One “party game” type of question that’s been posed in many forms is ‘what 10 _____ would you bring with you to a desert island?’ As a movie lover, I’ve certainly thought about this many times with regard to movies.
I thought I would write a post about that, but then I got concerned that there would be too much overlap in the choices, which may make it boring. As a film bro, it’d be all Fincher, Tarantino and Scorsese. So I am taking a page out of Cinefix’s book, and I’m breaking the “top ten” list up into ten different categories, in order to give myself some variety while I’m stuck on this desert island.
There are a few ways to do this, one way that Cinefix often does is to look at one genre and break a list into ten sub-genres; for example, psychological thrillers, contained thrillers, etc. While that’s a cool method, and possibly a separate post, I thought it would be more interesting to go with ten different genres.
For whatever reason, despite their old movie bias, and silly categories, my mind shot to the AFI’s 10 Top 10. This list came out in 2008, and named their top ten movies in ten different genres. Definitely more diverse. I’m not going to name ten in each genre, but I will use their ten genres to organize my selections.
Their genres, like their movies, feel a bit outdated, but we’ll see what we can do. So, I will select one each from the following: Animation, Courtroom Drama, Epic, Fantasy, Gangster, Mystery, Romantic Comedy, Science Fiction, Sports and Western. So…no (non-romantic) Comedy, Action, Horror, Thriller, Musical, or (general) Drama. Of course, they provided definitions of each genre, and I will see what kind of wiggle room there might be.
As always, possible SPOILERS AHEAD!
Animation
This genre could be interesting just because their definition is: a genre where the film’s images are primarily created by computer or hand and the characters are voiced by actors. This makes me wonder about CGI-heavy movies, like everything from the MCU, but to be honest, I think I’m staying traditional here.
There were many great Disney movies from my childhood: The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians, and The Lion King, among others. The Toy Story franchise, particularly #1 or #3, would be a good pick. Recently, there’ve been many great Pixar/Dreamworks/Whomever movies like Inside Out and Soul. I hate to pass on Matt Stone and Trey Parker, as Southpark: Bigger, Longer & Uncut or Team America: World Police would be fantastic choices here, especially since there isn’t a slot for a non-romantic comedy. But for me it’s a pretty easy choice, I’ve gotta go with Shrek.
To the AFI’s credit, they had Shrek on their Animated list (#8), but I think it should be ranked even higher. Nerdstalgic made a great video explaining how Shrek deconstructs many of the fairy tales that came before it. Shrek is an ogre, often a villain or monster in fairy tales. Rather than the typical attractive character going on an adventure for love (Aladdin, Cinderella, Ariel), Shrek is a cranky loner, who is really going through all of this just to get his land back, which is located in a swamp. His sidekick is an ass, an annoying, fearful, always-talking donkey. Princess Fiona knows karate and is actually an ogre as well. The rescue is clumsy and, again, a business transaction, not for love.
All of these elements help to make the movie funny and charming. It’s endlessly re-watchable, which is highly important when you’re stuck on an island. It’s a funny adventure tale with an, at times, sappy love story. There’s an argument to be made that this could go in the Rom-com category, but we’ll keep it here in Animation.
Courtroom Drama
Now is where we’ll start to get a little wacky. The need for this category is highly questionable. First off, this is a genre that used to be more popular in the past, but is much less so nowadays. A sign of the AFI’s old-school bias. Secondly, an interesting point on this website, “The courtroom drama is a subtype of the mystery genre…”. Since we have Mystery represented in this list, this feels like a duplication.
The AFI defines the courtroom drama as “a genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film’s narrative.” What exactly is a ‘system of justice’? This website defines what it is, and also notes that there are three components: the Courts system, Law Enforcement, and the Corrections system. This opens up so many possibilities! Cop dramas, prison dramas, and more typical court-oriented fare.
As much as I’d love to honor a more stereotypical movie from this genre, like the great 12 Angry Men, or A Few Good Men, or Rashomon, I’m veering toward the cops and corrections portion of the justice system. I certainly love police movies like L.A. Confidential and Se7en, but here we’re going corrections, with The Shawshank Redemption.
Before you get too mad, there is a courtroom scene at the very beginning of the movie when Andy is being convicted.
See! They get right to it. Most traditional courtroom dramas culminate with the trial. Shawshank starts there. This movie highlights corruption within the justice system.
Now that my foolproof reasoning is out of the way, let’s take a second to talk about how great it is. A wonderful story about hope and friendship over many years, Shawshank never gets old. It’s both an all-time great movie, and a personal favorite. And, I’d rather watch this movie than any other movie that touches a courtroom.
Epic
This is an interesting choice for a genre category, and though I don’t love the majority of epics, it is important to acknowledge that these movies are on such an insane scale that it’s hard to compare them directly to shorter, more contained movies. I think they’re over-praised at the Oscars, but when these movies are done right, they’re kind of astounding, and there are not many directors capable of making a great epic.
Like I said, this isn’t the type of movie I usually go for. I respect many of the choices the AFI made here, Lawrence of Arabia, Saving Private Ryan (plot-hole and all), Schindler’s List, but they’re not the direction I’m going in. I’m looking more recent, at a sprawling movie about prospecting around the turn of the 20th century, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
Honestly, the first time I saw this it was hard to get past Daniel Day Lewis’s performance. The charisma, the ambition, the toughness, and also the deviousness and mania. It kind of overwhelmed the movie…at first. But holy heck, what a fantastic movie. The story and the characters are interwoven wonderfully. In line with the epic scale, the cinematography paints the picture of the vast world of opportunity. This movie does an amazing job of portraying the beauty of oil, how much work it takes to find it, and the natural risks involved with drilling.
Just an absolute banger from beginning to end, with one of the best opening scenes ever and one of the nuttiest sign-offs. “…I’m finished!”
Fantasy
Another genre that isn’t my favorite. That isn’t to denigrate the quality of the movie, I just tend toward more realistic movies. The AFI’s definition is “a genre where live-action characters inhabit imagined settings and/or experience situations that transcend the rules of the natural world.” At times, it blurs the lines with Science Fiction – do we assume aliens are a possible part of the future (sci-fi), or just fictional monsters that aren’t part of the natural world (fantasy)?
Lord of the Rings is impressive, but it’s not my thing. Same with Star Wars. Instead I’m taking this in a crazier direction, specifically as it relates to ‘imagined settings’ and ‘transcending the rules of the natural world’. My pick is Inglourious Basterds, for completely rewriting history as a revenge fantasy. Nothing transcends the rules like showing something that definitely didn’t happen to real people in a time that was very real.
There are many historical movies or biopics that take liberties with history, but as this article points out, the difference there is that those movies are just counting on the audience not knowing or remembering that history, so they can play with it to make the narrative more compelling. However, Tarantino deliberately defies history in Inglourious Basterds, if anything, he’s counting on the audience knowing what really happened, so that they can be shocked and delighted by his revenge fantasy. I think it’s a fair interpretation of the genre. It’s worth noting that this movie came out in 2009, while the list came out in ’08, so it didn’t have an opportunity to be included.
Gangster
This is a genre where I spend most of my time. So this was a very difficult decision. The AFI’s definition is, ” genre that centers on organized crime or maverick criminals in a modern setting”. So basically, any crime movie with people that are career criminals.
On the AFI’s actual list, the top 3 are The Godfather, Goodfellas, and The Godfather: Part II. I mean, who could argue with that? Those are arguably 3 of the 10 best movies of all-time, and they’re in 1 genre. Brutal.
Having said all of that, I’m going for the AFI’s #7 choice, Pulp Fiction. For me, it’s slightly more re-watchable than the above 3. A tough choice in a loaded category.
Mystery
Another tough-to-choose category for me, personally. The definition from the AFI is, “a genre that revolves around the solution of a crime.” There are so many possible outcomes here. Se7en is one of my ten favorite movies. So is The Silence of the Lambs. The #10 pick on their list is The Usual Suspects, another gem. L.A. Confidential, Gone Girl, Zodiac, too many to choose! Alas, I’m going with the AFI’s #2 selection, Chinatown.
For me, the thing about Chinatown is that I’m blown away by it every time. I always forget how awesome it is, how cool Nicholson is, how windy and layered the plot is, the mystery always feels just out of reach. Just an amazing movie. There are no contrivances, no motives that would’ve been impossible to know or understand, just a city corrupted by greed and perversion.
Romantic Comedy
It’s kind of odd they chose Romantic Comedies, instead of just comedies. It feels like they were just trying to remove any raunchy comedies like Old School or Animal House from the discussion. Hogwash.
Out of spite, this pick is going to be a maaaaassssssive stretch. The AFI defines it as, “a genre in which the development of a romance leads to comic situations.”
Fawk yeah! Each Rom-Com has a few important elements…
Two lovable leads: Both Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins garnered Oscars for their performances. Both were selected for the AFI’s 100 Heroes & Villains list. I’d say both were loved by the public.
A meet cute (…or not so cute): Scrappy and naive Clarice consults with a psychiatrist to get a criminal profile on a serial killer. He calls her a “rube”, and mimics her accent, it’s funny.
A unique, troublesome situation: Has there ever been a rom-com where one needs the other’s help to capture a murderer and the love interest is playing hardball? It is both very unique and highly troublesome.
At least one great sidekick: Crawford maybe, I don’t know.
Relationship in jeopardy: Clarice lies to Hannibal about a deal to get him to help. Later, he won’t give her the identity of Buffalo Bill when she pleads for it. I’d say there were a few times when I thought it was over.
Super fun montage: Hannibal’s escape isn’t a montage, neither is the climax where the FBI thinks they’re closing in on Buffalo Bill, but they’re both shot as a quick series of events.
The Light Bulb moment: Hannibal tells Clarice on the phone that he’s not coming after her because the world is more interesting with her in it. For him, I’d say that’s love.
A grand gesture or epic line: “I’m having an old friend for dinner…”
A happy ending: Clarice graduates at the academy and they catch Buffalo Bill. Hannibal escapes to the Caribbean. Happier than My Best Friends Wedding and Annie Hall, and probably other genre movies that I haven’t seen.
Science Fiction
Given that critics have historically been less willing to reward this genre, I’m surprised the AFI made the effort. They define it as, “a genre that marries a scientific or technological premise with imaginative speculation.” It’s such a broad genre, this pick could span comedy, drama, action, or horror. Of course, there are also different degrees of science fiction; how futuristic is the premise?
Alfonso Cuaron’s masterpiece, Children of Men, is a thriller set in a dystopian future, but doesn’t really use much futuristic technology or robots or anything. The AFI’s #7 movie, Alien, is set in space, it features an alien, and tonally, it’s arguably the scariest movie ever made. The Prestige is a movie about rival magicians in the 19th century, which doesn’t even touch sci-fi until more than halfway through its run-time, when one of the magicians commissions Nikola Tesla design a machine to help with a magic trick. Though I highly enjoy the three movies referenced above, I had to opt for a personal favorite, John Carpenter’s, The Thing.
It’s like Alien, but more disgusting, more paranoid, and bleaker. In Alien, the crew members of the Nostromo had to flush an alien out of their cavernous spacecraft in the middle of the galaxy. In The Thing, twelve men are stuck at a remote research outpost in Antarctica, trying to flush out an alien from their compound, except this creature can shape-shift and assimilate other living beings, meaning it could’ve transformed into any one of the researchers. This creates a layer of paranoia that permeates the rest of the movie. The frigid temperatures of the Antarctic create one of the best movie atmospheres. The practical effects are among the best in movie history. Everything about the movie is uncomfortable. Plus on a remote island, this would be the perfect horror movie to watch.
Sports
Another genre that’s often overlooked, I’m semi-surprised it was included. The definition will be important here because, spoiler alert, I’m going off-road. Per the AFI, sports is, “a genre of films with protagonists who play athletics or other games of competition.”
Certainly, there are plenty of options on the traditional route: Rocky, Bull Durham, Moneyball, Remember the Titans, all great choices. Given that I love sports, this feels like a genre where I should stay close to home, but, I got cute.
The definition says ‘…or other games of competition.’ They probably had that part so that they could include The Hustler; sorry, I love shooting pool, but it’s not a sport. However, I’m going in another direction. Cat and mouse games; the battle of wits. Many movies feature mental chess matches between the protagonist and antagonist, few more enjoyable than Inside Man.
Clive Owen leads a crew that takes over a Manhattan bank and holds hostages. Denzel is the lead negotiator, trying to save the hostages and nail the bad guy. The two men talk and even meet face-to-face, with Denzel always a step behind his counterpart. It’s a competition.
Western
Certainly an older genre, modern westerns are few and far between, more likely to mimic the tone than to actually take place in the Old West. They really lived and thrived from the mid-30’s through the 1960’s.
Though I respect the genre, it’s not one I’m overly familiar with. Based purely on the aesthetics, I have to go with one of my favorites, No Country For Old Men.
The funny thing here is that No Country is really more of a noir than a western. There’s a lot of time spent in motels, a lot of the action happens in the dark, or at least darker rooms, the protagonist is a flawed man who’s seen better days. It ends on an off-note.
In many ways the themes are anti-western. One common trope of the genre relates to times changing, and whether or not these outlaws will fit in the new world. No Country is the opposite: the world is and will always be tough, while people change, getting old or weak, and running their course. However, the Texas landscape and cowboy attire ensure that this movie will always be considered a noir-western crossover.
Bonus 10 (no genre rules):
Se7en, No Country For Old Men, The Thing, Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, The Silence of the Lambs, Die Hard, Goodfellas, The Shawshank Redemption, Halloween
Honorable mentions: The Godfather; The Usual Suspects; L.A. Confidential; Children of Men; Michael Clayton; Gone Girl; Old School; Wedding Crashers; The Dark Knight
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