AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies
1998 | 100 Movies |
---|---|
1999 | 100 Stars |
2000 | 100 Laughs |
2001 | 100 Thrills |
2002 | 100 Passions |
2003 | 100 Heroes & Villains |
2004 | 100 Songs |
2005 | 100 Movie Quotes |
2005 | 25 Scores |
2006 | 100 Cheers |
2006 | 25 Musicals |
2007 | 100 Movies (Updated) |
2008 | AFI's 10 Top 10 |
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 who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies. The 100-best list was unveiled in 1998.
Presentation broadcast
A 145-minute presentation of the 100 films aired on CBS. A 460-minute version aired as a 10-part series on TNT, hosted by Jodie Foster, Richard Gere, Sally Field and narrated by James Woods. 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. The AFI website notes that, "Due to licensing restrictions, the telecasts of the AFI 100 Years...100 Series are not available for distribution or purchase on DVD or VHS." [1]
Criteria
Films were judged according to the following criteria.
- Feature length: Narrative format, at least 40 minutes long.
- 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, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lawrence of Arabia, were British-made but funded and distributed by American studios.)
- 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.
List
2007 update notes
Twenty-three films from the original top 100 films list were removed in 2007:
- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
- The Birth of a Nation (1915)
- From Here to Eternity (1953)
- Amadeus (1984)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
- The Third Man (1949)
- Fantasia (1940)
- Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
- Stagecoach (1939)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
- An American in Paris (1951)
- Wuthering Heights (1939)
- Dances with Wolves (1990)
- Giant (1956)
- Fargo (1996)
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
- Frankenstein (1931)
- Patton (1970)
- The Jazz Singer (1927)
- My Fair Lady (1964)
- A Place in the Sun (1951)
- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Four films released between 1996–2006 were added:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- Titanic (1997)
- The Sixth Sense (1999)
Nineteen films made before 1996 were also added:
- The General (1926)
- Intolerance (1916)
- Nashville (1975)
- Sullivan's Travels (1941)
- Cabaret (1972)
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- All the President's Men (1976)
- Spartacus (1960)
- Sunrise (1927)
- A Night at the Opera (1935)
- 12 Angry Men (1957)
- Swing Time (1936)
- Sophie's Choice (1982)
- The Last Picture Show (1971)
- Do the Right Thing (1989)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Toy Story (1995)
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 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, and the accompanying promotional poster lists the titles in alphabetical order.
See also
References
- ↑ 100 years, AFI website
- ↑ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (June 26, 1998). "List-o-Mania: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love American Movies". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
External links
- AFI 100 Years...100 Movies (1998 edition)
- AFI 100 Years...100 Movies (2007 edition)
- List of the 400 nominated movies (1998 edition)
- List of the 400 nominated movies (2007 edition)
- Filmsite.org article
- Montreal Mirror editorial
- SFM Entertainment page on the special; includes video clip