What? "Bloodrayne" didn't make it?

Last night, AFI unveiled their updated list of the top 100 American films. Here is a good summary of the movers, additions and dropouts. Here's the list itself.

Random observations and comments:

The top 10 is okay, though I still don't find Singin' in the Rain one of our great cinematic achievements. Schindler's List is "important" and extraordinarily crafted, but a tad overrated. And I'm pleased as punch that my favorite Hitchock movie, Vertigo, now takes a rightful place among the greats.

The newly eligible films added were Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, The Sixth Sense, and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Personally, even though it had 27 "endings," I would have put Return of the King on the list instead of Fellowship.

New films added ("older" films, not necessarily from the "newly eligible period") include: The General, Intolerance, Nashville, Sullivan's Travels, Cabaret, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Shawshank Redemption, In The Heat of the Night, All the President's Men, Spartacus, Sunrise, A Night at the Opera, 12 Angry Men, Swing Time, Sophie's Choice, The Last Picture Show, Blade Runner, Toy Story and Do the Right Thing.

Woolf is a classic and informs a lot of what I know about adult relationships, sadly. Great to see Blade Runner get some props, too.

Films dropping out include: Doctor Zhivago, Birth of a Nation, From Here to Eternity, Amadeus, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Third Man, Fantasia, Rebel Without a Cause, Stagecoach, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Manchurian Candidate, An American in Paris, Wuthering Heights, Dances With Wolves, Giant, Mutiny on the Bounty, Frankenstein (1931), Patton, The Jazz Singer, My Fair Lady, A Place in the Sun, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and Fargo.

I know these are hard choices, but the ones I'm really sad to see go are Amadeus, Patton and Fargo.