AFI compiled a list a few years ago of their top 100 movies of the past century. Here is what they came up with:

http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/movies.aspx

I've only seen 34. I have a whole bunch that I want to see, and I'm going to try and watch another movie on the list every free weekend.

How many have you seen?

I actually watched this show. Its not really different than VH1's "best
of" stuff, but it does hold a certain respect with reguards to which
movies they've chosen.

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Posting And You

Not many - about 20, if you include stuff on my "i'll get round to seeing one day" still only about 50.

Citizen Kane is their number 1 movie. And oh look, Casablanca is number 2. How unique.

I've actually watched about 30 of those.

I'd plan to watch 26. Needless to say, I don't think the other 44 movies on the list are good or worth my time. AFI tends to rate things on influence with-in the film industry more than anything else. Or what other film makers thought.

One movie that is still puzzling me is The African Queen ... exactly why is this movie so beloved? I understand the themes and the importance of what the characters accomplish ... but seriously.

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Crono said:
AFI tends to rate things on influence with-in the film industry more than anything else. Or what other film makers thought.

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head with this. It's by no means a list of the 100 most popular movies of all time.

I guess there's probably another 20 movies I'd enjoy watching, but there are definitely at least 40 or so that you'd have to pay me to sit down and view.

Snatch isn't on it?

Flawed list.

Snatch isn't on it?

Flawed list.

QFT
I think Bladerunner should have been on there somewhere as well.

38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

I think that's the oldest movie I've seen, it was pretty good. It was no Napolean Dynamite though.

EDIT: fixed sarcasm color

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Their selections get incredibly picky after 1980. It's because, I bet, these people were film majors and these are the movies that every film class will tell you "these are legendary classics". It also looks like no foreign movies are on the list.

The newest movie on there is Fargo from 1996. Only three other movies from the 90s are there.

Everything else is from the 40s and 50s. Pretty much, the "golden" era of film. It's when the studios were monopolies and determined everything about a motion picture. This is the reason there was no MPAA back then, it wasn't needed. Nothing above a G or PG rating was ever made.

Likewise, that's why you see a lot of really violent movies from the 70s on that list. They were made during the MPAA's origination period, so the edgiest stuff (supposedly) came out then.

I think, for a movie to be accepted by this community now, it'd have to be very astonishing and flawless. Oh, and they'd have to like it too. Apparently, either Fight Club is too new ... or it didn't sit well with them (which I don't buy since Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and Taxi Driver made that list)

I hate societies like this. This is definitive bulls**t is what it is. You can tell these people either don't care or don't know anything besides what they were taught, since their "current" legendary star actor list includes Sylvester Stallone.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Bladerunner wasn't on there? That's a write-off!

I've only seen 39 of them, but the list looks decent. The list is still missing a lot of great stuff, and is disproportionately biased against comedies and movies made in the last 10 years. Where's Fight Club, The Usual Suspects, Requiem for a Dream, etc etc? IMDB top 250 is more in-line with my favorites.

Oh, and Snatch rocks all socks.

EDIT: Looks like Chrono beat me to the punch wrt the bias against new movies.

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http://maze5.net

Well, since I believe in democracy, here's another choice:

IMDB's Top 250 Movies Based on User Votes

Edit: Darn you MM!

Seen 17 for 100% certainty. There were 4 or so movies that I wasn't
sure if I had seen them, but scenes of them flapped through my
memory(could've seen just pieces). And there were a lot of movies that
I'm planning on watching at some point(Clockwork Orange, Fargo, Silence
of the Lambs, etc.)

But I'm surprised that my all time favorite movie is on the list: Apocalypse Now!

I'm also a bit surprised the amount of movies I've seen from that list
after all it is a bit biased list and not to the type of movies I'd be
watching. Where's Saving Private Ryan or Bladerunner or Alien: The
eight passenger?

I've actually watched The African Queen which
is certainly not a movie I'd normally watch, but then again I was drunk
at that time... But I must share the question Crono asked before: What
is it about this movie that people like?

Now I'm taking a look at the IMDB listing. :razz:

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Dystopia - Empires

about 22. 2 of them I honestly couldn't finish because they bored me to death. Dr. Dtrangelove was one of them.

I've only seen 34.

For a minute I though you've only seen movie # 34.

I've seen 27 of that list but I think my movie watching time is better spent on interesting movies of recent times. I know it's not fair, but most of the movies from the 60ies and before bore me too much. I mean somehow Picasso may have been taught techniques that can be traced back to the earliest Renaissance painters. But as interesting and everlasting their influcence has been, you don't need it to enjoy Picasso, or paint a great, modern painting yourself.

Also this kind of rating will always be an average of all the things you can rate about a film. There might be a movie with the greatest characters and camera, that can easily become someone's favourite, most important movie. But it will never come in this list because of one small but obvious plot-hole. This makes it painful for me to read lists like that. (the same way I think about mapping in a way)

It's good to read any list without the hyperrated Lord of the Rings movies in it, though. Even if it's just because of the time frame. :wink:

I hate hobbits.

When I read the 1st post I wondered if this was by the band AFI at first :biggrin:

Watched about 15 of those on that list...

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Hello there.

Only seen five of them that I'm certain of, I might have forgotten or watched some of them with a title translated to Swedish.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I counted aroudn 25 of them.

I've seen every one on my top 100 list.

I've watched 39 of them completely, and heard about/watched bits of around 10 others. But the ranking does seem biased: i don't understand how "Lawrence of Arabia" made it to the 5th place?? or "Schindler's list" to the 9th...

The list certainly seems geared towards the older movies. American Beauty for example, doesn't feature at all, whilst it's at 33 on the IMDB list.

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My feeling is the list is geared more towards each film's historical importance in furthering the development of American cinema. Films like "Birth of a Nation" are absolute torture to watch, but have undeniable significance. The very fact that these are films that were selected by academic minded film critics (or so I hear) is telling...

Lawrence of Arabia is great. I think it is worthy of a place in the top 10.

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"The lead character is the heroic, contradictory, uncrowned King of Arabia - T.E. Lawrence - a solitary, masochistic adventurer (with confused sexuality, and hidden, repressed, and unrequited homosexual feelings for Sherif Ali) who paradoxically wanted to be both extraordinary and ordinary. In the end, his excessive arrogance, violent masochism and pushing of limits led to his own downfall, and to his belief that he had failed in his mission and duty."...

That's not really my kind of movie... Ben Hurr for example, THAT's a great movie!! Wasn't there a thread where everyone listed his own top 5 movies btw?

Over 90+

I disagree with that list... Strongly. I could come up with a top 100 and have less than 25% of those titles upon it.

shrugs

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