It starts with a good old-fashioned epic, and ends with one. Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’s 1941 biopic about a newspaper magnate, topped a poll of the 100 best films announced by the American Film Institute (AFI) on Thursday. At the bottom of the list was Ben-Hur, William Wyler’s 1959 spectacle starring Charlton Heston.
In between, the list shows that filmmakers tend to be nostalgic about the golden days of Hollywood, and that their understanding of the movies was forged by the heyday of American cinema in the 1970s. Twenty of the films on the list were made in that decade.
So Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, released in 1980, is the big mover in this year’s annual poll of 1 500 filmmakers, actors and critics. A black-and-white film dealing with a historical subject, it was directed by the now-celebrated doyen of American independent film.
Scorsese’s contemporary, Steven Spielberg, is the most honoured director on the list, with five of his films making the top 100. Although Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind dropped off the list, it was replaced by 1998’s Saving Private Ryan. That film was one of four from the last 10 years to make the cut. The others were The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Titanic and The Sixth Sense.
But while recent films have not accrued sufficient historical weight to appeal to the AFI’s respondents, those made at the beginning of the film age have become more appealing. Chaplin — City Lights shoots up 67 places to number 11 — and Buster Keaton, whose civil war comedy The General debuts at number 18, both benefit from a sense of nostalgia as well as restoration and release to a new audience on DVD.
The top 10 is dominated by films which have been ever-present since the AFI inaugurated its list 10 years ago. The Godfather has moved to second spot, swapping places with Casablanca, while Singin’ in the Rain, Gone with the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia are still in the top 10. Films failing to make the list this year included Dr Zhivago, Amadeus, Dances with Wolves, Fantasia and The Jazz Singer.
Notable newcomers include DW Griffith’s 1916 epic Intolerance, Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, Preston Sturges’ 1941 comedy Sullivan’s Travels and the late Robert Altman’s multi-faceted Nashville.
Voters were asked to choose their top 100 from a list of 400 films, of which 43 were made in the last decade. – Guardian Unlimited Â