"The Critics’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time" Topic

Sight & Sound, published by the British Film Institute, polled 846 film critics and movie experts from around the globe to obtain the results for its once-a-decade poll:

"Vertigo" (Hitchcock, 1958)
"Citizen Kane" (Welles, 1941)
"Tokyo Story" (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
"La Règle du jeu" (Jean Renoir, 1939)
"Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans" (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
"2001: A Space Odyssey" (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
"The Searchers" (John Ford, 1956)
"Man with a Movie Camera" (Vertov, 1929)
"The Passion of Joan of Arc" (Dreyer, 1927)
"8 ½"(Federico Fellini, 1963)

Several questions come to mind with just a few off the top of my head

1. Do you agree with this poll?
2. What would you add and/or delete from it?
3. Which set of rules or game could/would best represent each movie?
4. Which of these have you seen?

For me, The Seven Samurai would be one of the top ten of all time.

World cinema died in 1968. How about that? :)

(seen 4 of these, liked one, would have a completely different list of "greatest" but since it would be from my personal perspective and not with regard to cinematic greatness its not all that relevant)

I have not seen many of them at all.
Though I would be interested to know how many of those listed have spawned a host of imitators.
That would suggest some level of greatness to my mind.

Willtij beat me to it. Kurosawa was a genius. He has to be on the list.

I've watched 2 1/2 of those – I found Citizen Kane unwatchable.

And no Godfather? What has Coppola done to deserve this disrespect?

I'm not sure it would be on my top ten but The Searchers (#7 above) was a great movie and has a whole bunch of gaming potential.

I've only seen 4 of their choices. Needless to say, my top 10 would be tremendously different. I agree with "The Searchers", but that's about it.

i've seen 9, and 3 of those I would not rate as top 10.

the thing about these polls is that the reflect the movies you are exposed to – and as countless books on film tell us, its only when they are made to watch them in film school that the next generation of movie makers get to see black and white films these days. – no Sunsett Boulevard, no All about Eve – those are big choices when you do include John (I put the camera down and make the actors move around it) Ford

But frankly, I'd rather watch anything by Powell and Pressburger over Fellini (even the one with Claudia cardinale), Ford or Hitchcock

Passion of Joan gives you entry into the 100 YW, so that can stay

replacing pairs with better gaming movies.

I'd have Grand Illusion above Regle de jeu – and that gives a good prison escape game.

I much perfer Kubriks Paths of glory to 2001 – so there is a great WW1 board game on its own (but agree 2001 is better than spartacus)

others can join in now…

Hmmm, haven't seen most of those, so really can't comment on them.

I did see The Searchers fairly recently (most of it anyway), and while it is good, I'm not sure it would be in my top 10.

The Seven Samurai, and RAN would be in my listing, most likely.

2001 seems a good candidate too.

I don't believe I've seen that version of Joan of Arc, so can't comment on that one either.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly would be on my list, plus possibly a few other Clint Eastwood movies, and some by John Wayne.

There is a difference between your favourite 10 films and the greatest 10.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly came from Yojimbo same as the others.

Godfather and Apocolypse now make the Film Directors top ten:

1. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)

2= 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)

2= Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)

4. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)

5. Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)

6. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)

7= The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)

7= Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

9. Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1974)

10. Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)

I won't be able to run this as a TMP poll, as the new rules require all polls to be wargaming-related.

I've only seen one of those, and it sucked.

I like these:
Star Wars, Episode IV
Alien
Lord of the Rings
28 Days Later
Full Metal Jacket
Debbie Does Dallas
Something About Mary
Dirty Harry
Passion of the Christ
Dirty Dozen

> The Good the Bad and the Ugly came from Yojimbo same as the others.

And Yojimbo came from a zillion stories told from the dawn of time.

Really hard to make a 10 best, "The Great Train Robbery" would have to be on the list – isn't it the first one to tell a story? The one with the horse galluping needs to be on the list for being the first. "A Star is Born" would need to be on there for being the first talky (or at least the one that made talking pictures required).

If going for pure artistic merit, 10 is simply too small a count, at least a couple hundred films are too close in quality for any of them to be singled out as the top ten.

I've seen 3 of those. I didn't like "Citizen Kane" at all. I've always found it funny that this film keeps turning up on top 10 lists.

Critics know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

"Casablanca" was released on the big screen a few months ago on its 70th ann. of release. I saw it and there were about 100 people theature. I wonder how many would go see "Citizen Kane" if re-released?

My top 10 would differ greatly from the critics and would probably look something like :

1) The Third Man

2) A matter of life and death

3) The Big Sleep (Bogart version) or Citizen Kane

4) Ran or Kagemusha or Throne of blood or (hmm, need a seperate top 10 list here !)

5) The Red Shoes

6) 2001

7) The Man who would be King

8) Black Narcissus

9) The thief of Baghdad

10) A Clockwork Orange

But, on any given day at least 5 of those would change

I won't be able to run this as a TMP poll, as the new rules require all polls to be wargaming-related.

Go on, I'll bite – how did the "murphy's grandaughter" poll meet the wargaming criterion ? And does this mean it won't reappear as a "round two" ?

top ten wargaming movies

What's a wargaming movie ?

There are war movies – but they aren't about wargaming.

There's the movie "Wargames".

There's the wargame sequence in "Callan".

Are there 8 more ?

I will never understand all of the love for "The Searchers." In my opinion it is a totally horrid film, and possibly the worst thing on the resumes of either John Ford or John Wayne.

Doug

I guess the most honest way to respond is to say both The Searchers, and 2001 are in my movie collection. Not the others first mentioned. Many of which I've never seen.
As to the Editor's comment, what about movies that inspire games, gamers, or game scenarios? Seems those would be game related.

Regarding thr absence of "The Godfather": in previous polls it was listed as 1 film, but this time it they treated its parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) as seperate films. So votes were split enough between Parts 1 & 2 to knock both out of the Top 10. They also expanded the number of voters this year from, IIRC, ~150 to 846.

I have seen all but one of those.

I disagree with that list.

Now these are NOT my favorite movies, just what the list should look like, IMO…:

1) The Thin Man
2) Star Wars
3) Cashback
4) Gone With The Wind
5) The Quiet Man
6) Snow White and the & Dwarves
7) Psycho
8) Halloween
9) Indiana Jones
10) Titanic

While there are a few that would be on my Top 10 list, I do believe that these really did make a difference in cinematography, writing and acting.

Using question 3 above could make it game related:

3. Which set of rules or game could/would best represent each movie?

Just saying….

None of those mentioned would be on my top ten list.

I agree…. Perfect list. Vertigo is the best movie ever made.

I just went and *looked* at the BFI Sight & Sound web site.

It's tempting to use the word for trailing bait behind a fishing boat, except TMP rules forbid us, so I won't. But I will call Willtij out for sloppy journalism.

First, the poll of 846 Critics produced a top FIFTY list, not a top TEN list -- the 10 films above are just the first 10 out of 50. The fact that the voters knew they were voting for a top 50 list is probably relevant. Many of the films suggested by others above do appear farther down in that top 50 list. There's also a nice description that goes with the first 10, explaining what the collective voting body was probably thinking. So don't guess. Go read why, then refute that reasoning here, if you feel you can.

Second, there *is* a top 10 list on the site, but it's from a Director's poll, not a Critic's poll. Several films are the same but several are not.

See for yourself:

BFI, The 2012 Sight & Sound Directors' Top Ten: link

BFI, The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time: link

But to answer the poll, I am with 20thmaine: "My top 10 would differ greatly from the critics . . . But, on any given day at least 5 of those would change."

Kim Novak is the best movie ever made!

But I would ditch 2001 … great book … nice experiment in movie making. But every groundbreaking discovery isn't the gold standard.

Same goes for 8 1/2.

Sub in Rashomon and From Dusk Til Dawn.