Wednesday, the American Film Institute announced their update list for the best 100 movies of all-time (you can see the whole list at the bottom of this post). This time around, films from 1996-2006 were eligible as well, and a few made the cut, like The Sixth Sense, Titanic and Toy Story. Other films, like Amadeus, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Rebel Without a Cause were booted from the illustrious list. I’m sure all of you have your own opinions about this cockamamie list. Here are mine:
How do you define “greatest”? Are we talking most influential? Because if we are, how did Birth of a Nation and The Jazz Singer not make the cut? How else can you explain the inclusion of something like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Toy Story which are clearly important as the first full-length animated and computer animated films ever, respectively, but which otherwise are not really “great” films? There’s a real disconnect in that regard.
Also, are we talking about the most enjoyable films? Or the most important films? Because I’ll tell you right now, Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Dr. Strangelove, while extremely important films in a historical/scholarly way, are not all that enjoyable to watch (each is about mmm, 100 minutes too long? Sound about right?)
Now for some closer looks at a few of the picks that really boggle my mind:
1. Vertigo at number 9?? 10 years ago it was at number 61. What happened? People all of a sudden decided this was better than The Wizard of Oz? Better than Pyscho even? I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Vertigo. If you’ve never taken a film studies course in high school or college and weren’t alive when it came out, my guess is that you haven’t. Watch it now, without any scholarly explanation. If you think the movie is still great then, I’ll be shocked.
2. Lawrence of Arabia at #7?! 7!???? WHA????!?!?! It’s good, don’t get me wrong. Great even. But the 7th greatest of all time? I like to think that a film’s entirety must be taken into account when deciding its overall greatness, and while the first half of this movie is sensational, the second half is boring boring boring. Just try stay awake for all 4 hours. I dare you.
3. King Kong at#40? What a joke. Bonnie and Clyde should be in the top 20, but since it isn’t, at least have the decency to put it before the monkey movie. We’re talking the birth of the Golden Age of Cinema here! How can you devalue Bonnie and Clyde like that! Come on!
4. The Philadelphia Story– Maybe this movie was great in 1940 when it came out. I rented it. Its a 70-75 ranking at best. I don’t care how many famous actors are in it, or how great they are in the movie. The movie as a whole? Very, very average.
5. Tootise at 69? A so-so romantic comedy clocks in ahead of Ben-Hur, Silence of the Lambs and Goodfellas?? Again, maybe people really loved this when it came out. I’ve seen it. Not so great. If you’re going to put a great Dustin Hoffman film in the 69 spot, why not go with the much better choice of Kramer vs. Kramer?
6. Cabaret & The Shawshank Redemption– great additions to the list. Nice job, AFI, although Shawshank should be much, much higher than 72. Is there a single person who doesn’t love this movie?
7. Saving Private Ryan at #71– what a crock. If this were a list of “100 Greatest First Hours of a Movie,” this would be #1. As a whole, this movie is not good. Not sort of good, not so-so, but not good. The opening Normandy battle is one of the greatest moments (so its a long moment) in the history of moving pictures, that’s for sure. But as a movie, this should be much further back on the list.
8. The animated films– Who hear really thinks Snow White and Toy Story are the 2 best Disney films? Anybody on the planet? If you’re going to throw some animated films on there, at least make them the very best of the bunch. Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and my personal favorite, The Lion King, are all much greater movies than Snow White. And for computer animated movies, Finding Nemo, Monster’s Inc. and The Incredibles are all better movies than Toy Story, easily. Shame on you, AFI. Have you no children?
9. Missing movies– Where the hell is Philadelphia? The Matrix? Jerry Maguire? When Harry Met Sally? M? East of Eden? Rebel Without a Cause? You’re going to have an American Greatest Movies list without James Dean, Denzel Washington or Tom Cruise? Those are three of the greatest film actors ever (maybe not Tom Cruise, but he’s certainly one of the most ubiquitous) and their greatest films are not on this list?
Overall, they did a pretty good job with this list, I have to say. But before the next one rolls around, the guys over at AFI need to figure out the real definition of “Greatest” and change this list accordingly. So there.
Now you guys tell me your opinions. Agree with their list? Agree with my comments? Disagree? Please let me know!
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE’S GREATEST MOVIES
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)
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)
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)
48. “Rear Window” (1954)
49. “Intolerance” (1916)
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)
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)
Serpico should be on the list.
Pingback: » AFI’s Top 100 Films List - No “Willow”??
Yes. I concur. Nice call. Aside from being the ultimate badass with integrity, dude invented the whole Hobo chic look.
Pingback: Movies Lover :: Entries :: AFI’s Top 100 Films List - No “Willow”??
Your favorite Alien Life Form here again. MM, I am in total agreement with your skepticism of the list. I think the problem is the lack of categorical specification within this list. Maybe they do more genre-based lists that we do not know about?
Either way, comparing a movie like ‘Modern Times’ with ‘Toy Story’ is as useless as comparing a 1985 Bordeaux with a 2003 California Chardonnay. Or comparing Willie May’s center field catch to Kirk Gibson’s walk-off homer in game 1 of the 1988 world series, as many sports shows do in their ‘greatest sports play ever’.
Why? Because we can argue about it…and watch more movies….and drink more wine….and watch more sports.
Signing off from planet Melmac,
Alf
Well said, my super furry friend. Well said.
I would like to defend the decision to place Toy Story on the list, because I think that you raise a good point: on the whole, Pixar has made better films (I don’t know if another CG studio has, that’s a tougher call to make).
However, I believe that Toy Story does deserve accolades for more than its “1st CG Feature Film” status. From top to bottom, Toy Story is a conceptually fascinating film. If Transformers was a television show designed to sell toys, Toy Story was a film designed by the people who bought them.
And I think that this is why the film resonates: everyone has toys, or had toys, or is looking to purchase toys in the near future. The sense of nostalgia that the film roots itself in is, in my view, something that cannot be bested by anything else Pixar has created. While I personally enjoy other Pixar films more, conceptually I think Toy Story is the strongest they’ve made. Its themes would also be the ones most likely to resonate with old people at the AFI.
Now, as for Snow White, I’d rather seen them go with something from the modern era…but what? Beauty and the Beast is the best film from the era, in my books, but Little Mermaid started it all and Lion King arguably topped it off. I think that the AFI is too lazy to make a decision and went with something safe (Considering that Fantastia used to be on the list and got kicked off, it appears that non-token “1sts” or “Event” Animated films will get their due.
Maybe next decade.
Hey Myles- as for other CG studios, I don’t think any CGI film ever has come even close to matching a Pixar film. I’ll take Pixar’s worst (Cars?) over Shrek or Madagascar any day.
But as for Toy Story being the most resonant film thematically, I’d have to disagree. Part of what makes Pixar films so special is that they all have so much heart. Whether its the nostalgia created by the toys in Toy Story, or the protection of love and family at all costs in Nemo, or how we struggle with leaving our glory days behind in The Incredibles, each film is very emotionally resonant in its own way.
I don’t think you could really argue that one is more emotionally resonant than the other once it comes to the really great films (obviously, A Bug’s Life is not on par with Toy Story, for example), but personally, I connected much more with Monster’s Inc. and The Incredibles more than with Toy Story. If the rest of the AFI list is our guide, I’d say its a safe bet that Toy Story is up there because it was revolutionary in the path of animated films and put Pixar on the map.
What the fuck is “Yankee Doodle Dandy” still doing on this list? Who the hell is still casting their votes for that stupid movie? Who the hell wants to watch James Cagney turn himself into a stupid, dancing penis for two hours? Fuck you, Yankee Doodle Dandy; fuck you and your stupid hat.
And why did they pick the Fellowship of the Ring?
Thanks for your passionate comments AlvySinger! I’ve never seen Yankee Doodle Dandy, but the fact that it’s number 99 renders it suspect anyways. Plus, if its as you describe, it probably blows.
But, I must defend the Fellowship of the Ring pick. That movie was absolutely sensational, a once-in-a-lifetime cinematic experience, the likes of which has never otherwise been seen and will probably not be seen again for a long time to come (unless this fall’s The Golden Compass is executed well, but there’s no way they’ll pull it off).
I know its sort of a love/hate kind of thing when it comes to big fantasy epics like Lord of the Rings, but the AFI list proves that us elf-lovers are the majority, so there
I pretty much agree with what you’ve said here. I think Shawshank definetaly deserves to be ranked higher than it is. Also any or all of the Lord of the Rings movies could have made the list. The only disagreement I have with you is on Saving Private Ryan. I think its a great movie throughout and deserves to be on the list. It would probably make my top 20, but of course I haven’t seen half the movies on the AFI top 100.
Pingback: Actors and Actresses » AFI’s Top 100 Films List - No Willow?? Media Maven Musings
Seriously how did The Matrix not make it on the list? Its one of the most influential films of all time and revolutionized cinematography in the movies
And I totally agree that AFI likes to play it safe and go with “older” films and not neccesarily better films. Snow White and the 7 dwarves is not even close to being one of Disney’s best animated. They should have given the spot to Lion King, really who doesn’t like the Lion King? Or if not the Lion King at least Beauty and the Beast.
Toy Story? I’m not too crazy about it but its not as bad as picking Snow White. I understand why they chose it but Pixar has had better films: The Incredibles and Finding Nemo.
Its cool how 6th sense made it there, didn’t see that coming but WTF is up with E.T and Titanic making it? And Saving Private Ryan? Good films but I wouldn’t say AFI status.