OK, after nominations, voting, checking, and double-checking, here is the list!

Feel free to discuss it here in this forum. It will be made available to all other A&F users next week, and to the general public in a few weeks.

1. Ordet (6.85, 37 votes)
2. Le Fils (6.51, 38 votes)
3. The Miracle Maker (6.47, 41 votes)
4. The Gospel According to Matthew (6.35, 63 votes)
5. The Diary of a Country Priest (6.3, 55 votes)
6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (6.3, 62 votes)
7. The Decalogue (6.26, 79 votes)
8. Babette's Feast (6.16, 88 votes)
9. A Man Escaped (6.12, 35 votes)
10. Andrei Rublev (6.09, 45 votes)
11. Balthazar (6.07, 48 votes)
12. The Seventh Seal (6.02, 80 votes)
13. Ikiru (6.01, 56 votes)
14. Winter Light (6, 30 votes)
15. The Mission (5.99, 106 votes)
16. The Apostle (5.99, 111 votes)
17. Three Colors Trilogy (5.99, 76 votes)
18. Jesus of Nazareth (5.98, 74 votes)
19. Jesus of Montreal (5.93, 57 votes)
20. The Flowers of St. Francis (5.92, 22 votes)
21. Dead Man Walking (5.9, 101 votes)
22. Stalker (5.89, 26 votes)
23. Magnolia (5.84, 112 votes)
24. La Promesse (5.76, 31 votes)
25. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (5.74, 32 votes)
26. Tender Mercies (5.71, 64 votes)
27. A Man for All Seasons (5.65, 81 votes)
28. Wings of Desire (5.62, 76 votes)
29. Day of Wrath (5.61, 27 votes)
30. Yi Yi: A One and a Two (5.58, 37 votes)
31. The Hiding Place (5.56, 50 votes)
32. Wild Strawberries (5.55, 49 votes)
33. Rosetta (5.55, 29 votes)
34. After Life (5.55, 19 votes)
35. The Sacrifice (5.51, 38 votes)
36. To End All Wars (5.5, 39 votes)
37. Chariots of Fire (5.49, 114 votes)
38. Shadowlands (5.48, 107 votes)
39. The Big Kahuna (5.45, 59 votes)
40. Not of This World (5.45, 14 votes)
41. Schindler's List (5.44, 142 votes)
42. Millions (5.43, 74 votes)
43. The Straight Story (5.42, 72 votes)
44. A Taste of Cherry (5.39, 20 votes)
45. The Passion Of The Christ (5.38, 126 votes)
46. Becket (5.37, 42 votes)
47. Wit (5.34, 37 votes)
    Most (5.29, 11 votes)
48. Open City (5.29, 37 votes)
49. Nazarin (5.28, 12 votes)
50. Secrets & Lies (5.28, 55 votes)
51. Romero (5.28, 25 votes)
52. Places in the Heart (5.26, 44 votes)
53. It's A Wonderful Life (5.23, 143 votes)
54. Ponette (5.22, 30 votes)
55. Les Miserables (5.21, 80 votes)
56. Luther (5.2, 58 votes)
57. Tokyo Story (5.2, 35 votes)
58. Hell House (5.2, 36 votes)
59. Breaking The Waves (5.18, 55 votes)
60. Crimes And Misdemeanors (5.17, 82 votes)
61. To Kill a Mockingbird (5.17, 109 votes)
62. The Mirror (5.17, 31 votes)
63. The Last Temptation Of Christ (5.16, 87 votes)
64. The Gospel of John (5.16, 39 votes)
65. Hotel Rwanda (5.14, 97 votes)
66. Fearless (5.14, 58 votes)
67. Solaris (5.14, 59 votes)
68. The Night Of The Hunter (5.13, 58 votes)
69. Cries and Whispers (5.11, 34 votes)
70. Stromboli (5.1, 12 votes)
71. Stevie (5.1, 32 votes)
72. Dogville (5.1, 67 votes)
73. My Night at Maud's (5.1, 25 votes)
74. Black Robe (5.09, 38 votes)
75. Close-Up (5.07, 18 votes)
76. The Apu Trilogy (5.05, 21 votes)
77. Werckmeister Harmonies (5.04, 14 votes)
78. Waking Life (5.04, 63 votes)
79. Koyaanisqatsi (5.02, 49 votes)
80. Peter and Paul (5.02, 15 votes)
81. 13 Conversations About One Thing (5, 50 votes)
82. The Sweet Hereafter (4.99, 45 votes)
83. Dersu Uzala (4.97, 25 votes)
84. Trial of Joan of Arc (4.96, 20 votes)
85. Summer (4.96, 10 votes)
86. Fiddler on the Roof (4.95, 93 votes)
87. The Bicycle Thief (4.92, 56 votes)
88. The Year Of Living Dangerously (4.91, 57 votes)
89. Money (4.9, 16 votes)
90. The Elephant Man (4.9, 99 votes)
91. Faust (4.9, 24 votes)
92. Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (4.9, 9 votes)
93. A Moment of Innocence (4.89, 9 votes)
94. Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring (4.88, 42 votes)
95. Sansho the Bailiff (4.88, 11 votes)
96. Lilies of the Field (4.87, 30 votes)
97. The Wind Will Carry Us (4.87, 28 votes)
98. The Addiction (4.86, 24 votes)
99. The Song of Bernadette (4.85, 19 votes)
100. Tales of Ugetsu (4.85, 20 votes)

I'll add the NetFlix, IMDb, and other links soon, including the artsandfaith.com/t100 links, etc.

A quick reminder: This list is Copyright 2006, Arts & Faith, All Rights Reserved ... do not post the whole list on your blog or in an article without permission.

FWIW, note that the "cut off" lowest score in the Top100 was 4.85.

Here are the 12 films that have never graced the list before:

• After Life (5.55, 19 votes)
  Most (5.29, 11 votes)
• Places in the Heart (5.26, 44 votes)
• Stromboli (5.1, 12 votes)
• Black Robe (5.09, 38 votes)
• Koyaanisqatsi (5.02, 49 votes)
• Summer (4.96, 10 votes)
• Fiddler on the Roof (4.95, 93 votes)
• Money (4.9, 16 votes)
• Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (4.9, 9 votes)
• A Moment of Innocence (4.89, 9 votes)
• The Song of Bernadette (4.85, 19 votes)

Here are the seven films from the 2004 list returning to the 2006 list after slipping off the list in 2005:

• Secrets & Lies (5.28, 55 votes)
• Hell House (5.2, 36 votes)
• Crimes And Misdemeanors (5.17, 82 votes)
• Fearless (5.14, 58 votes)
• Waking Life (5.04, 63 votes)
• The Sweet Hereafter (4.99, 45 votes)
• The Year Of Living Dangerously (4.91, 57 votes)

...and those from 2004 that remain off the list:

• Days of Heaven (4.82, 40 votes)
• The Man Without A Past (4.82, 35 votes)
• The Truman Show (4.8, 142 votes)
• Blade Runner (4.71, 129 votes)
• La Dolce Vita (4.53, 50 votes)
• On The Waterfront (4.52, 90 votes)
• Witness (4.52, 103 votes)
• The Prince Of Egypt (4.5, 111 votes)
• Vanya on 42nd Street (4.47, 28 votes)
• Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys (4.46, 28 votes)
• Life of Brian (4.35, 112 votes)
• Groundhog Day (4.34, 146 votes)
• Changing Lanes (4.33, 70 votes)
• Grand Canyon (4.27, 57 votes)
• Signs (4.17, 134 votes)
• The Matrix (4.14, 154 votes)
• Star Wars trilogy (4.12, 158 votes)
• Henry V (4.08, 76 votes)
• Fight Club (4.07, 123 votes)
• Bad Lieutenant (4, 35 votes)
• Punch-Drunk Love (3.97, 93 votes)
• American Beauty (3.88, 126 votes)
• The Last Days of Disco (3.86, 34 votes)
• Dogma (3.82, 106 votes)
• The Sixth Sense (3.82, 146 votes)

Here are the films from the 2005 list that did NOT make the 2006 list:

• Tales of Ugetsu (4.85, 20 votes)
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy (4.84, 158 votes)
• Nostalghia (4.83, 21 votes)
• Pickpocket (4.81, 32 votes)
• The Virgin Spring (4.8, 25 votes)
• The Silence (4.74, 31 votes)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (4.73, 122 votes)
• The Shawshank Redemption (4.72, 143 votes)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (4.68, 122 votes)
• Late Spring (4.65, 16 votes)
• Amadeus (4.62, 124 votes)
• Rashomon (4.6, 64 votes)
• Unforgiven (4.58, 105 votes)
• The Trip to Bountiful (4.56, 29 votes)
• The Believer (4.5, 25 votes)
• Life is Beautiful (4.5, 122 votes)
• Angels in America (4.48, 40 votes)
• An Autumn Afternoon (3.57, 10 votes)

: 94. A Moment of Innocence (4.89, 9 votes)

Yes. Yes. Oh happy yes. Some of the good in this new list I had some reasonable hope for, but I was not at all expecting The Bread and the Vase/A Moment of Innocence to make the list. I would like to hug my other eight voters.

All in all, there's seven new/returning from '04 films that I'm very happy to see, and there's no film that fell off the list that makes me particularly sad. Good job, voters -- a stronger list than list year, I really and truly think.

Dale, temporary steroid insomniac

This is a great list, excepting To End All Wars, and The Year of Living Dangerously. I haven't the slightest idea why this is a "spiritually significant" film compared to other choices from Weir's filmography.

The significant loss from last year seems to be 2001, perhaps its evolutionary connotations rub people the wrong way. It is very nice to have The Sweet Hereafter back.

Happy well-deserved vacationing, Alan! I'm pretty happy with this list. Some not-surprising choices, some possibly controversial--a good thing, IMHO.

Most of the new additions and the returning films seem like appropriate choices. As for those that slipped away...somehow I suspect they won't be gone forever.

Guess I'd better put Andrei Rublev back in my Netflix queue and finish watching it this time

Two quick thoughts:

Rashomon fell off?! We must remedy that nexy year.

And now I have no excuse to put off seeing Koyaanisqatsi any more.

Great stuff, Alan! Thanks for all your work on this.

Of the 145 films that have made an appearance on the A&F 100...
60 films have been on all three lists.
35 films have been on two of the three lists.
50 films have been on only one list.

Of the films which had been on both the 2004 and 2005 lists 7 dropped off in 2006;
2001: A Space Odyssey
Amadeus
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Life Is Beautiful
Lord Of The Rings
The Shawshank Redemption
Unforgiven

Directors with 5 films on the 2006 list;
Bresson
Tarkovsky

Directors with 3 films on the 2006 list;
Bergman
Dardenne
Dreyer
Kiarostami
Rosselini

Directors with 2 films on the 2006 list;
Kieslowski
Kurosawa
Murnau
Rohmer
von Trier
Weir

Non-directing writers with 2 films on the 2006 list;
Foote

I apologize for the confusion...people were posting replies that were invisible to others, due to a configuration problem that wasn't corrected. It's been corrected now, so let the discussion begin!

And this thread is now open to all registered A&F users, but not the general public.

Additions I'm happy to see:

• AfterLife
• Places in the Heart (the one I really wanted included)
• Fiddler on the Roof (not sure how we ever justified it's absence).

It's nice to have Peter Weir back, even though the films here may not be my choice of his films to include.

I'll miss some that are going off, but it's nothing that challenges the integrity of the list.

I'm sure this isn't the place to dig into this question, and I don't want to open (or find) a designated thread to do it up proper at the minute, but I will say this is the Weir film that affects me, personally, the most, and in ways that I would call spiritual. I suppose if my focus were on the love story (or the synth music) I might see it differently - that aspect doesn't seem particularly strong - but because my fascination is with Billy Kwan, and his relationships with the other two characters, I find most all of its central themes to be strongly connected with faith.

(Oh, what the heck. I kept writing, ended up with a paragraph or so, might as well cut it from here and paste it into an appropriate thread. The film is worth it.)

The list looks pretty good from here. Glad to see Hell House back, as well as Fearless. Though for my money when talking about Weir, The Mosquito Coast or Picnic at Hanging Rock should come in ahead of The Year of Living Dangerously.

I especially miss Pickpocket and The Virgin Spring.

Of the new additions I haven't seen, I am most looking forward to After Life, A Moment of Innocence, Stromboli, and Summer.

I'm not sure I've heard of Most before. Is that the one that was Oscar nominated for best short film a few years ago?

Because you see them as better films, or because they have a stronger claim on "spiritual significance"?


Yes indeed.

Mostly because I think that on the whole, they are better films than YOLD (which, btw, I happen to like a good deal, in spite of the occasional synthesizer breaking into the action). Where YOLD makes an occasional misstep, I feel that in those other two, Weir largely avoids such problems.

Most is a short? I missed that. In that case, it's an error and will be off the list. Films on the list should be 40 minutes (IIRC) or longer--whatever the Oscars guidelines are. I'm out of town, but will look into that on Wednesday.

I don't recall what #101 was (I'm away from my computer until late Tuesday), but looks like it might make the list with everything else after Most moving up one. I'll double-check all the new entries to make sure that they all meet the eligibility requirements.

(This is why I publish the list privately before releasing it to the general public!)

Yes, Most is a short. Nicely crafted, with enough characters for a feature-length film, but definitely a short.

I use the same standard for a "short" used by the Academy.

There is no minimum number of votes...I'm very strict about that. O.K. There is: one vote. There *is* a specific sliding penalty scale based on the number of votes. It's not at all flexible.

<<responding to a #$&@*&$ post deleted by kenmorefield>>

"Progressive" works for me, both in the sense of the evolution of scoring low-response entries and in the sense of the tiered penalties.

But the rules are fast and rigid. If a film had x votes then it will always and consistently be scored in the same way. I think this year's system is more fair than last year's, and stands a good chance of being applied next year without revision.

"Flexible" isn't completely off-base in that the system doesn't absolutely bar low-response entries. But it's not flexible in the "lax" sense.

That's true, but I can understand the ruling for shorts. Even the best shorts every year are seen by a very few, and then are rendered hardly accessible to the average film watcher (unless they are interested in tracking down which annual DVD collection of shorts it may have popped up on and then trying to actually find this DVD through Netflix or something of that nature).

I would not at all be opposed to creating a smaller list of short films that fall out of the purview of the larger set. This could be quite helpful to someone wishing to broaden their film horizons even further. And, of course, would be fun.

I've never heard of the 3rd most spiritually significant film. Does that mean I'm a bad critic or a bad Christian?

I think it just means you don't watch enough TV around the Christmas holidays.

or Easter

FWIW, I reviewed it a while back on my blog, and did a scene guide shortly after.

Matt

Agreed...I am planning to publish a list of the nominated short films since, in the past, I have excluded them from the voting. Perhaps next year I might encourage shorts to be nominated, and create an optional section of the survey that, if interested, would allow participants to rate the short films.

That is a good idea. Perhaps we could start a thread concerning possible nominations so that people can have a year to bone up on classic short films before actually having to vote on them.

my review of the justly celebrated #3 film

one that brings nice diversity to the list. English language, family film, animation. and one of the more critically literate and responsible (yet reverent and devout) treatments of the Gospel text, AFAIK.

Matt, I read your review back when you first posted it. Nice piece! (Did the film really have a theatrical release in the UK? Cool!)

Thanks!

Yeah it did, and it even showed in our local. Sadly only at 6pm so the theatre was quite empty. It worked out well actually cos at the time a mate of mine and I went to the cinema most weeks, so it was one of those natural opportunities to watch a film about Jesus with someone who wouldn't claim to follow him, and to be able to talk about it without it feeling like they were thinking they were getting the hard sell (which they weren't).

Matt (veering slightly off topic)

Or that you haven't been paying attention. This is the third year The Miracle Maker has been in the Top 100, last year at #23.

You know... I like The Miracle Maker. The puppets are extraordinary, and the voice casting is well done. It treats the gospel with tenderness and choreographs some deeply moving moments.

But the hand-drawn animation sections really look like somebody stepped in to fill the gaps in order to meet a deadline. They're so jarringly incongruous with the detail and art of the rest of it that it really looks like a patch-up job.

The film strikes me as an impressive Sunday school feature. But as a work of art, is it really deserving of placing in the top three spiritually significant films ever made? I mean... is it a more astonishing, provocative, visionary work than The Decalogue, Babette's Feast, Au Hasard Balthazar, and Andrei Rublev? Really?

I tend to sympathize with Doug C. when he says "I like lists but I don't like ranking" (paraphrase).

Sure, #3 might seem a bit high, but I'm not surprised it was #23 last year, and I expect it to make the next list too (does it have to be next year?!). I for one voted that it "definitely belongs on the list," and apparently the feeling was widely shared. It's a "small miracle," perhaps, as I wrote in my review, but a miracle nonetheless.

The hand-drawn sections, I grant you, are nothing particularly special visually, though I think the conceit of using them to portray bits that in some way fall outside the straightforward narrative of the main story (dreams, memories, visions) works well.

Still and all, I think the film as a whole belongs on a shortlist of the best sacred art ever. I am not kidding. I wouldn't put it right under the Sistine Chapel ceiling and Rublev's Trinity and Handel's Messiah (to again invoke a triad of touchstones I used recently in another thread), but certainly when it comes to spiritual cinema it's going to make my top 100 every time.

As a narrative distillation and contextualization of essential gospel stories, it's right up there (on a family-oriented level, yes, but still) with The Man Born to Be King. The puppets, for me, give the film a kind of (literally) iconic transcendence not matched in any live-action or cel animation Jesus film. The film works for me on a quasi-ritual, quasi-liturgical level, and not many Jesus films do that for me.

And as Matt points out, it's virtually the only cinematic gospel account that does any kind of justice to the resurrection accounts. For that alone it's indispensable.

I'm glad to see Ordet take the top spot. I'm also happy Koyaanisqatsi made the list. I love that movie. A bit dissapointed 2001 and Amadeus were dropped, but overall I think this might be be the best list yet. I'll try to vote next time and hopefully in the mean time particpate in the forums. I like what you guys are doing here.

I am still unclear as to how ranking relates to votes, but I wouldn't be surprised if most people gave this a "definitely" straight away.



This unassuming set of production values also fits the material well. I don't mean that facetiously at all. Some of those scenes almost come across as "outsider art," and feel as genuine as a flannelgraph Sunday school lesson. For me, this is still the most moving Jesus film on repeated viewings.



Great points all around. It decontextualizes the story of Jesus from the peripheral issues of representation that plague film. You can't really question it the same way one can endlessly interrogate TPoTC on a variety of moral, aesthetic, or theological levels. The film is wise as a serpent, but harmless as a dove. And I certainly hope that Matt's important point will be invalidated sometime in the years to come.

Weird. I don't even remember seeing Fiddler on the Roof on the nominations list. I hope I voted for it. I loved The Miracle Maker, but I must say I'm a bit disappointed to see it third on the list when Donnie Darko and 2001 didn't make the list at all.

A bit off topic: is there a thread for films that didn't make the nominations that you wished did?

If I were a rich man ...

Link to the thread on The Miracle Maker -- which I first heard about when it was still in production, way back in January 1998 (via Studio Briefing)!

The quantity of votes doesn't have anything to do with a film's final score (and thus, its ranking), unless it received very few votes, in which case there's a sliding penalty depending on the percentage of survey participants voting for a film.

But that's sort of the point. The 2D less-realistic looking animation is always used to depict either a story being recounted, or a parable, or something that is happening primarily on the supernatural plane. In other words, from a historical/subjective experiential point of view those stories / events are a bit more sketchy, so the animation is, well, more sketchy. I think it's meant to be jarring and incongruous, it simultaneously jolts you from an objective Jesus-of-history type presentation to a subjective and fundamentally meaningful Jesus-of-faith position.

I'd actually agree that it's rating at #3 is a little high, I find some of the animation a bit juddery, and some of the scenes with Tamar a very little bit cheesy, but then perhaps that says as much about how you and I like our art.

In any case, next year, as with Rosetta this year, people will judge it a little bit more critically I suspect.

Matt

This is starting to take over the thread, if necessary we could move this over to the proper one. But that is a fairly hefty theological movement. In your study of the film, have you uncovered any intentionality in this respect from the makers of the film?

I am disappointed that The Exorcist still didn't make the list, but I anticipated this given that most Christians have an aversion to (or completely fail to understand) horror movies. The film should matter more to Christians.

Scrooge also deserved to be included.

The list is a tad too safe and conservative for my taste and, sadly, includes no genuine surprises. I would once again challenge those who voted for them to explain the spiritual significance of The Sweet Hereafter, Rosetta, and The Year of Living Dangerously. Dogville also looks like a serious mistake to me.

I cheer the lack of science fiction! lol.

Is "Money" L'Argent?

Like Pathétique, I am extremely happy to see Ordet at number one. It could well be my most favourite film. I can't see myself reassessing Koyaanisqatsi any time soon though.

And irony of ironies, as soon as I start to think that I could have been seriously wrong about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and that it really is an important spiritual work, it drops out of the hundred lol.

The argument over Rosetta has raged, and I don't think we have ever finally hashed it out on the board. As far as I can tell, it claims spiritual significance by its admitted link to certain traditions of filmmaking and the ease with which the storyline comports with other significant works of Christian narrative. There is something very Flannery O'Connor about the emotional ironies of the story, its off-kilter sense of redemption, and its flickering glimpses of humanity at the end of its tether. And it is a great example of film as "social-justice," actually incarnating in public policy a specific justice that it seeks to espouse. The Sweet Hereafter is an excellent example of what Schrader was going on about in his book on transcendent style in film. For all the problems with that book, the basic point is formidable, and The Sweet Hereafter is an engaging meditation on mortality. I was once opposed to YoLD, but Ron is working on swinging me back around to his point of view.

I am with you though on Dogville. It is an excellent film, makes its points very rigorously in terms of form and dialogue, but I wouldn't think of it as "spiritual" in the Top 100 sense. That being said, if being on the list gets people to see it...



I can't wait for Panasonic to pop up on the list next year.



Yep.



It is close to being a perfect film, but I agree that it probably doesn't fit the list well.

Ron's lengthy analysis of the spiritual significance of LoLD . Worked for me.

I wondered if anyone would think I was saying what I think you think I'm saying. I tried to divert from it by using "Jesus fo Faith" rather than "Christ of Faith" but to no avail I guess.

What I am not saying is that MM is trying to polarise Jesus of HIstory/Christ of Faith in the way that the Quest for the historical Jesus generally has. The film is an Evangelical collaboration and so it's unlikely that we would find such an approach within it.

What I mean is that the film tries to emphasise those bits that are subjective (in the sense of more emotionally real rather than the sense of less historically verifiable). Partly this is just because things are a bit more sketchy and subjective. As Jesus told the various parables each of his listeners would imagine it slightly differently. As Mary is exorcised (and similarly to Exorcism of Emily Rose there are twolevels of reality natual and supernatural, which whilst they are linked and cannot be divorced from oneanother, seem somewhat out fo harmoy at this point.

But also I think the techniques employed jerk the viewer out of watching it as just a detatched historical drama, and into something that affects/effects* people's lives, and I guess the filmakers' desire is that it affect/effects* the life of each actual viewer.

Matt

PS I agree we should probably split out the MM top 100 discussion from the main top 100 thread.

*Even after people telling me the difference between these and trying to research it on the internet I neither understand, nor can remember which of these to use when. the overall case is simpler, but there are a few complicating exceptions taht I can never get my head around (taking the thread even further off topic)

I'm not quite sure I make of the "safe and conservative" critique. Are you saying that you'd like something that others think is of value, but that offends you personally to be on the list prefer (Life of Brian springs to mind ), or do you mean you'd like something that you think is OK but that would offend others? OR does your point have nothing to do with offensiveness, and have a lot to do with being less commerical/more artistic/more obscure?

Matt

MLeary wrote:
: This is starting to take over the thread, if necessary we could move this over to the proper one. But
: that is a fairly hefty theological movement. In your study of the film, have you uncovered any
: intentionality in this respect from the makers of the film?

I can't speak for Matt, but FWIW, AFAIK, I was the first person on this board to notice and articulate some of the thematic distinctions between the stop-motion animation and the hand-drawn animation, in the 'jesus point-of-view shots' thread.

Film #100 is now: Tales of Ugetsu

The next three in line, if there are any additional eliminations, are Therese, The Lord of the Rings, and The Ten Commandments.

I want to reply to you, Matt, but I am pushed for time this morning, so if this post is a little clunky (even clunkier than usual I mean lol) please forgive me.

No, I certainly wasn't rooting for Life of Brian; you know my feelings about that film lol. Nor was I hoping for Derek Jarman's Sebastiane lol. I simply meant that the list was a little obvious, and I was really lamenting the lack of genuine surprises. So we get Rosetta but not Mouchette; Three Colours White (included because this board seems to regard trilogies as one film) but not No End; Crimes and Misdemeanors but not O Brother, Where Art Thou? etc.

I was also lamenting the lack of genre films, which, in truth, I really have no business doing given some of the posts I have made in this forum over the past year.

My problem is that at 44 years old I have seen an awful lot of films, but I saw the bulk of them BEFORE I became a Christian, and I can't now go back and re-evaluate everything in light of my new worldview (film is no longer a priority for me in any case); so I need help, and this Arts and Faith regularly provides. In short, this forum saves me time and money. Moreover, the people who post here have turned me on to certain films that I wouldn't have ordinarily bothered with, and they have provoked me to go back and reassess others (e.g. Magnolia, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Son, etc.); but this new list didn't do much of that. I still think it is a good list though.

To return briefly to the point about genre films, I have a vague notion that a lot of westerns deal explicitly with Christian themes, but that wasn't reflected by the 100 (maybe westerns don't, but I was kind of hoping lol). Likewise horror films. Watch The Exorcist and either The Sweet Hereafter or Rosetta back to back, and you tell me which is asking the more serious spiritual questions; which one should matter more to a Christian...

I'm in totaly agreement with you on this. I think The Exorcist belongs on the list (esp. the new cut with the dialogue on the stairs). AND Westerns! East of Eden (not in the truest sense a genre "Western"), but what about High Noon, The Searchers, and our token Western of past lists, Unforgiven? I don't agree with your vague notion, FWTW, as I've been largely frustrated in my search to find many explicitly Christian themes in Westerns.

Pale Rider is another western that is trotted out in discussion about Westerns with Christian Themes. I do remember being underwhelmed by those themes when I watched it though. Same with Shane.

IM - thanks for your clarification - useful background on where you're coming from. But regarding your examples (Exorcist aside), is it really a question of conservatism, or just personal taste? I've not seen some of the films you cite so I'm asking that question without implying an answer, just curious.

Matt

They're basically the same film, although Pale Rider is more detirmined to connect with the Christ of Revelation.

...while Shane is the better film. Still, yeah, thematically they're pretty much the same. From my review of Silverado:

Silverado was actually my introduction to Westerns. After seeing it, I was eager for another one, so when Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider came out later that year, I rushed to the theater. To my disappointment, Pale Rider was no Silverado. (Afterwards I learned that Pale Rider wasn't trying to be Silverado. It was trying to be Shane.)

Like Matt, I don't find either particularly fraught with Christian Themes.

How about High Noon? (though I haven't seen it in twenty years, so I'm on shaky ground here).



Tough to say, Matt, and I really don't want to sound like I'm griping as the list looks pretty sensible in the main. It's a useful thing to have, and I am grateful for it.

The first Top 100 I saw when I first came here looked very odd (it included Star Wars, Life of Brian, Blade Runner, and such, and I challenged these selections at the time); but now we seem to have a list at the other end of the scale where art movies and seemingly worthy indies prevail - and I'm still complaining lol (I say "seem to" because there are a number of films included with which I am unfamiliar; sadly, many of these are currently impossible to see in the UK). I think I just wanted my horizons broadened further is all (though I do tend to think that people with generally conservative tastes dismiss horror films far too easily).

I've updated the "Christ figure" thread with a post on Pale Rider.