AFI: Citizen Kane Still Stands Alone

Everything is once again coming up Rosebud for the American Film Institute.

Ten years later, and 66 years after it was made, Citizen Kane is still the cream of the crop, according to AFI, which also gave Orson Welles' epic the top spot when it first compiled its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time, 100 Years…100 Movies, back in 1997.

No matter that the black-and-white drama about publishing magnate Charles Foster Kane, a character famously modeled on real-life mogul William Randolph Hearst, doesn't hold up to repeat viewings the way, say, Casablanca (third place) or The Wizard of Oz (10th place) does, or that it failed to snag the Oscar for Best Picture, losing out to the more sentimental How Green Was My Valley (a list no-show).

Citizen Kane, which actually only received one Oscar, for Welles' and Herman Mankiewicz's screenplay, has always been revered as a pioneering cinematic effort, beautifully and fearlessly made if not always engaging. A maverick of his time, Welles was only 25 when he directed and starred in the film.

AFI left "always engaging" to its next pick, 1972 Best Picture winner and topper of myriad other "best of" lists, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, which swapped places with Casablanca (also a veritable feast of memorable quotes) to land at number two this time around.

"Like all art forms, our perceptions of the movies change over time," AFI president and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg said. "AFI is proud to conduct this poll every 10 years to mark these changing cultural perspectives—and to drive new generations to the classics of American film."

In fact, only three films—Citizen Kane, The Godfather Part II (32nd) and The Best Years of Our Lives (37th) maintained the same ranking as 10 years ago.

Cracking the top 10 in 2007 are Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull at number four (formerly 24th) and Vertigo, often considered to be Alfred Hitchcock's all-around greatest film, which hurdled 52 places to land at number nine.

Losing their place in line, then, were The Graduate, which fell to 17th place, and On the Waterfront, still a contender at number 19.

Rounding out the top 10 once again are Singin' in the Rain, up from 10th to fifth place; Gone with the Wind, down from fourth to sixth; Lawrence of Arabia, down from fifth to seventh; Schindler's List; up from ninth to eighth; and, The Wizard of Oz, down from sixth to 10th.

Five of the top 10 films won Academy Awards for Best Picture and all but two (Vertigo and Singin' in the Rain) were nominated. The Wizard of Oz lost out to Gone with the Wind for the top prize in 1939; Victor Fleming directed both movies.

A jury of 1,500 actors, critics and film historians chose their favorites from a ballot containing 400 films, including 43 titles that only became eligible since the first list was made. Five write-ins were allowed per ballot.

Criteria voters were asked to consider included the films' length (60 minutes or longer); the American elements in the subject matter and/or production; critical recognition and major awards; popularity over time; historical significance; and cultural impact.

Taking their duties seriously, only four of the 43 new candidates made the cut—The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (50th), Saving Private Ryan (71th), Titanic (83rd) and The Sixth Sense (89th).

Cultural impact, indeed.

There were 19 other new additions to the list, as well; meaning, 23 theoretical classics lost their mojo over the past decade, including the groundbreaking yet hopelessly offensive film school staple The Birth of a Nation; horror classic Frankenstein; talkie number-one The Jazz Singer; and two James Dean films (he only made three), Giant and Rebel Without a Cause.

Also booted was 1990 Best Picture winner Dances with Wolves, which obviously didn't hold up as well as that year's more deserving also-ran, Goodfellas, up two slots in 2007 to 92nd.

As far as individual achievement is concerned, Steven Spielberg has a director-best five films on the list (E.T., Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List), while Robert De Niro (Raging Bull, The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Goodfellas) and James Stewart (Vertigo, It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Rear Window) are the most represented actors.

Six musicals (Cabaret, Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz and Yankee Doodle Dandy) grace the list, as do two animated films (Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs and newbie Toy Story, Pixar's first foray into greatness).

The oldest film to stand the test of time is D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (49th), from 1916 (replacing 1915's Birth of a Nation), with the newest add being 2001's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Intolerance, The General (16th), Sunrise (82nd) and Modern Times (78th) are the four silent films that made the list.

Meanwhile, 2001: A Space Odyssey (15th) could feasibly be considered the film with the strangest sounds. And Titanic may as well have been silent.

AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies—10th Anniversary Edition, hosted by Morgan Freeman, aired Wednesday night on CBS.

Here's a complete list of AFI's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (*newcomers):

1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather
3. Casablanca
4. Raging Bull
5. Singin' in the Rain
6. Gone with the Wind
7. Lawrence of Arabia
8. Schindler's List
9. Vertigo
10. The Wizard of Oz
11. City Lights
12. The Searchers
13. Star Wars
14. Psycho
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey
16. Sunset Boulevard
17. The Graduate
18. The General*
19. On the Waterfront
20. It's a Wonderful Life
21. Chinatown
22. Some Like It Hot
23. The Grapes of Wrath
24. E.T.
25. To Kill a Mockingbird
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
27. High Noon
28. All About Eve
29. Double Indemnity
30. Apocalypse Now
31. The Maltese Falcon
32. The Godfather Part II
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
35. Annie Hall
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai
37. The Best Years of Our Lives
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
39. Dr. Strangelove
40. The Sound of Music
41. King Kong
42. Bonnie and Clyde
43. Midnight Cowboy
44. The Philadelphia Story
45. Shane
46. It Happened One Night
47. A Streetcar Named Desire
48. Rear Window
49. Intolerance*
50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
51. West Side Story
52. Taxi Driver
53. The Deer Hunter
54. M*A*S*H
55. North by Northwest
56. Jaws
57. Rocky
58. The Gold Rush
59. Nashville*
60. Duck Soup
61. Sullivan's Travels*
62. American Graffiti
63. Cabaret*
64. Network
65. The African Queen
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?*
68. Unforgiven
69. Tootsie
70. A Clockwork Orange
71. Saving Private Ryan
72. The Shawshank Redemption*
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
74. The Silence of the Lambs
75. In the Heat of the Night*
76. Forrest Gump
77. All the President's Men*
78. Modern Times
79. The Wild Bunch
80. The Apartment
81. Spartacus*
82. Sunrise*
83. Titanic*
84. Easy Rider
85. A Night at the Opera*
86. Platoon
87. 12 Angry Men*
88. Bringing Up Baby
89. The Sixth Sense*
90. Swing Time*
91. Sophie's Choice*
92. Goodfellas
93. The French Connection
94. Pulp Fiction
95. The Last Picture Show*
96. Do the Right Thing*
97. Blade Runner*
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy
99. Toy Story*
100. Ben-Hur

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Stories

View Next Articles

9 Comments

Now loading...

Add Your Comment!

Guests

E! Online members

Register | Forgot password?

Play nice and have fun. And please, no HTML tags or special characters including [&*#()!@$].
You've got 1000 characters left.

Post Comment

The Big Picture

Happy Meal Katherine Heigl and her crew have a bit of fun while grabbing some fast food

More Photos
GRAB & SHARE
Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.
Click Here

Our Partners

  • Huffington Post
  • PopEater

Get Your E! News Now

Text ENEWS to 4INFO (44636) for daily celeb news alerts

Standard messaging rates apply.

Did you know you can grab smokin' hot E! Online news, review and gossip through our RSS service?

New to RSS feeds? Learn more >>

Birthdate:

Enter your full birthdate:

  • Opt in for Breaking News Alerts

has been subscribed to the E! News Now Newsletter.

To change your settings, go to your preferences.

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.