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 who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies. The 100-best list was unveiled in 1998.

AFI 100 Years... series
1998100 Movies
1999100 Stars
2000100 Laughs
2001100 Thrills
2002100 Passions
2003100 Heroes & Villains
2004100 Songs
2005100 Movie Quotes
200525 Scores
2006100 Cheers
200625 Musicals
2007100 Movies (Updated)
2008AFI's 10 Top 10

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, 2001: A Space Odyssey 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.

List
Film Release year Director 1998 rank 2007 rank Change
Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles 1 1 0
Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz 2 3 1
The Godfather 1972 Francis Ford Coppola 3 2 1
Gone with the Wind 1939 Victor Fleming 4 6 2
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 David Lean 5 7 2
The Wizard of Oz 1939 Victor Fleming 6 10 4
The Graduate 1967 Mike Nichols 7 17 10
On the Waterfront 1954 Elia Kazan 8 19 11
Schindler's List 1993 Steven Spielberg 9 8 1
Singin' in the Rain 1952 Gene Kelly 10 5 5
It's a Wonderful Life 1946 Frank Capra 11 20 9
Sunset Boulevard 1950 Billy Wilder 12 16 4
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 David Lean 13 36 23
Some Like It Hot 1959 Billy Wilder 14 22 8
Star Wars 1977 George Lucas 15 13 2
All About Eve 1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz 16 28 12
The African Queen 1951 John Huston 17 65 48
Psycho 1960 Alfred Hitchcock 18 14 4
The General 1926 Buster Keaton — 18 —
Chinatown 1974 Roman Polanski 19 21 2
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1975 Miloš Forman 20 33 13
The Grapes of Wrath 1940 John Ford 21 23 2
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Stanley Kubrick 22 15 7
The Maltese Falcon 1941 John Huston 23 31 8
Raging Bull 1980 Martin Scorsese 24 4 20
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982 Steven Spielberg 25 24 1
Dr. Strangelove 1964 Stanley Kubrick 26 39 13
Bonnie and Clyde 1967 Arthur Penn 27 42 15
Apocalypse Now 1979 Francis Ford Coppola 28 30 2
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 Frank Capra 29 26 3
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 John Huston 30 38 8
Annie Hall 1977 Woody Allen 31 35 4
The Godfather Part II 1974 Francis Ford Coppola 32 32 0
High Noon 1952 Fred Zinnemann 33 27 6
To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 Robert Mulligan 34 25 9
It Happened One Night 1934 Frank Capra 35 46 11
Midnight Cowboy 1969 John Schlesinger 36 43 7
The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 William Wyler 37 37 0
Double Indemnity 1944 Billy Wilder 38 29 9
Doctor Zhivago 1965 David Lean 39 — —
North by Northwest 1959 Alfred Hitchcock 40 55 15
West Side Story 1961 Robert Wise 41 51 10
Rear Window 1954 Alfred Hitchcock 42 48 6
King Kong 1933 Merian C. Cooper 43 41 2
The Birth of a Nation 1915 D. W. Griffith 44 — —
A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Elia Kazan 45 47 2
A Clockwork Orange 1971 Stanley Kubrick 46 70 24
Taxi Driver 1976 Martin Scorsese 47 52 5
Jaws 1975 Steven Spielberg 48 56 8
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 David Hand, et al. 49 34 15
Intolerance 1916 D. W. Griffith — 49 —
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 George Roy Hill 50 73 23
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001 Peter Jackson — 50 —
The Philadelphia Story 1940 George Cukor 51 44 7
From Here to Eternity 1953 Fred Zinnemann 52 — —
Amadeus 1984 Miloš Forman 53 — —
All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 Lewis Milestone 54 — —
The Sound of Music 1965 Robert Wise 55 40 15
MASH 1970 Robert Altman 56 54 2
The Third Man 1949 Carol Reed 57 — —
Fantasia 1940 Walt Disney 58 — —
Rebel Without a Cause 1955 Nicholas Ray 59 — —
Nashville 1975 Robert Altman — 59 —
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 Steven Spielberg 60 66 6
Vertigo 1958 Alfred Hitchcock 61 9 52
Sullivan's Travels 1941 Preston Sturges — 61 —
Tootsie 1982 Sydney Pollack 62 69 7
Stagecoach 1939 John Ford 63 — —
Cabaret 1972 Bob Fosse — 63 —
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Steven Spielberg 64 — —
The Silence of the Lambs 1991 Jonathan Demme 65 74 9
Network 1976 Sidney Lumet 66 64 2
The Manchurian Candidate 1962 John Frankenheimer 67 — —
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966 Mike Nichols — 67 —
An American in Paris 1951 Vincente Minnelli 68 — —
Shane 1953 George Stevens 69 45 24
The French Connection 1971 William Friedkin 70 93 23
Forrest Gump 1994 Robert Zemeckis 71 76 5
Saving Private Ryan 1998 Steven Spielberg — 71 —
Ben-Hur 1959 William Wyler 72 100 28
The Shawshank Redemption 1994 Frank Darabont — 72 —
Wuthering Heights 1939 William Wyler 73 — —
The Gold Rush 1925 Charlie Chaplin 74 58 16
Dances with Wolves 1990 Kevin Costner 75 — —
In the Heat of the Night 1967 Norman Jewison — 75 —
City Lights 1931 Charlie Chaplin 76 11 65
American Graffiti 1973 George Lucas 77 62 15
All the President's Men 1976 Alan J. Pakula — 77 —
Rocky 1976 John G. Avildsen 78 57 21
The Deer Hunter 1978 Michael Cimino 79 53 26
The Wild Bunch 1969 Sam Peckinpah 80 79 1
Modern Times 1936 Charlie Chaplin 81 78 3
Spartacus 1960 Stanley Kubrick — 81 —
Giant 1956 George Stevens 82 — —
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 F. W. Murnau — 82 —
Platoon 1986 Oliver Stone 83 86 3
Titanic 1997 James Cameron — 83 —
Fargo 1996 Coen brothers 84 — —
Duck Soup 1933 Leo McCarey 85 60 25
A Night at the Opera 1935 Sam Wood — 85 —
Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 Frank Lloyd 86 — —
Frankenstein 1931 James Whale 87 — —
12 Angry Men 1957 Sidney Lumet — 87 —
Easy Rider 1969 Dennis Hopper 88 84 4
Patton 1970 Franklin J. Schaffner 89 — —
The Sixth Sense 1999 M. Night Shyamalan — 89 —
The Jazz Singer 1927 Alan Crosland 90 — —
Swing Time 1936 George Stevens — 90 —
My Fair Lady 1964 George Cukor 91 — —
Sophie's Choice 1982 Alan J. Pakula — 91 —
A Place in the Sun 1951 George Stevens 92 — —
The Apartment 1960 Billy Wilder 93 80 13
Goodfellas 1990 Martin Scorsese 94 92 2
Pulp Fiction 1994 Quentin Tarantino 95 94 1
The Last Picture Show 1971 Peter Bogdanovich — 95 —
The Searchers 1956 John Ford 96 12 84
Do the Right Thing 1989 Spike Lee — 96 —
Bringing Up Baby 1938 Howard Hawks 97 88 9
Blade Runner 1982 Ridley Scott — 97 —
Unforgiven 1992 Clint Eastwood 98 68 30
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner 1967 Stanley Kramer 99 — —
Toy Story 1995 John Lasseter — 99 —
Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 Michael Curtiz 100 98 2

2007 update notes

Twenty-three films from the original top 100 films list were removed in 2007:

Four films released between 1996 and 2006 were added:

Nineteen films made before 1996 were also added:

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:

10th Anniversary Broadcast

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.

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.[1] 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
  1. 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.
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