Shhhhh! It's Time to Pick Your Bestavorite Silents!

[Moraldo Rubini]

I'm perplexed by "best" vs. "favorite" that some of you cite. I suppose I don't have a mind for that. I could never see a film as best anything, that wasn't a favorite! The difference just doesn't compute with me.

I admit it: some of my favorite movies are not the best...

[Dewey1960]

JohnM said:
"Not the best what? Isn't that just a matter of opinion? Or do you allow others to tell you what's good? That's what I don't get. Like I've said elsewhere, just because That's Entertainment told us MGM made the greatest musicals, doesn't mean it's true. That's just an opinion, not a fact. The only fact is what you like."

1,000% agree!! And this is becoming (for me) the most interesting aspect of this whole exercise: is there really the existence of a best example of an art form that, as much as any other, represents an entirely subjective realm? Personally, I'm with John: favorite is best and vice versa. It's a concept that seems to be at the root of almost any conversation about film. And as such, I think it's been unexpectedly one of the most fascinating (and valuable) threads to pop up on the board in a long time. Thanks for getting it going, Chris.

[cinemalover]

This is going even better than I'd hoped, thank you all for your participation.

"Best/Favorite" you decide exactly how you see fit. As I mentioned earlier, for me, if it's a Favorite that fits my definition of Best. What I really enjoy is seeing films that pop up on other lists that I kick myself for not including, but then realize that I would have to figure out which films would I throw out? The test of time is what works best for me, if I like a movie just as much 10 years later or 20 years later or 30 years later as I did when I enjoyed it for the first time than it's a favorite of mine. There are some films that are great upon first viewing, but much of the entertainment lays in allowing the surprises of the storyline to unfold for the first time as you're trying to anticipate what is going to happen. Many of those films are not nearly as powerful the second time around. I know by memory many of the lines and scenes in Casablanca but each revisit is just as enjoyable as the first, at least for me.

I am going to take the entries that we have so far and try to total them up, see which films have the most votes and how many total films we have submitted. This may take quite awhile but I'll post what I have once I tabulate the results. I'm calling in the polling experts from Florida to help compute the votes.

[Moraldo Rubini]

Not the best what? Isn't that just a matter of opinion? Or do you allow others to tell you what's good? That's what I don't get. Like I've said elsewhere, just because <b>That's Entertainment</b> told us MGM made the greatest musicals, doesn't mean it's true. That's just an opinion, not a fact. The only fact is what you like.

We can only choose for ourselves. So let me restate what I said earlier. I love many movies that I consider "bad". I dislike many movies that I consider "good". So I could definitely make a list of "great" movies that's separate from a list of my favorite movies.

[Jezebel38]

Chris - I thought the deadline you posted was November 30th? You only opened up this contest 36 hours ago - I think this is a little premature as there are people who do not visit here on a daily basis. We have not heard anything from these good folks, all of whom have posted within the last 3 weeks:
Klondike
Sue Sue
Mongo
Jondaris
Hollis
Pktrekgirl
Sandykaypax
Vecchiolarry
Markfp
Lzcutter
Moirafinne

[cinemalover]

Good evening Jezebel,
Yes, the deadline is November 30th, everyone has tons of time. And anyone that has submitted their choices has until the 30th to alter them. I am just going to tabulate the movies that are in there at the moment (all of which could change) to give people a feel for which movies are receiving multiple votes. A mere matter of curiousity. no more.

[Lzcutter]

Here's my 25 favorite films in some particular order after the top 5:

1 To Kill a Mockingbird
2 The Searchers
3 Grapes of Wrath
4 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
5 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
6 Stagecoach
7 Gone with the Wind
8 The Shawshank Redemption
9 Robin Hood (Doug, Sr)
10 Napoleon
11 Chinatown
12 The Godfather
13 The Godfather, Part 2
14 Night of the Hunter
15 The Adventures of Robin Hood
16 Red River
17 The Ox Bow Incident
18 JAWS
19 The Empire Strikes Back
20 LA Confidential
21 The Seven Samurai
22 Sunset Blvd
23 Double Indemnity
24 Casablanca
25 How Green Was My Valley

[cinemalover]

Lynn,
Outstanding choices. I'm glad you were able to get Robin Hood 1922 on your list, it got edged out on mine. And some more love for The Godfather, nice.

[Mr. Arkadin]

JohnM said:
"Not the best what? Isn't that just a matter of opinion? Or do you allow others to tell you what's good? That's what I don't get. Like I've said elsewhere, just because That's Entertainment told us MGM made the greatest musicals, doesn't mean it's true. That's just an opinion, not a fact. The only fact is what you like."

1,000% agree!! And this is becoming (for me) the most interesting aspect of this whole exercise: is there really the existence of a best example of an art form that, as much as any other, represents an entirely subjective realm? Personally, I'm with John: favorite is best and vice versa. It's a concept that seems to be at the root of almost any conversation about film. And as such, I think it's been unexpectedly one of the most fascinating (and valuable) threads to pop up on the board in a long time. Thanks for getting it going, Chris.

I have no problems with either of these statements. I just knew most people would look at what I chose and not understand my choices. If I like something--it's good. The thing I dislike about listing favorites is it's transitional (at least it is for me). If you asked me this question next week, you'd probably get a totally different list of films.

[cinemalover]

I've got some preliminary numbers just to give you an idea where we are at. I took everybody's entries (I only used the first 25 of JohnM's 100). These numbers mean nothing at this point, because they can all be changed, but they are interesting.

We have 297 different films submitted so far. Of those 297 films, 41 of them have at least 2 votes.
We have four films tied for the hypothetical lead at the moment with 7 votes each: Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, The Searchers and Citizen Kane. It looks like we rounded up the usual suspects in that group.
There are 3 films that currently have 5 votes: To Kill a Mockingbird, Singin' in the Rain and The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Brief Encounter has 4 votes.

Which means that there are 33 films that have 2 or 3 votes each.

Let's keep those lists comin'!

[feaito]

I'm perplexed by "best" vs. "favorite" that some of you cite. I suppose I don't have a mind for that. I could never see a film as best anything, that wasn't a favorite! The difference just doesn't compute with me.

You have a very good & interesting point there John. I had never thought it that way. I have always separated "mentally" my favorites or the films I like the most from films that objectively (if that's ever possible, because tastes and likings are always subjective ) are good or have been landmark.

For example, when I saw "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (I've talked about it previously) I literally detested the film and its characters, but I realized that the actors give excellent, noteworthy performances and that it's a very well done drama, etc. But I did not liked it all and had to turn it off. It's kind of difficult to explain, but I've always had that approach to films.

In my university days I once made a poll with many questions and two of them were: Which is your all time favorite film (or the film you have enjoyed the most)? and Which do you think is the all time best film? and almost 100% of the people interviewed came with different answers.

Thanks Chris for creating this super-interesting thread and John, you made me re-think my whole approach towards film

[jdb1]

I might add -- looking at all these lists, I see that there are many other movies that I didn't list myself, but that I like very much. However, I tried to consider which of the ones I really like I would give up an opportunity to watch in favor of others. I think the ones I listed (some of which I haven't seen in years) are those movies I would never tire of watching.

[klondike]

Great idea for a thread, this, Chris; only problem is, for me, paring down to an exact 25 begs for too much roughhouse elbowing and/or distraught pleading from contenders . . . . so, instead, I'll break it down like this:

Best, according to my Brain: Fountainhead
Best, according to my Heart (nostalgically): Christmas in Connecticut
Best, according to my Heart (romantically): I Know Where I'm Going
Best, according to my Guts: tie - The 13th Warrior / The Magnificent Seven (Likely because, adjusting for the millennial difference in time period, it's practically the same exact plot!)