Posted on 06/21/2007 8:04:26 AM PDT by teddyballgame
LOS ANGELES — The years have been kind to "Citizen Kane," including the last decade. The 1941 Orson Welles classic — the story of a wealthy young idealist transformed by scandal and vice into a regretful old recluse — was again rated the best movie ever Wednesday by the American Film Institute.
In the CBS special "AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies — 10th Anniversary Edition," "Citizen Kane" held the same No. 1 billing it earned in the institute's first top-100 ranking in 1998.
There were notable changes elsewhere, though, with Martin Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece "Raging Bull" bounding upward from No. 24 in 1998 to No. 4 on the new list and Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 thriller "Vertigo" hurtling from No. 61 to No. 9 this time.
Charles Chaplin's 1931 silent gem "City Lights" jumped from No. 76 to No. 11, while the 1956 John Ford-John Wayne Western "The Searchers" took the biggest leap, from No. 96 all the way to No. 12.
"The ones that made the huge jumps are really, really fascinating," said Jean Picker Firstenberg, chief executive at AFI, which has done top-10 lists every year since 1998 showcasing best comedies, thrillers, love stories and other highlights in American cinema.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Team America:World Police
Not the ‘80s though. (My list is “of the 1980s”)
But a hilarious flick.
No American film or films, have married commerce and art as have the Godfather and Godfather II have.
Heh, same for me, in the same way I love “Galaxy Quest” over Star Trek...
When I saw “Ace Ventura - Pet Detective” wasn’t on the list, I quite reading.
“Apocalypse Now!”
Sorry, but this Freeper despises that piece of depressing, anti-military, over-rated dreck.
Marty Sheen....please...
“Best Years of Our Lives” is one of my favorites, too. The guy with the hooks really was a double amputee and had never acted in movies prior to this film.
Agreed with Claude Raines...I just purchased “Casablanca”, and I was impressed with the character...:)
It makes my top 25. That pic there is largely the reason why! :D
You gotta put “Office Space” in there somewhere.
It’s on my ‘90s list.
I finally broke down and watched this a few years back because it was number one on the list back then. While I enjoyed it, if I came across “Citizen Kane” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” during a lazy Sunday afternoon channel surf, I’d choose the latter.
I only saw it a few years ago for the first time, and I was struck at what a great movie it was, working with all of the themes it did.
It touched effectively on Veterans issues, physical disabilites, Post-Traumatic Stress, returning veterans, alienation from their families, the enduring bond between veterans, women in the workforce, changes in moral standards, Divorce, infidelity, alcoholism and so on.
In the end...good won out. It showed that human nature is one of the most durable, enduring and powerful forces, and that people can triumph even in small ways.
It was also a very pro-American movie as well...displayed the American character very accurately for the time (IMO).
ROTFLMAO!
I just saw it for the first time last week!!!!!!
OMG...the scene where they demolish the printer...and the scene where the “Bobs” interview the main character...
I had to buy it right after I saw it! THAT is a keeper for sure!
And how completely does that description miss the real power of the movie! The power of the movie is not in the adult transformations of the central figure, which are at best only interesting. The movie is structured around a quest to find what Kane meant by "Rosebud," as his last words--what in the life of this powerful and ultimately lonely man--was meant by "Rosebud." And, in the most powerful moment in the movie--one of the most powerful moments in any movie--the viewer, but not any of the still living characters in the movie, learns, as the clean up crew throws the sled--which was the one thing Kane as a young boy brought from his childhood, and his actual family, with him when he was adopted out for his 'own benefit'--into the furnace, and for a fleeting moment, you see "Rosebud" painted upon it.
Think about that. What most mattered to the man, ultimately, was the one trace to his roots; that against all the material, his spirit was still able to hark back to his innocent boyhood joy, in the bosom of his real immediate family.
I do not know what Orson Wells intended. Sometimes an artist can capture a truth, without even realizing the full implications of that truth. But the image to me, can only be understood as exposing one of the great errors of modern social theory; that which justifies the busy body mentality, everywhere present today. The things which are really important, are simply not understood by the modern liberal mentality.
In short, the movie captures an element of truth closely related to that which the great silent film producer, D. W. Griffith, captured in "Intolerance," where the busybodies seek to take the sweet young contemporary girl's baby away from her.
William Flax
I am with you 100%. (although...I appreciate it for FANTASY...and that is it completely. Same for “Platoon”. The problem is, I know they are fantasy, but many people do not)
For war movies, gotta be “Blackhawk Down”, “Saving Private Ryan” (Even with its flaws, it was a watershed movie)
And, of course, while it is not a movie, nothing compares in my opinion to “Band of Brothers”.
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