Summer Movie Watch 2009


Final progress update: as of August 5, 2009, I have completed all three lists!

What was the summer movie watch?  It was my attempt to make up for all the time I've spent watching (and rewatching) mediocre movies on cable, by making a clean sweep of three greatest movies lists: the American Film Institute's 100 Bests (the original list from 1998, as well as the 2007 revision) and Entertainment Weekly's 100 New Classics.

Over the course of thirteen weeks in the summer of 2009, I watched the 91 movies that represented the gaps in the three lists.  Any movie that appears on any of the three lists which does not appear here, I had already seen.  I have now seen all hundred films on each of the three lists (due to repeat entries, this is fewer than 300 total movies).

Further information is available on my blog.

Movie Watch Record:

May 9: Stagecoach; Mutiny on the Bounty
May 11: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
May 13: The Shawshank Redemption
May 18: Fatal Attraction
May 20: The Bridge on the River Kwai
May 23: Spider-Man 2
May 25: All Quiet on the Western Front; Bonnie and Clyde
May 27: When Harry Met Sally
May 28: The Sound of Music

June 1: A Room with a View
June 2: Brokeback Mountain
June 4: Sunrise
June 9: Out of Africa
June 10: Saving Private Ryan
June 11: Sullivan's Travels
June 12: Boogie Nights
June 13: Breaking the Waves
June 14: Intolerance
June 15: The French Connection
June 16: Sex, Lies and Videotape; The Player
June 17: Spartacus; Ben-Hur; Aliens
June 18: Crumb
June 21: King Kong
June 22: Dances With Wolves
June 23: In the Mood for Love; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
June 24: Scarface; The Godfather; The Godfather Part II
June 25: A Place in the Sun
June 26: Rebel Without a Cause
June 27: The Incredibles
June 28: Hannah and Her Sisters; Evil Dead 2
June 29: City Lights
June 30: The Lives of Others; Swing Time

July 1: High Noon; Shane; The Searchers; The Wild Bunch
July 3: Blue Velvet
July 4: 12 Angry Men
July 5: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring; Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
July 6: Glory
July 7: Yankee Doodle Dandy
July 8: Lawrence of Arabia; Doctor Zhivago; South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
July 9: In the Heat of the Night
July 10: Giant
July 12: Patton; Raging Bull
July 13: The General
July 14: Ed Wood
July 15: Frankenstein
July 16: Sophie's Choice; Schindler's List
July 17: Sid and Nancy
July 18: The Piano; The Bourne Supremacy
July 19: Wings of Desire
July 21: Y Tu Mama Tambien
July 22: Menace II Society; Do the Right Thing; Hoop Dreams
July 23: Drugstore Cowboy
July 24: Natural Born Killers
July 25: Unforgiven
July 26: A Night at the Opera; Duck Soup
July 27: Cabaret
July 28: Rocky
July 29: MASH; Platoon; The Deer Hunter
July 30: Modern Times
July 31: The Birth of a Nation

August 1: All the President's Men; The Jazz Singer
August 2: 2001: A Space Odyssey
August 4: Nashville
August 5: Easy Rider; Midnight Cowboy; Taxi Driver; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The summer movie watch project was embarked upon by Erin Wolverton.
Thanks to Netflix, Turner Classic Movies, Cleveland Heights libraries,
and especially the Kelvin Smith library at Case Western Reserve University.
Last update: 8.17.2009.