Thursday, June 21, 2007

Top 100 Films

according to the AFI. From slashfilm, cinematical and others comes the news that the American Film Institute has re-ordered their list for the list's 10-year anniversary. I've bolded the ones I've seen.

1. “Citizen Kane” (1941)
2. “The Godfather” (1972)
3. “Casablanca” (1942)
4. “Raging Bull” (1980)
5. “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952)
6. “Gone With the Wind” (1939)
7. “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962)
8. “Schindler’s List” (1993)
9. “Vertigo” (1958)
10. “The Wizard of Oz” (1939)
11. “City Lights” (1931)
12. “The Searchers” (1956)
13. “Star Wars” (1977)
14. “Psycho” (1960)
15. “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)
16. “Sunset Boulevard” (1950)
17. “The Graduate” (1967)
18. “The General” (1927)
19. “On the Waterfront” (1954)
20. “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946)
21. “Chinatown” (1974)
22. “Some Like It Hot” (1959)
23. “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940)
24. “E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)
25. “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962)
26. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939)
27. “High Noon” (1952)
28. “All About Eve” (1950), but I don't remember it. I guess I was in high school at the time.
29. “Double Indemnity” (1944)
30. “Apocalypse Now” (1979)
31. “The Maltese Falcon” (1941)
32. “The Godfather, Part II” (1974)
33. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975)
34. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)
35. “Annie Hall” (1977), another that I remember seeing but don't remember much of.
36. “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957)
37. “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946)
38. “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948)
39. “Dr. Strangelove” (1964)
40. “The Sound of Music” (1965)
41. “King Kong” (1933)
42. “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967)
43. “Midnight Cowboy” (1969)
44. “The Philadelphia Story” (1940)
45. “Shane” (1953)
46. “It Happened One Night” (1934)
47. “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951). Yet another I've seen on late night TV many years ago but only remember pieces of.
48. “Rear Window” (1954)
49. “Intolerance” (1916), or at least I've seen the first half or so. It was so long, and we meant to finish it but never did.
50. “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001)
51. “West Side Story” (1961)
52. “Taxi Driver” (1976)
53. “The Deer Hunter” (1978)
54. “M*A*S*H” (1970)
55. “North by Northwest” (1959)
56. “Jaws” (1975). Yes I know I'm one of the few people in the known universe who hasn't seen it....
57. “Rocky” (1976)
58. “The Gold Rush” (1925)
59. “Nashville” (1975)
60. “Duck Soup” (1933)
61. “Sullivan’s Travels” (1941)
62. “American Graffiti” (1973)
63. “Cabaret” (1972)
64. “Network” (1976)
65. “The African Queen” (1951)
66. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981)
67. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966)
68. “Unforgiven” (1992)
69. “Tootsie” (1982)
70. “A Clockwork Orange” (1971)
71. “Saving Private Ryan” (1998)
72. “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994)
73. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969)
74. “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
75. “In the Heat of the Night” (1967)
76. “Forrest Gump” (1994)
77. “All the President’s Men” (1976)
78. “Modern Times” (1936)
79. “The Wild Bunch” (1969)
80. “The Apartment” (1960)
81. “Spartacus” (1960)
82. “Sunrise” (1927)
83. “Titanic” (1997)
84. “Easy Rider” (1969)
85. “A Night at the Opera” (1935)
86. “Platoon” (1986)
87. “12 Angry Men” (1957)
88. “Bringing Up Baby” (1938)
89. “The Sixth Sense” (1999)
90. “Swing Time” (1936)
91. “Sophie’s Choice” (1982)
92. “Goodfellas” (1990)
93. “The French Connection” (1971)
94. “Pulp Fiction” (1994)
95. “The Last Picture Show” (1971)
96. “Do the Right Thing” (1989)
97. “Blade Runner” (1982)
98. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942)
99. “Toy Story” (1995)
100. “Ben-Hur” (1959)

I disagree with the list, of course, or I don't understand what they mean by "top" films. I'd definitely place a Star Wars movie on that list (edit: in the top 10), for example. Not a single movie in the top 10 was released during the last 10 years and only one was released in the last 25. According to Cinematical the following movies were on the last list but dropped for this incarnation:

Doctor Zhivago
Birth of a Nation
From Here to Eternity
Amadeus
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Third Man
Fantasia
Rebel Without a Cause
Stagecoach
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Manchurian Candidate
An American in Paris
Wuthering Heights
Dances With Wolves
Giant
Mutiny on the Bounty
Frankenstein (1931)
Patton, The Jazz Singer
My Fair Lady
A Place in the Sun
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Fargo


6/22 update:

DailyFilmDose has a comment on the list, including how the voting is done and breakdowns by decade and director. They also reference the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound Top 10 poll, which includes foreign films. 6 of the movies appear on the AFI list.

GreenCine comments here. They have links to several other sites that are discussing the new list.

Film Experience Blog offers its take here. I do not subscribe to that blog feed but happened across it and noticed this post.

The filmsnoir blog has something to say about the neglect of the Film Noir genre in the list. According to their information 22 of the films noir on the ballot didn't get in. Including Laura. And Rear Window.

4 comments:

  1. Star Wars was on the list! #13!

    The Illusionist should be on that list.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd put a Star Wars in the top 10! Maybe next time....

    I liked The Illusionist, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, and I'd put The Manchurian Candidate, Frankenstein and My Fair Lady back on.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Actually I find creating a personal "top 100 movies" list to be a fun challenge. After you get your 100 - and you see movie #101 that you know belongs in the list - you've got some thinking to do.

    I've given it a stab here.

    --Thanks

    ReplyDelete