Rethinking the film classics

In the new Classic Hollywood issue of Los Angeles magazine (not yet online), Steve Erickson nominates ten classic films that don't belong in the pantheon, and ten that aren't regarded as greats but should be. He suggests de-listing, among others, Gone With the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life, On the Waterfront, Rio Bravo, Psycho, The Graduate and Star Wars ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind, there was a movie that had you searching the skies...Leaving the theater from Star Wars, you searched for your car.").

He would elevate to classics status The Shop Around the Corner, Leave Her to Heaven, Unfaithfully Yours, The Birds, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Night Moves, The Man Who Would be King, The Freshman, The Last of the Mohicans ("Daniel Day-Lewis...and Madeline Stowe were the hottest movie couple of the '90s") and Dead Man.

Also in the November issue, Ariel Swartley probes the Orange County fiction of T. Jefferson Parker, Mona Gable explains why Dr. Jay Gordon is the Westside pediatrician of the moment, and Karen Wada takes in the art of nude contortionists Hannah Kim and Mark Steger. Excerpts of ex-Lakers coach Phil Jackson's book have already been mentioned here and here.