Douglas Howe: June 2008 Archives

The Pew Forum released its second part of its landmark "United States Religious Landscape Survey," and it explains quite a bit about why certain movies, TV shows, music and other media are well received while others are generally not. In short, it may be good news for faith blogs but bad news for pop culture.

This survey of 35,000 adults confirms what most of us have probably sensed for a long time--that cultural offerings that really attempt to make a spiritual statement will have a hard time making a buck, and therefore will have a hard time getting out to market at all. Consider just one conclusion from this survey:

The American Film Institute's "Top Ten Sports Movies" of all time features many that you'd expect but excludes two obvious choices that stand out by their absence and undermine the credibility of the list.

"Raging Bull" was the top choice, with "Rocky" second, "The Pride of the Yankees" third and "Hoosiers" fourth. These were all great sports movies which were as realistic as they were inspiring. "The Hustler" and "National Velvet" are classics which also belong on the list.

I do applaud the AFI for including "Caddyshack." It may be more of a "recreation" movie than a sports movie, but it's such a classic that it belonged on the list somewhere and this was probably the best spot. ("Field of Dreams" was also a great sports movie but it shows up in the Fantasy category.)

"Breaking Away" was also a decent movie which I would squabble with if the other selections weren't so much more, well, squabbleable!

First, there are two romantic comedies on the list that had sports as their background: "Jerry McGuire" and "Bull Durham." These movies weren't great sports movies as much as they were nice date movies. Of course, the combination makes for a great date--if the chicks can love the love story and the guys can love the sports--but they still weren't great sports movies in my book.

The newest incarnation of "Get Smart" contains two hours of the most intriguing plot twists and inspiring character development of any movie this year. Alright, would you believe an hour of inspiration wrapped by a surprise ending? How about two peppermint twists and a U-turn?

As inspiring movies go, "Get Smart" requires neither that we get anything nor that we're smart, but it's a decently entertaining ride and casts some added light on why the original show was such a success.

Steve Carell plays Don Adams' original character with a modern flair that is probably appropriate for our times: he's a bit drier than Adams and more of an actual action hero, and he's not nearly the bumbler that Adams was. Nevertheless, he portrays that sense of everyman-ness which strikes a chord in all of us who know we're human but would love to be superheroes.

The American Film Institute recently named their "Ten Best Westerns" of all-time, and to say it is surprising it quite the understatement. There is one "Clint Eastwood" movie on it. There is only one movie that was made in the last 36 years. Yes, 36 years! Rarely has the gap between our current generation's tastes and the AFI's desire to preserve heritage been so clear.

"Unforgiven" (1992) is the only movie on the list that was released in the last 36 years and its the only Clint Eastwood film on the list. "High Plains Drifter" didn't make it. "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" didn't make it. "Pale Rider" didn't make it. There should be some sort of a modern-day rule against that. There must be some really older guys (and gals) on the AFI's jury. I can only guess that some of the more current Oscar-worthy contenders were just considered too new.

The American Film Institute's "10 Top 10" show--a three hour Prime Time special earlier this week--named the top ten films in each of ten genres and will give us good discussion fodder for awhile, especially if you're a list person, a movie buff, or a heritage person.

The show itself was alright (certainly better than watching my Lakers get blasted) and it was more than inspiring to see a lot of great clips from a lot of great films crammed into three hours that went by too fast. The Oscars should be so entertaining! What I noticed most, though, was that the AFI certainly took its heritage role seriously, naming lots of movies so old that many of us haven't seen them, resulting in many of my favorites to miss the lists.

Consider the "Romantic Comedies" category:

This year's NBA Basketball Finals show was a big Prime Time event for ABC and ESPN. It was scheduled to go up against the other networks on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays for two weeks. It went head-to-head against everything from...

What's your favorite "Gangster" movie of all time? What's the best romantic comedy ever made? What movie best brought sports to life on the Silver Screen? What was the best Courtroom Drama? These and other questions will be addressed--and answered...

When the CBS network airs The American Film Institute's "Top Ten" movies for every genre, one of the more interesting and popular choices will be for the "Fantasy" category. The ballot is a As the AFI says it, Fantasy is...

One week from tonight, on the CBS network (not just cable, so this is a big deal!), the American Film Institute is naming its "Top Ten" movies—one from each genre—as part of its "100 Years, 100 Movies" campaign. The genres...

The summer conversations often go like this: "What are you doin' this weekend?" "Goin' to a show." "Yeah, what movie are you going to see?" There was a time when "show" didn't mean TV or the movies—it meant live people...

What's with all the negative reviews for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"? It's almost as if all of these critics have gotten older over these last 19 years! I think the most profound revelation about the...