# The American Film Institute's 2007 list of the top-100 American movies:



## syscom3 (Jun 21, 2007)

> Already I am thinking "what in the world were they thinking" when they chose some of the movies.



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Citizen Kane," Orson Welles' powerful portrait of an unscrupulous media baron, beat back an assault from "The Godfather," on Wednesday to retain its title as the greatest American film.

Film critics, historians and experts voted "Kane" as the top U.S. film for the second time in a decade in a poll conducted by the American Film Institute. The results were revealed in a three-hour CBS special "100 Years, 100 Movies, 10th Anniversary Edition."

"The Godfather," which ranked third in the original poll of 100 great films a decade ago. moved up a notch to second place while "Casablanca" slipped to number three.

Also in the top 10 were a surprising "Raging Bull" at number four, up 20 places from a decade ago. "Singin' in the Rain" was in fifth place, "Gone With The Wind" was sixth followed by "Lawrence of Arabia," "Schindler's List," "Vertigo" and "The Wizard of Oz."

"Vertigo," the Hitchcock film starring James Stewart, rose to 9th place after placing 61st in the original poll.

"American film has always reflected and, in many respects, defined who we are," said AFI president and chief executive Jean Picker Firstenberg.

She credited the spreading popularity of the DVD with spurring interest in silent films and in often neglected masterpieces like John Ford's "The Searchers," which went from 96 on the original list to 12 this year.

For the first time, D.W. Griffith's silent masterpiece "Intolerance" was voted onto the list as was Buster Keaton's "The General" while Charlie Chaplin's poignant "City Lights" rose from 76 to 11 on the list.

But Griffith's racist 1915 film "Birth of a Nation" fell off the list entirely because of its now unpopular ideology, despite its history of technical innovations.

Of the 43 newly eligible films released from 1996 to 2006, only "Lord of the Rings: The 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 "Cabaret" (63), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (67), "The Shawshank Redemption" (72), "All The President's Men" (77), "Spartacus" (81) and "A Night at the Opera" (85).

Among those films that did not make the list were: "Fantasia," "Doctor Zhivago," "Birth of a Nation," "The Jazz Singer," My Fair Lady," "From Here to Eternity" and "An American in Paris."

AFI film historian Pat Hansen said it seemed that musicals took the biggest hit. "Musicals seemed out of favor and were replaced by more popular films like 'Titanic' and 'Saving Private Ryan'," she said.

2007 AFI list of top-100 movies

The American Film Institute's 2007 list of the top-100 American movies:

1. "Citizen Kane," 1941.

2. "The Godfather," 1972.

3. "Casablanca," 1942.

4. "Raging Bull," 1980.

5. "Singin' in the Rain," 1952.

6. "Gone With the Wind," 1939.

7. "Lawrence of Arabia," 1962.

8. "Schindler's List," 1993.

9. "Vertigo," 1958.

10. "The Wizard of Oz," 1939.

11. "City Lights," 1931.

12. "The Searchers," 1956.

13. "Star Wars," 1977.

14. "Psycho," 1960.

15. "2001: A Space Odyssey," 1968.

16. "Sunset Blvd.", 1950.

17. "The Graduate," 1967.

18. "The General," 1927.

19. "On the Waterfront," 1954.

20. "It's a Wonderful Life," 1946.

21. "Chinatown," 1974.

22. "Some Like It Hot," 1959.

23. "The Grapes of Wrath," 1940.

24. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," 1982.

25. "To Kill a Mockingbird," 1962.

26. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," 1939.

27. "High Noon," 1952.

28. "All About Eve," 1950.

29. "Double Indemnity," 1944.

30. "Apocalypse Now," 1979.

31. "The Maltese Falcon," 1941.

32. "The Godfather Part II," 1974.

33. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," 1975.

34. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," 1937.

35. "Annie Hall," 1977.

36. "The Bridge on the River Kwai," 1957.

37. "The Best Years of Our Lives," 1946.

38. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," 1948.

39. "Dr. Strangelove," 1964.

40. "The Sound of Music," 1965.

41. "King Kong," 1933.

42. "Bonnie and Clyde," 1967.

43. "Midnight Cowboy," 1969.

44. "The Philadelphia Story," 1940.

45. "Shane," 1953.

46. "It Happened One Night," 1934.

47. "A Streetcar Named Desire," 1951.

48. "Rear Window," 1954.

49. "Intolerance," 1916.

50. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 2001.

51. "West Side Story," 1961.

52. "Taxi Driver," 1976.

53. "The Deer Hunter," 1978.

54. "M-A-S-H," 1970.

55. "North by Northwest," 1959.

56. "Jaws," 1975.

57. "Rocky," 1976.

58. "The Gold Rush," 1925.

59. "Nashville," 1975.

60. "Duck Soup," 1933.

61. "Sullivan's Travels," 1941.

62. "American Graffiti," 1973.

63. "Cabaret," 1972.

64. "Network," 1976.

65. "The African Queen," 1951.

66. "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1981.

67. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", 1966.

68. "Unforgiven," 1992.

69. "Tootsie," 1982.

70. "A Clockwork Orange," 1971.

71. "Saving Private Ryan," 1998.

72. "The Shawshank Redemption," 1994.

73. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," 1969.

74. "The Silence of the Lambs," 1991.

75. "In the Heat of the Night," 1967.

76. "Forrest Gump," 1994.

77. "All the President's Men," 1976.

78. "Modern Times," 1936.

79. "The Wild Bunch," 1969.

80. "The Apartment, 1960.

81. "Spartacus," 1960.

82. "Sunrise," 1927.

83. "Titanic," 1997.

84. "Easy Rider," 1969.

85. "A Night at the Opera," 1935.

86. "Platoon," 1986.

87. "12 Angry Men," 1957.

88. "Bringing Up Baby," 1938.

89. "The Sixth Sense," 1999.

90. "Swing Time," 1936.

91. "Sophie's Choice," 1982.

92. "Goodfellas," 1990.

93. "The French Connection," 1971.

94. "Pulp Fiction," 1994.

95. "The Last Picture Show," 1971.

96. "Do the Right Thing," 1989.

97. "Blade Runner," 1982.

98. "Yankee Doodle Dandy," 1942.

99. "Toy Story," 1995.

100. "Ben-Hur," 1959.


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## trackend (Jun 22, 2007)

Holy macaroni I must be getting old or something out of that list I have 27 on DVD including Citizen Kane, To Kill a Mocking Bird, North by Northwest African Queen. I think Citizen Kane is very likely the best movie ever made (up until now that is)


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## Cyrano (Jun 22, 2007)




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## trackend (Jun 22, 2007)

Ive got that one too CY although rubbish in a factual sense I think its a great movie the special effects are brilliant.
Tootsie I didn't like at all


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## timshatz (Jun 22, 2007)

Think "The Graduate" is overrated. It's a big thing with the baby boomers but as a movie, it was so-so. Seems to be a generational thing about being mad at Mommy and Daddy. Made a movie about it. Good music though. 

Other "No" votes:

Annie Hall- Nah, just Nah.
Tootsie- Agree with ya', cute, but not great
Spartacus- Come on, it's just another Saturday morning Gladiator Flick with better actors. 
Titanic- Agreed. She got back on a sinking boat 2X! Movie oughta be banned just for her gross stupidity. 
Easy Rider- Didn't get it. Was another Baby Boomer/mad at the parents thing.
Do the Right Thing- Gotta feel something for the characters to make a movie work. That one didn't work in that way. Too...contrived and over the top.


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## trackend (Jun 22, 2007)

You're probably right about the baby boomer thing TS I was a 50's baby and really in the UK things didn't improve significantly for the working class after the war until the mid sixties when more disposable income became available so films about rebellion and escapism where very popular Being the swinging sixties in the UK meant Psychedelic happenings etc although its a bit over exaggerated even when I got old enough to join in the chances of free love never seemed to come my way. ( maybe cause I'm an ugly git who knows )


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jun 22, 2007)

How the hell is Titanic on this list?

I am surprised that they did not put Pearl Harbor on there...


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## ToughOmbre (Jun 22, 2007)

"The Graduate" - 18th???

"The Godfather Part II" - 32nd???

So much for their rankings. Go figure!


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## Emac44 (Jun 22, 2007)

Cyrano said:


> Titanic shouldn't be on the list



Not sure I agree Cyrano. I keep getting this sinking feeling with any movie about Titanic   

But on a more serious note. Sys noticed that John Wayne's 100th Birthday just recently passed by. Like or hate him. John Wayne has to be a legend in films and Hollywood. Liked the Old Duke movies and I see The Searchers is on the list of all time greatest movies


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## syscom3 (Jun 22, 2007)

The list is a reflection on the ages of the movie critics or others that do the ratings.

If you would look at similar list's as the movies are ranked going over the past few decades, you would see more movies from the early days of cinema, and fewer current movies of that ranking year. 

"The Graduate" and "Easy Rider" are popular with many ciritics, because it was *"THE"* movie of their teen or young adult years.

One thing to remember about these listings, is the first thing a movie needs to do is to tell a story, and the ones that do it well, tend to end high on these lists. "Titanic" was a great movie because it told a story quite well. Most people didnt care about the factual basis of the movie.

And also look at the natural bias's of the people here in this forum. I bet 100% of us are biased for a few genre's of movies, and nearly all of us would not enjoy other genres. But we are not a reflection of the population at large. The AFI list's are generated by large numbers of critics and tend to reflect a broad range of opinions.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jun 22, 2007)

And Titanic is still a terrible movie...


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## ToughOmbre (Jun 22, 2007)

And what is "Tootsie" doin' on the list?


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## syscom3 (Jun 22, 2007)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> And Titanic is still a terrible movie...



But the ladies loved it.

You have to admit though, it was neat watching the ship sink.


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## syscom3 (Jun 22, 2007)

ToughOmbre said:


> And what is "Tootsie" doin' on the list?



I'm shaking my head on that too.......


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## timshatz (Jun 22, 2007)

syscom3 said:


> .
> 
> You have to admit though, it was neat watching the ship sink.



Only part of the movie that was worth it. Kind of like the Arizona blowing up in Pearl Harbor. Both movies stank. Well, Pearl Harbor set records on stinking. Titanic was nowhere near as bad. But the special effects were cool.


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## syscom3 (Jun 22, 2007)

Here's a file listing the 400 nominee's.


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## trackend (Jun 22, 2007)

I still like Titanic what ever anyone says, where she breaks her back and the screws drop back into the water was some very clever CGI and besides that I like Kate Winslets tits.


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## Negative Creep (Jun 22, 2007)

syscom3 said:


> But the ladies loved it.
> 
> You have to admit though, it was neat watching the ship sink.





It would've been if it didn't take about 2 hours to go down! Shame on James Cameron, as Aliens is one of my all-time favourite films. Plus, Goodfellas at 92? Eh?


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## Njaco (Jun 22, 2007)

Titanic should stay but Tootsie should be replaced with The Quiet Man (John Wayne).


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## trackend (Jun 23, 2007)

Negative Creep said:


> It would've been if it didn't take about 2 hours to go down!



Wouldn't have made a very long film NC would it

" LOOK OUT an Ice Berg " 

CRAAACK

"Oh S**t, send out a mayd.......glub" 

THE END

I agree NC Goodfellas is a great gangster movie, probably my favorite.


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## Screaming Eagle (Jun 23, 2007)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> And Titanic is still a terrible movie...



 I agree. I watched it once, but I was too young to remember any of it.


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## syscom3 (Jun 23, 2007)

Titanic is a far better movie compared to Tootsie.

I figure in 20 years, Tootsie will slide off the list and Titanic will still be there.


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## Emac44 (Jun 23, 2007)

I don't give a toss about what movie critics say or think about movies. Which ones are good or bad. I remember the critics saying Braveheart was full of violence and that it had too many battle scenes. Give me a break the 12th Century was full of violence and battles in that period the movie was set in. Talk about stating the obvious. And same critics babbled on about slaves in the movie Patriot with Mel Gibson. Hell movie was based in American War of Independance. Course there were slaves in that period. Stupid movie critics


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## trackend (Jun 23, 2007)

We where all very polite in the 12th century over here EM and hardly ever got upset with each other in fact if Tea had been discovered it would have been cucumber sandwiches at Sterling.


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## Graeme (Jun 23, 2007)

Negative Creep said:


> It would've been if it didn't take about 2 hours to go down! Shame on James Cameron, as Aliens is one of my all-time favourite films. Plus, Goodfellas at 92? Eh?



Spot on! Where's the Horror flicks?! Alien/s became the benchmark. Alien came out only 2 years after STAR WARS and made it look.. sad.
Another favorite is John Carpenter's THE THING (1982). The 'walking head' was a classic scene!


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## Wildcat (Jun 23, 2007)

trackend said:


> We where all very polite in the 12th century over here EM and hardly ever got upset with each other in fact if Tea had been discovered it would have been cucumber sandwiches at Sterling.



 
Good to see "Unforgiven" on the list, superb movie8)


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## syscom3 (Jun 23, 2007)

Wildcat said:


> Good to see "Unforgiven" on the list, superb movie8)



Dirty Harry was a far better movie.


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## trackend (Jun 23, 2007)

syscom3 said:


> Dirty Harry was a far better movie.


 No way Sy, Unforgiven rates at least as good as if not better than High noon I liked Dirty Harry but it was so far fetched it spoiled a really good plot. the best things about it where the catch phrases and Lalo Schifrin's superb score.


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## Negative Creep (Jun 23, 2007)

Emac44 said:


> And same critics babbled on about slaves in the movie Patriot with Mel Gibson. Hell movie was based in American War of Independance. Course there were slaves in that period. Stupid movie critics



I was pretty offended by that film, not the slaves, but the fact the British were depicted as Nazi-esque church burning murders. If I remember rightly, it was based on a real person, until the producers discovered he was a slave owner who raped Native American women in his spare time


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## syscom3 (Jun 23, 2007)

I also question the placing of Schindlers list on top 100.

Great film, but what exactly was so special about it?


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## trackend (Jun 23, 2007)

I would say it was the first film in which showed the unvarnished callousness of the holocaust before that the closet film that I can think of was judgement at Nuremberg at the time of it's release Schindlers list shocked a lot of people. I still find it very moving, sometimes I feel that people forget that these type of films (although produced to make money) represent a real and not celluloid event, absolutely horrendous and appalling beyond belief.(F****** Nazi bastards)


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## timshatz (Jun 24, 2007)

Negative Creep said:


> I was pretty offended by that film, not the slaves, but the fact the British were depicted as Nazi-esque church burning murders. If I remember rightly, it was based on a real person, until the producers discovered he was a slave owner who raped Native American women in his spare time



I think the guy's name was Banistre Tarleton. He was an American Tory (american who fought for the British). Was also responsible for the massacre of 500 colonial soliders (of a Delaware Rgmt if not mistaken) that had already surrendered. Although, unlike the movie, I think he survived the war, went to England and lived on. 

They kinda crossed a bunch of stories in the Patriot. Tried to get a general feel for the war in the South. Think they did ok, given the scope they were trying to cover. From what I've read, the Revolutionary War south of Maryland was a particularly nasty fight. It was more a civil war than a revolution. Brits would move their army into an area, pacify it, put their guys in charge and leave. The fun started right after they left. Colonials came out of the woodwork and started attacking the Tories. Got very ugly. Lot of old scores were settled, that sort of thing. 

Telling a story that ugly about a time period that sort of has a halo over it (The American Revolution) is almost impossible. The Church Burning was probably representative of it.


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## Cyrano (Jun 24, 2007)




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## syscom3 (Jun 24, 2007)

Cyrano said:


> The plot is so damn predictable ....



Well we do know the ship was going to sink and many people drown.


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## Cyrano (Jun 24, 2007)




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## syscom3 (Jun 24, 2007)

Cyrano said:


> Well I was talking about the love story, but you're right



As I am a student of the arts of the cinema, and I *hate* love stories, when those scenes reared their ugly heads.... I just looked at the background of the scenes to see how close to detail the set craftsman were.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jun 24, 2007)

The only 2 scenes I cared about in that movie were:

1. Kate Winslet's boobies.

2. Leo DiCaprio finally dies.


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## Cyrano (Jun 24, 2007)




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## syscom3 (Jun 24, 2007)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> The only 2 scenes I cared about in that movie were:
> 
> 1. Kate Winslet's boobies.
> 
> 2. Leo DiCaprio finally dies.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jun 24, 2007)

Cyrano said:


> ...or does he...
> 
> _View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD4OnHCRd_4_


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## Njaco (Jun 24, 2007)

Man, when does that movie come out??? 
Titanic wasn't so bad. It was pure marketing...big bang FX for guys and sappy love story for girls. It was a movie I could take my pre-wife to and she would enjoy her section and I could enjoy Leo dying.


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## ToughOmbre (Jun 24, 2007)

Cyrano said:


> ...or does he...
> 
> _View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD4OnHCRd_4_




Better than the original!


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## Screaming Eagle (Jun 25, 2007)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> The only 2 scenes I cared about in that movie were:
> 
> 1. Kate Winslet's boobies.
> 
> 2. Leo DiCaprio finally dies.



Hell yeah adler, I agree with that. there was something satisfying of leo dying in the end


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