The Top 100 Movies, by John Kobal
Review by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Buy John Kobal Presents the Top 100 Movies, by John Kobal
When I was getting started as a film buff -- I mean really
started, exploring the history of film, and not just the early films of
Scorsese and Kubrick -- the John Kobal book was indispensable to me. It
was a poll conducted by Mr. Kobal of critics, writers, and artists all
over the world, including cinematographer Nestor Almendros, critic
Andrew Sarris, writer Susan Sontag, and Chaplin biographer David
Robinson. All the personal lists are included in the back of the book.
(Incidentally, if you tally the lists yourself, you will discover that
Mr. Kobal was not very accurate.) Most of the films are foreign films
and some are hard to find. In the eleven years since first reading the
book, I've managed to see only 69 of the 100. The book was published
before 1990, which marked the first time Martin Scorsese was really seen
as a master (his Raging Bull had been voted the best film of the
1980's, and his GoodFellas was unanimously voted the best film of
1990). Hence there is no Scorsese on the list. Nor is The
Godfather, another seemingly obvious choice. But, to its credit, the
Kobal list is less conventional and gets the reader thinking about films
other than the obvious choices.
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