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Countdown: The 165 Greatest American Movies Ever Made (1-15)
http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/12/30/countdown-the-165-greatest-american-movies-ever-made-1-15/

A closing note: On DVD and Bluray, I own some 3700 movies. That number might sound outrageous, like the creation of an impulse buyer/hoarder, but nothing could be further from the truth. Every title in that collection means something to me. If you removed the monetary value, not a single one of those discs — not Death Wish V or Vegas Vacation — would I trade for all the contents of any art museum. Selecting 165 titles from that collection was agonizing, and any title that made the cut means that in its own way it is a #1.

The film industry lost its way some 20 years ago. There is no question about that. The unbroken spell that comes from competent storytelling and compelling characters is now an afterthought to spectacle, politics, lectures, nepotism, provincialism, and political correctness. And while that is a real shame, even though I have been in love with the movies for 40 years, I hardly notice. There is so much of Hollywood’s past still left for me to discover that at age 52, I fear I might run out of time. I also fear that I may never get to see those I have already discovered enough times. How is that for a luxury problem?

Movies are islands, narcotics, gifts, treasures, escapes, getaways; miracles of insight, not only into the men and women up on that screen, but the gods who created them. No other art form comes close.

I have stood in the Vatican and gaped in awe at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel — I still prefer The Agony and the Ecstasy. I have vacationed at Monument Valley, a majestic experience that still does not compare to a screening of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. I have swam in the Pacific, body surfed in the Atlantic, sailed in the Gulf, toured Rome, visited Disney World, cruised the Caribbean, seen Elvis and Sinatra perform live, and have twice driven across this beautiful country ours. All wonderful experiences, cherished memories, touchstones. But nothing will ever compare to the promise of that moment when the lights go down…

Nothing.

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