The dog days of summer have settled in, and with them comes a certain restlessness. Baseball is the only daily sports spectacle on the calendar right now, and at the moment, it’s just not enough. Don’t get me wrong—I love baseball way more than anybody you probably know. I just watched half of the MLB Draft over the last several days, which is notoriously one of the most boring professional sports drafts. But only so much entertainment can be derived from that. As such, I’m on a quest for merriment, and what better way to answer that call than by diving headfirst into the vast and vibrant universe of cinema?
As many of you, my wonderful readers, have likely gathered from my recent posts over the past several weeks, I’m a bit of a movie lover. Whether it’s dissecting the latest blockbuster to hit theaters or raving about a hidden gem, I find endless fascination in the art of filmmaking. There’s a catch, however: my cinematic journey is far from complete and contains some glaring holes. Please don’t laugh—I’m almost ashamed to say this—but I’ve yet to see iconic films like The Godfather or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trust me, I know it’s embarrassing. But I’m determined to end that shame by embarking on a cinematic mission of sorts.
Thanks to a wonderful birthday gift from my amazing wife, I’m now armed with The New York Times Book of Movies, a comprehensive guide to 1,000 of the “most important, popular, and influential films of nearly a century of cinema.”
Here’s the plan: Over the next year, I’ll watch one film a week—52 in total—each one randomly selected from the book and loosely organized by the alphabet (one to three films per letter). Every Friday, I’ll post a review right here on the site, diving into the history of the film along with my overall thoughts.
This journey is also a chance to celebrate, as B&B Theatres would so wonderfully say, the magic of the movies. Moving pictures on a screen haven’t been around for all that long in the grand span of human history, but they’ve made an enormous impact on the culture of modern society. The fact that we live in a time where we can communally experience such a fascinating art form is a miracle.
For transparency’s sake, here is the list of movies that I’ll be watching throughout the next year (list subject to change)1:
Week 1: The Apartment (1960)
Week 2: Apocalypse Now (1979)
Week 3: Bull Durham (1988)
Week 4: Before Midnight (2013)
Week 5: Boyhood (2014)
Week 6: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Week 7: Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Week 8: A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Week 9: Die Hard (1988)
Week 10: Dial M for Murder (1954)
Week 11: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Week 12: Empire of the Sun (1987)
Week 13: East of Eden (1955)
Week 14: Face/Off (1997)
Week 15: The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)
Week 16: Fargo (1996)*
Week 17: The Godfather (1972)
Week 18: The Godfather Part II (1974)
Week 19: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
Week 20: Goodfellas (1990)
Week 21: A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Week 22: Ikiru (1952)
Week 23: Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Week 24: Jerry Maguire (1996)
Week 25: King Kong (1933)
Week 26: L.A. Confidential (1997)
Week 27: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Week 28: Lost in Translation (2003)
Week 29: Mad Max (1980)
Week 30: Moonlight (2016)
Week 31: Munich (2005)
Week 32: North by Northwest (1959)
Week 33: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Week 34: The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Week 35: Pulp Fiction (1994)
Week 36: The Pianist (2002)
Week 37: Paths of Glory (1957)
Week 38: The Quiet Man (1952)
Week 39: Raging Bull (1980)
Week 40: RoboCop (1987)
Week 41: Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Week 42: Schindler's List (1993)
Week 43: Star Wars (1977)*
Week 44: The Thin Red Line (1988)
Week 45: To Kill a Mockingbird (1963)
Week 46: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Week 47: Unforgiven (1992)
Week 48: Vertigo (1958)
Week 49: West Side Story (1961)
Week 50: When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Week 51: Young Frankenstein (1974)
Week 52: Zodiac (2007)*
So, grab your popcorn and join me for the first movie this Friday. We’re starting with the letter A, which means Billy Wilder’s The Apartment is first up to bat.
I have seen movies with an asterisk.
Maybe a list of movies you have seen would be appropriate? Inquiring minds want to know how a young baseball enthusiast hasn’t committed every Bull Durham cliche to memory? What if you had gone pro?
There are some dad fails in this list. You haven’t seen Diehard, Saving Private Ryan, Good, Bad and Ugly, Jerry Maguire… Where was I during your childhood?