Citizen Kane declared greatest US movie

It's official: Citizen Kane is the greatest US movie of all time, pipping The Godfather into second spot. That's according to the American Film Institute (AFI), which has just released its latest list of the top 100 American flicks, selected by "1,500 ballots sent to film-makers, actors, writers and other Hollywood players, who …

[Martin Gregorie]

Shame about the AFI website...

because neither your link to the top 100 film list nor the link from www.afi.com seem to work.

The URL just hangs.

[Anonymous Coward]

You would have thought

You would have thought that "Snakes on a Plane" would have made it on that list. I'ts a conspiracy, I tell you.

[Ian Ferguson]

Hollywood films, not US films

It's telling that Apocalypse Now isn't near the top, as it usually is with 'greatest film' lists - it famously being a non-Hollywood-produced film. By 'US movie' they mean 'Hollywood movie' - not that the average punter knows the difference, sadly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sports Fans

"As for the other 90 laureats, you'll have to sign up to download the full roster."

Alternatively, you could pop off to Roger Ebert's website, where he lists them all. Number 83 is Titanic, which is higher than The French Connection but slightly lower than All the President's Men, which is in turn one place beneath Forrest Gump. Sadly, neither Weird Science nor Zapped are anywhere to be found - perhaps they are in the next hundred. I can't see Top Gun either, or any of the Iron Eagle films.

[Morely Dotes]

Raging Bull? Oh please shoot me now!

Out of the Top Ten, I wouldn't quibble with any of the others, but to find that travesty above Wizard of Oz... [shudder]

And as for nicking Lawrence, well, it's not as if the Brits have done right by him, is it? His story stands on its own merits. Surely the film deserves to do the same.

[Uwe Dippel]

Title

Not only is it the Anglo-American world domination that we see here, it also is - as rightly noted - the Hollywood-loving mainstream selection.

I confess, yes, I miss any movie by Russ Meyer. Seriously. Something like BVD or Ultra Vixen are just as American as the great Citizen Kane and have described the other side of the American Soul.

Enough of OT for today.

[John]

What?

Where's Nerds III or Police Academy 18 ?

[Damian Gabriel Moran]

or that film with that guy who was in that movie

"ooh, Navy Seals!"

[Dillon Pyron]

Economizing

They could easily have saved some space for other movies by simply listing "The Rockys", "The Rambos", "The Lethal Weapons" and "The Die Hards".

[Rob]

Just goes to show...

... they aren't film fanatics. Citizen Kane is a load of old tripe the only award winning thing about it is the cinematography. If you speak to anyone who loves/studies films, they will say the same.

Just because it's shots were well ahead of their time doesn't instantly make the storyline a ground breaking/good one.

[Cameron]

Citizen Kane?

Who voted for that one? I saw that in my film class and it was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.