Re: "20 classic films that every child should see" - UK educational charity ...

From: James Welsh <[email protected]>

Of course Leo is overreacting.  People LOVE lists, though motives  
behind them may be suspect (commercial?) or nefarious (political?).   
When Blockbuster was getting started, it even published a booklet of  
the "Best" films (meaning, no doubt, the most lucrative).  But just  
because some clown draws up a list doesn't mean anyone needs to pay  
much attention to it.  Of course I wouldn't let the endless lists of  
top movies or top starlets or top hunky vampires circulated by  
Entertainment Weekly or USA Toady change my life or viewing habits.   
But the best lists--those sponsored by the AFI or the BFI are not made  
up by clowns.  And even if some of the selections are crackers, any  
serious listing of selections would surely include some work of merit,  
be it cultural or even sentimental.  Should not educated people have  
developed a sense of taste and judgment, or of artistic discernment?   
Forgive me for being hopelessly old fashioned, but isn't this  
something to be shared and perhaps taught?  I would therefore applaud  
Tracey Osborn for exposing young students to quality cinema, the  
popular attention-span being short and, one fears, cultural memory  
being even shorter.
Jim Welsh, Emeritus
Salisbury U (Maryland)