Memories of poring over the latest Inventory piece in the computer lab of my high school newspaper class are flooding back! Those lists were so impactful to me at a critical age.
Thankful you all didn't ask the nazis to weigh in.
I'm several years younger than Keith (born 1984), so my version of this was from the early 90s - something called The Movie List Book by Richard B. Armstrong and Mary Willems Armstrong. It didn't bring in celebrities to write lists, but it group group movies in a variety of silly categories. I used to check that thing out of the library all the time.
I'm sure it isn't as weird as this one (how could it be?!) but this article definitely makes me want to revisit it.
Jan 17, 2023·edited Jan 17, 2023Liked by Scott Tobias
My parents had a 1973 coffee table book called The Great Movies (not Ebert's – this one was written by William Bayer) which was pivotal to little me, featuring blown-up film stills and production photos from a list of movies which largely stands up today. I wasn't aware of any movies beyond what I saw advertised on TV, or what my parents took me to, so learning of the existence of such movies beyond my narrow experience was profound. In the internet age, I wonder about where the equivalents of books such as this, or movie lists, Maltin guides, Shipman's The Story of Cinema, etc., might be stumbled upon by accident, and have the same kind of impact on a young mind: perhaps it does happen, but the old man in me finds it difficult to draw an emotional equivalence between thumbing through the IMDB Top 250 versus perching over a heat vent, curled up in a blanket, shining a flashlight at a picture of a donkey and puzzling out why some guy in France would make a movie about him (unless he was a TALKING donkey, of course).
Never came across “The Book of Movie Lists.” The two film books that did make an impression on me in the early Eighties were William Bayer’s “The Great Movies” (also mentioned by Dripping Yellow Madness) and Danny Peary’s “Cult Movies.” Both took the history of cinema seriously and weren’t focused on such things as the measurements of famous actresses.
I would have devoured this book as well had I come across it in the 80s. As it was, my closest equivalent was probably the big, fat Video Movie Guide by Mick Martin and Marsha Porter. I spent hours flipping through the listings and still have a handful of capsules and star ratings memorized. Its most shocking, if not most exemplary take: 5 stars for the then-recent TV miniseries version of The Shining, a turkey for the Kubrick version. It was, as you might guess, pretty middlebrow, very much a competitor of the Leonard Maltin guides from around the same time. But it also brought attention to titles I hadn't come across anywhere else, and was an interesting way to check my opinions on a film against that of someone (well, a team of people) who had seen far more movies than I had at that point.
Ahem. *NERD ALERT* In the DS9 episode "Sanctuary", the Skrreeans are newly-freed refugees of the T-Rogorans, who were themselves overrun by the Dominion.
Loved the article. Never experienced this book, but if I had access to it as a kid at the same age as you, I would have devoured it over and over like you did. I did have my Leonard Maltin's movie guide like others here did, and A.V. Club's lists were absolute tops. It's no arrogance to say that the AVC in its heyday _defined_ the pop culture lists as they were meant to be (less hierarchy and more capsulated context. I still have my copy of the printed book Inventory, though I haven't reread it in a while. Perhaps I am overdue...
Memories of poring over the latest Inventory piece in the computer lab of my high school newspaper class are flooding back! Those lists were so impactful to me at a critical age.
Thankful you all didn't ask the nazis to weigh in.
I'm several years younger than Keith (born 1984), so my version of this was from the early 90s - something called The Movie List Book by Richard B. Armstrong and Mary Willems Armstrong. It didn't bring in celebrities to write lists, but it group group movies in a variety of silly categories. I used to check that thing out of the library all the time.
I'm sure it isn't as weird as this one (how could it be?!) but this article definitely makes me want to revisit it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2724330-the-movie-list-book
My parents had a 1973 coffee table book called The Great Movies (not Ebert's – this one was written by William Bayer) which was pivotal to little me, featuring blown-up film stills and production photos from a list of movies which largely stands up today. I wasn't aware of any movies beyond what I saw advertised on TV, or what my parents took me to, so learning of the existence of such movies beyond my narrow experience was profound. In the internet age, I wonder about where the equivalents of books such as this, or movie lists, Maltin guides, Shipman's The Story of Cinema, etc., might be stumbled upon by accident, and have the same kind of impact on a young mind: perhaps it does happen, but the old man in me finds it difficult to draw an emotional equivalence between thumbing through the IMDB Top 250 versus perching over a heat vent, curled up in a blanket, shining a flashlight at a picture of a donkey and puzzling out why some guy in France would make a movie about him (unless he was a TALKING donkey, of course).
Never came across “The Book of Movie Lists.” The two film books that did make an impression on me in the early Eighties were William Bayer’s “The Great Movies” (also mentioned by Dripping Yellow Madness) and Danny Peary’s “Cult Movies.” Both took the history of cinema seriously and weren’t focused on such things as the measurements of famous actresses.
Edward G. Robinson's performance in The Sea Wold could be best described as "highly satanic," so I suppose that's at least a valid observation.
I would have devoured this book as well had I come across it in the 80s. As it was, my closest equivalent was probably the big, fat Video Movie Guide by Mick Martin and Marsha Porter. I spent hours flipping through the listings and still have a handful of capsules and star ratings memorized. Its most shocking, if not most exemplary take: 5 stars for the then-recent TV miniseries version of The Shining, a turkey for the Kubrick version. It was, as you might guess, pretty middlebrow, very much a competitor of the Leonard Maltin guides from around the same time. But it also brought attention to titles I hadn't come across anywhere else, and was an interesting way to check my opinions on a film against that of someone (well, a team of people) who had seen far more movies than I had at that point.
This is fantastic! Not necessarily inclined to get the book but extremely glad I read about it. It’s a great piece.
Ahem. *NERD ALERT* In the DS9 episode "Sanctuary", the Skrreeans are newly-freed refugees of the T-Rogorans, who were themselves overrun by the Dominion.
Loved the article. Never experienced this book, but if I had access to it as a kid at the same age as you, I would have devoured it over and over like you did. I did have my Leonard Maltin's movie guide like others here did, and A.V. Club's lists were absolute tops. It's no arrogance to say that the AVC in its heyday _defined_ the pop culture lists as they were meant to be (less hierarchy and more capsulated context. I still have my copy of the printed book Inventory, though I haven't reread it in a while. Perhaps I am overdue...
"4 Best Films Depicting Adolph [sic.] Hitler"
oh, that could be an interesting list, including movies like The Producers....
"written by a member of the American Nazi Party"
wtf now??
Great read, Keith. Made me nostalgic for a similar series of books I became obsessed with in middle school: collections of Letterman Top Ten lists.