On the “Ten Best” Fixation

This is the time of the year when many, particularly journalists, like to reflect on what has happened since January 1, 2025. Those reflections often lead to “Ten Best” lists, written to reassure readers that, over the long run, this was a good year after all. The one thing I know about these lists is that, more often than not, they never seem to agree with my personal tastes and values!

It is in this context that I just finished reading an article by G. Allen Johnson in the “Datebook” section of today’s San Francisco Chronicle. The title of the article was “Year’s 10 best movies tackled politics, culture wars.” I shall not enumerate the selections; but it would be fair to say that each of them was more “tackled by” than “tackling.” Put another way, this seems to be a year in which breadth triumphed over depth; and, in the context of yesterday’s news about the Kennedy Center, this is a triumph that is running rampant, if not entirely out of control.

Hermann Göring during cross examination during the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg (official Army photograph by Raymond D’Addario, public domain)

The fact is that my only agreement with Johnson showed up in the “Honorable Mentions” list. That was Nuremberg. I went to see that film with initial skepticism, having watched and enjoyed several viewings of Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the overall narrative flow in Nuremberg, even if Johnson seemed to think that the primary asset was the casting of Russell Crowe in the role of Hermann Göring.

To be fair, mine is the generation born right after the conclusion of World War II. We grew up on action movies reliving episodes from the battles in both Europe and the Pacific. That makes me a little less than 40 years older than James Vanderbilt, who wrote the script for Nuremberg (and also produced the film). Put another way, it is unlikely that Vanderbilt had any “immediate sources” to consult while working on the script. I suspect that the best he could have done would have been to read William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but a book of over 1200 pages can be pretty daunting!

To be fair to both Vanderbilt and Johnson, however, those of us with memories that reach back into the middle of the last century, will not be around to complain much longer; so, for the present at least, just bear with us!