83 by 72

“Anachronisms: The film is set during the years 1917-1918. However, most of the female civilian clothes and hairstyles are contemporary with the late 1920s, particularly the clothes worn by Clara Bow in the home sequences and in the Follies Bergere sequence. Bow’s and almost all the other female characters have bobbed hair, common in 1927 but almost non-existent during World War One. “

Courtesy of IMDb

This is why we can’t have nice things. Way to ruin it, anonymous guy who nitpicks everything. 

The sentence, “I’ve decided to watch all the films that won the best picture Academy Award in chronological order and write about each one” usually is met with a blank stare.

I don’t blame the blank stares. I fully understand the madness of the project I am about to undertake. I’m going to sit through 83 films. I’m also going to write 83 essays about these films. It’s a long commitment.

As of this reading, there isn’t a time frame as to when I will complete this task. I just know I want to see this thing to the end.

That’s not to say that this is going to be a very lazy project where an entry will happen once a month. I want to see this thing through in a reasonable and manageable time. There’s a good possibility that there will be an 84th film to add to this list by the time I am through. But, I think that will be all right.

There are a few goals I want to achieve.

Firstly, what fascinates me about this project is that all the movies on this list are windows into a bygone time. They are a snapshot of what the world was thinking and feeling at that time. There will be moments of brilliance that move me. There will be several “What were they thinking?” moments. But, over all, I want to point out how history ties into the whole thing.

Secondly, I want to make sure I spend as little money as possible on this. I want to make sure I’m not buying DVDs that I will only watch once. I’m going to rely heavily on my own personal collection as well as Netflix (and Netflix streaming, courtesy of my AppleTV). There will be a slight hiccup in the beginning, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Finally, I want to enjoy myself. And, in the process, entertain and inform the reader. 

So… first up: Wings