Citizen Kane named greatest US movie of all-time
Story by Jack Foley
CITIZEN Kane, Orson Welles’ classic 1941 film, has pipped The Godfather to be named the greatest US movie of all time.
The Oscar winner, which also topped the American Film Institute’s first list in 1998, beat Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster epic into into second place.
The latest AFI Top 100 was compiled from 1,500 ballots sent to filmmakers, actors, writers and other Hollywood players, who chose from a list of 400 nominated films.
It was updated as part of the AFI’s commitment to reviewing it every decade as a barometer of changing tastes in cinema.
However, new films have generally struggled to make much of an impact on the Top 10, which is filled with classic pictures of years gone by (many of which have been restored and reissued on DVD).
Schindler’s List is the newest film in the Top 10, appearing at number eight. Otherwise, it’s populated by timeless classics such as Casablanca, Raging Bull, Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz.
Another classic film that failed to make the Top 10 last time was Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which was placed at No.9 this time despite coming 61st a decade ago.
Newer films didn’t register at all, with 2001’s Lord of the Rings making number 50, Saving Private Ryan at 71, Titanic at 83, and The Sixth Sense in 89th. They were the only other recent films to make the Top 100.
The director who amassed the most work in the list was Steven Spielberg, who has five releases in the top 100, while Robert De Niro and James Stewart lead the tally for actors, with five films each.
The top 10 films on the AFI list are…
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Godfather (1972)
Casablanca (1942)
Raging Bull (1980)
Singin’ In The Rain (1952)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Vertigo (1958)
Wizard of Oz (1939)