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Enlisting agony
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/08/2012
» Two weeks ago, Alfred Hitchcock got a little help from bleary-eyed, worldwide critics to stare down Orson Welles. "King Kane dethroned," this page headlined the news that Vertigo finally unseated Citizen Kane, the champion of the past 50 years, to take the top spot in a once-every-10-year poll to find the Greatest Films of All Time. Such cinephilic pursuit, done by sedentary experts, is not remotely as stimulating as Bolt's or Phelps's photo-finish performances of recent memories, but greatness, like election, has to be justified at an appropriate interval, for public benefit. The canon needs to be reinforced, and here we're lulled into the land of the list.