Top 100 favourite films lists cause a lot of debate, but when you
try to make a Top 100 greatest films, then you get real problems.
Channel 4 (British TV) have made an "interesting" attempt.
They started by having some "experts" create the initial,
unordered 100 films they thought were the greatest, (by the following
criteria and with reference to other such lists as well). Then voting
was opened up to anyone visiting the Channel 4 website. The list
was supposedly intended to include films that:
- are generally considered as classics of cinema
- broke new ground in technique, subject matter, or ideas
- had phenomenal popular appeal and a lasting impact on popular
culture
- represent the greatest work of cinema's most respected directors
and performers
So, we start with a list of great films that is reasonably good,
but has some obvious omissions and includes some populist choices,
not to mention some very obviously biased choices! "Four Weddings
and a Funeral"? - I don't think so. And how about the most
overhyped film ever, "Titanic" - included because of popular
appeal? Quite satisfying when viewing the programme to see the next
film above "Titanic" being "The Jungle Book"!
"The Matrix" was popular, but SFX move on quickly, so
will it stand the test of time? And there are some odd choices on
which films of particualar directors to include/exclude. Of course
there are many individual favourites that will not make the initial
list, but neither do some terrific films, like "Brazil",
for instance. And note, the voting took place before the two biggest
ever book-to-film movies were released, ("Harry Potter"
and "Lord of the Rings".)
What about the voting? Did the people voting really choose their
objective opinion of greatest films, or simply choose their favourites
from the initial list? I'm sure a few would do the former, (remembering
that "Citizen Kane" created many film-making techniques),
but most would do the latter, in which case we have the bias of
population grouping of those viewers. How many people do you think
have seen all 100 films anyway? And it doesn't matter how influential
a particular film was in changing film history, if it doesn't appeal
to today's audience, how many will vote for it? Of course, who can
argue with "Blade Runner" being voted a Top 10 movie yet
again? Ridley Scott must be pleased with his "double"
as the recent "Gladiatior" is also in the Top 10!
For those not familiar with Channel 4, they are a British TV channel
who have a particular interest in Film and have produced some very
good cinema-released films themselves although I don't think any
should have been included on this list!
The final list, as broadcast on 24/25 November 2001 is as follows:
-
Star Wars / The Empire Strikes Back (1977/80) - George
Lucas / Irvin Kershner
-
The Godfather / The Godfather Part II (1972/74) - Francis
Ford Coppola
-
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - Frank Darabont
-
Pulp Fiction (1994) - Quentin Tarantino
-
Some Like It Hot (1959) - Billy Wilder
-
Gladiator (2000) - Ridley Scott
-
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - Frank Capra
- Blade
Runner (1982) - Ridley Scott
-
Schindler's List (1993) - Steven Spielberg
-
Goodfellas (1990) - Martin Scorsese
-
Psycho (1960) - Alfred Hitchcock
-
Jaws (1975) - Steven Spielberg
-
Apocalypse Now (1979) - Francis Coppola
-
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - Milos Forman
-
The Matrix (1999) - Andy and Larry Wachowski
-
Casablanca (1942) - Michael Curtiz
-
The Usual Suspects (1995) - Bryan Singer
-
Wo hu cang long {Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon} (2000)
- Ang Lee
-
Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles
-
Raging Bull (1980) - Martin Scorsese
-
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Steven Spielberg
-
Taxi Driver (1976) - Martin Scorsese
-
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) - Terry Jones
-
Singin' in the Rain (1952) - Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
-
L.A. Confidential (1997) - Curtis Hanson
-
The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Victor Fleming, King Vidor
-
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Stanley Kubrick
-
Kes (1969) - Ken Loach
-
Vertigo (1958) - Alfred Hitchcock
-
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - David Lean
-
Fargo (1995) - Joel and Ethan Coen
-
Gone with the Wind (1939) - Victor Fleming
-
Trainspotting (1995) - Danny Boyle
-
The Full Monty (1997) - Peter Cattaneo
-
The Graduate (1967) - Mike Nichols
-
Alien (1979) - Ridley Scott
-
The Silence of the Lambs (1990) - Jonathan Demme
-
Withnail and I (1986) - Bruce Robinson
-
The Great Escape (1963) - John Sturges
-
Toy Story (1995) - John Lasseter
-
The Third Man (1949) - Carol Reed
-
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) - Mike Newell
-
The Sound of Music (1965) - Robert Wise
-
Fitzcarraldo (1982) - Werner Herzog
-
Deliverance (1972) - John Boorman
-
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ( 1966) - Sergio Leone
-
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) - Robert Hamer
-
Chinatown (1974) - Roman Polanski
-
The Exorcist (1973) - William Friedkin
-
Annie Hall (1977) - Woody Allen
-
The Italian Job (1969) - Peter Collinson
-
Sunset Boulevard (1950) - Billy Wilder
-
The Jungle Book (1967) - Wolfgang Reitherman
-
Titanic (1997) - James Cameron
-
Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources (1986) - Claude
Berri
-
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love
the Bomb (1963) - Stanley Kubrick
-
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) - Nicholas Ray
-
Shichinin no samurai {The Seven Samurai} (1954) - Akira
Kurosawa
-
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) - Michael Powell and
Emeric Pressburger
-
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - George Roy
Hill
-
Secrets and Lies (1995) - Mike Leigh
-
Blue Velvet (1986) - David Lynch
-
La Dolce Vita (1960) - Federico Fellini
-
Spartacus (1960) - Stanley Kubrick
-
Metropolis (1926) - Fritz Lang
-
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Arthur Penn
-
King Kong (1933) - Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack
-
Get Carter (1971) - Mike Hodges
-
The Searchers (1956) - John Ford
-
Det Sjunde inseglet {The Seventh Seal} (1957) - Ingmar
Bergman
-
Don't Look Now (1973) - Nicolas Roeg
-
Brief Encounter (1945) - David Lean
-
MASH (1969) - Robert Altman
-
The French Connection (1971) - William Friedkin
-
Top Hat (1935) - Mark Sandrich
-
The Producers (1968) - Mel Brooks
-
Trois Couleurs Bleu/Blanc/Rouge {Three Colours trilogy}
(1993-94) - Krzystof Kieslowski
-
Cabaret (1972) - Bob Fosse
-
Goldfinger (1964) - Guy Hamilton
-
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - David Hand
-
The Gold Rush (1925) - Charles Chaplin
-
High Noon (1952) - Fred Zinnemann
-
Saturday Night Fever (1977) - John Badham
-
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - Michael Curtiz
and William Keighley
-
Enter the Dragon (1973) - Robert Clouse
-
Ā Bout de Souffle {Breathless} (1959) - Jean-Luc
Godard
-
Ice Cold in Alex (1958) - Lee Thompson
-
Bronenosets Potyomkin {The Battleship Potemkin} (1925)
- Sergei Eisenstein
-
The African Queen (1951) - John Huston
-
The General (1927) - Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
-
A Hard Day's Night (1964) - Richard Lester
-
Way Out West (1937) - James W Horne
-
Henry V (1944) - Laurence Olivier
-
Easy Rider (1969) - Dennis Hopper
-
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) - Stephen Frears
-
Belle de Jour (1967) - Luis Buņuel
-
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - James Whale
-
The Terminator (1984) - James Cameron
-
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - Karel Reisz
-
Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee
This list is published on the Film
Four website, although we actually had the complete list up
on the Web before they did! In fact, they initially published the
list in a completely different order and took most of the next day
fixing it. Also, other news services were all given the results
with an error in, so for some time, this was about the only place
you could find the correct list!
You may be interested in checking out the reports at BBC
news or Sky
News.
And if you don't like the list, (as many don't), Sisqua.com set
up an alternative free vote in response to the Channel 4 list. The
results make fascinating reading - see our
report.
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