I'M NOT GONNA SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WORKING MY ASS OFF AND GETTING NOWHERE JUST BECAUSE I FOLLOWED RULES THAT I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH SETTING UP, OKAY? Our traditional AFI postmortem covers familiar turf, so bear with me if this sounds familiar.
But the AFI, yet again, has chosen to reify a film canon that is based on the lives and preferences of middle-aged men, and if you wanted to place high on this Top 100 list, you best not be starring a woman or a teenager.
Lord knows, it's not like I'm doing some kind of early 1990s/PC canon-wrecking exercise by introducing films that no one paid attention to the first time around and are only being introduced now for reasons of race/class/gender. But, seriously, yo? There are not a lot of inspiring heroines on that list, nor are there stories of relevance to young people.
One example to prove both points: Dirty Dancing, despite its grip on our generation, didn't make the list at all. Back to the Future, which had an inspirational-as-hell message about ingenuity and the ability to change one's life, did not make the list. Nor did Legally Blonde, to choose a pure comedy.
There's more, when I have a chance, but this is where I'm going with this one today.
No comments:
Post a Comment