Happy Anniversary

Exactly one year ago today, I inaugurated Nothing is Written as my long-belated foray into film blogging. 365 stressful days and 172 posts later, we're still going pretty strong, and I have a small regular readership, which I suppose is something.

Here are some random things about myself and this blog I'll share with you, for the sake of this anniversary. There's probably no way I can avoid sounding like a self-indulgent, narcissistic doucehbag here, but I think I've earned it for this one post.

Groggy Dundee's Favorites:

Top 25 Films:

1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962, David Lean)
2. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, Sergio Leone)
3. The Godfather, Part II (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
4. The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
5. The Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah)
6. A Passage to India (1984, David Lean)
7. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)
8. The Ruling Class (1972, Paul Medak)
9. His Girl Friday (1941, Howard Hawks)
10. A Man for All Seasons (1966, Fred Zinnemann)
11. The Wind and the Lion (1975, John Milius)
12. The Nun’s Story (1959, Fred Zinnemann)
13. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
14. Sunset Blvd. (1950, Billy Wilder)
15. Shadow of a Doubt (1944, Alfred Hitchcock)
16. Full Metal Jacket (1987, Stanley Kubrick)
17. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, John Ford)
18. Taxi Driver (1977, Martin Scorsese)
19. Stagecoach (1939, John Ford)
20. The Train (1964, John Frankenheimer)
21. Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg)
22. How to Steal a Million (1966, William Wyler)
23. The Day of the Jackal (1973, Fred Zinnemann)
24. The Guns of Navarone (1961, J. Lee Thompson)
25. Munich (2005, Steven Spielberg)

Top 10 Actors: (and performance)

Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia)
Alec Guinness (The Bridge on the River Kwai)
Paul Scofield (A Man for All Seasons)
Geoffrey Rush (Elizabeth)
Henry Fonda (Once Upon a Time in the West)
John Wayne (The Searchers)
Strother Martin (Cool Hand Luke)
Trevor Howard (Ryan's Daughter)
Eli Wallach (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)
James Coburn (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid)

Top 10 Actresses:

Audrey Hepburn (The Nun's Story)
Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth)
Claudia Cardinale (Once Upon a Time in the West)
Amy Adams (Doubt)
Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter)
Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient)
Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity)
Kay Walsh (Oliver Twist)
Peggy Ashcroft (A Passage to India)
Natalie Portman (The Other Boleyn Girl)

Top 10 Directors:

David Lean
Sergio Leone
Alfred Hitchcock
Fred Zinnemann
Martin Scorsese
Francis Ford Coppola
John Ford
Sam Peckinpah
Steven Spielberg
Orson Welles

Top 5 Screenwriters:

Aaron Sorkin
Robert Bolt
John Milius
Billy Wilder
Oliver Stone

Top 5 Composers:

Ennio Morricone
Maurice Jarre
Jerry Goldsmith
John Barry
Alex North

Top 10 Scenes in Cinema History:

Lawrence of Arabia - Charge on Aqaba

The Wind and the Lion - plotting the Bashaw's downfall

Zulu - Men of Harlech

A Man for All Seasons - Tower of London inquiry

Once Upon a Time in the West - Final duel

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - The Ecstasy of Gold

The Godfather - Baptism sequence

Doctor Zhivago - World War I/Start of Revolution

Strangers on a Train - Murder scene

The Ruling Class - Intro to the Earl of Gurney

Groggy's Best Articles (without any real order):

(I'd poll my readership on this issue, but I fear six people wouldn't be much of a sample)

To Love on My Own Terms: This review of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane is one of the few reviews that I'm genuinely proud of. I was very much intimidated at the prospect of reviewing a review over which so much ink has been spilled, so much said, but I think the end result was pretty good.

W. - Most of my negative reviews tend to take the form of mean-spirited, angry rants which are fun to write and maybe to read, but aren't exactly Pulitzer material. This review, though, is a fairly thoughtful and well thought-out commentary of a movie that I absolutely despised - Oliver Stone's W. Maybe it's me but the review seems distinctly alien from my usual writing style, aside from the Christopher Hitchens quote and a few title-drops. That's a very good thing, in this instance.

An Ancient Race - It's always difficult to pay homage to one's favorite films, especially ones that I've already written and talked a great deal about. I think I did a pretty good job with my look at Once Upon a Time in the West, without the pompous wordiness that usually overtakes my longer reviews - you won't be seeing my Lawrence of Arabia essay on this list for that reason.

Public Enemies - Since I wrote this review it's one of the ones I've gone back to the most. Conceit? Perhaps, or maybe it's genuine pride. It's one of the best jobs I've done, I think, of balancing a review of a middling film between its good and bad attributes - most of my reviews in this vein tend to lean one way or the other.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Appreciation and Criticism - I am genuinely proud of this article, in spite of the atrocious formatting errors. Everything I could possibly say about these three films is included therein, and I hope it's as fun for you to read as it was for me to right. The Pirates films are loads of fun, very flawed, with a pretty lousy middle act, but some of the best summer blockbusters of the past decade. And that's all I ask.

The Decline of Perspective in Discussing Films and the State of Cinema - I have the conceit to consider myself good at making fun of morons. With the exception of my Twilight rant I don't think I've ever been so overtly mean and snarky on this blog, against a very deserving target; I need to do more of these in the future.

The Godfather Part II - To risk sounding like a broken record: here's nothing more satisfying than writing a good review of a film you love, and here's another example of that.

Tudor Mania! - My very first article for the blog! Still a lot of fun, and I've enjoyed coming back to it for periodic updates since it was first written. Again, ignore the newbie formatting errors and enjoy what I think is a fun piece.

Rusty! - How fun is it to give a good-spirited (if somewhat mean) ribbing to cornball kid's films from the '40s? Very fun.

Land of the Blind - A great movie that really surprised me with how excellent it was; it was a fun film to watch and almost as fun to break down and analyze. I also appreciate the comments of the film's director on my review, which is the highest praise I've gotten from anyone of substance (aside from the comments and attention of my handful of regular readers).

Honorable Mention: I greatly appreciate my friend Analee Harriman's fine review of Mad Love in the early days of my blog. I hope that she can find time to write more stuff for us in the future.

Look forward to another year of blogging! Thanks to all of you who read this meager effort at film criticism/bitching.

Regards,
Groggy Dundee