AFI'S 100 YEARS... 100 MOVIES

The first of the AFI 100 Years... series of cinematic milestones, 'AFI's 100 Years... 100 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. The list was unveiled in 1998.
It was released in video in 2 versions—a 145 minute version, which aired on CBS, and a 460 minute version available only on video. It was hosted by Jodie Foster among others.
An updated version of the list, billed as a 10th Anniversary edition, aired on CBS on June 20, 2007 and was hosted by Morgan Freeman.

Contents

Criteria

Criticisms

1998 List

2007 List Comparison

External links

Criteria

Films were judged by the following criteria.
# ''Feature-length'': Narrative format, at least 40 minutes in length.
# ''American film'': English language, with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States.
# ''Critical Recognition'': Formal commendation in print.
# ''Major Award Winner'': Recognition from competitive events including awards from organizations in the film community and major film festivals.
# ''Popularity Over Time'': Including figures for box office adjusted for inflation, television broadcasts and syndication, and home video sales and rentals.
# ''Historical Significance'': A film's mark on the history of the moving image through technical innovation, visionary narrative devices or other groundbreaking achievements.
# ''Cultural Impact'': A film's mark on American society in matters of style and substance.

Criticisms

As with other major awards, such as the Academy Awards, the list of those who voted and the final vote tally has not been released to the public.
The inclusion of some films on these criteria has been controversial, and the "American" content sometimes minimal. ''Lawrence of Arabia'' was directed by a Briton and first premiered in London, but qualified as an American film because it was produced by an American citizen. ''The Third Man'' was included because its executive producer and two stars were American. Both films were also chosen by the British Film Institute for ''its'' top 100 list. ''The African Queen'' was a production of Horizon Pictures, a British studio, but qualified as an American film because the two stars were American and the director was American. Some of the later lists appear to have ignored the criteria altogether.
On June 26, 1998, the ''Chicago Reader'' published an article by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum. Titled "List-o-Mania: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love American Movies," it offers a detailed response to the movies in the AFI list, and includes an alternate list of 100 American movies that Rosenbaum felt had been overlooked by the AFI. 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, and the accompanying promotional poster lists the titles in alphabetical order.

1998 List

Rank	Title	Year
1	''Citizen Kane''	1941
2	''Casablanca''	1942
3	''The Godfather''	1972
4	''Gone with the Wind''	1939
5	''Lawrence of Arabia''	1962
6	''The Wizard of Oz''	1939
7	''The Graduate''	1967
8	''On the Waterfront''	1954
9	''Schindler's List''	1993
10	''Singin' in the Rain''	1952
11	''It's a Wonderful Life''	1946
12	''Sunset Boulevard''	1950
13	''The Bridge on the River Kwai''	1957
14	''Some Like It Hot''	1959
15	''	1977
16	''All About Eve''	1950
17	''The African Queen''	1951
18	''Psycho''	1960
19	''Chinatown''	1974
20	''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest''	1975
21	''The Grapes of Wrath''	1940
22	''	1968
23	''The Maltese Falcon''	1941
24	''Raging Bull''	1980
25	''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''	1982
26	''	1964
27	''Bonnie and Clyde''	1967
28	''Apocalypse Now''	1979
29	''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington''	1939
30	''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre''	1948
31	''Annie Hall''	1977
32	''The Godfather Part II''	1974
33	''High Noon''	1952
34	''To Kill a Mockingbird''	1962
35	''It Happened One Night''	1934
36	''Midnight Cowboy''	1969
37	''The Best Years of Our Lives''	1946
38	''Double Indemnity''	1944
39	''Doctor Zhivago''	1965
40	''North by Northwest''	1959
41	''West Side Story''	1961
42	''Rear Window''	1954
43	''King Kong''	1933
44	''The Birth of a Nation''	1915
45	''A Streetcar Named Desire''	1951
46	''A Clockwork Orange''	1971
47	''Taxi Driver''	1976
48	''Jaws''	1975
49	''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''	1937
50	''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid''	1969
51	''The Philadelphia Story''	1940
52	''From Here to Eternity''	1953
53	''Amadeus''	1984
54	''All Quiet on the Western Front''	1930
55	''The Sound of Music''	1965
56	''M ★ A ★ S ★ H''	1970
57	''The Third Man''	1949
58	''Fantasia''	1940
59	''Rebel Without a Cause''	1955
60	''Raiders of the Lost Ark''	1981
61	''Vertigo''	1958
62	''Tootsie''	1982
63	''Stagecoach''	1939
64	''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''	1977
65	''The Silence of the Lambs''	1991
66	''Network''	1976
67	''The Manchurian Candidate''	1962
68	''An American in Paris''	1951
69	''Shane''	1953
70	''The French Connection''	1971
71	''Forrest Gump''	1994
72	''Ben-Hur''	1959
73	''Wuthering Heights''	1939
74	'' The Gold Rush''	1925
75	''Dances with Wolves''	1990
76	''City Lights''	1931
77	''American Graffiti''	1973
78	''Rocky''	1976
79	''The Deer Hunter''	1978
80	''The Wild Bunch''	1969
81	''Modern Times''	1936
82	''Giant''	1956
83	''Platoon''	1986
84	''Fargo''	1996
85	''Duck Soup''	1933
86	''Mutiny on the Bounty''	1935
87	''Frankenstein''	1931
88	''Easy Rider''	1969
89	''Patton''	1970
90	''The Jazz Singer''	1927
91	''My Fair Lady''	1964
92	''A Place in the Sun''	1951
93	''The Apartment''	1960
94	''Goodfellas''	1990
95	''Pulp Fiction''	1994
96	''The Searchers''	1956
97	''Bringing Up Baby''	1938
98	''Unforgiven''	1992
99	''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner''	1967
100	''Yankee Doodle Dandy''	1942

2007 List Comparison

On June 20, 2007, a new list was released by AFI to update for the new generation of films. Twenty-three films were removed from the original list:
39. ''Doctor Zhivago'' (1965)

44. ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915)

52. ''From Here to Eternity'' (1953)

53. ''Amadeus'' (1984)

54. ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930)

57. ''The Third Man'' (1949)

58. ''Fantasia'' (1940)

59. ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955)

63. '' Stagecoach'' (1939)

64. ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977)

67. ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1962)

68. ''An American in Paris'' (1951)

73. ''Wuthering Heights'' (1939)

75. ''Dances with Wolves'' (1990)

82. ''Giant'' (1956)

84. ''Fargo'' (1996)

86. ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1935)

87. ''Frankenstein'' (1931)

89. ''Patton'' (1970)

90. ''The Jazz Singer'' (1927)

91. ''My Fair Lady'' (1964)

92. ''A Place in the Sun'' (1951)

99. ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' (1967)
Four films released between 1997-2006 were added:
50. (2001)

71. ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998)

83. ''Titanic'' (1997)

89. ''The Sixth Sense'' (1999)
Nineteen films made between 1916-1995 were also added:
18. ''The General'' (1927)

49. ''Intolerance'' (1916)

59. ''Nashville'' (1975)

61. ''Sullivan's Travels'' (1941)

63. ''Cabaret'' (1972)

67. ''Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?'' (1966)

72. ''The Shawshank Redemption'' (1994)

75. ''In the Heat of the Night'' (1967)

77. ''All the President's Men'' (1976)

81. ''Spartacus'' (1960)

82. ''Sunrise'' (1927)

85. ''A Night at the Opera'' (1935)

87. ''12 Angry Men'' (1957)

90. ''Swing Time'' (1936)

91. ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982)

95. ''The Last Picture Show'' (1971)

96. ''Do The Right Thing'' (1989)

97. ''Blade Runner'' (1982)

99. ''Toy Story'' (1995)

External links

★ AFI list of movies

★ Filmsite.org article

★ Montreal Mirror editorial

★ SFM Entertainment page on the special; includes video clip