Time's All-Time 100 Movies
"All-Time" 100 Movies is a compilation by Time magazine featuring and celebrating 100 of "the greatest" films released between March 3, 1923 (when the first issue of Time was published) and early 2005 (when the list was compiled). The list was compiled by critics Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss and generated significant attention, receiving 7.8 million hits in its first week alone.[1]
Contents
The List
There are 106 films in this list with Olympia, part 1 and 2 (1938), The Apu Trilogy (1955, 1956, 1959), The Godfather Part I and II (1972, 1974), and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) each listed as single entries.[2]
These pairs and trilogies of films were directed by Leni Riefenstahl, Satyajit Ray, Francis Ford Coppola, and Peter Jackson respectively. Martin Scorsese also had three films on the list, which were Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and Goodfellas (1990). Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Donen, Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, Ernst Lubitsch, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu, Steven Spielberg, François Truffaut, Billy Wilder, and William Wyler all had two films each on the list.
Films on the list span a period of 80 years starting with Sherlock, Jr. (1924) directed by Buster Keaton, and finishing with Finding Nemo (2003) directed by Andrew Stanton.
List also included a Tamil film called Nayakan, written and directed by Tamil Director Mani Ratnam and a Hindi film Pyaasa, written by Abrar Alvi and Directed by Guru Dutt.
Method
Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss each independently compiled a list of 115-120 films they judged to be worthy of inclusion and then debated and weighed each choice until they agreed on the top 100.[1] The process took about four months to complete. An effort was made to make the list as diverse as possible in terms of directors, actors, countries, and genres represented.[1]
10 Best Soundtracks
The list also included a section on the "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time, as chosen by Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss:[2]
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
- Citizen Kane (1941)
- Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (1949)
- On the Waterfront (1954)
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
- Jules et Jim (1962)
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
- Laura (1979)
- Roja (1992)
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Reception
According to Richard Corliss, the list's web pages attracted a record 7.8 million page views in its first week, including 3.5 million on May 23, its opening day.[1]
"Thousands of readers have written in to cheer or challenge our selections, and thousands more have voted for their own favorites. The response simply underscores Richard's and my long-held belief that everybody has two jobs: his own and movie critic."[1]
