The Movie Forums Top 100 of All-Time Refresh: Countdown

The Wizard of Oz was probably the first film I fell in love with .I watched it every year on commercial TV and it was always the most thrilling and fun film a kid could imagine. It's spectacular on a technical scale and definitely introduced a little kid like me to ironic humor and satire, and much of that was in the awesome song lyrics. I fell in love with Judy Garland and it almost seems a perfect movie to me, at least in many ways. I especially love Frank Morgan, who plays the "fake" Professor Marvel, the Gatekeeper, the Carriage Driver, the Doorman and the "fake" Wizard of Oz. The F/X are awesome - the tornado, the flying witch, the flying monkeys, the scenes in the Wizard's Hall ("Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.") I want to mention again how witty the songs and dialogue are. This film may have more indelible images than any I've ever seen. Forgive the out-of-sync video, but it's the only one with what I want.

The Godfather Part II is in my Top 100, but I've never cared for it as much as the first one. When I made my Top 100 I had recently seen II again and appreciated and enjoyed it more than I ever had before. I felt quite warm toward it, so I put it quite high up on my list. Now, having seen it again a few times, I'll be the first to say that it's really not a movie to feel warm about. The second one is more of a downer with darker characters and situations, far more episodic (which means just when you get comfortable with how it's going, it changes the time frame) and it certainly feels 200 minutes long, while the original's 175 minutes seem to me to go by much quicker. Of course there is a lot to admire in II - the performances, the meticulous art direction and cinematography and the downer "qualities" I mentioned make it more like a Shakespearean tragedy. Like I say, it's a really good movie, but I have always kept it separate from the first since, after all, I saw "Part I" first and it's a completely self-contained film. I realize that another thing that those who favor the second (or see the two as one continuous movie) like is how the second comments, highlights and embellishes performances and characters in the first. Again, that's part of its strengths, so I'm not knocking it. I just prefer the 1972 version to the 1974.