BBC's top 100 American films list

100. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)
99. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
98. Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980)
97. Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
96. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
95. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)
94. 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)
93. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
92. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
91. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
90. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
89. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
88. West Side Story (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 1961)
87. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
86. The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, 1994)
85. Night of the Living Dead (George A Romero, 1968)
84. Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)
83. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
82. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
81. Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991)
80. Meet Me in St Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
79. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
78. Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
77. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
76. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
75. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
74. Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994)
73. Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
72. The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg, 1941)
71. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
70. The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)
69. Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982)
68. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
67. Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
66. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
65. The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman, 1983)
64. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
63. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)
62. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
61. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
60. Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
59. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975)
58. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)
57. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)
56. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
55. The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
54. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
53. Grey Gardens (Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, 1975)
52. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
51. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
50. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
49. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
48. A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
47. Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964)
46. It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
45. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
44. Sherlock Jr (Buster Keaton, 1924)
43. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)
42. Dr Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
41. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
40. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)
39. The Birth of a Nation (DW Griffith, 1915)
38. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
37. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)
36. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
35. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
34. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
33. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
32. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
31. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
30. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
29. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
28. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
27. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
26. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1978)
25. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
24. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
23. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
22. Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)
21. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
20. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
19. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
18. City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
17. The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1925)
16. McCabe & Mrs Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
15. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
14. Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
13. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
12. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
11. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
10. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
9. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
8. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
7. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)
6. Sunrise (FW Murnau, 1927)
5. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
3. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
2. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150720-the-100-greatest-american-films

Obviously this is a matter of taste to a certain extent, but there is still a lot of trite in there that should never have been within 500 miles of this list.

Regardless of the merits of the films on that list about half weren't directed by Americans.

Is there a list of the critics who voted for this?

Not a very impressive list. FORREST GUMP? Give me a break.

My advice to these "critics": see more movies.

Δ

I'm surprised that BIRTH OF A NATION made the list.

Δ

Control wrote:

I'm surprised that BIRTH OF A NATION made the list.

Well in terms of its importance to the medium, it should surely make any such list.

All those films fail the Bechdel test except Mulholland Dr. Therefore the list should be disregarded to maintain public safety.

Coming to something when you can't trust the BBC to do the right and progressive thing.

Salomé wrote:

Control wrote:

I'm surprised that BIRTH OF A NATION made the list.

Well in terms of its importance to the medium, it should surely make any such list.

It's not popular today, though. Film professors in the nation's leading film schools won't even show it to students.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/100-years-later-whats-the-legacy-of-birth-of-a-nation/

Quote :

Todd Boyd, a professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, says he rarely brings up the film in his classes and he won't ever screen it in his classroom.

"It's really sort of the foundation of modern cinema, I think, in every sense. So historically it's important in that regard, but you can't separate — at least, I don't agree to separate — the technological prowess from the political baggage," says Boyd, who is the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture at USC.

"If you plant seeds, what grows from those seeds is going to be based on what you planted. So if you're trying to grow marijuana, you probably shouldn't plant tomatoes. Birth of a Nation is a film that represents racism," Boyd says.

I visited Webbly a couple of months ago, which was a southern estate that was featured in the film. Gorgeous area of the south.

That reasoning seems typical of the kind of the atmosphere that seems to inhabit many modern university campuses. Any idea or individual who might be deemed subversive or dangerous (by whatever small minority) is shunned. A school of cinematic arts that is afraid to give D.W. Griffith his due does not seem worthy of the name. It also begs the question: where do they draw the line? I guess Riefenstahl and Eisenstein are out as well?

Utterly crazy. If the same PoV was applied to other areas of the arts then all sorts of styles would need to be airbrushed from history for not being 'right on', most obviously the work of the Futurists and Constructivists, two schools I find amusingly similar even if their supporters cannot see it.

BIRTH OF A NATION should be regarded as an important film, but I can understand why one wouldn't think of it as a good one. At least show some clips to students to get a grasp of it, you don't have to show them the entire three hour slog. Same with other milestone films like THE JAZZ SINGER.

If all old films were intercut with CGI, car chases, teenagers and explosions then the kids could relate to them better. I'm not suggesting we should pander to ignorant young fucks, but black and white is racist, yeah?  Colourise these primitive movies as well.

No added tits though.

That would just be offensive.

TERMINATOR GENISYS sort of did that. Getting rid of the tits, swearing, replacing them with CGI and chase sequences every five minutes.

Now it's wildly known for killing the series, a feat that not even Sam Worthington could pull off.

Makeshift Python wrote:

BIRTH OF A NATION should be regarded as an important film, but I can understand why one wouldn't think of it as a good one. At least show some clips to students to get a grasp of it, you don't have to show them the entire three hour slog. Same with other milestone films like THE JAZZ SINGER.

Well that would depend on how highly you value inventing much of the cinematic vocabulary. :D

I can appreciate it for inventing the cinematic language, doesn't mean I have to enjoy the propaganda.

Makeshift Python wrote:

I can appreciate it for inventing the cinematic language, doesn't mean I have to enjoy the propaganda.

Fair enough, but like anything else, it is a product of its time. Adding to that, the ideas themselves were not Griffith's, but Thomas Dixon Jr.'s.

Woodrow Wilson was a big fan of the feature, amongst countless others. So even though it clearly tackles very controversial subject matter today, this was far less the case 100 years ago.

I can understand why people would object to its subject matter on moral grounds, but the reason why we were discussing the feature is its absence on some film study curriculum, which is inexcusable.

Once again, where do you then draw the line? Is Riefenstahl out for her close links to the Nazi regime? Should we ditched Eisenstein's contributions because they were made within the oppressive Soviet regime?

Applying this reasoning beyond film-making means we'll have to ditch an awful lot. Forget Lovecraft's contributions to horror writing, since he too was supposedly a racist.
So is Mark Twain, apparently. Hergé's "Tintin in the Congo" is undeniably colonial and racist too.
And Agatha Christie actually named one of her novels "Ten Little Niggers". *clutches pearls*

No, I agree. We shouldn't shield ourselves from the past. I got to watch GONE WITH THE WIND in theaters, another film that was wildly popular in the US especially in the southern states. Watching it, I was able to admire a lot of the work that was put into it, even though its romanticized view of Old South is bullshit.

Disney's SONGS OF THE SOUTH is a very controversial film due to its racial politics, so much that it has never been available for home video in the US and I agree it's probably not a message that children should take to heart. However, it should at least be available in some form. Roger Ebert argued that film students should at least have access to it.