American Film Institute Names 10 Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres
The American Film Institute likes to make lists… lots and lots of lists. In fact, it seems to be their sole purpose for existing. This year, instead of doing another Top 100 list, they’ve done something a little bit different. They have chosen 10 classic genres, and named the top 10 films within that genre. Kind of a cool concept I guess, since it’s so hard to compare movies of varying pedigrees, but once again the choices seem pretty stock.
I’ve included the movie that was named #1 from each genre below; you can visit their official site for the full lists. Do you see any major errors in judgment? I just wonder why horror isn’t represented anywhere. Is “courtroom drama” really more of a genre than horror?
Animation: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Romantic Comedy: City Lights
Western: The Searchers
Sports: Raging Bull
Mystery: Vertigo
Fantasy: Wizard of Oz
Sci-Fi: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Gangster: The Godfather
Courtroom Drama: To Kill a Mockingbird
Epic: Lawrence of Arabia
Comments (18)
I would disagree with most of those picks. My list would be as follows.
Animation: Lion King or Finding Nemo
Romantic Comedy: As Good as it Gets
Western: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or High Noon
Sports: (Guess I don’t like sports movies)
Mystery: The Matrix (I felt i needed to put it somewhere)
Fantasy: The Lord of the Rings FOTR or ROTK
Sci-Fi: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Gangster: The Godfather or Pulp Fiction
Courtroom Drama: Philadelphia or 12 Angry Men
Epic: Seven Samurai
Maybe these films aren’t the greatest, as much as they are my favorite movies.
Posted by Matt on June 18th, 2008I was happy to see Back to the Future on the Sci Fi list.
Posted by Mike on June 18th, 2008Animation: Toy Story
Romantic Comedy: City Lights
Western: Unforgiven
Sports: Rocky
Mystery: Chinatown
Fantasy: LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring
Sci-Fi: Star Wars IV: The Empire Strikes Back
Gangster: City of God
Courtroom Drama: A Few Good Men
Epic: LOTR: The Return of the King
There is no category for action/adventure either, so I’ve no place for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Posted by Stephen on June 18th, 2008These lists are limited to American movies, so films like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, The Seven Samurai, and City of God are not eligible.
I don’t get the categories, either. ‘Mystery’ would have been better and more inclusive if it was ‘Suspense’. ‘Gangster’ locks out all sorts of regular ol’ ‘Crime’ movies. The ‘Romantic Comedy’ category leaves out any movie that deals in either one or the other. And ‘Courtroom Drama’ is the work of madmen. And, yeah, an ‘Action/Adventure’ category would be nice.
Surprisingly, I’m not as upset about ‘Horror’, considering most movies of that genre could probably fall under either ‘Fantasy’ or ‘Suspense’.
Posted by Steven on June 18th, 2008Fairly standard lists, I guess.
a few whiny observations:
Posted by Snorfle on June 18th, 2008- how exactly is “It’s a Wonderful Life” a fantasy movie?
- would really have liked to see “Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” on the Western list. and are the Leone ones not valid for AFI lists?
- did we really need *both* versions of “Scarface”? Couldn’t put in “Mean Streets” or something else?
- “shrek” instead of “The incredibles” (or many others) is a bit annoying
ah ok Steven answered my Leone question.
Posted by Snorfle on June 18th, 2008well I guess it is official, The Searchers – a better film than Rio Bravo
Posted by rot on June 18th, 2008I’m with you on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but how is It’s A Wonderful Life NOT a fantasy?
Posted by Steven on June 18th, 2008Courtroom Drama is a GREAT genre… other than psycho, there are no worthy “horror” movies – they usually suck.
Also, the “Fantasy” category is a little suspect, though i see where they are trying to go.
Posted by David Lay on June 18th, 2008It’s interesting horror isn’t on the list. The genre is probably the most prolific of any. From Vampyr and Nosferatu, all the way to the present. The genre hasn’t disappeared (in Hollywood) apart from a brief period after WWII when sci-fi dominated. Westerns come in cycles, and Musicals have essentially disappeared – aside from Disney films.
And what’s with the ‘epic’ genre? I’ve seen sci-fi, westerns, horror, adventure etc. that can all be described as epic. It’s more of an adjective than a genre.
I do agree with the point that most horror films fit into other genres, but that can be said about most genre films. From the ‘New Hollywood’ period (late 1960s) to now, the notion of a pure genre film has dissipated. Like Star Wars and it’s Western traits, or Lord of the Rings’ melodramatic qualities. It’s all mixed up.
It’s kind of a silly list, but that’s what the AFI does…makes silly lists.
Posted by Matt on June 18th, 2008David Lay said: “Courtroom Drama is a GREAT genre… other than psycho, there are no worthy “horror†movies – they usually suck.”
Lol whut? I’d never even heard that called a subgenre before. They wouldn’t have lost respect putting The Exorcist or something else on there. It seems AFI is afraid to be involved with anything horror.
The only “correct” ones are 2001, Godfather, Vertigo, and Raging Bull…the rest is cocksucking bullshit. “We’re AFI and we cant recognize any movies made in the last two decades because we love the cock.”
Posted by Ryan on June 18th, 2008well, I guess if “Field of Dreams”, “Big”, or “Groundhog Day” are fantasy movies, so is “Wonderful Life”, but that just serves to illustrate how stupid that list is.
Posted by Snorfle on June 18th, 2008It’s just the same old movies in a different order. Mix it up AFI.
Posted by Rusty James on June 18th, 2008I can’t believe they actually do this every year. How pointless the life of an AFI member must be! Oh wait, they do get to have people like Chris O’Donnell to do speaches for their lifetime achievement award. Doesn’t it kind of taint the award for lifetime achievement when you know it HAS to be given out each year?
Posted by Henrik on June 18th, 2008I would have gotten rid of the Courtroom Drama and Gangster categories and combined them into plain old “Drama”. Then I would have taken the “Romantic” out of the Romantic Comedy section and included that in Drama as well, leaving Comedy in a genre of it’s own. Finally, I’d have added a Horror genre.
I could literally rant and rave about all of the errors that I found in these ten lists for hours, but I’ll just ask one question and be done with it:
Leaving aside for a moment the fact that The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly should have gotten the #1 spot in the Westerns list, HOW THE HELL COULD THEY LEAVE IT OFF OF THE TOP 10 ENTIRELY???!!!
The absence of that film completely negated all ten lists for me. I hold no stock in them whatsoever.
Posted by Rian on June 19th, 2008The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly isn’t an American film. (AFI = American Film Institute)
Posted by Matt on June 19th, 2008i think that BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID should be included in the WESTERN category.its a delightful watch!
Posted by anu on October 7th, 2009In Sci-Fi, I put Space Odyssey, Blade Runner and Alien in the top three, without a doubt. The AFI are confusing popularity with true artistic greatness. Alien accomplished more with a very modest 8.4 million dollar budget than Star Wars did with significantly more cash.
Posted by Brad on October 27th, 2009Leave a Reply