Yahoo's '100 Movies to See' list proves they can't count or make up their minds

Posted Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 12:40 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Yahoo! Movies recently posted their compendium of all-time great movies. They call it "100 Movies to See Before You Die." Too bad there are actually 104 films included.

They list the Lord of the Rings trilogy as one entry. Not only can't they count, but they also can't make up their minds. Their original press release included The Wild Bunch and Sullivan's Travels. As the list currently on the site shows, someone replaced them with Bringing Up Baby and The Lady Eve. That makes the total 104.

Oh well, I guess anyone can make a mistake. The list itself is a pretty good one. Here's what Yahoo! Movies exec producer Sean Phillips said of the collection:

Movies are transformative experiences and these are certainly the most transformative movies. Our hope is that Yahoo! users will post this list on their refrigerators and cross the titles off one by one. These films will entertain, inform and move you, but you'll need to see them before it's too late!

Like other film lists, there are numerous films suspiciously absent. Many prominent movie bloggers have already leveled criticism at the list. FirstShowing.net's Alex Billington said, "I think there are a few that I might argue aren't that important anymore (like Bringing Up Baby or Double Indemnity or Wild Strawberries maybe?)." Peter Sciretta of /Film wrote, "Fanboys might be angered that The Dark Knight doesn’t make the list, but I’m more angry that Star Wars is listed but not The Empire Strikes Back. Yet they included all three Lord of the Rings films as one entry."

The selections date from 1922's Nosferatu to 2001's In the Mood for Love and the aforementioned Rings trilogy. Below is the entire list -- all 104. You can click over to Yahoo! For an explanation of why you should see certain ones on the list.

• 8 1/2
• 12 Angry Men
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• The 400 Blows
• A Hard Day's Night
• The African Queen
• Alien
• All About Eve
• Annie Hall
• Apocalypse Now
• The Battle of Algiers
• The Bicycle Thief
• Blade Runner
• Blazing Saddles
• Blow-Up
• Blue Velvet
• Bonnie and Clyde
• Breathless
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Bringing Up Baby (????)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Casablanca
• Chinatown
• Citizen Kane
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Die Hard
• Do the Right Thing
• Double Indemnity
• Dr. Strangelove
• Duck Soup
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Enter the Dragon
• The Exorcist
• Fast Times At Ridgemont High
• The French Connection
• The Godfather, Part II
• The Godfather
• Goldfinger
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• Goodfellas
• The Graduate
• Grand Illusion
• Groundhog Day
• In the Mood For Love
• It Happened One Night
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Jaws
• King Kong
• The Lady Eve (????)
• Lawrence of Arabia
• The Lord of the Rings
• M
• M*A*S*H
• The Maltese Falcon
• The Matrix
• Modern Times
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• National Lampoon's Animal House
• Network
• Nosferatu
• On the Waterfront
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Paths of Glory
• Princess Mononoke
• Psycho
• Pulp Fiction
• Raging Bull
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Raise the Red Lantern
• Rashomon
• Rear Window
• Rebel Without a Cause
• Rocky
• Roman Holiday
• Saving Private Ryan
• Schindler's List
• The Searchers
• Seven Samurai
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Singin' in the Rain
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Some Like It Hot
• The Sound of Music
• Star Wars
• Sullivan's Travels (????)
• Sunset Boulevard
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• The Third Man
• This is Spinal Tap
• Titanic
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Toy Story
• The Usual Suspects
• Vertigo
• When Harry Met Sally...
• The Wild Bunch (????)
• Wild Strawberries
• Wings of Desire
• The Wizard of Oz
• Women On the Verge of Nervous Breakdown
• The World of Apu

Despite the oddity of 104 entries, I'm seriously contemplating Yahoo's challenge. There are many films on this list that I ashamedly have not watched and others that I saw long before I really appreciated movies. Is anyone else feeling the need for a home-run film school? Is there anyone out there that has actually seen all of these? Let us know.