AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies explained

The first of the AFI 100 Years... series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years... 100 American Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies. The 100-best list American films was unveiled in 1998. AFI released an updated list in 2007.

Criteria

Films were judged according to the following criteria:

  1. Feature length: Narrative format, at least 60 minutes long.
  2. American film: English language, with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States. (Certain films, notably The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia, were British-made but funded and distributed by American studios. The Lord of the Rings was New Zealand-made with American funding.)
  3. Critical recognition: Formal commendation in print.
  4. Major award winner: Recognition from competitive events including awards from organizations in the film community and major film festivals.
  5. Popularity over time: Including figures for box office adjusted for inflation, television broadcasts and syndication, and home video sales and rentals.
  6. Historical significance: A film's mark on the history of the moving image through technical innovation, visionary narrative devices or other groundbreaking achievements.
  7. Cultural impact: A film's mark on American society in matters of style and substance.

[1]

List

Film Release year Director Production companies 1998 Rank 2007 Rank
Citizen Kane 1941 1 1
Casablanca 1942 2 3
1972 Paramount Pictures, Alfran Productions 3 2
Gone with the Wind 1939 4 6
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 5 7
1939 6 10
1967 7 17
On the Waterfront 1954 Horizon-American Pictures 8 19
Schindler's List 1993 9 8
Singin' in the Rain 1952 , Stanley Donen10 5
It's a Wonderful Life 1946 11 20
Sunset Boulevard 1950 12 16
1957 Horizon-American Pictures 13 36
Some Like It Hot 1959 14 22
Star Wars 1977 15 13
All About Eve 1950 16 28
1951 17 65
Psycho 1960 Shamley Productions 18 14
Chinatown 1974 Long Road Productions 19 21
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1975 Fantasy Films 20 33
1940 21 23
1968 22 15
1941 23 31
Raging Bull 1980 Chartoff-Winkler Productions 24 4
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982 25 24
Dr. Strangelove 1964 Hawk Films, Polaris Productions 26 39
Bonnie and Clyde 1967 Tatira-Hiller Productions 27 42
Apocalypse Now 1979 28 30
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 29 26
1948 30 38
Annie Hall 1977 31 35
1974 The Coppola Company 32 32
High Noon 1952 Stanley Kramer Productions 33 27
To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 34 25
It Happened One Night 1934 35 46
Midnight Cowboy 1969 Jerome Hellman Productions 36 43
1946 37 37
Double Indemnity 1944 38 29
Doctor Zhivago 1965 Carlo Ponti Productions 39
North by Northwest 1959 40 55
West Side Story 1961 Beta Productions, The Mirisch Company, Seven Arts Productions, B & P Enterprises 41 51
Rear Window 1954 Paramount Pictures, Patron 42 48
King Kong 1933 43 41
1915 David W. Griffith Corp. 44
1951 45 47
1971 46 70
Taxi Driver 1976 B & P Enterprises, Italo-Judeo 47 52
Jaws 1975 48 56
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 49 34
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 Campanile Productions 50 73
1940 51 44
From Here to Eternity 1953 52
Amadeus 1984 53
All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 54
1965 55 40
M*A*S*H 1970 Aspen Productions 56 54
1949 57
Fantasia 1940 58
Rebel Without a Cause 1955 59
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 60 66
Vertigo 1958 61 9
Tootsie 1982 Mirage Enterprises, Punch Productions, Columbia Pictures, Delphi Productions 62 69
Stagecoach 1939 63
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 64
1991 Strong Heart Productions 65 74
Network 1976 66 64
1962 M. C. Productions 67
An American in Paris 1951 68
Shane 1953 69 45
1971 D'Antoni Productions 70 93
Forrest Gump 1994 The Tisch Company 71 76
Ben-Hur 1959 72 100
Wuthering Heights 1939 73
1925 Charles Chaplin Productions 74 58
Dances with Wolves 1990 TIG Productions, Majestic Films International 75
City Lights 1931 Charles Chaplin Productions 76 11
American Graffiti 1973 77 62
Rocky 1976 Chartoff-Winkler Productions 78 57
1978 79 53
1969 80 79
Modern Times 1936 Charles Chaplin Film Corp. 81 78
Giant 1956 82
Platoon 1986 83 86
Fargo 1996 84
Duck Soup 1933 85 60
Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 86
Frankenstein 1931 87
Easy Rider 1969 88 84
Patton 1970 89
1927 90
My Fair Lady 1964 91
1951 92
1960 93 80
Goodfellas 1990 Warner Bros. Pictures, Irwin Winkler Productions 94 92
Pulp Fiction 1994 95 94
1956 C. V. Whitney Pictures 96 12
Bringing Up Baby 1938 97 88
Unforgiven 1992 98 68
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner 1967 99
Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 100 98
1926 Buster Keaton Productions, Joseph M. Schenck Productions 18
Intolerance 1916 49
2001 50
Nashville 1975 59
Sullivan's Travels 1941 61
Cabaret 1972 63
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966 67
Saving Private Ryan 1998 71
1994 72
In the Heat of the Night 1967 75
All the President's Men 1976 Wildwood Enterprises 77
Spartacus 1960 81
Sunrise 1927 82
Titanic 1997 83
1935 85
1957 Orion-Nova Productions 87
1999 89
Swing Time 1936 90
Sophie's Choice 1982 91
1971 95
Do the Right Thing 1989 96
Blade Runner 1982 97
Toy Story 1995 99

2007 changes

Twenty-three films were replaced in the 2007 tenth anniversary list. Doctor Zhivago, previously ranked #39, was the highest-ranked film to be dropped from the updated list, while The General at #18 was the highest-ranked new entry.

Broadcast history

Presentation broadcast on CBS

A 145-minute presentation of the 100 films aired on CBS on June 16, 1998.

Presentation broadcast on TNT

A 460-minute version aired as a 10-part series on TNT, narrated by James Woods and hosted by American talents as follows:

Presentation broadcast on TNT UK

Another version of the same 460-minute program was produced by Monique De Villiers and John Heyman from A World Production company to British television and market featuring different interviews and each segment being hosted by British talents in the following order:

Criticisms

As with awards, the list of those who vote and the final vote tally are not released to the public, nor the criteria for how the 400 nominated films have been selected.

On June 26, 1998, the Chicago Reader published an article by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum which offers a detailed response to the movies in the AFI list, as well as criticism of the AFI's appropriation of British films, such as Lawrence of Arabia (albeit with aforementioned American funding) and The Third Man. Rosenbaum also produced an alternative list of 100 American movies that he felt had been overlooked by the AFI.[2] Rosenbaum chose to present this alternative list alphabetically since to rank them according to merit would be "tantamount to ranking oranges over apples or declaring cherries superior to grapes."

The AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list includes five titles from Rosenbaum's list (including Do the Right Thing),[3] and the accompanying promotional poster lists the titles in alphabetical order.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 100 Greatest American Movies by AFI - Film Series. www.filmsite.org.
  2. News: Rosenbaum . Jonathan . List-o-Mania: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love American Movies . Chicago Reader . June 26, 1998 . 2008-06-03.
  3. Web site: What Are the AFI Top 100 Movies of All Time?. July 13, 2020. No Film School.

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