"Goodfellas" tops greatest movies list (UK survey)

Reuters ^ | 10/24/05

[jalisco555]

LONDON (Reuters) - Mobsters in the 1990 film "Goodfellas" have beaten a fear of heights in "Vertigo" and the great white shark of "Jaws" to help the Martin Scorsese film clench the mantle of greatest movie of all time in a survey of UK film experts.

Goodfellas, which featured Ray Liotta, Robert de Niro and an Oscar winning supporting role from Joe Pesci, topped the list of 100 movies in a survey of film critics by Total Film.

"Goodfellas has everything, in terms of its technical brilliance, its huge influence on modern film-making and its spikiness and rewatchability," Total Film features editor Jamie Graham told Reuters.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 classic "Vertigo" took second place, while third went to Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic "Jaws," the tale of a coastal town terrorised by a great white shark.

Goodfellas, which was based on the story of real-life mobster Henry Hill, also beat Citizen Kane, the 1941 Orson Welles film that tops many critics lists but which finished in sixth position in the Total Film poll.

The 10 ten films in the list included two made in the last decade, the 1999 film "Fight Club," starring Brad Pitt, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.

Fight Club took fourth position ahead of other classics such as "Tokyo Story" and "Taxi Driver."

"By no means were we trying to be perverse, but we were setting out to make a list that was a bit more modern," Graham said.

[TheRobb7]

I saw Citizen Cane in college. It worked for me because I was taking film classes and we dissected it.

I loved it more for the way it was shot (camera angles, scene composition, etc.).

[EQAndyBuzz]

Chariots of Fire and The English Patient didn't make the list? /sarcasm

[Vaquero]

Tell me, where you been? I haven't seen you. You haven't called. Where have you been? I been working nights. And tonight we were out late. We took a ride out to the country and hit a deer. That's where all the blood is from. Jimmy told you. It reminds me, I need this knife. I'm taking this, okay? Just for a while. The poor thing. We hit the deer and his paw... What do you call it? The paw. - The hoof. - Got caught in the grill. I got to hack it off. Ma, it's a sin to leave it there. I'll bring the knife back.

[Hadean]

The Godfather movies are great, no question -- although II is better than I in my opinion. But Goodfellas hits harder because it is grittier, and doesn't romanticize the gangsters the way that GF films do. Goodfellas shows what lowlives they are, whereas the GF makes them seem almost noble. I find Goodfellas to be one of those movies that I always watch whenever I am channel surfing and run across it. I almost never watch the GF movies.

My parents (Italian) were taken in by the "noble quality" of The Godfather enough to name me after Michael in that movie(I was born that year). I don't think they would have named me after one of the Goodfellas...

[jalisco555]

Chariots of Fire and The English Patient didn't make the list? /sarcasm

Chariots of Fire certainly hasn't aged well. I really liked it when it first came out but I saw it again recently and it didn't work for me at all. I think I'm in the minority here who liked the English Patient.

[peyton randolph]

Any list that doesn't include "Raising Arizona" is a BS list.

Must be a Coppola fan. Nicholas Cage is (Godfather Director) Francis Ford Coppola's nephew.

[jalisco555]

Pesci is one of those rare talents who is equally at home in comedy and drama. My Cousin Vinnie makes my top 10 list.

[wpjmd]

Golly, the best movie ever is of UK origin: Dr Strangelove, or how I...... How soon they forget. Dated, but funny as heck.

[johnny7]

Does that 'amuse' you... you 'gotta problem with that?

[jalisco555]

I saw Citizen Cane in college. It worked for me because I was taking film classes and we dissected it.

Actually, I saw it during a high school film class. My teacher, a failed actor, built the movie up so much that it couldn't live up to expectations. Maybe that's why I found it disappointing and never saw it again.

[macamadamia]

Jaws????? tops the greatest movies list???? For this alone, all else is suspect. (Besides, as animals-gone-crazy movies go....The Birds is masterful and IMO Hitchcock's best.)

[uncbob]

Best movie EVER was the original 1933 KING KONG

[katana]

I love Goodfellas but having again seen The Godfather (I) this past weekend there's no way it can be called "the greatest" film, even if you limit it to the gangster genre. The only problem with the latter film series was the casting of "Annie Hall" as Michael's wife and love interest. But eccentric casting for female roles seemed to be a constant for Ford Coppola.

[WV Mountain Mama]

That was a good one! Memories of my youth.....


I do think "Goodfellas" was a great flick.

[dead]

I grew up in the middle of Sopranoland, New Jersey. A good deal of my close friends dad's were in the mob, so I grew up hanging around in those households.

The Godfather movies were basically Shakespearean, grand and romantic, but not even a little bit realistic. Goodfellas was more like a documentary, showing a bunch of knuckleheads scrambling around for things to steal. All were great movies, but I really enjoyed Goodfellas more.

[ovrtaxt]

Vote for Pedro...

[rightinthemiddle]

Goodfellas is in my collection, but so is the best-ever movie out of the UK:

"Well, I got A note...."

"They'd have to have it on a line or something."

"I'm invincible!"

"What...is your favorite color?"

[Petronski]

I like to think of Godfather as the mafia opera, and Goodfellas as the mafia docudrama.

[Mr. Blonde]

I'll agree that it should not be that high, but it is by no means a bad movie. I mean we aren't talking Domino here, or The Fog (the one in theatres).

[VoiceOfBruck]

Just listen to your heart, that's what I do.