Revision, Apocalypse, and Other Updates

While I will never really settle on a perfect top 10 list, some oversights are graver than others. For example, today I've decided that Apocalypse Now definitely gets a place on my films list, and to leave it off would be unacceptable. Maybe my list could be like this:

Linda's Top 10 Movies
1. Casablanca
2. The Hours
3. After Life
4. Dead Poets Society
5. Apocalypse Now
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. Born Into Brothels
8. Life is Beautiful
9. Dolores Claiborne
10. The Wizard of Oz

It's so hard to say. Also, having revised this list as I have, I let Clue drop off. It occurs to me that was my only comedy on there, really. It also occurs to me that Dead Poets Society and Life is Beautiful are similar in a sense, that they feature a brilliant performance by someone capable of eliciting great laughs but are in no way a "comedy." I happen to love Robin Williams, and I think his genius as a dramatic actor is occasionally forgotten. As for Life is Beautiful, there is absolutely nothing like that film. Something written about that film has stayed with me to this day, the beginning of the synopsis in the film listings in The New Yorker. I read it every week during the months that film played in theaters: "Life is Beautiful: Would that it were..."

Around the time that I couldn't stand to think about law school for one more second, I decided that maybe I would try to see a movie a day in June (much like a sequel to my "21 Days, 21 Movies" winter break quest). Well, I haven't done exactly that, but I might be on track to watching 30 movies in my first month back here in Boston, although a few are repeats of things I've seen before. Here are the movies I've been watching since Memorial Day:

In theaters: Once, Away From Her, 28 Weeks Later, The Treatment, Pirates of the Caribbean (x 2), Gracie, Cuba: A Lifetime of Passion(film festival screening).

By other means: Death of a President, 28 Days Later, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Shaun of the Dead, Raiders of the Lost Ark( x 3), Wings, The Broadway Melody, Taxi Driver, Fat Girl(A ma soeur), Diggers, Nowhere in Africa, In Old Arizona, Apocalypse Now, Sicko

I think that's all. Wow, I'd probably already be at 30 if I hadn't repeated viewings and hadn't also been watching M*A*S*H episodes on DVD. (For those too lazy to count above, I've reached 21. Just like the Olsen twins.)

Oh, wait. I forgot about The Wind That Shakes the Barley. It's really 22. (Guess I've surpassed the Olsen twins.) (Lord let that be true on many levels.)