Lassie Kicks Moses' Ass

I thought Sidney Poitier was dead. Turns out I was wrong. I was wondering about it, which led to my latest mode of distraction -- the Wikepedia chain. Which ended with me having to get on a conference call, right after I learned Lassie is considered more heroic than Moses. Well, maybe, but first how I got there.

I looked up Sidney Poitier on Wikipedia, and thing that hits you first is how much Poitier's career bottomed out in the 1970s.  He went from an Academy Award in Lillies in the Field (1963) to goofing around with Bill Cosby in a trio of blaxploitation, slapstick films (Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It again, A Piece of the Action).  Thankfully, he hung up his acting chops after Sneakers.

But, some of his more underrated films are the Tibbs trilogoy. The most famous of them being In The Heat of the Night.  But, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs and The Organization are fresh in their own rights (if more blaxploitationy). I clicked on the summary for In the Heat of the Night, and there was a link to Virgil Tibbs' page. As I read up on the main character, Virgil Tibbs, I saw a reference and a link to the AFI list of 100 top Heros and Villains.  I clicked on that link. Tibbs was listed the number 19 hero of all time. 

Which is where I saw that the people at AFI were more impressed Lassie's heroics than Moses'. On the one hand, you have an affable Collie who keeps saving the same kid who keeps falling down the same well. On the other hand, you have a conflicted, tormented prophet leading tens of thousands of enslaved Jews to the promised land. Who knew the selectors at AFI were all about the personality. If you are wondering, Tibbs ranked above both of them.  Poitier. Click. Click. Click. Lassie beats Moses. I can spend hours on Wikipedia just following the links.

As I mentioned earlier, the same list has the top 50 villains of all time. Number 1, Hannibal Lecter. Jaws? Number 18! What?!? Think about it this way, if Jaws was Hannibal Lecter he'd eat everyone in sight. Jaws fucked everything up. He wasn't selective. If Hannibal Lecter was a shark, he'd be all selective and shit. Spewing shark philosophy and trying to make a gourmet meal out some snorkler who fit into his weird, psychotic eschatology.  I am sorry, Jaws was more ruthless. He had no soul. He's savage; he ate a boat to get at Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfus. I think only Glenn Close can claim to have done something comparable in a movie.