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)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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