Greatest movie scenes ever # 36

There's a hella engaging essay by David Thomson in the latest issue of Sight & Sound outlining why he believes Citizen Kane should win S&S's next once-a-decade Greatest Film of All Time critics' poll in 2012, where he also explains why he wouldn't be too morose if it didn't win, how a fully restored director's print of The Magnificent Ambersons as Welles intended it would deserve to finally topple Kane from Mount Olympus, and proposing that if Kane does take the gold medal again as it's done every decade since 1962, then maybe it should be retired as the first entry into a cinematic hall of fame in the same way that the Yankees retired the # 5 jersey in honour of Joe DiMaggio in the hope that a more recent picture like Pierrot le fou, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie, The Shining, Raging Bull, Taste of Cherry, or There Will Be Blood would enter the top 10 in its place.

All of which, I hasten to add, just about makes up for Toy Story 3 not finding its way into S&S's top 10 of 2010 critics' list (you can read it in full here). Predictably, The Social Network polled the most votes as their movie of the year ahead of Carlos, while Toy Story 3 lingered out in the wilderness at # 13 tied with Aurora, Enter The Void, The Illusionist, and Meek's Cutoff. To which I gotta sky : why are we going to let critics who can't even recognise the best American flick of the year decide whether the time is ripe for Vertigo, The Godfather 1 + 2, La Règle Du Jeu, or Tokyo Story to finally usurp Kane? Letting the general public vote on anything more salient than the fate of Cher Lloyd on the X-Factor (Chloe Mafia got the boot so this 'yatch could do karaoke versions of Turn My Swag On and Nothin' On You on live prime time saturday night tv? Harmony can only be restored to the universe if she performs a rendition of Soulja Boy and Lil B's 30 Thousand, 100 Million in the final and brings out Chloe to do B's verse) should never be an option as the utter mess that is the IMDB top 250 testifies, but can we even entrust the most prestigious worldwide critics to forge the canon for the chil'ren when there were votes for Knight And Day and Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps in amongst their ballots? Shit, dudes could've at least plumped for Piranha 3D as their token Hollywood wild card.

Anyhoo, Toy Story 3 towered over everything else for me this year with the exception of Carlos as it's a picture so moving that even Billy Danze and Paulie Walnuts couldn't help but well-up at the end, and with it we can finally put the "what the best front-to-back trilogy of all time?" debate to rest. Here's one of its myriad of great scenes :



Here's hoping that, much like Kane itself which failed to scrape a spot in S&S's very first Critics top 10 poll in 1952 (it was joint # 11 alongside La Grande Illusion and The Grapes Of Wrath) or Rio Bravo which they deemed unworthy of a review in 1959, the haughty bastards at S&S will catch the vapours and recognise Toy Story 3 as 2010's masterpiece in the not too distant future.

Biz Markie - Vapors