In its November 2008 issue, Empire magazine has published its list of “The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time”. Like all such lists, it can keep film lovers entertained for hours.
The British Institute’s admirable periodical, Sight & Sound, publishes its lists of Top Ten films every ten years. The latest appeared in September 2002. On that and the previous occasion, Sight & Sound produced two separate Top Tens, one based on the votes of film critics and the other of film directors. Each participant chooses ten films and the ten films receiving the most nominations are listed in order. It is of interest that all the individuals’ selections are also published. This, I suspect, makes the voters more cautious and conservative in their selections than if the ballots were secret. This is apparent from the fact that the most recent film in the critics’ Top Ten was released in 1974, which suggests that not a single film produced in the previous quarter of a century was sufficiently worthy. The directors’ equivalent poll produced a similar result in that its most recent film was released in 1980. The no.1 film in both polls was Citizen Kane.
Although the Sight & Sound lists resulted in a very conservative consensus, there was a wide diversity in the individual lists. Over 140 critics took part and, between them, they nominated over 630 different films. Those nominations reveal a truly impressive knowledge of world cinema and the history of the medium. Moreover, it is apparent that a serious and objective approach had been taken. On the other hand, although the films may be of considerable academic significance, few would feature on “favourite” or “best-loved” lists.
Empire magazine says that its list has been based on the votes of 10,000 readers, 150 of “Hollywood’s finest” and 50 “key” film critics. Whilst its flavour is undoubtedly popular, it seems that an attempt has been made to give it a more elitist edge. This has produced some bizarre results. On the one hand it is impressive that the list contains 88 films that are 50 or more years old, including 5 from the silent era, and 67 (or thereabouts) foreign-language films. On the other hand, whilst I certainly would not take issue with The Godfather as the top film, can Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back seriously be considered the second and third best films ever made?
It is disappointing that a list of 500 films can find no place for such classics as Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1950), On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954), The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962), Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972), Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) or Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982). And of the more recent films, what about Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001), The Others (Alejandro Amenábar, 2001) or The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2003)? I could go on, but won’t.
Having got those omissions off my chest, I must say that I have found the list helpful in reminding me of films that I have not got round to seeing and, indeed, informing me of films of which I had not previously heard. Moreover, I am delighted to see that the list contains several movies that I have really enjoyed but which I had previously thought were unlikely, for one reason or another, to be included. A few examples of these are: 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995), Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, 2000), The Return (Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2003), Mad Max 2 (George Miller, 1982), Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001), Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993), Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000) and Raising Arizona (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1987). This last-mentioned got as high as 101.
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