There are three things in my life that give it meaning. Three things
that I love above all else. They are: My family, spirituality and
movies. Sometimes they all roll into one, and many times the second
and third are indistinguishable. Martin Scorsese says that he always
knew he was either going to be a priest or a filmmaker. I believe he
is both.

I believe in film. I believe in it’s power to utilize all of the
artistic elements to create one singularly powerful monster of
experience. It is the great culmination of photography, music,
storytelling, theater, politics, religion and business. For me, to be
in the midst of a great film is like being in the midst of a great
spiritual force. To watch a great film is to meditate, to explore the
vast meanings of life, love, loss, forgiveness, ego, grace. Filmmakers
are the great philosophers of our time.

For me, my journey towards nirvana is all about exploring life through
a cinematic path. And so recently (almost a week and a half ago), I
decided to get serious about educating myself. You see, I am an
aspiring filmmaker. I want to be one of the great philosophers of our
time. But I know, like any philosopher or spiritual teacher, you
cannot effectively explore new ideas without fully studying and
understanding what’s come before. In simpler terms, I firmly believe
that true artists are nothing more than superfans who’ve decided to
put their money where their mouth is. The greatest artists I know were
more concerned with emulating the styles and emotions of their
influences than the progression of their own art. Whether filmmakers,
musicians, painters, whatever. The greats are always proficient in the
great art that came before them. The Beatles just wanted to emulate
the American blues players that enriched their youth, and through that
need to imitate (and because of the raw talent they didn’t know they
possessed) they became the greatest rock band of all time.

So in my need to become a proficient director, I must first study as
much of what has come before as I possibly can. So anytime I have a
couple hours here or there, I watch a classic film from a “Greatest”
list. Right now, I’m making my way through the IMDB Top 250 movies of
all time list. It’s a list that is not always exactly on the money
when it comes to placement, but it’s probably the most diverse list
out there. Since it’s processed through the voting of hundreds of
thousands of IMDB users, it represents possibly the most diverse group
of classics ever assembled.

My goal is to watch every single movie on that list, and when I’m done
with that, move on to the AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list, and from
there move on to Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” list. Each movie is
watched in my basement theater where I have a 1080p projector hooked
up to an HTPC a friend of mine built for me that houses over 1,000
movies and growing. If it’s available at all I watch it in HD, as my
projector spills onto a 150” screen. Through experience I know that
watching a movie on a large theater screen actually does improve your
ability to be immersed in it. When I watch films on a television it’s
easy for me to be distracted, but when I watch these movies on my
theater screen, I am easily immersed, constantly studying the
direction, editing and composition of each shot as it fully surrounds
me.

I’ve been doing this for the past week and a half and have made it
through 21 films. Including the films I’ve already seen in the past,
I’ve seen a total of 177 movies on the IMDB’s Top 250. It has honestly
been one of the most enriching experiences of my life. Every night I
experience a totally different film that effects me in a totally
different way. One night I’ll watch “City of God”, a brilliant film
about the rise of crime in Rio De Janeiro in the 70’s and 80’s, and
then the next night (and sometimes immediately after) I’ll watch a
movie like “Paths of Glory”, an emotionally stirring film about a
Colonel in the French army during World War I (played by Kirk Douglas)
who has to fight against forces that tear him between his sense of
duty and his moral convictions. Before each film I attempt to study
the influence, importance and context of it, usually using IMDB, Roger
Ebert’s Great Movies essays and/or Wikipedia. I believe that that is
imperative to truly appreciating and understanding the importance of a
film.

As I mentioned, it has been one of the most enriching experiences I’ve
ever had and my plan is to not only study these films, but also write
about my experiences watching them through this blog. Granted, this
blog is about everything in my life. I’ll be posting anything that
interests me or that I want to get off my back, as any regular blog
does, but I wanted to start it off with this explanation as it will be
a major point of it as well.

So I hope that you will join me in this little experiment. Perhaps in
the process I can turn you, the reader, onto many great films that
will change your life as many of them have already changed mine. To
conclude, here is a list of all of the movies I’ve watched since
starting this experiment about a week and a half ago. Good night and
we’ll talk soon.

Unforgiven
High Noon
Full Metal Jacket
The Searchers
2001 A Space Odyssey
Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai)
Cidade de Deus (City of God)
Paths of Glory
Singin’ In the Rain
Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs)
Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows)
Apocalypse Now
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly)
Léon The Professional
C’era una volta il West (Once Upon A Time In the West)
Nuovo cinema Paradiso
The Wild Bunch
Planet of the Apes
The Hustler
Strangers On A Train
Manhattan

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