[JKCalhoun]

> would probably need to be put into context to make sense

You're right. The book ("1001 Movies to See Before You Die") gives that context. I was surprised though that, as I went through them — slogging even, as you say, at times — in time I started to develop perhaps a new way of looking at film. And then slowly I found I was "slogging" a lot less. I began even thinking a bit more fondly back on the films I had seen earlier on that had been more of struggle for me to watch.