Now, as you may know, the Greatest Movies list that is most trusted is the Sight & Sound survey. Held every ten years with hundreds of critics giving their personal top ten, it was describes by esteemed critic Roger Ebert as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies--the only one most serious movie people take seriously." Now that perennial favourites Movieguide have waded in, however, that's all going to change! Or perhaps not...
Before I reveal the top ten, here's what the Sight & Sound Poll came up with in 2002, with their position on the Movieguide list in brackets:
Closest runners-up:
Seven Samurai (81)
The Searchers (60)
The top ten:
10.Singin' In The Rain (71)
9. 8 1/2 (N/A)
7. Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans (N/A)
7. The Battleship Potemkin (1. Only kidding, it's not there either)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (N/A)
5. Tokyo Story (N/A)
4. The Godfather & Pt. 2 (Do you even need to ask? These were never gonna make the cut.)
3. The Rules of the Game (N/A)
2. Vertigo (74)
1. Citizen Kane (77)
Yes. That's not a typo. It really does say 77. The film that more critics than any other would place as the greatest film ever made didn't even make it into the top three-quarters. And over half of the films that real critics would place in the top 10, didn't even make it into the top 100 and those that did couldn't crack 70. Even taking into account The Godfathers, which were far too violent and 'immoral' to ever make it into their list, and Potemkin, which was communist propaganda therefore evil (right-wing propaganda is fine though, you'll be glad to hear), that's a pretty poor state of affairs. Also missing out were the likes of Goodfellas, The Bicycle Thieves, Raging Bull, Apocalypse Now, M, Schindler's List and Dr. Strangelove along with countless others. Which is also pretty shit for such a list. Films that did manage to make it however, include Casablanca (79), Metropolis (52, not too bad), The General (90) though probably not high enough. Further 'Top Movies' included such films as The Pink Panther (93. Good film. But not that good.), Song Of The South (69. Really? That film which is so racist they won't release it on DVD?), The Prince Of Egypt (26. Yup, better than Kane etc. is this animated adventure about Moses.) and Braveheart (24. I'm not going to even say anything about this.).
Right I believe it's now time to reveal Movieguide's Top 10 best films ever. Here goes:
10. Repentance (Basically because it was responsible for the breaking of the USSR)
9. The Hiding Place
8. Chariots of Fire
7. Babette's Feast
6. The Robe
5. Ben-Hur (Spartacus is better. And it helped break the black-list. And Kirk Douglas isn't a cunt like Heston...)
4. Sergeant York
3. A Tale of Two Cities
2. Les Miserables
1. It's A Wonderful Life
Now, I'll have nobody say that I dislike Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life or that it is in any way bad. I just can't accept it as the best film ever made. I really like it, but it didn't change the face of cinema like Citizen Kane or The Godfather did. Don't get me wrong, its by far and away not the worst film I've ever seen top one of these lists, but I feel top 10 or 20 is about as far as the film can go.
So, no. 1 isn't an awful choice, it's just a shame about the rest of the 100 really....
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