The American Film Institute (AFI) is notorious for its lists. Lists about the best movies ever, best actors, best moments, most memorable nose-hairs, you name it. I don’t have a problem with these types of lists in general as they are great topics of discussions for critics, bloggers, and dinner-tables. And, the AFI’s snobbieness notwithstanding, they are usually pretty good at making them.

Image Credit: Rodolfo Clix

Of course, nobody’s ever happy about how they are ordered. When most people make lists, you find that one person’s number-one is another person’s nails-on-a-chalkboard. Sometimes a person’s reasons are sound and sometimes they have no idea what they are talking about. Usually, we just shrug those lists off as a simple matter of taste more than anything else. With more reputable institutions such as the AFI, unfortunately, they do not get such a pass. Their selections ought to stand up to scrutiny.

In the spirit of their usual lists, the AFI has recently released their 10 Top 10, a list of the top ten movies for ten genres, which will definitely see such scrutiny. Of course, before we even consider the lists, we ought to consider this: why are genres important in the first place? At least, why are they important to the film community?

The quick answer is money and marketing.

Making a movie that appeals to a certain market sector is a good way to generate income. Executives know that ‘x’ number of people will go see a strictly dragons and castles fantasy type film. If you hype it right, at least to that demographic, you can count on a certain return on investment. Of course, this is the easy answer. As we all know, there are two very different worlds in the movie industry. The business and the art. This schism exists in most other places, but it seems that Hollywood likes to playsout the dichotomy as a drama on the big screen for us all to see.

Artistically, storytellers use genre as a tool to make a statement. They use it much the same way as lighting, production design, costumes and other tools of the trade. The difference is that genre affects storytelling on a much grander scale. New films look to similar types of past movies for guidance, particularly, ones that have set the standard in the genre. The AFI’s 10 Top 10 are aimed at being those movies that absolutely define the genre.

The AFI includes such a definition for each genre so that we see how the particular movie fits in this list. Also, they include criteria that must be met in order for the film to warrant consideration. Over the next few weeks, I’ll take a look at the genres and determine whether their definitions hold water and whether their selections are true to the definitions.

AFI had already issued a press release that outlines all of the criteria for nominated films, but I’m gonna just sum it up quickly.

1. It has to be feature-length, in a narrative format.

2. It has to be an American film, English in language with the primary creative and production forces emanating from the U.S.

3. Released prior to January 1, 2008.

4. Must have received critical recognition in print, television, or digital media.

5. Has to have recieved major award of some kind.

6. Must have gained popularity measured by box office gross, television success, and home media sales.

7. It must be historically significant in terms of film through innovation of cinematic techniques or use of technology or visual narration.

8. The nominee must also have impacted our culture substantially.

Simple enough, right? Most of their qualifiers are okay, although, I would say to require a film to garner awards is pushing it–some great and influential movies never won a single award (Blade Runner, anyone?). They are rather broad in that requirement, but it’s still there. They get to define the terms and I don’t think that their requirements are wholly unreasonable, though I might ignore some or all of them in the next few weeks.

As I examine the lists, I won’t dispute every every film on every list. More likely, I’ll point out where some do not fit and why, then offer a substitute for those. If they don’t fit, I’ll explain why they don’t fit, other than they just irk me. The films I choose as subs will mostly adhere to the AFI definitions and criteria - mostly - but they’ll also fit some of my own personal criteria.

Feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments and tell me off, intelligently, if not politely, if you so desire. With that, let’s get started.

The AFI Ten Top Ten’s will begin with the first genre–Animation–this Friday, August 8.