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Do any Alexander Payne films rate among 100 greatest American films ever made?

©By Leo Adam Biga

Author of “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film”

So, when the American Film Institute (AFI) gets around again to naming the 100 best American movies of all time along with the 100 best American comedies of all time, will any Alexander Payne films make the list? After recently rewatching all his work and putting together the new edition of my book “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film” I would hazard to guess that enough time may have passed by now for as many as five of his films to crack these lists, though another decade or so may make the case better for some of them. In the Greatest movies category, I can make a great case right now for any or all of the following: “About Schmidt,” “Sideways,” “The Descendants” and “Nebraska” though I think the most likely of that group to be so homored is “Sideways.” Personally, I think the most deserving is “Nebraska.” When I review the current AFI Greatest rankings, there are several movies that to my tastes anyway have no business being there, including “Ben-Hur,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Swing Time,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Bringing Up Baby,” “Easy Rider,” “Titanic,” “All About Eve” and well a whole bunch more. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all fine films. But do they rise to Greatest ever heights? Let’s just say that on my Greatest list I would change out about half of the entries in the AFI list for other films I regard as better works. I definitely rate any of the Payne films I nomianted as Greatest candidates above the pictures I singled out here. I see that “The Last Picture Show” is on the AFI list, and while I admire the movie, I don’t think it’s as good as Payne’s “Nebraska,” another black and white, small town elegy story. There are very few comedies on the Greatest list and once again i would rate any of Payne’s comedies, with the exception of “Citizen Ruth,” right there with “The Apartment,” “Some Like It Hot,” “Tootsie,” “The Graduate,””Duck Soup,” “Sullivan’s Travels,” “City Lights,” “Modern Times” and “The General,” and I am a great admirer of all those films.

Looking over the AFI Greatest Laughs list, any or all of Payne’s films deserve a spot there. For many Payne buffs, his best comedy to date is “Election” and it certainly belonsg among the best screen comedies. Based on sheer fillmMaking and cinema as art consideratons, only a very few on the AFI list can match or exceed his work in my opinion, and that would be “Dr. Strangelove,” the aforementioned Chaplin films, Keaton’s “The General” and “The Navigator,” Woody Allen’s “Manhattan,” James L. Brook’s “Broadcast News” and the Coen Brothers’ “Fargo.” If you’re grading purely on comedy or laughs, well then several films may be funnier than Payne’s comedies, such as “The Producers” or “There’s Somtething About Mary” or “Animal House” but of course his movies don’t only operate as comedies. Indeed, they are as much dramas as comedies because he applies a sharp satiric lens to everything he looks at and he focuses that lens on some very tough subjects. Abortion. Addiction. Infidelity. Loneliness. Alienation. Identity crisis. Aging. Death. With his new film “Downsizing” he’s tackling even deeper, darker subjects. For my tastes anyway, his comedies are among the richest and most satisfying ever made for these very reasons. In this sense, he shares much in common with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Frank Capra, Ernest Lubisch and Billy Wilder from the Golden Age of Cinema. Part of the fun of fillm is that everyone sees everything so differently.

NOTE: My Alexander Payne book releases Sept. 1 but now through August 27 it can be purchased at KANEKO, 1111 Jones Street in Omaha’s Old Market. It lists for $25.95. Or you can pre-order a copy at leo32158@cox.net. It will eventually be in select bookstores and gift shops and available on Amazon and for Kindle.

AFI’S 100 YEARS…100 MOVIES

® AFI’s 100 GREATEST AMERICAN MOVIES OF ALL TIME The very first edition of AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 greatest American films of all time. In 1998, AFI invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community – screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics among them – to choose from a list of 400 nominated films compiled by AFI and select the 100 greatest American movies. The AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies CBS television special originally aired on June 16, 1998. The updated 10th anniversary edition to this list is here. AddThis Sharing Buttons # MOVIE YEAR 1 CITIZEN KANE 1941 2 CASABLANCA 1942 3 THE GODFATHER 1972 4 GONE WITH THE WIND 1939 5 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA 1962 6 THE WIZARD OF OZ 1939 7 THE GRADUATE 1967 8 ON THE WATERFRONT 1954 9 SCHINDLER’S LIST 1993 10 SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN 1952 11 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE 1946 12 SUNSET BLVD. 1950 13 THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 1957 14 SOME LIKE IT HOT 1959 15 STAR WARS 1977 16 ALL ABOUT EVE 1950 17 THE AFRICAN QUEEN 1951 18 PSYCHO 1960 19 CHINATOWN 1974 20 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST 1975 21 THE GRAPES OF WRATH 1940 22 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 1968 23 THE MALTESE FALCON 1941 24 RAGING BULL 1980 25 E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL 1982 26 DR. STRANGELOVE 1964 27 BONNIE AND CLYDE 1967 28 APOCALYPSE NOW 1979 29 MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON 1939 30 THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE 1948 31 ANNIE HALL 1977 32 THE GODFATHER PART II 1974 33 HIGH NOON 1952 34 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD 1962 35 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 1934 36 MIDNIGHT COWBOY 1969 37 THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES 1946 38 DOUBLE INDEMNITY 1944 39 DOCTOR ZHIVAGO 1965 40 NORTH BY NORTHWEST 1959 41 WEST SIDE STORY 1961 42 REAR WINDOW 1954 43 KING KONG 1933 44 THE BIRTH OF A NATION 1915 45 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE 1951 46 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE 1971 47 TAXI DRIVER 1976 48 JAWS 1975 49 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS 1937 50 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID 1969 51 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY 1940 52 FROM HERE TO ETERNITY 1953 53 AMADEUS 1984 54 ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT 1930 55 THE SOUND OF MUSIC 1965 56 M*A*S*H 1970 57 THE THIRD MAN 1949 58 FANTASIA 1940 59 REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE 1955 60 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK 1981 61 VERTIGO 1958 62 TOOTSIE 1982 63 STAGECOACH 1939 64 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND 1977 65 THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS 1991 66 NETWORK 1976 67 THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE 1962 68 AN AMERICAN IN PARIS 1951 69 SHANE 1953 70 THE FRENCH CONNECTION 1971 71 FORREST GUMP 1994 72 BEN-HUR 1959 73 WUTHERING HEIGHTS 1939 74 THE GOLD RUSH 1925 75 DANCES WITH WOLVES 1990 76 CITY LIGHTS 1931 77 AMERICAN GRAFFITI 1973 78 ROCKY 1976 79 THE DEER HUNTER 1978 80 THE WILD BUNCH 1969 81 MODERN TIMES 1936 82 GIANT 1956 83 PLATOON 1986 84 FARGO 1996 85 DUCK SOUP 1933 86 MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY 1935 87 FRANKENSTEIN 1931 88 EASY RIDER 1969 89 PATTON 1970 90 THE JAZZ SINGER 1927 91 MY FAIR LADY 1964 92 A PLACE IN THE SUN 1951 93 THE APARTMENT 1960 94 GOODFELLAS 1990 95 PULP FICTION 1994 96 THE SEARCHERS 1956 97 BRINGING UP BABY 1938 98 UNFORGIVEN 1992 99 GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER 1967 100 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY 1942 AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 MOVIES (1998) List of the 400 nominated movies List of the 100 winning movies