Regular readers will probably have noticed that I have changed the star rating system on the site. You might be wondering why on earth I did this, especially since I spent a while a few months ago discussing my coveted "Classic" rating in a Feature. The reason is actually very simple, mainly that I realised that too much effort was going into the process of assigning stars. The stars should be a general indicator of the tone of the review, and not a definitive or overly accurate summary. By having fewer choices it makes the process of assigning them easier, and it also prevents me doing something I really hate - listing and overly comparing films.

When there are too many choices it makes the whole thing more difficult. For example, what is the difference between a 1 and a 2 star film? What is the difference between a good 3 star and a weak 4 star film? Sometimes the differences were so minute that it was actually frustrating to attach a star rating to a particular review. So by having fewer choices it means you'll still be able to get the general gist of the review, without me having to take finite considerations into account when assigning the rating. Please note that as a result of this change every review on the site has been re-categorised. For some films this has resulted in a slightly lower rating, and for others a slightly more generous one, but in general I'm happier with the new balance of ratings.

So coming back to my earlier point, what did I mean by "listing films"? It's something that has always bugged me, because it's one thing to point out the positives and negatives of a particular film when writing a detailed review, but it's quite another to form definitive lists of the '100 Best Films' and the '50 Greatest Comedies', and other things of that ilk. I don't think this sort of thing serves a purpose at all, but by having a few too many star ratings on the site this is actually what I was trying to do. I was essentially using minute details and little flaws in films to justify their position in an imaginary rankings list, as well as needlessly comparing them, and I hope that by cutting out a couple of ratings I can avoid doing this in the future.

My main problem with '100 Greatest' lists isn't that I don't agree with a lot of their conclusions (although I confess that I usually don't), it's that they pretend to be objective when they're actually highly subjective. Subjectivity isn't necessarily a problem when a list is complied by one person, because then it's just a ranking of their own opinions and conclusions. But the majority of these lists are put together by mashing together a great number of opinions, be they those of critics or of the general viewing public. When you think about it, using a so-called "consensus" of opinion is actually a way to try to justify these lists, and to present their conclusions as fact rather than opinion. This is precisely my issue with these lists; there's no such thing as a definitive 'Best Film', so why do people insist on trying to justify their results? It would be like trying to say that The Mona Lisa is a better painting than Sunflowers; there's no scientific or logical way to reach that conclusion - it would have to be someone's personal opinion.

Another problem I have with most of these lists is that they mix genres together. I've mentioned this topic in previous Features but it's so important that I think it warrants repeating. How on earth can someone stand up and say, with absolute certainty, that Citizen Kane is a better film than Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Titanic, or The Life of Brian? These films are so different that grouping them together in one big list is simply ridiculous, and even then I'm not exactly in favour of genre lists either.

Come the end of the year it's likely I will produce my own 'Top 10' and 'Bottom 10' lists, and it's something that I'm rather looking forward to. It is my intention that anyone reading them will realise that they simply represent my opinion of the last year in film, and have no basis in fact. They won't be lists of what films were the best and worst, but of what films I think were the best and worst. Unfortunately, too much time is spent compiling lists telling us what films are without a doubt the best ever made, when this something we are all capable of deciding for ourselves.

© David Mercier
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