Last June, the American Film Institute released their 100 Greatest American Movies Of All Time. Updated after ten years, got a lot of press, was the subject of their annual AFI 100 Years, 100 Movies television special, and it's pretty good. But we just can't help kibbitzing. By 'we' i mean my friends and family. So Labor Day week, during our trip to DragonCon, we hacked out our 'improved' version.
Our list has more science fiction, horror, westerns - more genre pictures. What it doesn't have are redundant films by directors, because we assembled our list by negotiation and consensus. One example of this would be Frank Capra films. Clearly AFI members differed on which Capra films were the best, so in our opinion he was over represented by movies of the same type. When we got stuck, we resorted to what we would show Martians if we were educating them about American cinema.
Our list isn't ranked, but random, because it best reflects how we assembled our list. we polled all the time, but desperate argument, dogged championing, and virulent hatred also swung votes.
We used the AFI list as a springboard, then lobbied the rest of the group for our additions and subtractions. This was really FUN! Thanks to Paco, Ramon, Shane, Don, Kevin and Matt for the hard work and good times.
Our list after the jump...
AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies, Tweaked! * Our Additions
1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather
3. Casablanca
4. Raging Bull
5. Singin’ In The Rain
6. Gone With The Wind
7. Lawrence Of Arabia
8. Schindler’s List
9. Vertigo
10. The Wizard Of Oz
11. City Lights
12. The Searchers
13. Star Wars
14. Psycho
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey
16. Sunset Boulevard
17. The Graduate
18. The General
19. On the Waterfront
20. The Hustler*
21. Chinatown
22. Some Like It Hot
23. The Grapes Of Wrath
24. Patton*
25. To Kill A Mockingbird
26. Meet John Doe*
27. High Noon
28. All About Eve
29. Double Indemnity
30. Apocalypse Now
31. The Maltese Falcon
32. The Godfather Part II
33. Cool Hand Luke*
34. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
35. Manhattan*
36. The Haunting*
37. The Best Years Of Our Lives
38. The Treasure Of The Sierrs Madre
39. Dr. Strangelove
40. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers*
41. King Kong
42. Bonnie And Clyde
43. Fantasia*
44. The Philadelphia Story
45. Shane
46. It Happened One Night
47. A Streetcar Named Desire
48. Rear Window
49. Mister Roberts*
50. The Lord Of The Rings, The Fellowship Of The Ring
51. The Producers*
52. Taxi Driver
53. The Big Red One*
54. Forbidden Planet*
55. North By Northwest
56. Jaws
57. The Magnificent Seven*
58. Rebel Without A Cause*
59. Nashville
60. Defending Your Life*
61. Sullivan’s Travels
62. Night Of The Hunter*
63. Stand By Me*
64. Network
65. The African Queen
66. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
67. Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
68. Unforgiven
69. Fargo*
70. A Clockwork Orange
71. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance*
72. The Shawshank Redemption
73. Miller’s Crossing*
74. Freaks*
75. In The Heat Of The Night
76. Another Thin Man*
77. Being There*
78. Modern Times
79. The Wild Bunch
80. The Apartment
81. Spartacus
82. Night Of The Living Dead*
83. Field Of Dreams*
84. Easy Rider
85. A Night At The Opera
86. Rio Bravo*
87. 12 Angry Men
88. Bringing Up Baby
89. The Exorcist*
90. Swing Time
91. Sling Blade*
92. Goodfellas
93. Alien*
94. Pulp Fiction
95. The Last Picture Show
96. Do The Right Thing
97. Blade Runner
98. The Fisher King*
99. The Day The Earth Stood Still*
100. Ben-Hur
Disregard numerical rankings, as 31 replacements were just inserted randomly...
Films we added:
The Huster, Patton, Meet John Doe, Cool Hand Luke, Manhattan, The Haunting, Seven Brides, Fantasia, Mister Roberts, The Producers, Big Red One, Forbidden Planet, Magnificent Seven, Rebel Without A Cause, Defending Your Life, Night Of The Hunter, Stand by Me, Fargo, Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Miller’s Crossing, Freaks, Another Thin Man. Being There, Night Of The Living Dead, Field Of Dreams, Rio Bravo, The Exorcist, Sling Blade, Alien, The Fisher King, The Day The Earth Stood Still
Films we removed:
It’s A Wonderful Life, E.T., Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Annie Hall, Bridge On The River Kwai, Sound Of Music, Midnight Cowboy, Intolerance, West Side Story, Deer Hunter, M*A*S*H, Rocky, The Gold Rush, Duck Soup, American Graffiti, Cabaret, Tootsie, Saving Private Ryan, Butch Cassidy, Silence Of the Lambs, Forrest Gump, All The President’s Men, Sunrise (provisionally, until we all have seen it), Titanic, Platoon, Sixth Sense, Sophie’s Choice, French Connection, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Toy Story.
Wow, I agree with what you added, but there are some I would have kept as well. And I haven't seen Sunrise, so can't comment. I would have kept in Midnight Cowboy and Cabaret, ditched Fellowship of the Ring--and what made y'all pick Seven Brides, anyway? (over, say, Carousel?)
Posted by: Francine | October 25, 2007 at 12:32 AM
i have Sunrise on my Netflix cue, but they don't actually HAVE it yet, so we'll see...
None of us hated Midnight Cowboy or Cabaret (and we were troubled by Dustin Hoffman losing a couple of films), but in order to add things some things had to go.
We (cautiously, because it's so new) think FOTR is THAT good.
And, maybe because besides me it was all guys, but NONE of us would pick Carousel over Seven Brides. Sorry!
My deeply twisted favorites list is up tomorrow :-)
Posted by: Juana Moore-Overmyer | October 25, 2007 at 12:42 AM