GoldbergBlog

Please See A Movie That Came Out Before STAR WARS

I don’t mind lists. I really don’t. And I understand their popularity. They provide quick information that is both a guide and a possible subject for debate. But I keep finding these movie lists that were created by people that quite possibly never saw a film that was in black & white unless it was in their Cinema Studies 101 class. Silent films probably aren’t even in the equation.

And so lists like these are absolutely almost worthless because A) you’re referencing films we’ve all seen so it’s not like you’re drawing on some expertise and B) it doesn’t encourage anyone to widen their film vocabulary. They’re essentially Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter in list-form: draw people in with maddeningly stupid rhetoric and enjoy the infamy. Of course, me linking to the lists gives them what they want, but I felt I had to in order to prove my larger point that lists such as these do no one any favors. If you’re going to make a list of anything, do it to help someone or stimulate meaningful debate or add to a historic record. CHUD’com’s recent “50 Biggest Disappointments” list may seem like it would be an offender, but the points are well argued and it makes for a good history lesson, especially in an age of media saturation where a studio can build enough buzz in order to create a massive disappointment.

The fact that this list of “Greatest Movie Douchebags” has to reach to freaking Titanic in order to find a character to populate it’s ignorant manifest isn’t shocking to find on the Internet. It’s just shameful that high-traffic sites like Digg and GorillaMask would drive traffic to such poorly researched drivel.

And hey, I’ve been guilty of making lists, but I would like to think that I put some honest effort into what I do.

But not all lists suck. Some make for really great articles. This one, on the bestselling crappy videogames is a must-read (it’s always nice to end on a positive note).

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