I did a podcast with Screen Geeks yesterday. The resident comedian on the show, Ethan a guy who has brilliant insight into films AND is from Canada mentioned something that I thought was great. He called it, "His List of Shame."
The idea is this: It's the list of his movies that he's ashamed to have never seen. The reason is if you're a movie Geek then there are movies that you just have to have seen like 2001, Easy Rider, and Treasure of Sierra Madre. But everyone has their list of shame. Everyone has movies that came out and you somehow missed and everybody talks about but you just smile knowingly because you don't want to admit that you haven't seen it.
For movies here is my top 3:
1) Schindler's List
I've picked this up at the Blockbuster, had it on my netflix que, and think about renting it all the time. But I alway chicken out because it just seems to depressing.
2) Blue Velvet
How I claim to be in the know with David Lynch but still haven't seen this movie is something I should be ashamed of.
3) Singin' In The Rain
This is number 5 in the AFI all time list. All I know of this movie is from scenes in A Clockwork Orange.
And because I write novels, here are my top three on my list of shame:
1) Ulysses
This is a masterpiece. And James Joyce is one of the most important writers who have ever lived. (At least for native English speakers like myself). But I'm not gonna lie this book intimidates me.
2) Atlas Shrugged
I don't even really know what this book is about. I don't know how Atlas is or why he shrugged. I do know that I love 1984 and a Brave New World so it seems like I should read this book.
3) Twilight and (5 and 1/2) of the Harry Potter series.
Not because these are literary classics necessarily, but just because they are on the cutting edge of pop culture. I write fiction and everybody talks about these books. So I should have read them by now. Shameful.
What's on your list?
6 comments:
On the road almost made this list but I've read a third of it, which 1) Does that count and 2) Isn't that worse that I read that far and didn't finish?
I can't believe that I managed to graduate college with an English degree and have never read 1984. I don't even tell people that normally because the shame runs so deep. Somehow, knowing everything there is to know about Harry Potter and Twilight increases that shame.
Also, I was at a BBQ this weekend and admitted that I have never seen The Goonies. I almost gave everyone in the room heart attacks upon said confession.
books-
1- to kill a mockingbird
2- catcher in the rye
3- 1984
movies-
1- rear window
2- gone w/ the wind
3- the goonies...(yes, me too)
rob- don't worry, twilight...what little i watched of it....boring, yawn, stretch....i needed a shower instead.
Doesn't count, Rob. Everyone starts books, but there is something special and satisfying about reading that last sentence and closing the back cover.
Films: 1) Schindler's List, 2) Gone With the Wind, 3) Stand By Me
Books: 1) War and Peace (read a third) 2) The Da Vinci Code (saw the movie), 3) Lord of the Rings (all of them)
But it is the zenith, the epitome, the pinnacle of shameful to have never seen the Goonies!!!!!
I am doing an entire blog on Goonies. How has a whole generation missed this movie?
1. You must read Atlas Shrugged so you can legitimately ask "Who is John Galt?" and to understand the roots of many of today's bastardized political philosophies.
2. "Blue Velvet" is a must. Really. Screw the other movies you think you should see, this one transcends previous priorities.
3. Twilight is for pubescent girls who want to love bad boys. Don't waste your time on it. There, I said it.
4. Goonies and Lost Boys rank high on the list of all time best movies, ever. I consider them to have the same type of appeal, don't you?
5. The purpose of Wikipedia is to provide us all with synopsis of what someone else deems infinitely important to know. The internet exists for us to comprehend, in less than 140 characters, the true nature of the universe and all knowledge required to function within it.
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