001 ... Masterpieces (within their genre)
- Amadeus
- Star Wars
- The Wizard of Oz
- It's a Wonderful Life
- Doctor Strangelove (or How I made a title much longer than it really needed to be, but that was part of being funny, now wasn't it?)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Airplane (remember to read the comments below!)
- Shrek
- The Caine Mutiny
- Toy Story 2
I view movies not as an entire collective group of one mass of celluloid, all to be viewed equally. More 'serious' films shouldn't be compared to 'lighter' films. The objective of Schindler's List was not to make you laugh (even if it did), and the Holy Grail was not intended to enlighten you to the atrocities of one group of religious/political zealots against another religious group (oh, wait, I forgot that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, thousands of followers of Islam, Judism, and other minor religions were tortured and slaughtered, but that's beside the point.)
To be a masterpiece, The Holy Grail does not have to excel in the same way that Amadeus has to. Certainly, to be considered a masterpiece, it must be sidesplittingly funny, non-stop outrrrrrageous fun, and edgy. Did I say funny? It doesn't need the plot complexities (although The Holy Grail has so many plot complexities, it seems to get lost in its self (re: the ending), but that is intentional and funny in and of its self.
A drama or sci-fi or gritty movie needs something else. Plot, deep characters, meaning. To be a masterpiece, it needs to affect you, if just for a moment.
So I can call a comedy like Airplane a masterpiece and not have to defend it being "as good as The Wizard of Oz" or "Star Wars."
I have the feeling I'll be 'defending' these selections in long diatribes posted as other lists. Have fun!
Have you considered actually breaking these out by genre? There was awhile there when we Listologists were on a Favorites By Genre kick. Perhaps you could adapt to a "Masterpieces by Genre" list.
Yeah, I have thought about that. I've seen a few (the one's you're talking about) and since I seem to be starting to develop quite a list of lists, I need to come up with the 'by genre' list.
Hey, Jim, you should come up with a 'Listologist package' where there is a set of say 10 lists all listologists should attempt to develop.
Sean
Ooh, I like that idea. One of these days I'll definitely do that.
Here's my first shot at a "List of ESSENTIAL Listology Lists".