1 of 2

Last week, the American Film Institute posted its list of the 100 Most Inspiring Films of All Time. It's a good list, especially with It's a Wonderful Life and To Kill a Mockingbird occupying the top two spots. Rocky, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Breaking Away are all in the top 10. Very nice.

But like all such lists, it's certainly open to criticism. My first gripe is specific enough: Where in the world is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King? If that's not one of the 100 Most Inspiring Films of All Time, then I'll be a hobbit's uncle.

If Gandalf doesn't inspire, then who does?

At first I thought the omission was because the film isn't "American." It was primarily made in New Zealand by a Kiwi director (Peter Jackson), and the AFI criteria state that qualifying films must have "significant creative and/or production elements from the United States." But then I checked the list of 300 nominees from which the AFI culled its winners, and the first LOTR film, The Fellowship of the Ring, is a nominee (though it didn't make the top 100).

So, evidently, the LOTR films were eligible after all—but The Return of the King didn't even make the list of nominees. So, the AFI doesn't even count it as one of the three hundred most inspiring films in history!

How could they have missed it?

Were they not inspired when Gandalf comforts a frightened Pippin during the siege of Minas Tirith, telling the young hobbit about a glorious heaven that awaits after death: "No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it… . White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

Did they not get goosebumps when Aragon rallies the troops, outside the black gate of Mordor, by saying, "Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!" And then, charging off into battle, "For Frodo!"

'I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!'

And most of all, were they not moved to tears, like the rest of us, when Sam carries Frodo up the slopes of Mount Doom while saying, "C'mon Mr. Frodo! I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" Were the AFI voters not likewise inspired to go out and carry the weight of the world—indeed, to save the world?

OK, I'm getting carried away. But that's what inspiring films do.

Jean Picker Firstenberg, AFI's Director and CEO, says the list "celebrates the films that … encourage us to make a difference and send us from the theatre with a greater sense of possibility and hope for the future."

Sorry, but if Return of the King doesn't do that for you, you must not have a pulse.

Forget about The Lord of the Rings for a moment. What about the Lord himself?

Jesus is nowhere to be found in the list of 100 films, unless you count Ben-Hur, in which Charlton Heston's title character encounters Christ—though never exchanges words with him—on a couple of occasions.

But Jesus as portrayed in the Bible? Nowhere in the list.

At least Charlton Heston made the list

Matter of fact, there's only one Bible movie in the top 100, The Ten Commandments. And there are a number of films that include Christians as prominent characters, such as Chariots of Fire, Lilies of the Field, The African Queen, and a few others.

But looking at the 300 nominees, it's remarkable how many films about Jesus and the Bible were left out of the top 100—like The King of Kings (1927), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Godspell (1973), and The Passion of The Christ (2004), all of which were named to our own recent list of the Top Ten Jesus Movies. Also nominated but omitted from the AFI's list were King of Kings (1961), The Bible (1966), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). (For what it's worth, I'm glad those last two were left off the list.)

next page... |  1 of 2 | last page