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The TONY Alt-Canon
Despite the best efforts of scholars, critics, college professors, bloggers, blowhards and Paul Schrader, no one has ever established an official film canon. The key word, however, is official; there is a handful of titles that are considered the movie masterpieces you must see in order to be cine-literate. They show up in Film History 101 curricula, they fill up the Sight & Sound best-of polls every decade, they are the ones that all experts agree are the crème de la crème. If you haven’t seen Citizen Kane or The Rules of the Game, Ugetsu or Battleship Potemkin, The Seventh Seal or Steel Magnolias, then you haven’t seen what the art form is truly capable of accomplishing. (We’re kidding, of course; not everyone favors Potemkin.)
Keeping in mind that these films rank among our respective all-time favorites, we’ve often wondered: If one were to skip over to a parallel universe and construct an alternate film canon—in which the usual suspects didn’t necessarily have to be chosen—what would be in it?
After many painstaking arguments, gallons of shed tears and several old-school barroom brawls, TONY’s film critics have come up with more than two dozen contenders that we feel deserve to be considered among the best that cinema has to offer. Don’t think of them as replacements for the tried-and-true greats of the past century-plus; they’re more like worthy, well-earned additions to the pantheon.
(One disclaimer: Titles that were released over the past 30 or so years that are widely considered “modern classics”—think Pulp Fiction, Raging Bull, Fanny and Alexander—were purposefully left out; they’re closer to standard-canon fodder that just haven’t been incorporated into the usual first-tier roundups yet. Check back with us when we compile our “25 Modern Classics” list, coming soon to a computer browser near you. And feel free to let us know about your own personal alt-canon picks in the comments section.)
Without further ado…the Alt-Canon.
Time Out New York / Issue 726 : Aug 27–Sep 2, 2009
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Old Dark House or original Cat People before Ghost ship. Forbidden Zone by Richard Elfman. Blade Runner before Starship Troopers. and many more but this is silly. This list is pretty good. I think you should do it by decade though.
I'm assuming the page-splitting thing is about increasing the number of page views on the site-- a way to increase ad income. I find it annoying, too, but what can I say? It's not like I'm paying to subscribe to the magazine. Enjoyed the film list, even if my own would be pretty different.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Andrei Rublev.
Others I'd add: Miller's Crossing: The Alt. Godfather. Easily the Cohen Bros. best movie. A great, beautifully plotted gangster film. The Thing (Carpenter version): Over time is continuing to gain recognition that eluded it upon its release. Probably one of the best, if not the best, horror films ever made. King of Comedy: I don't care what anybody says -- this is Scorcese's best movie and DeNiro's best performance. The Alt. Taxi Driver. Ahead of its time in terms of dissecting celebrity.
Are people really complaining about having to load a new page to keep reading? Life must really be tough. Exciting and inspiring list, by the way.
I actually spent the last 30 minutes clicking through every single page. I'm sorry. Won't do that again.
I agree with David. What the hell is with splitting 25 entries into a separate page each?! It's not like you're writing a particularly thoughtful essay for each title. LAME. Some folks computers aren't as fast as yours, Stephen.
It's true that Ryan O'Neal was never as impressive as in Barry Lyndon. At the time of seeing the film I had never seen him in another role, and after doing so searched out a few of his other films. I can only guess that Kubrick got the best out of him, or it was a complete fluke, because he's awful in everything I've seen of him since.
Yes, becuase clicking next is almot too much to bear. Also, why should I type in the address of a website. I want them to appear magically in front of my eyes, like the knife in Macbeth, without doing anything. And who ever heard of having to put food in my mouth before I eat it? Don't you want me to provide sustenance for myself?
I'll bet this is a great list. Too bad I'll never know because you insist on splitting it up across 25 separate pages. With that kind of barrier, I assume you don't really want people to read it anyway.