Starting Out

I just graduated from college and one of my requirements was taking a fine arts course. After many friends struggled through an Art or Music class, I found a better way out... a Film class. I'd also taken a film class in high school, and I knew that I would enjoy watching movies so much more than I would beading a sponge or memorizing different symphonies. Ever since this course, I've always been intrigued by the Top 100 movie list, and I decided that I wanted to watch all of the movies on the list.

However, still being in college (going to class, working, endless hours of homework, spending time with friends) didn't really allow me much time for that goal.

But, as I've already said, I just graduated college. And a year early at that. Which means I know just have work to occupy my time and since I graduated a year early, most of my friends are still struggling with the endless hours of homework, and therefore, I have some time on my hands. At least more time that I've had the last three years.

So I pulled up the list of the Top 100 Movies that the American Film Institute put out, and found out that there are actually two lists: one that came out in 1997, and an anniversary list that came out in 2007. There are 23 movies on the anniversary list that weren't on the original list. So I now had 123 movies to watch.

I've already seen maybe 17 movies, but I've decided to go all out, and watch all of the movies, regardless of if I've previously seen them or not.

Another thing I needed to decide was my strategy for this. How often should I watch a movie? I could watch 10 movies a month and be done in a year. But that seems like a lot of movies. Then again, I am able to multitask while watching movies. I can catch up on scrapbooking, work on other projects, and watch movies with friends, so maybe 10 movies a month isn't that much. Should I go in some kind of order? I tend to like order and organization, but I also thought it would be annoying to be forced to watch certain movies whether I felt like it or not. So here's the theory that I landed on: I'm going to watch all the movies in whatever random order I want, except for the Top 10. I'll save the Top 10 for last, and watch them in order, true David Letterman style.

I decided all of this a few months ago, but the reason I'm writing a blog is a little more recent. A week ago, I had felt that I wasn't making much progress on the list, so I got a Netflix. It's something I've always kind of wanted, so I tried the free trial. Two weeks free seemed like a good idea, but within a day I was pretty much convinced that Netflix is a wonderful, wonderful invention that is totally worth paying for. 

I was having coffee with some friends, and they asked what was new in my life. And, the Netflix account qualified, so I told them about my plans to watch all the movies. They suggested I write a blog about it, it would be like "Julie & Julia". At first I just laughed at the idea. I've never really been one for blogs... it always seems to be people going on their own personal rants. Plus, the idea of a blog kind of reminds me of this distant great uncle that I have. I've never met the guy, but he had problems getting his book published, so he started his own publishing company. Blogs seem to be an even easier way to self-publish my thoughts. 

Also, the thought of being like "Julie and Julia" didn't really seem that great. I came up with the idea of watching the movies all by myself, and I didn't want it to turn into a copy cat idea. But obviously, my initial thoughts did not hold out. I thought back to trips I've taken in the past. I always wished that I had kept a better journal, it's always fun to go back and reread that. So, this blog is really more so for myself than for anyone else. It's so I can reread it and enjoy. But, it is also for my friends who thought it would be fun to watch all 123 movies themselves, but knew that it would not happen, so they would enjoy reading a recap of the movies.

So, that's how this journey started. I'm still not sure how often I'll watch a movie, how long the whole thing will take me, how often I'll blog about it, or how frequently I'll use my Netflix to get a movie from the list, because honestly, there are a lot of other movies I'd like to watch as well. But, I do know that I will be watching all 123 movies and I will be blogging about it.