Was Prince Right?
I recently discussed the top ten movie lists of my friend Jesse Walker, who looked back at every year ending in a 9. And he concluded it was 1999, not 1939, that was a truly great year for Hollywood.
Some of these films were major hits--The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, The Blair Witch Project, The Matrix. But a surprising number didn't do that well at first and took their time to find an audience--Fight Club, Office Space, Election, Galaxy Quest, Being John Malkovich, The Limey.
I should also add there are a number of films that Raftery (what a name--I want to type Rafferty) lauds that I don't think much of--Magnolia, Three Kings, The Insider. There are also some notable films I like from 1999 that he barely thinks worth mentioning, such as The Green Mile (though I agree The Cider House Rules isn't much).
Overall, the book is an entertaining and informative look back (except when Raftery tries to relate the films to the political situation today in a predictable and tiresome way). Jesse Walker suggests 1999 may replace 1939 as Hollywood's great year. Not yet, but give it a few more decades.
posted by LAGuy @ 8:25 AM
6 Comments:
Hmm. Not feeling like the first three mentioned have aged that well. American Beauty which I liked at the time I found to be almost unwatchable when I watched it again last year - feels very dated and stilted. Blair Witch has become a cliche- although admittedly it was new approach that everyone talked about at the time (And I did find it spooky- the first time). The Sixth Sense was a fun thriller but not sure I would go out of my way to see again- maybe as part of a Halloween marathon. I can see Fight Club as a weird classic and lets go ahead and say that Office Space seems to have been absorbed into the culture.
Perhaps there is a "coming of age" aspect to treatment of 1999 as great year. If you were really into movies at that time, maybe it seems better than the years on either side of it.
I think the 1939 movies were great admittedly because people have always said they were great. I might think of a year in the 70s as the greatest maybe showing my own coming of age bias
NEG
Looking at the list, it is a pretty good year, even if you throw out Sixth Sense, American Beauty and Blair Witch. Having done a fair number of top ten lists, I wish most years were this good.
But part of it is looking back--not simply nostalgia, but knowing a lot more films from the time. Yet another part may be it was a different Hollywood. People have always complained about how commercial Hollywood is, but compared to today, with a new megabudget action film every week (usually part of a franchise), the 1990s were pretty freewheeling.
On the other hand, the 70s were even more experimental (if not necessarily better). I think 1979 was a great year, for instance. Better than 1999? Or 1939? I've never thought about it. It's hard to compare a whole slate of movies.
Does the book offer any suggestions why 1999 was particularly better? Had the industry been getting better through the 90's, or was this a revolution against generally bad fare that decade?
I wonder if the general anticipation of a new millennium sparked greater imagination, risk taking or effort on the part of film makers. It was the middle of the dot-com boom - perhaps it flowed into theaters!
I think the theory is it was a different time--both in Hollywood and America (after the Cold War, before 9/11, during the Clinton years and the sex scandals, among other things)--and everything coalesced in one year.
This is mostly a pointless argument. First, stuff is always happening. Second, everyone (for as long as I've been following it) always says things are no good today but were better a generation or two before. I remember how people were saying in the 1990s that films weren't good any more, like they had been in the 70s (or 30s in more extreme cases).
FWIW: I don't personally think 1999 is the best movie year ever—if nothing else, I can think of a few years in the '70s that I'd rate higher. But it definitely was a very good year, and I feel like there's a consensus forming around it as The Great Year, gradually supplanting the old 1939-worship.
Maybe some day I'll make a list of the top film years, but boy would that be a lot of work. I'm not even sure what you'd base it on--number of good films, number of great films, best top ten, quality of average film, etc.
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