The Man Can't Bust Our Music

June 5, 2003

I don't like to encourage any new categories for the AFI top-100 lists because I never like the results. (Atticus Finch—who cares?) But it seems to me the film institute is at the same time too abstract and too conservative. Where's the list of best mind-fucks? Best ugly duckling makeovers? Best cop-out endings? Best homosexual subtexts in a guy movie? Best "I'm sick of zis damn var" Nazi with a conscience?

And here's one that isn't even hard: Why is there no list of best musical soundtracks? It's obvious, everybody can have an opinion, and it's a sale of both a DVD and a CD. I've already got my top three: Max Steiner's King Kong, Carter Burwell's Raising Arizona, and if adaptations are allowed, Walter Carlos Wendy's A Clockwork Orange. (If not, then Bob Harris and Nelson Riddle's Lolita.)