A cinematic century
An outstanding video for you to watch this weekend
For a while, there was a bubble of YouTubers that spent a good amount of time putting together some amazing video essays about all things pop culture. That moment seems to have passed – the economics of time and energy that it takes to produce this type of work isn't really supported, but I'm always excited to see the occasional video essay that pops up from those still at it.
One of the best is Kristian Williams, who works under the name Kaptainkristian. His channel is chock-full of great videos, exploring everything from the golden age of Superman to why it's impossible to really adapt Alan Moore's Watchman to why Pokémon was such a success when it first launched.
Andrew Liptak
His latest is something a bit different and experimental, and I really loved watching it: 100 Years of History in 100 Films. 2025 marks the moment where we're a quarter of the way through the 21st century, and we've seen some high-profile attempts to examine the cinematic work that's been done so far. This video does something different with 100 films: he looks back at the last century and examines how our world has been depicted through the lens of Hollywood's productions.
Give it a watch here:
In a comment, Williams noted that his only criteria was that "each entry had to be set in a different year than it was filmed, with exceptions for 1984(1984) and The Matrix(1999) since the actual year that both of those stories occur is unknown to the protagonists."
I really love this approach. There's something about the music and selections that really showcases the fraught and the triumphant as we look back at the world as it played out since 1925. He makes some interesting choices to highlight the direction that history has taken. I might have swapped out Son of Saul for Saving Private Ryan to depict 1944, Thirteen Days for X-Men First Class for the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, or Black Hawk Down for The Wolf of Wall Street to show off 1993.
But there's no end to the type of variabilities here, and what I appreciate about this particular video is that it's showing off a broad section of the 20th century, not just looking at one theme over another – you could put together your own list of films that shows off the way the world has reordered itself through war and conflict, or by examining pop culture or family life and so forth.
Moreover, I'm happy to see that he's still making videos. It looks like he's no longer just on YouTube: you can subscribe and support his work over on a platform called Nebula.