Philly Cheesesteak

Whoops! Misread the idea of the indulgence pick like a drunk blind man, my bad. And double whoops, I meant Roger, not John. Heh heh, egg on my face. In which case, slight revision: The Wall, Tommy, The Crow, Indepedence Day, Phantom of the Paradise, Ghost Dog, Melancholia, Frozen, Quadrophenia and.... I wanna say The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Ralph Bakshi's Heavy Traffic? How's this, better?

I'm fairly convinced all we remember Top Gun for is Kenny Loggins, a few quotes laced with slight macho homoerotic undertones and some decent fighter jet combat. But that's really about it.

The Red Shoes vs. Black Swan Bela Lugosi's Dracula vs. Boris Karloff's Frankenstein Halloween vs. Friday the 13th. Or maybe A Nightmare on Elm Street vs. Friday the 13th. Either or. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre vs. Halloween Scream vs. The Silence of the Lambs The Exorcist vs. The Omen An American Werewolf in London vs. Shaun of the Dead

A valid argument, but maybe a tad dismissive of the sheer gravitational pull this series had back in the day.

Oh! And Amadeus and Hot Fuzz!

My Indulgence Picks? Oooph... well... The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Sunset Blvd Princess Mononoke Brazil Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Seven Samurai Ran Quadrophenia Tommy Jon Waters'/Pink Floyd's The Wall Fantasia Frozen Melancholia Phantom of the Paradise The Crow Harold & Maude The Blues Brothers Le Samourai Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai Dead Man Hardboiled The Good, The Bad and The Ugly The Big Lebowski The Great Escape The African Queen Treasure of Sierra Madre Gah, too many... but these are the ones that pop into my mind as indulgence picks.

I meant the Harry Potter films as a whole, with PoA serving as a kind of representative, but, yeah, I otherwise agree 100%. But that said, I do believe Pottermania is such an integral part of contemporary popular culture that it needs a position in the Canon in some form or other.

Both films pioneered filmmaking techniques we take for granted today. They both have their place in history, I would think, both merit a conversation. Yes, one's uncomfortably racist, but then remember when Devin went to great lengths to justify the over the top racism of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Maybe he'd be on form to argue in defence of Birth of a Nation's inclusion into the Canon purely on the grounds of historical importance and contributions to the art of cinema. That something makes us uncomfortable to our modern sensibilities now should not necessarily be an argument against something's inclusion. Lovecraft was the crowned king of xenophobes back in the day and his views fuelled the very thing we would come to call "Lovecraftian horror," yes, but would you disqualify the works and contributions of Guillermo del Toro, Stephen King and Junji Ito for their being influenced by the man and his body of work?

Here's a crazy pitch... What if they did a three-way versus episode? To decide which should be representative of the Universal Horror Lineup: Dracula vs. Frankenstein vs. The Wolfman. That could be fun, I think.

I love There Will Be Blood. It's every bit as transcendent, intelligent and ingenious as Devin argues. But I find myself in a peculiar position. Just now, five seconds ago, I voted against it. Why? Well, I find the majority vote is falling into that trap that comedy, as a genre, is somehow inferior, less truthful or less meaningful than a stone cold drama. It's like the IMDB "Best 250" chart; barely any comedies on the list, but more self-serious dramas than you can shake a stick at. Can't help it. I am compelled to root for the underdog.

To be fair, they included Forest Gump and Blade Runner despite either host's personal contentious opinions on either. It might be a similar situation. Does the film's groundbreaking visual language influencing all modern science fiction cinema (heck, even video games and broader popular culture) alone warrant it a position in the Canon? Although, granted, gun to my head I would certainly argue M. is the superior film. It's subtler, better structured, better acted, and while I can remember every striking visual from Metropolis I can't remember every scene and entailing emotional thread in as much minute detail as I can make out with M (if that makes any sense). Also- Throwing it out there, but damn, you have a cool professor.

Hi! Longtime fan of the show and its two hosts, first time commenter! Call me Phil. Something I want to throw out there, but lately I've been glad to see a couple non-American choices make their way into the Canon over the last little while. We've had at least two Japanese films (Kiki's Delivery Service, Battle Royale), one Bengali classic (Pather Panchali), an Israeli animated documentary (Waltz with Bashir), a Danish arthouse movie (Antichrist), one Korean neo-noir (Oldboy), an Italian pseudo-documentary exploitation film (Cannibal Holocaust), a Swedish vampire romance (Let the Right One In), an Australian silent film that was once lost (Sunrise) and finally... one Spanish fairy tale (Pan's Labyrinth). All fantastic works, I'm happy as hell they were voted in. So, all that in mind, I'd like to suggest some more additions to the Canon's growing repertoire of world cinema. I figured not only are these highly influential and historically important, and exemplary of the German Expressionist movement of the 20's and 30's, but they're both genre goodness that Devin's bound to enthusiastically defend or argue against (always fun). More than that, these are the greatest and most well-known works of the great German filmmaker Fritz Lang. How's this for a vs. episode? Metropolis vs. M. In one corner, we have the grandfather of science fiction cinema. Without Metropolis, we wouldn't have the iconography of its massive pop culture grandchildren Blade Runner and Star Wars. Everything we owe in modern science fiction, in visual language, can be traced back to Metropolis. In the other corner, Fritz Lang's film noir magnum opus and Peter Lorre's most famous role. This is the story, without a soundtrack and no music save for ominous whistling, about a serial killer who targets only children, prompting even the German mafia to organize a manhunt for the killer. This was made just as the Nazis were taking over and it has been suggested more than once that the mob were a satirical takedown of Nazi Fascism. And ironically, M was one of Hitler's favourite movies. Go figure. Both movies have fascinating histories behind them. Both are cornerstones for science fiction and crime, with some even citing M as the prototypical police procedural. The stories behind and onscreen is compelling stuff, and I'd love to hear Devin and Amy discuss that. What do you think, guys? Should either of these two be the first German addition to the Canon?

It is his most famous performance. Bela Lugosi has Dracula, Boris Karloff has Frankenstein... and Peter Lorre has a schizophrenic child serial killer. One of these things is not like the other.

I'd love to see Fiddler put up for the Canon! Other musicals would include... Singin' in the Rain, Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, My Fair Lady...