Movie Madness - December 2009

I never said it was noble. I never said it would be easy. But I did it. I decided to try to watch 100 movies in 2009, and I exceeded my goal by watching 111.

Sure, it seems silly. Couldn’t I/shouldn’t I have set loftier goals? I could feed the hungry, build houses for the poor – whatever. I could have set a goal better for my health than for my cultural interests, like losing significant weight. But I didn’t. Instead, I watched movies.

It all started when I saw a list from the American Film Institute (AFI) that listed the top 100 movies of all time. There were many movies on the list that I had never seen (“Citizen Kane”) or had seen so long ago that I barely remembered seeing them, and I decided I should revisit them in my spare time (and when you retire you have lots of spare time). So in 2008 I watched “Chinatown” and “Mrs. Miniver,” among others, for the first time. This year (2009) I decided to watch more – to watch not just the AFI’s top 100, but any movie that struck my fancy. And my fancy was struck quite often, it seems.

My goal was simple: I vowed to see 100 movies in 2009, and I did. My first movie of the year was the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire,” which, though hardly a feel-good movie, nonetheless emerged as one of the best I saw all year. Movie #100 – “Precious” – was similar in that it showed people living in horrendous conditions, overcoming poverty and rejection to simply survive. I thought both movies were great, and I never want to see either of them again.

In between “Slumdog” and “Precious” (there’s a sequel for you), I rented movies from Blockbuster, downloaded them from iTunes, watched them on demand or pay-per-view, viewed DVDs borrowed from friends, recorded movies on my DVR, watched them on cable (especially Turner Classic Movies) and ventured to a movie theater, alone or with friends. The only way I didn’t watch movies was from Netflix. Ironically, I don’t subscribe.

I saw something old (“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”), something new (“500 Days of Summer”), something borrowed (from Blockbuster) and something blue (“My Blue Heaven,” a Steve Martin comedy, not some raunchy movie). I wanted to see classics I had never seen (”Bridge Over the River Kwai”) as well as classics I had seen but wanted to see again (“An Affair to Remember”). I didn’t watch any movie more than once (which meant passing up repeated showings of favorites like “Apollo 13” and “The Notebook”) and, while I did see some of my favorites (including my all-time favorite movie, “The Graduate”), I tried to expand my horizons, which worked to a degree. I watched light, frothy comedies (“Paul Blart, Mall Cop”), romances (“An Officer and a Gentleman”) and documentaries (“Man on a Wire”).

I saw movies about boys, teenagers and men (“About a Boy,” “American Teen,” “The Last Detail”). I watched movies about kids in a band (“The Leopards Take Manhattan” and “Ballou”), about the demise of Enron (“The Smartest Guys in the Room”), and about a type face (“Helvetica,” a movie with not a lot of memorable characters but of interest nonetheless).

As an aside, I must say that I have become a fan of documentaries, seeing nine this year alone. Whether it was “Schmatta, From Rags to Riches,” a documentary about the garment industry in New York City, or “Kick Like a Girl,” about a girls’ soccer team, documentaries always teach me something I didn’t know or manage to warm my heart. The documentaries I watched this year and in recent years have run from 30 minutes to two hours and I think of them as time very well spent. I urge you not to overlook the documentary as a form of learning and entertainment.

The year was full of movies I loved (“Julie and Julia,” with the incomparable Meryl Streep), movies I barely tolerated (a terrible semi-musical remake of “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” with Peter O’Toole) and movies I hated (“Live Free or Die Hard”). I watched as many as 13 movies in a month and as few as five. One day, I watched three movies, from drama to comedy to documentary, all without leaving the house or spending a dime (assuming you don’t count my cable TV bill).

I watched movies about teachers and preachers (“Conrack” and “Doubt”), wrestlers, queens, lawyers and phony lawyers (“The Verdict” and “Catch Me if You Can”). I saw 11 movies about sports (among them were “The Blind Side,” “Invincible” and one of my all-time favorites, “Rudy”), that focused on high school baseball and football, girls soccer, college football, professional football, boxing and Olympic ice hockey. I even watched one movie I had waited 40+ years to see again – “Good Morning Miss Dove” – only to have the DVR recording interrupted just as the handsome doctor was about to tell the sick woman whether she would live or die. I had seen this movie as a teenager, so I honestly don’t remember what actually happened, and I have to admit it wasn’t worth waiting 40 years to see again. However, now that the star, Jennifer Jones, has died, I figure a Jennifer Jones film retrospective on TCM is inevitable, so chances are I’ll finally know what happened. I’m guessing that the main character, like the actress who played her, didn’t survive.

In case you are wondering, I’d say my favorite movie of the year was “Gran Torino” with Clint Eastwood, which actually came out in 2008, followed by “Slumdog Millionaire.” I liked “Up in the Air,” the George Clooney movie that opened in December, but not as much as the critics who raved about it.

I know, I know, you’re thinking, “She has too much time on her hands,” and that might be true to you, but not to me. I worked for years without having time to do just what I wanted to do, so now, sandwiched in between committee meetings for the organizations I serve as a volunteer (lest you think I am completely self-centered), aqua aerobics, attending basketball games, photography outings with my camera, going to plays and museums and spending time with friends, I managed to accomplish my goal. Maybe I’ll save the world next year.

Or, maybe I’ll finally get to see “Citizen Kane.” It’s on my DVR as we speak. And if I start it now, maybe it can make the 2009 list…