Thu 21 Jun 2007
The List Unveiled: CITIZEN KANE stands the test of time…
Posted by jporro under 100 Years... 100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition[18] Comments
Ten years later, Orson Welles’s Classic remains a top AFI’s List of 100 Greatest Movies of all time.
Interesting facts about the 2007 list include:
• This is the first year that RAGING BULL and VERTIGO have made the top 10. They were ranked #24 and #61 respectively when the original AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies poll was conducted in 1997.
• Out of the 43 newly eligible films released from 1996 to 2006, only THE LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (#50), SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (#71), TITANIC (#83) and THE SIXTH SENSE (#89) made the cut.
• Other new additions to the list include: THE GENERAL (#18), INTOLERANCE (#49), NASHVILLE (#59), SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (#61), CABARET (#63), WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (#67), THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (#72), IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (#75), ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (#77), SPARTACUS (#81), SUNRISE (#82),
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (#85), 12 ANGRY MEN (#87), SWING TIME (#90), SOPHIE’S CHOICE (#91), THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (#95), DO THE RIGHT THING (#96), BLADE RUNNER (#97) and TOY STORY (#99).
Check out the full Press Release HERE.
18 Responses to “The List Unveiled: CITIZEN KANE stands the test of time…”
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June 21st, 2007 at 8:49 am
As a noted film buff. I find the change in the Top 100 list very interesting. There is obviously tremendous appreciation for treu classic movies, the kind of stuff that just isn’t made anymore. Except for Vertigo, it’s hard to argue with the Top Ten List. It’s nice to see a growing appreciation for classic westerns such as the great move that The Searchers made. That movie truly deserves it’s ranking, maybe even higher. Cannot say the same for Vertigo. An excellent movie, but I’d rather see North by northwest higher. Martin Scorsese is obviously getting greater recognition. The problem with movies like Raging Bull and Schindler’s List is that while they are great movies, they are sometimes very sad to watch. Whre did The General come from? It’s inclusion in the Top 20 is extremely surprising.
I thougt that Saving Private Ryan would make the Top Ten. Someday, it may.
Perhaps the greatest surprise is that Dr. Zhivago dropped completely out despite a #39 ranking last time. Especially when you consider that Nashville was one of the newcomers at #59. It’s a good movie, but I think it has a limited audience appeal. Perhaps it’s a way of honoring the late Robert Altman.
It’s good to see Westerns moved up. However, one that is still shunned is Once Upon A Time In The West, one of my Top Ten.
If the Godfather is #2, how can Part Two only be # 32. And if there never was a Godfather, wouldn’t Once Upon a Time in America be the classic gangster movie. It’s amzing that this great classic is still shunned.
Further note on The Searchers. When will the classic John Wayne line, “That’ll Be The Day”, get recognized as one of the famous quotes?
June 21st, 2007 at 8:52 am
Altough Raging Bull is a very good movie, I don’t think it deserves to be number 4 on the all time movies list. I would agree more with number 24 in 1997. I agree with the rest of the top 10 however.
June 21st, 2007 at 9:01 am
can someone please tell me whats so great about citzen kane. It sucks. I mean i understand that from a technical aspect its amazing but other than that its boring. Ill save you 3 hours its a freakin sled.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:33 am
I have to say that I’m appalled at some of the movies that were dropped from the list.
Dr. Zhivago? Wuthering Heights? All Quiet on the Western Front?
I’m sorry, but I find these movies to be some of the greatest movies ever made!
Laurence Olivier isn’t even represented by a movie in the top 100. That’s a crime in my opinion.
Raging Bull better than Gone With the Wind? I really don’t think so. Yes, it may be a great movie, but just won’t ever touch the burning of Atlanta in my opinion.
While, I am glad that some movies have been rightfully added (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Shawshank Redemption for example…), I still feel like there are a couple of “movies of the moment…” that are being given a considerable push, but will not stand the test of time…
June 21st, 2007 at 1:05 pm
The Godfather is Better than Casablanca?? You have to be kidding. The acting and writing in Casablanca is top notch, nothing compares to it except Citizen Kane. Raging Bull top 25 not #4. It was good to see a few silent classics not on the 97 list, make the top 100 this time around.
June 21st, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Whereas the previously listing of one hundred greatest motion pictures by the AFI reflected the longer view of one hundred years of cinema history, the present listing is a purely juvenile approach, reflecting the currently popular, the “here and the now,” from modern filmmakers whose own works are over-represented.
With the historical perspective diminished, all that this listing conveys is what the coterie of Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas, Eastwood, and Coppola and their limited circle think about each other and each other’s choices.
And the dumbing down is significant. The fact that THE SOUND OF MUSIC, a nicely lensed rendering of what is essentially saccharine fluff, has been booted up, whereas WEST SIDE STORY, a superb cinematic realization of one of the most brilliant musicals of the American theatre, has been booted down, reflects the current lack of perspective.
One suspects that THE SOUND OF MUSIC’s upward trend comes from all those would-be cinema enthusiasts taken by the hand to the movie houses as children and wowed by the vistas of the Austrian Alps on the Silver Screen.
Whereas WEST SIDE STORY’s push downward reflects an inability to understand that its cinematic incarnation involves cinematography and art direction as much players in its evocation onscreen as the music and dance–and in which the choreography and musical structure are also much too sophisticated for the current crop of unenlightened audiences.
Witness, too, the pushing down of longview masterworks such as “Casablanca,” “Gone with the Wind,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “Lawrence of Arabia,” and the bumping up of the trendier “The Godfather,” “Star Wars,” “Pulp Fiction” and “American Graffiti.”
“Star Wars” became so saturated in the mindset of 1970s late Boomer children that even they were turned off by its most recent sequel incarnation on the widescreen. Of course, there never was much there in the first place: the fans at last themselves becoming surfeited only comes from the fact the original was never more than comic book gossamer. The original “Star Wars,” with its structured characterizations, was destined to become banal.
Then there is the phenomenon of “The Godfather,” and its many imitators. One of the best satires of this occurs in the film “You’ve Got Mail,” in which the Tom Hanks character virtually follows a career path based on pithy “Godfather” aphorisms.
Meg Ryan’s character in “You’ve Got Mail”, being a literate, dedicated reader after all, simply cannot understand why so many of her male contemporaries fuss about “The Godfather.” Ultimately, in this parody, and elsewhere, the “Godfather” aphorisms ring hollow. The script, vaulted by those late Baby Boomers, is now so parodied that, like “Star Wars,” there is a comic book mentality when assessing these films at all.
So, while the breathtaking sweep and highly polished dialogue of “Lawrence of Arabia” falls by the wayside, when the epic and meticulously wrought mural of “Gone with the Wind” recedes, when the poetry and poignance of “Casablanca” becomes diminished, and the life-affirming quality of “It’s a Wonderful Life” falls out of vogue, one had best be prepared to watch the trendy stuff of modern filmmakers crawl their way up “greatest” listings, desperate to prove themselves worthy of longevity.
I suspect that many of these self-vaulted “great” works of modern filmmakers will fall out of favor once their creators and their minions have themselves gone to dust.
The only saving grace of the tenth anniversary update of AFI’s “One Hundred Greatest Works of Cinema,” was retaining Orson Welles’ peerless materwork at the very top of the list.
“Citizen Kane” occurred at the midpoint mark in the evolution of cinema, when the great silent masterpieces were becoming distant memories, and not long after Sound Cinema reached its own apex with 1939’s bumper crop of inspired works of filmmaking.
“Kane” was the apotheosis of a youthful genius, both refining to perfection previously underutilized elements of montage, sound, focus, editing, and dialogue, and bringing to these elements his own thrilling cinematic innovations.
That today’s trendy cinema moguls elected to leave “Kane” alone, still very much on its Everest mountaintop, where “Kane” has stood among film historians and critics for some six decades now, is testament to the fact that the trendy lot would like to have the current list still have a measure of legitimacy. They are at least allowing for a longer view of what constitutes greatness, beyond their generational and self-indulgent myopia.
Otherwise, the downward trends and upward thrusts of films in the current listing appears quite silly. One expects the myopic Boomers to vault their own efforts, and to embrace the fluff over the sublime.
Thus, if “All About Eve” is losing favor, perhaps that’s because Joseph Mankiewicz wrote his acerbic aphorisms for a much more literate crowd than those weaned on the caricature and easy verbiage of “Star Wars” and “Godfather” sagas.
The AFI’s original list “The One Hundred Greatest Works of Cinema” at least had the perspective of a century to look back upon. But apart from cementing “Citizen Kane” as its own class of cinema masterwork, the “tenth anniversary” update is a sad, mypoic, and uninspired effort.
The AFI should have left well enough alone. By making “The One Hundred Greatest Works of Cinema” ten year rituals, the AFI merely diminishes from the historical perspective. The longer view of cinema simply cannot care whether the works of Misters Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas, Coppola, and Eastwood are trending upward or downward.
Now, apart from paying continuing homage to “Citizen Kane,” such a listing is otherwise pedestrian indeed.
June 21st, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I agree with you to an extent, Mr. Gianakos, but I think you’re over-reacting a bit. There is no absolute standard of artistic merit, for films or otherwise. Top 10 and Top 100 lists of this sort are nothing more subjective exercises, entirely grounded in the attitudes and values of their times. Moreover, the AFI’s intentions here are as much to generate publicity as they are to “evaluate” films.
So some classic films have been pushed down the recent list and some newer films have moved up? Neither the recent list nor the one from ten years ago affected how I feel about my favorite films, many of which aren’t even acknowledged by the AFI because they are foreign. Nor do I think the new list necessarily represents a dumbing down of American cultural awareness. Were AFI members ten years ago really that much more aesthetically sophisticated than their peers today? I don’t think so.
Who even knows what the greatest film ever is? Maybe it hasn’t even been made yet. Maybe it isn’t an English language film.
I wouldn’t get too worked up about film anyway. Its golden age is over. Just as film supplanted the novel as the preeminent narrative form in the last century, something else will replace film for the same honor in this century. Whatever that something else is—I suspect a more sophisticated and interactive version of today’s computer game—narrative will go on and 100 years hence some organization will be putting out lists evaluating its Top 10 and Top 100 greatest productions.
June 21st, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Andrew,
If you wanna say Casablanca is better than The Godfather, fine. But to imply that Godfather’s acting and directing is NOT also top notch is ridiculous. I personally think the acting in the first two Godfather films is probably the best ensemble acting performance in history. Coppola’s directing is also incredible. Casablanca’s acting and directing are also top notch.
June 21st, 2007 at 7:26 pm
The mistakes:
The Graduate, High Noon, The Best Years of Our Lives, Unforgiven, The Apartment, A Night at the Opera, Tootsie, Sophie’s Choice and Forrest Gump on the list at all.
Vertigo and Raging Bull in the top 10.
Did I mention Forrest Gump? Please.
The Searchers moving into the top 15. It’s good, and I like westerns, but it’s not that good.
The right moves:
Dropping Ben Hur, Clockwork Orange, the French Connection, and the African Queen sharply.
The top 3, and in that order.
Moving up Star Wars.
Sunrise, Swing Time, Do the Right Thing and Toy Story.
June 21st, 2007 at 8:10 pm
AFI asked movie buffs to write-in our opinions for the greatest film (yes, movie buffs, who else checks out sites like AFI?). Over 1,600 voted, more than the AFI voters (which included many non-movie buffs, like George Bush, the Clintons, etc.), so I think the least AFI can do is publish the Top 50 vote-getters in order of finish. It would be very interesting to compare the film fan list with AFI’s, as there are many similarities, many differences, who did better?
I also think it interesting that the #1 vote-getter, Brokeback Mountain, a film that seemed to have all the criteria to make it to the Top 25 or so on the list (most successful film with Best Picture & Director prizes ever in a single year, enormous cultural impact, top story at boxofficemojo.com of 2005, etc.), did not even make the 100. It had about as many movie buff votes as #2-#5 (Godfather, Shawshank, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind) put together, so if AFI really cares about what movie buffs have to say, then how could they completely ignore such an overwhelming result? It is also worth noting that about 1/3 of Brokeback’s votes were from women, while about 98% of Godfather’s were from men, so Brokeback had a diverse following. I find it appalling that Brokeback, Touch of Evil, Night of the Hunter, Days of Heaven, The Third Man (yes, British, but so are Lawrence of Arabia & others), Birth of a Nation (racist but most important American film but Kane), Greed, The Crowd, Notorious, The Magnificent Ambersons, Notorious, Wuthering Heights, All Quiet on the Western Front, Manhattan, My Darling Clementine, Sherlock Jr., Paths of Glory, Blue Velvet, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Hud, Sweet Smell of Success, Manchurian Candidate, Stagecoach, A Place in the Sun, Bride of Frankenstein, To Be or Not to Be (no Lubitsch again!!), Fantasia, Fury (no Lang again!), and a few other indisputable masterpieces were omitted. And while it’s nice they finally recognized Astaire, it should have been Top Hat instead of Swing Time, and for Sturges, Lady Eve and/or Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (though Sullivan is also worthy). Two Marx Brothers is overkill at the expense of so many of these others, and how they chose things like Sixth Sense, French Connection, Forrest Gump, Rocky, Jaws and about a dozen others is beyond me. And yeah, it’s nice they finally got Sunrise, but #82 shows they still don’t even know the film, it would have been in the Top 10 if they knew what they were doing. Thanks.
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:13 am
The Top-100 List: A Celebration of Violence in America
1) A Celebration of Violence
Morgan Freeman said that “films reflect and define who we are”. Many of the films on the list are indeed excellent but it’s interesting to notice that a very impressive and high number of these Top-100 movies deal with violence, war, mafia, murder, gangsters, etc… Furthermore, many of the film excerpts during the CBS broadcast showed countless gunshots, stabbings, explosions and murders; it was pretty gruesome at times, …yet, all of this has become so “normal”. The fact that so many of these movies are considered as “America’s Best” is what’s really revealing and startling. Sadly, these films perhaps reflect the American reality and the top-100 list does assert an obsession & fascination for violence in American culture. Movies and television are America’s mirror to themselves and its window to the world. Should we thus be surprised that the rest of the world perceives the USA as violent?
2) As for Ebert’s opinion, well, why should we care?
Regarding Fargo, well it might be a good movie for some (let’s acknowledge that it was written and shot with originality), but for others it’s just another very gory, gruesome and violent movie.
3) Brokeback Mountain’s Absence: Surprising!
It’s really surprising that Ang Lee’s unforgettable masterpiece Brokeback Mountain which has had such an impact around the world and has been the “most talked about” as well as the “most acclaimed & decorated” movie of the last decade didn’t make the cut. The reason is that it’s probably still too recent; the movie came out just a little more than one year prior to the vote. BBM instantly became a “cultural phenomenon” worldwide and already stands as a milestone in the history of cinema. A book entitled “Brokeback Mountain – The Impact of a Film” has recently been published, the quote “I wish I knew how to quit you” is the most frequently used since Titanic’s “I’m the King of the world”, the term “Brokeback” is now common terminology and, “Ennis & Jack” are now part of the American literary and cinematic culture. There are still references to this remarkable film in newspapers, on television, on the Internet and in various columns around the world on a daily basis. Brokeback Mountain has attained instant “cult status” and its impact has crossed borders – in short, it was a true “landmark film”. BBM will surely stand the test of time and should definitely be included in the Top-100 list next time.
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:49 am
I’m really sorry to see “Ben Hur” has been down graded to #100. This truly great film has it all, a great plot, superb camera work, and most importantly characters about whom the audience really cares. The chariot race is one of the greatest action sequences ever filmed, and anyone who can’t shed a tear of joy when Ben Hur is reunited with his mother and sister must be a really hard hearted person.
I hope that the reason for this downgrade is not due to the fact that Charlton Heston stared in the film. His long term relationship with Nation Rifle Association should have nothing to due with where this film is rated. To me Ben Hur should among the top 20 films of all time. It is certainly ranks with other epics like “Lawrence of Arabia.”
June 22nd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
i think the primary goal of a list such as this is to start conversations such as the one we are having here online. i agreed with many of the picks on the list. i was disappointed to see some films drop off the top 100 (from here to eternity and patton for example). also, i would have put LA confidential and american beuaty on the top 100 as they are now eligible. of course lists such as the AFI top 100 are completely subjective.
what should be the next 100 Greatest ….. special. My suggestion….the 100 greatest movie scenes.
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:10 pm
I think The Third Man is my favorite file right now, followed by Lawrence of Arabia and then Casablanca. Ask me again next week and I will have a different list of films.
The AFI list is the same. Just a snapshot of current thought.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:38 am
What is disgusting is the addition of “The Sixth Sense.” Wow, that piece of gimmicky crap is an insult to the list as well as disappointing coming from AFI. What is this, a “Rolling Stone” popularity list?
June 23rd, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I still cant belive that Citizen Kane made #1. Ok, it was good when it came out but its not as good now and so why is it still on the list. its purpose has changed and it is now a bore. please get it off the list.
glad the the godfather got #2. that movie was amazing.
Casablanca is one of the best movies.
the others are fine but i wonder how and who are doing the polling? are the people from the newer or older generations? we all have different views. glad of some of the changes in the list some good movies made it on and other ousted to hope for a chance later. i was surprised how many 21 century movies made the list. hope that the next list is better than some that made the list.
June 24th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
You wanna talk about culturally significant films, you talk about Fight Club. Brokeback Mountain came and went. Fight Club still remains fresh after almost 10 years.
October 27th, 2007 at 4:04 am
I am personally offended that Titanic and Ben-Hur were so low and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship was so much higher. I was offended that Raging Bull was put over Gone with the Wind. Titanic should be in the top 30. Gone with the Wind should be #1 or #2, under or above Kane.
And, where’s Aliens? Where’s The Terminator or Terminator 2? This list sucks.
That’s my opinion.