I did an era called "Post WWII -1965."  There are a few films with some grittiness in this era, but the overwhelming theme of this era on the list is good times, Hitchcock, or wide, sweeping musicals/epics. It also contains a film that I'd probably say started the next era, but "The Sound of Music" came after it, so I left it in this portion.  ("Dr. Strangelove...")    A 20 year period, this era yielded 27 films in the top 100.

Next...well.  I defined it as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" to "Raging Bull."  This is a 16 year period from 1966-1980, when film was perhaps at its best.  It features 30 films on the list from a time when filmmakers were finally freer to feature cursing, to show nudity, and to generally be more "real."  Huge technological strides were taken, and really terrific stories were told.  I ended it with "Raging Bull," because it was the last of these "grittier" films that I knew, and well, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" doesn't really feel like it's part of the same filmmaking era as "Midnight Cowboy."

Right now, you could use a pretty picture.  You've been reading a lot.

Next comes "Modern Films."  I don't really have to explain that.  It's the films of the last (at the time of the list) 27 years.  This era has 19 films in it, including THREE from 1994.

I assigned a "fill cell color" in the "Year Released" column for each era, again, because I'm visual.  So, now I can see what era a film falls in quickly.  Sorting this shit is getting easier.  And much, much more complicated.

So.  All of that, on its surface, still seems crazy, but not overtly so.  No, I've got deeper to go.  Now, we start really defining it.

I didn't want to watch any two films from the same group of 10 in terms of AFI Rank consecutively, nor did I want to watch any two films from the same era consecutively.  This presents organizational challenges, to say the least.  There are 57 films from two eras, after all, and trying to keep the #76 film from being watched back to back with #71 was going to be a bitch.

No.  I HAD to make it worse.  I then decided to use a "cell fill color" in the "Previously Watched" column.  The reason for this?  To define films by Genre.  The 9 categories of genre are:  Musical, Western, Crime, Horror, Epic, Drama, Comedy, War, Science Fiction.  Again, that seems reasonable.  It makes a visual depiction of the major genres of film.  I haven't totaled them up yet, but I will, I assure you.

Now.  Now, I define myself by the depths of my insanity.

The above may be slightly saner than me.  Might be.

To sum up:  I didn't want to watch films consecutively by any of the following parameters:  AFI Rank, Era or Genre.  Do you have any idea how insanely hard that is to do?  Two variables are a bitch.  Three?  Fuck it.  That's downright cuckoo.  Oh, it gets better.  Not only is it by those three, but I carefully scanned the list to make sure I didn't have major stars in back to back films, nor directors.  I also wanted the last 10 to be movies I really wanted to save until last.  That proved impossible.  I had 4 Spielberg movies.  He was THE director my age, and I wanted to save him for last.  I couldn't.

Anyway, as a result of this, I had to plot out all 100 films in advance.  I really did.  I'd never be able to keep that many things straight, otherwise.   It took me a few hours.

I also highlighted the titles of the film by the source I'd need to use to watch them.  Either DVR, something I owned, Netflix, Amazon Prime...or Netflix DVD.  It tried very hard not to rely on Netfilx DVD too much in the timing, because I'd hate to have to wait for a film in Queue and slow this down.  So.  I think I'm up to 4 sorting criteria thus far.  I admit, I blew one of them, as I hadn't done all the work yet, and had watched my first two films of the year, and had ordered two from Netflix DVD after, but again BEFORE I had completed this sheet, and they were both in the AFI 80's, and well...I decided Genre and Era outweighed AFI rank on that one, so...there are two from the 80's back to back in the first five.  Forgive me.

Here, my friends, is your visual evidence.  Bada Bing!  (told you there was a third expression like this coming) This may be used at my commitment trial.  It's illegible, but I'm not going to show you more, yet, because I'm not sure how to make this interactive online.  Not yet.  By the way, the yellow highlighted first 5 lines?  Those are the ones I've watched thus far this year.  I'll let you digest this, then write up the first 5 later in the week.

So.  I'm off again.  I've watched 5 already, taking my total from the list to 70 in my lifetime.  5 this year though, and that's the point of this exercise.  Hope you stay with me.  I'm going to stay with you this time.

Thanks.

Remember when this guy used to write about steak?
Can't he go back to that?