100 years... 100 movies June 17, 1998
Last night, the American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the “100 greatest American movies of all time”. The films were selected from a 400-title ballot by a panel of 1,500 leaders from across the American film industry, politics and “average” moviegoers across the country. All the movies on the list had been produced during the first 100 years of American filmmaking from 1896 through 1996. The final list of selections is hardly surprising and was to some extend rather predicable, even more so as only very view independent and off-beat movies made it onto the original 400-title ballot to start with. None of them managed to end in the final selections, which were mostly dominated by post 50’s films. There was also a definite preference for big movies and previous Oscar winners over smaller, more exotic movies, that were only marginally American, with maybe the exception of movies such as “Lawrence of Arabia” or “Clockwork Orange”. Early movies also were sparse on the list and with the exception of three Chaplin movies, none of them made it to the final selection. Of course, selections like these are always prone to debates. Movies do not only have a technical and crafted aspect to themselves, they are also intrinsicly artistic, which is very hard to judge and oftentimes clearly a matter of taste and preference. Still, there can hardly be an argument over the choice of the single-best movie of all times on the list. The number 1 spot was clearly taken by Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”, a masterpiece that stands out way above the rest.
On an interesting sidenote, you might be excited to hear that many of the 100 titles announced yesterday are available or scheduled for release on DVD.
Finally then, here is the complete list of the “100 best American movies”, as announced yesterday during the special television broadcast by CBS.
1. Citizen Kane, (1941) Orson Welles
2. Casablanca, (1942) Michael Curtiz
3. The Godfather, (1972) Francis Ford Coppola
4. Gone With the Wind, (1939) Victor Fleming
5. Lawrence of Arabia, (1962) David Lean
6. The Wizard of Oz, (1939) Victor Fleming
7. The Graduate, (1967) Mike Nichols
8. On the Waterfront, (1954) Elia Kazan
9. Schindler's List, (1993) Steven Spielberg
10. Singin' In the Rain, (1952) Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
11. It's a Wonderful Life, (1946) Frank Capra
12. Sunset Boulevard, (1950) Billy Wilder
13. The Bridge On the River Kwai, (1957) David Lean
14. Some Like It Hot, (1959) Billy Wilder
15. Star Wars, (1977) George Lucas
16. All About Eve, (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
17. The African Queen, (1951) John Huston
18. Psycho, (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
19. Chinatown, (1974) Roman Polanski
20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, (1975) Milos Forman
21. The Grapes of Wrath, (1940) John Ford
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey, (1968) Stanley Kubrick
23. The Maltese Falcon, (1941) John Huston
24. Raging Bull, (1980) Martin Scorsese
25. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, (1982) Steven Spielberg
26. Dr. Strangelove, (1964) Stanley Kubrick
27. Bonnie & Clyde, (1967) Arthur Penn
28. Apocalypse Now, (1979) Francis Ford Coppola
29. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, (1939) Frank Capra
30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, (1948) John Huston
31. Annie Hall, (1977) Woody Allen
32. The Godfather, Part II, (1974) Francis Ford Coppola
33. High Noon, (1952) . Fred Zinnemann
34. To Kill a Mockingbird, (1962) Robert Mulligan
35. It Happened One Night, (1934) Frank Capra
36. Midnight Cowboy, (1969) John Schlesinger
37. The Best Years of Our Lives, (1946) William Wyler
38. Double Indemnity, (1944) Billy Wilder
39. Doctor Zhivago, (1965) David Lean
40. North By Northwest, (1959) Alfred Hitccock
41. West Side Story, (1961) Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins
42. Rear Window, (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
43. King Kong, (1933) Merian C. Cooper
44. The Birth of a Nation, (1915) D. W. Griffith
45. A Streetcar Named Desire, (1951) Elia Kazan
46. A Clockwork Orange, (1971) Stanley Kubrick
47. Taxi Driver, (1976) Martin Scorsese
48. Jaws, (1975) Steven Spielberg
49. Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, (1937) David Hand, et al.
50. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, (1969) George Roy Hill
51. The Philadelphia Story, (1940) George Cukor
52. From Here To Eternity, (1953) Fred Zinnemann
53. Amadeus, (1984) Milos Forman
54. All Quiet On the Western Front, (1930) Lewis Milestone
55. The Sound of Music, (1965) Robert Wise
56. M*A*S*H, (1970) Robert Altman
57. The Third Man, (1949) Orson Welles
58. Fantasia, (1940) Joe Grant, Dick Huemer
59. Rebel Without a Cause, (1955) Nicholas Ray
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark, (1981) Steven Spielberg
61. Vertigo, (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
62. Tootsie, (1982) Sydney Pollack
63. Stagecoach, (1939) John Ford
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, (1977) Steven Spielberg
65. The Silence of the Lambs, (1991) Jonathan Demme
66. Network, (1976) Sidney Lumet
67 The Manchurian Candidate, (1962) John Frankenheimer
68. An American In Paris, (1951) Vincente Minnelli
69. Shane, (1953) George Stevens
70. The French Connection, (1971) William Friedkin
71. Forrest Gump, (1994) Robert Zemeckis
72. Ben-Hur, (1959) William Wyler
73. Wuthering Heights, (1939) William Wyler
74. The Gold Rush, (1925) Charlie Chaplin
75. Dances With Wolves, (1990) Kevin Costner
76. City Lights, (1931) Charlie Chaplin
77. American Graffiti, (1973) George Lucas
78. Rocky, (1976) John Avildsen
79. The Deer Hunter, (1978) Michael Cimino
80. The Wild Bunch, (1969) Sam Peckinpah
81. Modern Times, (1936) Charlie Chaplin
82. Giant, (1956) George Stevens
83. Platoon, (1986) Oliver Stone
84. Fargo, (1996) Joel Cohen
85. Duck Soup, (1933) Leo McCarey
86. Mutiny On the Bounty, (1935) Frank Lloyd
87. Frankenstein, (1931) James Whale
88. Easy Rider, (1969) Dennis Hopper
89. Patton, (1970) Franklin Schaffner
90. The Jazz Singer, (1927) Alan Crosland
91. My Fair Lady, (1964) George Cukor
92. A Place In the Sun, (1951) George Stevens
93. The Apartment, (1960) Billy Wilder
94. Goodfellas, (1990) Martin Scorsese
95. Pulp Fiction, (1994) Quentin Tarantino
96. The Searchers, (1956) John Ford
97. Bringing Up Baby, (1938) Howard Hawks
98. Unforgiven, (1992) Clint Eastwood
99. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, (1967) Stanley Kramer
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy, (1942) Michael Curtiz
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