A while ago we reported on Daily Film Dose’s retooling of the 100 Greatest Movie List to ask if “Do scholars, historians and industry people think differently than fans?” (Full post HERE).

Now the voting is over and the result are interesting…

From Daily Film Dose:

We can now put rest speculations of how the fans may have voted for their favourite films, in comparison to the AFI’s. The major difference of this list is that the Fanboys were allowed the choice of moving off the 400-film short list for as many selections as possible. The AFI allowed only five, which, in my opinion, cuts down the votes significantly. Funny enough, even with the allowance of as many free selections, all of the films below were on the 400 short list.

Here is the top 10:

1. THE GODFATHER (1972)
2. PSYCHO (1960)
3. PULP FICTION (1994)
4. CASABLANCA (1942)
5. CITIZEN KANE (1941)
6. SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
7. GOODFELLAS (1990)
8. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
9. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
10. STAR WARS (1977)

For the rest: HERE

The online community has spoken! THE GODFATHER is number one, not number two! In response to AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition, over fifty members of the online community got together to vote on their own list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. The list includes over twenty films made after 1990, and quite a few foreign classics as well. Here are the top ten:

The Online Film Community’s Top 10
1. Godfather, The (Coppola, 1972)
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick, 1964)
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981)
5. Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)
6. Blade Runner (R. Scott, 1982)
7. Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
8. Godfather Part II, The (Coppola, 1974)
9. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner, 1980)
10. Alien (R. Scott, 1979)

To see the rest of the list and who participated, check HERE

You can view AFI’s list HERE

As it is sometimes difficult to see the classics in your local multiplex, many of us watch our films on DVD. So if you’re looking to buy any of AFI’s top five of all time, and you’re worried about what edition to buy (special, collectors, super-mega value) the DVD Spin Doctor has given a little rundown of the best bang for your buck.

From dvdspindoctor.typepad.com:

Maybe I’m just bitter because the AFI’s list has my all-time No. 1 movie at No. 15 (”2001″). Yours most likely is buried in there somewhere. Roger Ebert is endangering his health by fuming over the exclusion of “Fargo.” Of the handful of new films added from the past decade, we have “Titanic” and “The Sixth Sense,” decent enough popcorn pics, but the word “great” doesn’t quite come to mind. Here are the AFI’s top 5 films, along with a quick take on the best available DVDs. Buy with confidence.

Check it out HERE

While the debate rages on over AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition, Alan Bacchus over at Daily Film Dose is using AFI’s list of 400 nominated films to create a fan list of the 100 best films from the last 100 (or so) years.

From dailyfilmdose.blogspot.com:

So I decided to conduct an experiment – recreate AFI’s list but cull the information from film bloggers, cinephiles, fanboys/girls, who are equally informed as the 1500 leaders surveyed by the AFI, but represent a completely different demographic. Therefore, the question will be answered – what are the fans’ top 100? Do scholars, historians and industry people think differently than fans?

The entries will continue to be tallied until 1,500 votes are cast, or six weeks have past, whichever comes first. Click HERE to vote.

Posted by Jay Gilman:

Since about 2,000 of us took the time to visit this site (HERE) and post, I thought it would be interesting to see what film got the most posts. After all, almost only movie buffs visit this site, just as valid as the “official” poll in which people like Bush and Clinton voted. As of 6/26/07, I did my best to count. AFI made it difficult by refusing to compile this list despite repeated requests from many of us*, and by allowing multiple votes for the same film by the same person. Trying to eliminate those, one vote per person, here is the approximate finish:

AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE MOVIE BLOG POSTS – TOP 100 – 6/26/07

1. Brokeback Mountain – 124
2. The Godfather – 79
3. Gone with the Wind – 44
4. Star Wars – 43
5. Casablanca – 42
6. The Shawshank Redemption – 42
7. Lord of the Rings Trilogy – 34 [note: Return of the King - 11]
8. Titanic – 34
9. To Kill a Mockingbird – 21
10. Citizen Kane – 20
11. The Sound of Music – 20
12. The Empire Strikes Back – 20
13. It’s a Wonderful Life – 19
14. Lawrence of Arabia – 17
15. American Beauty – 17
16. 2001: A Space Odyssey – 16
17. Schindler’s List – 16
18. The Godfather II – 15
19. Raiders of the Lost Ark – 15
20. Pulp Fiction – 15
21. Doctor Zhivago – 15
22. Goodfellas – 13
23. Vertigo – 12
24. The Third Man – 11
25. The Best Years of Our Lives – 10
25. On the Waterfront – 10
25. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – 10
25. Fight Club – 10
25. Jaws – 10
30. The Graduate – 9
30. Singin’ in the Rain – 9
30. The Quiet Man – 9
30. Memento – 9
30. The Color Purple – 9
35. Sunset Boulevard – 8
35. All About Eve – 8
35. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – 8
35. Rocky – 8
35. The Princess Bride – 8
35. Gladiator – 8
35. Braveheart – 8
35. Back to the Future – 8
43. Chinatown – 7
43. Raging Bull – 7
43. A Clockwork Orange – 7
43. Fargo – 7
43. Blade Runner – 7
43. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – 7
43. Moulin Rouge – 7
43. Forrest Gump – 7

51 – 59 [6 votes each]
Almost Famous, Amadeus, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid, The Deer Hunter, Patton, Psycho, Some Like It
Hot, Taxi Driver, The Wild Bunch

60-66 [5 votes each]
Annie Hall, E.T., The Green Mile, Out of Africa, Rear
Window, The Searchers, The Sting

67-90 [4 votes each]
The Adventures of Robin Hood, Aliens, Ben-Hur, Close
Encounters of the Third Kind, Crash, Dances with
Wolves, The Exorcist, A Few Good Men, Field of Dreams,
Good Will Hunting, Heat, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,
King Kong, LA Confidential, Magnolia, The Matrix,
Requiem for a Dream, The Right Stuff, Roman Holiday,
Saving Private Ryan, Scarface, A Streetcar Named
Desire, The Ten Commandments, The Usual Suspects

91-122 [3 votes each]
First 10: “Official” Selections for Top 100:
American Graffiti, City Lights, The General, The
Grapes of Wrath, Network,
North By Northwest, Notorious, Shane, Silence of the
Lambs, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Next 22: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Airplane,
Apollo 13, Becket, The Big Lebowski, The Breakfast
Club, The English Patient, Full Metal Jacket,Funny
Farm, Ghostbusters, Gunga Din, Inherit the Wind, Local
Hero, Mary Poppins, Million Dollar Baby, Mulholland
Drive, Philadelphia, The Royal Tenenbaums, The
Shining, Splendor in the Grass, Superman

INELIGIBLE [2006]
The Departed – 18
V for Vendetta – 7

High Vote-getters among non American (or British)
Films
Spirited Away – 7
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – 5
4 apiece: Once Upon a Time in the West, Passion of the
Christ, Pan’s Labyrinth
2 apiece: City of God, Ikiru, Life is Beautiful, The
Motorcycle Diaries, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Pianist

* Editors Note: We are working on this, arranging the films by number of postings

Now that the dust has settled, here are a handful of reactions to the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition.

The AP wonders if this is all we have to show for a decade of movies:
Click HERE

NPR News Blog was glad to see DANCES WITH WOLVES go:
Click HERE

The OC Register wonders what people were smoking:
Click HERE.

One person was glad they didn’t have to choose for real:
Click HERE.

Some decided just to make their own lists, including the Alliance of Women Film Journalist’s list of 100:

Click HERE, HERE, and HERE.

And, if that weren’t enought, did THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT overtake CITIZEN KANE?

Click HERE.

CNN has an interview with Bob Gazzale, the man who produces the 100 Years series for AFI, if your looking for answers as to why KANE again…? You can read the full article HERE .

From CNN.com:

In interviews for Wednesday’s special, filmmakers and others in Hollywood told AFI they loved the behind-the-scenes story of “Citizen Kane” as much as the film itself, said Bob Gazzale, who produced the AFI show.

“No one disputes it’s a great American film, but what you hear from the great artists of our day is the love they have for this ideal of a young maverick making a movie like this, that a 25-year-old Orson Welles changed the fabric of cinema, and that that ideal still holds today of this jewel everybody reaches for,” Gazzale said.

Roger Ebert has some strong feelings about the list, least of which is the ommision of Fargo. Here’s the following excerpted from his column. Read the full text HERE .

Lists like these cry out to be disagreed with. Seconds after an advance copy was sent to news outlets, film critic Peter Debruge e-mailed me: “Of all the issues surrounding this list, my biggest question: Where did ‘Fargo’ go?”

And finally…

So in the last analysis, it doesn’t really matter what movies are on the list. What matters is the movies on the list, voted by 1,500 above-average moviegoers who don’t think “Citizen Kane” has aged one day.

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.

As the eve is upon us, and we get ready for (what could be?) a whole new list, I think it is fitting to review AFI’s list from 10 years ago. Click on the artwork for a different take on each film.

#1 CITIZEN KANE (1941)

From www.filmsite.org:

The fresh, sophisticated, and classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world’s most famous and highly-rated film, with its many remarkable scenes and performances, cinematic and narrative techniques and experimental innovations (in photography, editing, and sound).

#2 CASABLANCA (1942)

From Turner Classic Movies Online Database www.tcmdb.com:

In the six decades since its 1942 release, Casablanca has grown into such a legend that it almost transcends mere cinema. Its lines of dialogue can be quoted by people who have not even seen the film: “Here’s looking at you, kid,” “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” and the oft misquoted “Play it, Sam.”

#3 THE GODFATHER (1972)

From www.rogerebert.com:

What is important is loyalty to the family. Much is said in the movie about trusting a man’s word, but honesty is nothing compared to loyalty. Michael doesn’t even trust Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) with the secret that he plans to murder the heads of the other families. The famous “baptism massacre” is tough, virtuoso filmmaking: The baptism provides him with an airtight alibi, and he becomes a godfather in both senses at the same time.

#4 GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)

From Barbara Shulgasser, SFGate.com:

The movie plays its role in movie history, becoming one of the great box-office performers in the pre-Steven Spielberg and George Lucas days. The search to find Selznick’s ideal Scarlett O’Hara, the willful Southern belle who would destroy several Southern gentlemen in pursuit of the man she loved but who didn’t love her, was the talk of Hollywood.

#5 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

By Rita Kempley, washingtonpost.com:

The film’s genius is its marriage of intimate portrait and big-screen epic. T.E. Lawrence, a repressed 29-year-old British mapmaker, becomes a desert Napoleon, worshiped as a self-proclaimed demigod. His story is an atavistic “Revenge of the Nerds,” every angry adolescent’s dream come true. It is also the tragedy of a troubled scholar whose repressed violence spills out in the seminal sword-rattling of the battle scenes.

#6 THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)

From the flickfilosopher.com:

The transition from the sepia tones of Dorothy’s Kansas to the Technicolor world of Oz is a reminder of how glorious color film must have been when it was new — and the movie, sepia and color sections alike, looks absolutely stunning in the new DVD release, digitally remastered for the film’s 60th anniversary.

#7 THE GRADUATE (1967)

From Variety.com:

Miss Bancroft, feline and slinky in a manner very much like Lauren Bacall, is excellent, as is Miss Ross, an exciting, fresh actress from the Universal stable, who has a long career ahead of her. Hoffman is perfect in his role. William Daniels and Elizabeth Wilson play his parents in top fashion. Small, but well-cast, supporting contingent includes co-scripter Henry, as a room clerk.

#8 ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)

by J. Hoberman, Village Voice:

Always on the verge of unshed tears, his face a smooth mask of tragedy, Brando’s Terry is as soulfully stupid as he is beautiful—a male Marilyn Monroe (who achieved sex deity status in 1954). No other actor ever made more poignant use of what, pace John Steinbeck, might be called the Lenny factor. Terry is a sort of brute yet vulnerable animal trembling on the brink of consciousness. In class terms, he embodies what culture critic Harold Rosenberg once called “the pathos of the proletariat.”

#9 SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)

By Carmel Gallagher, from bbc.co.uk:

The film finishes on a powerful note in present day with the real Schindler survivors and their descendants visiting his grave. It is the final reminder that this is a true story of one man’s bravery and that in “saving one life, you save the entire world”.

#10 SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952)

From reelviews.com:

Singin’ in the Rain is considered by many people to be among the best Hollywood musicals of all time. For those who have seen the movie, the reason for this is not difficult to understand. Watching Singin’ in the Rain is an exuberant, magical experience – a journey deep into the heart of feel-good territory. Sitting through the film’s 102 minutes is like ingesting a mood-altering drug. It’s the perfect antidote to the blues and the blahs, and a way to bolster, enhance, and extend a natural high.