The Outer Edge

2014-07-10T19:05:00.006-07:00

If you followed me so far you are probably thinking that this is old ground covered many times. I realize what I’m going to suggest will at first be met with enormous skepticism. Still bear with me in the weeks and months ahead I may make some sense to someone.

Bill James is a baseball statistician who turned the baseball world upside down with his new way to evaluate players. The book and film Moneyball is based on this new view of Baseball. I agree that his calculations don’t apply to movies however I’m going to try to create my own calculus for movies and this is where I’ll need plenty of suggestions.

My aim is to take these three views of movies and their history and put a

new perspective on it.

2014-07-10T19:05:00.001-07:00

Now I’d like to talk about one of favorite past times, ranking films. I’ve always enjoyed talk of “the greatest film of all time” and have several books that list them in one order or another. However for me none of the lists have the weight that Sight & Sound has. Since 1952 every 10 years they solicit help from critics and directors to compile lists of the best films. Since this only occurs every 10 years I believe that it affords a better window into time.

Recently in 2012 Hitchcock’s Vertigo took the number #1 spot from Citizen Kane (Orson Welles).This created a flood of articles and debate. Just more proof to me how seriously people take this pole.

I’ll be getting back to this a little later but for now I want to continue to lay

the groundwork for my idea.

2014-07-10T19:04:00.002-07:00

I am going to attempt to give a “new” perspective on the history of film and the ever popular movie rankings. Along the way I’m going to need help and suggestions. Before I jump into it though I will need to explain my train of thought on all this. It started when I read History in the Making by Kyle Ward. The author takes you though the history of history books and how their telling has changed though the years (I highly recommend this book). Quite often the telling reflects public opinion from the time and political necessity.

After reading the book I wondered how other history books would benefit from this perspective. As a maker of collage works I went to my shelf and grabbed my copy of Collage personalities,concepts,techniques by Harriet Janis and Rudi Blesh. Thumbing though the the book I was struck by how many artists in this medium have fallen thru the cracks. It didn’t take long for me to be reminded of another book I have read by Rudi Blesh, Keaton. That followed with the thought of movie history.

While I realize that concept is far from new I had a moment of clarity and a clever (or idiotic) idea came to mind. In the next few posts I will attempt to walk you though my idea. As I do this it should become clear why I need to enlist help with this project.

Let’s be clear from the start that while I’m very serious about all this it’s meant to be fun.

2014-07-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Before we move on a little bit about myself. I’ve been a lifelong fan of movies. At one time when I was young I fancied myself as a film critic. I can’t write well so I figured I would adopt a “gonzo style”. I’m older now and still can’t write well so I figured I’d use that style here too. I’ve shown films with and without music with varying success. I’ve read a lot and worked at a bookstore for awhile. I’ve made films myself and always enjoy watching other amateur attempts, even home movies. I drove a truck for 35 years and am now retired so I can finally devote all my time to the thing I love the most.

As I work on this blog it may seem at times that I’m jumping around a lot however that is not my intention. Once I lay the groundwork for this discussion I intend to start at the beginning of film history and move forward from there. Much of the references will be from writings at the time I’m discussing. In order to have a start and finish point I’ll avoid talking about films after the year 2000. No promises.

At times I may diverge to hype a book or new DVD. I may even bring into the discussion a recent news story of a discovery or event. But for the most part I will make every effort to stay on topic.

Lastly please forgive any grammatical errors, misspelled words, punctuation and such. However that doesn’t mean you can’t bring it to my attention-thanks Silla