THIS GIRL. SRSLY.

I've stumbled upon this blog from one of the blogs I follow on Tumblr which I find totally awesome. In fact, it's so awesome that I'm taking a break from studying for my Economics midterms scheduled for tomorrow, which I am 0% prepared for, just to blog about this blog. Yes, this is that important. The blog is called 500daysofempire. I won't even bother explaining this blog for you. You'll just have to read from the source:

In 2008, Empire Magazine published its list of the five hundred greatest films of all time, as voted by readers, film critics and the Hollywood elite. It was a massive undertaking and the outcome was no less massive.


In 2010, I decided to watch them all. One a day, in ascending order, from the film ranked #500, all the way through to #1. Some I’d never heard of before reading the list (#492, Amores Perros, for instance). Some I’ve watched so many times, I beat the characters to their punchlines (notably, #27, Some Like It Hot and #5, Jaws). And one film, memorably, I have only seen in fast-forward (#1, The Godfather, much to the horror of my best friend).


To watch one film a day, every day, for the next five hundred days, regardless of what I’m in the mood to watch, or whether or not I’ve ever felt a desire to see certain films on the list, is a ridiculous undertaking, and one only someone with the loosest grasp upon sanity would commit themselves to. So here I am. Armed only with mad determination and the internet, to tackle it.


So, why am I doing this?


Well, I’m a big fan of the big screen. The small screen, too, to be fair. However, due to the fact that I spent most of my formative years reading Agatha Christie novels and thinking I was a fifty-year-old British man, I basically managed to miss out on almost all areas of modern popular culture. My despairing friends have tried many a time to fix this problem (the Star Wars Kidnapping of ’07 stands out in memory), but I think it’s time I did something about it, myself.


Aside from this, to be honest, I need a project. I’m fairly rudderless at the moment, and have been for some time. I need a purpose. I like to think if I can make myself, for once, stick this out ‘til the end, I can say I’ve achieved something. Even if that something is just eating a lot of popcorn and yelling at a screen.


There are going to be some issues, of course. Not least of which is the amount of time this is going to take up. Five hundred films, if taken to average, say, one-and-a-half to two hours each, will still take about a thousand hours to watch. Factor in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (#54, #34 and #24), and I’ll probably still be watching when I’m dead.


Other than that, there’s concern with the list itself. Some sequential films are ranked out of order on the list, which means out of order is how I’m going to be watching them. Some films I’ve seen many a time before, and it’s tempting to skip them on that merit, but that’s against my self-imposed rules. Some films I have previously decided I never want to see, because I like to sleep at night, or because socially awkward scenes in cinema make me want to leave the room, but again, I have made this bed, and now I must lie in it and get popcorn crumbs all over myself.


So, it’s day zero. Tomorrow is day one. Goodbye, rationality. I’ll see you in five hundred days. 

 Amazing, ain't she. This has got to be my next life goal.


She's currently in Day 2, Film #499 of her project. The next 498 days should be interesting.