Monday, December 30, 2013

Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb - #3, #2, #1 - The Final Countdown

It's the Sunday Showdown: finishing my comparison of the American Film Institute's and Internet Movie Database's Top 100 films.

It's been an interesting couple of years with this showdown. It started way back on January 13, 2012 -- one movie a week (usually) for nearly two years. I wanted to see if I would agree more with the Scholars (AFI) or the Masses (IMDb). In what may come as a surprise to no one, it looks like I've agreed with the scholars more.

I'll do some sort of better statistical analysis next week to totally finish it all off, but for now, here it is, the last two comparisons:

#3 - Casablanca vs. The Godfather, Part II
#1 - Citizen Kane vs. The Shawshank Redemption
(#2 was the same for both lists - The Godfather vs. The Godfather)

Neither of these were very hard decisions for me. I can admit that watching The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II this year, I found a new appreciation for both of them. Somehow, maybe because it had been so long since I'd seen them, or because they were just so iconic, they had become a parody of themselves in my mind.

Both Godfather and Godfather 2 are great movies. Writing, directing, acting -- all stellar from beginning to end.  I'm glad I watched them again this year, just so I remembered that. 

But, no matter what, Godfather was not going to win for me against Casablanca. In my opinion, Casablanca is one of the greatest films EVER MADE. It's timeless, it's magic, it's tragically romantic in a way that makes you want to become a romance novelist. 

Hey, wait a minute...

I love the movie more every time I see it.  I quote more often than any other film. The film is 70 years old and it's still as wonderful as ever.

So that brings us to #1: Citizen Kane vs. The Shawshank Redemption.

I know there's a lot of backlash against Kane. It was the #1 movie of every important movie list for so long that I think it was destined to not even make it into the top 1/3 of the IMDb. The masses were going to show that they WOULD NOT BE RULED by the scholars.

But you know what? Utter rebellion still doesn't make Shawshank a better movie than Kane

Don't get me wrong. I love Shawshank Redemption. What an absolutely great-story, great-acting, feel-good, I-can-do-anything, good-will-triumph, hug-your-loved-ones piece of cinematic history that movie is. Tim Robbin standing in the rain after making it through that tunnel out of the prison... iconic.

But Citizen Kane? Whether you like it, don't like it, know what Rosebud is, don't give a flip what Rosebud is... It's still one of the most influential movie in cinematic history. It's innovation (both narratively and visually) cannot be denied.  The angles, mise-en-scene, composition (see? I did learn something in my film classes)... Director Orson Welles and cinematographer Gregg Toland gave movie-making so much of what we take for granted today.

It's no hardship for me to give my vote, my final vote, to Citizen Kane over Shawshank Redemption.

So that's it. My last two votes go to AFI, bringing the final score to AFI - 54, IMDb - 44 (with two ties, one from the lists -- #2 The Godfather, and one because I just couldn't choose #38 - The Treasure of Sierra Madre vs. North by Northwest). 

Like I said, sometime next week I'll do a statistical postmortem of the whole thing and see if there's anything interesting, but here's how the list looks in its entirety:



AFI’s Top 100
IMDb’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)

54
44



#1
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Shawshank Redeption (1994)
#2
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather (1972)
#3
Casablanca (1942)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
     #4
Raging Bull (1980)
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (1966)
#5
Singin’ In the Rain (1952)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
#6
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Inception (2010)
#7
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Schindler’s List (1993)
#8
Schindler's List (1993)
12 Angry Men (1957)
#9
Vertigo (1958)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
#10
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Dark Knight (2008)
#11
City Lights (1931)
LoTR: Return of the King (2003)
#12
The Searchers (1956)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
#13
Star Wars (1977)
Seven Samurai (1954)
#14
Psycho (1966)
Star Wars (1977)
#15
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Goodfellas (1990)
#16
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Casablanca (1942)
#17
The Graduate (1967)
Fight Club (1999)
#18
The General (1927)
City of God (2002)
#19
On the Waterfront (1954)
LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
#20
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Rear Window (1954)
#21
Chinatown (1974)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
#22
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
#23
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
#24
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Psycho (1960)
#25
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
#26
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Matrix (1999)
#27
High Noon (1952)
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
#28
All About Eve (1950)
Se7en (1995)
#29
Double Indemnity (1944)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
#30
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Memento (1990)
#31
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
LoTR: The Two Towers(2002)
#32
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
#33
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
#34
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Forrest Gump (1994)
#35
Annie Hall (1977)
Leon: The Professional (1994)
#36
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Citizen Kane (1941)
#37
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
#38
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
North By Northwest (1959)
#39
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
American Beauty (1999)
#40
The Sound of Music (1965)
American History X (1998)
#41
King Kong (1933)
Taxi Driver (1976)
#42
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
#43
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
#44
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Vertigo (1958)
#45
Shane (1953)
Amelie (2001)
#46
It Happened One Night (1934)
Alien (1979)
#47
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Wall E (2008)
#48
Rear Window (1954)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
#49
Intolerance (1916)
The Shining (1980)
#50
LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
#51
West Side Story (1961)
Paths of Glory (1957)
#52
Taxi Driver (1976)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
#53
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Double Indemnity (1944)
#54
M*A*S*H* (1970)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
#55
North by Northwest (1959)
The Pianist (2002)
#56
Jaws (1975)
The Lives of Others (2006)
#57
Rocky (1976)
The Departed (2006)
#58
The Gold Rush (1925)
Memento (2000)
#59
Nashville (1975)
City Lights (1931)
#60
Duck Soup (1933)
Aliens (1986)
#61
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)
#62
American Graffiti (1973)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
#63
Cabaret (1972)
Das Boot (1981)
#64
Network (1976)
The Third Man (1949)
#65
The African Queen (1951)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
#66
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
#67
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Chinatown (1974)
#68
Unforgiven (1992)
The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
#69
Tootsie (1982)
Modern Times (1936)
#70
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Life is Beautiful (1997)
#71
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Monty Python & the Holy Grail (1975)
#72
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Back to the Future (1985)
#73
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Prestige (2006)
#74
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
#75
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Raging Bull (1980)
#76
Forrest Gump (1994)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
#77
All the President’s Men  (1976)
Singing In the Rain (1952)
#78
Modern Times (1936)
Some Like it Hot (1959)
#79
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
#80
The Apartment (1960)
Rashomon (1950)
#81
Spartacus (1960)
All About Eve (1950)
#82
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
Amadeus (1984)
#83
Titanic (1997)
Once Upon A Time in America (1984)
#84
Easy Rider (1969)
The Green Mile (1999)
#85
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
#86
Platoon (1986)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
#87
12 Angry Men (1957)
Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#88
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
The Great Dictator (1940)
#89
Sixth Sense (1999)
Braveheart (1995)
#90
Swing Time (1936)
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
#91
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
The Apartment (1960)
#92
Goodfellas (1990)
Up (2009)
#93
The French Connection (1971)
Downfall (2004)
#94
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Gran Torino (2008)
#95
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Metropolis (1927)
#96
Do The Right Thing (1989)
The Sting (1973)
#97
Blade Runner (1982)
Gladiator (2000)
#98
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
#99
Toy Story (1995)
Unforgiven (1992)
#100
Ben Hur (1959)
The Elephant Man (1980)