Citizen Kane and Apocalypse Now

I gathered up my birthday money and registered for a seminar on The Aesthetics of Editing. It is enlivening to get inspiration from new sources. I thought I was critically evaluating movies. But, now it seems I was only giving them a cursory glance. The good news is that beginning with the first wedding movie we edited, we've intuitively edited according to the five basic criteria for excellent editing. We just didn't know it.

How should a movie be judged? By the story and message? By the the art and style? By its influence on other movies?

I decided to go back and look at the Top 25 movies ever made with a more critical eye. But, which Top 25? Who says they are the Top 25? The American Film Institute has one of the most popular lists of the Top 100 Movies. But they are all produced by, well, Americans. Here is the AFI List of the Top 25 Movies. No surprises here. Movies we've all heard of and seen.

AFI Top 25
1. Citizen Kane (1941)*
2. Casablanca (1942)
3. The Godfather (1972)*
4. Gone With The Wind (1939)
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
6. The Wizard of Oz (1939)*
7. The Graduate (1967)
8. On The Waterfront (1954)
9. Schindler's List (1993)
10. Singin' In The Rain (1952)
11. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
12. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
13. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
14. Some Like It Hot (1959)*
15. Star Wars (1977)
16. All About Eve (1950)*
17. The African Queen (1951)
18. Psycho (1960)
19. Chinatown (1974)*
20. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)*
23. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
24. Raging Bull (1980)*
25. E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the Top 100 Maverick Movies broaden the horizon, but it's still an American horizon. Here are Rolling Stone's Top 25. The movies listed under the AFI with an asterisk were also in Rolling Stone's Top 25 list.

Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 25
2. Vertigo (1958)
3. The Searchers (1956)
8. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
9. Blue Velvet (1986)
10. Pulp Fiction (1994)
11. King Kong (1933)
12. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
13. Fargo (1996)
15. Do The Right Thing (1989)
16. Night of the Hunter (1955)
17. Sherlock, Jr (1924)
19. Nashville (1975)
21. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
22. Brazil (1985)
23. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
24. Badlands (1973)
25. Don't Look Now (1973)

Why not widen the list to include foreign films? But once again, whose list do you look at? The British Film Institute, the Online Film Community, winners at the Cannes Film Festival? It's hard to say, so here is an amalgam of all three. For a wonderfully complete list, check out the movie critic Roger Ebert's list.

Top 25 Foreign Films
Australian - Strictly Ballroom (1992)
British - The Third Man (1949)
Chinese - Curse of the Golden Flower (2006); Farewell My Concubine (1993); Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
French - 400 Blows (1959), Amelie (2001), Beauty and the Beast (1946), Breathless (1960), Earrings of Madame de... (1953), Rules of the Game (1939)
German - Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), M (1931), Nosferatu (1922), Run Lola Run (1998), Wings of Desire (1988)
Italian - The Bicycle Thief (1948); Amarcord (1974); Cinema Paradiso (1989); The Leopard (1963)
Japanese - Rashomon (1950), Ran (1985), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
Russian - Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Swedish - Seventh Seal (1957)
Vietnamese - Scent of Green Papaya (1993)

Finally, here are some of my personal favorites not mentioned on any other list. Each is my favorite because the combination of artistry (acting and cinematography) and storytelling created an unforgettable impact the first time I saw it, which has stayed with me, and continues to effect me the same way every time I see it.

Jewel's Top 25 Not Previously Mentioned Films
A Christmas Carol (1951)
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
Amadeus (1984)
Body Heat (1981)
Color Purple (1985)
Crash (2005)
Das Boot (1981)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Excalibur (1981)
Gods Must be Crazy (1980)
Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955)
High and Low (1963)
Joy Luck Club (1993)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Like Water for Chocolate (1992)
Lone Star (1996)
The Natural (1984)
Out of Africa (1985)
Scotland, PA (2001)
Seabiscuit (2003)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Witness (1985)