Drugs, Car Chases, and Poughkeepsie.

As i turns out, the first movie selected was one i know practically nothing about. The French Connection. I think maybe this was the best way to get started on the whole adventure. Since Mo and i were taking absolutely no expectations in with us, we were both open to being pleasantly surprised by by this 70's police drama. Definitely one of the things i enjoyed most was Gene Hackmans portrayal of Detective "Popeye" Doyle (based on real life detective Eddie Egan). The man is violent, crude, a heavy drinker, more than a little racist, and a bit of a man whore. But he does have the redeeming quality of being a genuinely good man who wants to see justice done. I often get the feeling that this is the happy medium most cops actually fall into, flawed but ultimately they are motivated by the best intentions. So its not surprising to learn that Hackman spent quite a lot of time in the back of a squad car preparing for the role.

The other part of the movie that stands out is the chase scene. Now keep in mind this isn't just any chase scene it is the chase scene; considered by most to be the best put on film. But i have to admit, when the time finally arrived i wasn't all that impressed by what i saw. The entire thing just felt like one big cliche. Driving against traffic? Check! rear ending another car with "hows my driving?" bumper sticker? Check! Narrowly avoiding a lady and a baby carriage? Check! i was actually pretty annoyed. This epic chase scene which apparently made all of Hollywood blow a collective load, was full of the same shit they cram into every action sequence involving anything from a monster truck to a shopping cart. But then it hit me that what sets The French Connection apart is that it did it first. This scene was considered so perfect that other filmmakers have been trying to emulate it for years. And that's pretty sweet.

As i said, Mo and i were both really surprised by just how much we enjoyed this movie. Which as it turns out is a great motivator for the rest of the project. We've accepted that there are going to be some movies on the list that we hate. There is a three and a half hour silent film about about "loves struggles though the ages" on there, and we both agree we will be blind drunk by the end of it. But the French Connection reminds us of why we wanted to do this in the first place, and we're excited for the next!

*Note* We actually watched this separately before the blog was started, and as a consequence don't have a meal for this one. And yes, i know we missed a great opportunity to make french food. But i guarantee there is some amazing stuff on the horizon!

How have i not seen Citizen Kane!?

I consider myself one hell of a movie buff. When i was young i spent countless hours in my Aunts basement, which had more VHS tapes the the average Blockbuster, selecting a movie and random, watching it, and then putting it back to watch another. I was the only ten year old who loved The Oscars more than Christmas, and never lost at six degrees of Kevin Bacon. It's only gotten worse from there. Now whenever i watch a movie i must first consult wikipedia and learn as much about it as possible. When the movie is finished i spend at least an hour on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) and read through all of the trivia for the film, its soundtrack, and investigate what other movies the principle actors have been in.

With all this in mind, I'm often amazed at all of the movies i haven't seen. Take for instance, Citizen Kane. I'm sure plenty of people have not seen this, especially since most movie goers cant stand the thought of sitting through anything black and white. But for someone like me this is a huge oversight. Or even better yet, The Graduate. Even my grandmother had seen it! (though she probably tried to watch it on a microwave oven).

Mo on the other hand, loves to cook. And not in the Susie Homemaker, meat and potato's kind of way. This woman cooks a new recipe for her family almost every night! her kids probably think corn dogs are exotic, and i know for a fact they eat vegetables that i can hardly pronounce. To me, making a popsicle means shoving a toothpick in some koolaid and praying to the sweet baby Jesus you can pry it out of the ice cube try when its frozen. To Mo it means making this. I shit you not. Imagine Martha Stewart with pin up girl tattoos and a slightly lower conviction rate, and you have a petty good picture of Marissa "Mo" Morden

And so it was Mo who struck upon our current endeavor. Watch all one hundred movies on The American Film Institutes must see list, and pair each one up with a sweet new recipe. We're using a random number generator to tell us which movie we are watching next, which will hopefully keep us from watching all the exciting movies first and then being stuck with nothing left but silent films from the 1930's. We've already agreed that wine will be a crucial ingredient for watching some of those. The Blog is really just a chance to share the experiance wit anyone who is interested, and share the amazing meals we are no doubt going to enjoy. I'm sure at some point i'm going to try my hand at the cooking, and i've already told Mo she is going to have to be brave and write a post from time to time. We're not quite sure how we're going to structure this thing yet, but i know we are both super excited to start.