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*Critic ] regards the World War I film '']'' as being the greatest movie ever made. *Critic ] regards the World War I film '']'' as being the greatest movie ever made.
*]'s controversial 1979 epic '']'' is considered by Roger Ebert as the finest movie on the Vietnam War and one of his favorite films of all-time. *]'s controversial 1979 epic '']'' is considered by Roger Ebert as the finest movie on the Vietnam War and one of his favorite films of all-time.
*'']'', remains on IMDb's top 250 movies of all time, and is a ]-directed masterpiece with an ] theme.


===Western=== ===Western===

Revision as of 16:01, 16 June 2006

While it is impossible to objectively determine the greatest film of all time, it is possible to discuss the films that have been regarded as the greatest ever. The important criterion for inclusion in this article is that the film is the "greatest" by some specific criterion or indicator — be it a critics' poll, popular poll, box office receipts or awards. Obviously, the criterion is tilted heavily towards American films. See below for list of best movies for respective countries.

Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers

File:Citiza kane.jpg
Citizen Kane tops many critics' lists
  • Orson Welles' Citizen Kane has been voted number one in the Sight and Sound poll of film critics in each of the last five polls starting with the 1962 poll (the survey is carried out once every ten years). A separate poll of established film directors in the same magazine held for the first time in 1992 also has had Citizen Kane at the top. Influential critic Roger Ebert says that "The Sight and Sound poll is generally considered the most authoritative of all 'best film' lists". Perhaps not coincidentally he considers Citizen Kane the best film ever. The film was also selected as number one in a Village Voice critics' poll, number one in a Time Out critics' poll in 1995 and listed as the greatest film ever by the American Film Institute in 1998. Citizen Kane, however, did not win the Academy Award for Best Picture, possibly because of extensive pressure exerted by William Randolph Hearst and his associates.
  • La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) by director Jean Renoir was named best film by the French film magazine Positif in 1991. It also holds the number two spot in the Village Voice poll. Along with Battleship Potemkin, it is one of only two films to have appeared in every one of Sight and Sound's 10-yearly polls (six occurrences).
  • The Battleship Potemkin was for many years generally considered the greatest film ever and was voted as such by a panel of experts at the 1958 World's Fair.
  • Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) was voted top film in a Sight & Sound magazine poll in 1952. Other than Citizen Kane, The Bicycle Thief is the only film to ever top the Sight and Sound poll.

Films acclaimed in audience polls

  • The Godfather has long stood atop IMDb's list of the top 250 films. It was also voted number one by Entertainment Weekly readers and number one in a Time Out Readers' poll in 1995.
  • The Godfather Part II, sometimes considered better than the original film, was voted best ever by TV Guide readers in 1998.
  • Casablanca (1942) is widely cited as the greatest film of all time and was voted as such by readers of the Los Angeles Daily News in 1997. It is also regarded the "best Hollywood movie of all time" by the influential Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. On April 7, 2006, the Writer's Guild of America declared Casablanca's screenplay the best ever written.
  • Star Wars (1977) was chosen by readers of Empire magazine in November 2001 and by voters in a Channel 4/FilmFour poll .
  • The Lord of the Rings trilogy was voted as the top film of all time by an audience poll for the Australian television special My Favourite Film. Its first film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), was the pick of readers in a poll by Empire magazine in November 2004.
  • The Shawshank Redemption, the #2 entry on the IMDb list, was voted the best film never to have won "Best Picture" in a 2005 BBC poll. In January 2006 Empire magazine readers named it the best film ever.
  • Goodfellas was voted the greatest film of all time by Total Film.

Biggest box office successes

Worldwide highest grossing films (Not adjusted for inflation)

File:Titanic poster.jpg
Titanic broke box office records
  1. Titanic (1997) $1,845,034,188
  2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $1,118,888,979
  3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone (2001) $976,475,550
  4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $926,287,400
  5. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) $924,317,558
  6. Shrek 2 (2004) $920,665,658
  7. Jurassic Park (1993) $914,691,118
  8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) $891,249,794
  9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $876,688,482
  10. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $871,368,364

Not adjusted for inflation. See the inflation-adjusted list for a more accurate gauge of commercial success.

Prior highest-grossing films

  • The Birth of a Nation (1915): Highest-grossing film until 1925. Director D.W. Griffith said in 1929 that the film had taken $10m worldwide. This has been reported as both an under-estimate and an over-estimate, and its true takings may never be known. In the 1920s the New York Mail described the movie as "the supreme picture of all time".
  • The Big Parade (1925). The highest grossing silent film of all time, taking $22m world wide.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937): Highest grossing until 1939. Total gross $185m.
  • Gone with the Wind (1939): Highest grossing until 1966, when it was overtaken by The Sound of Music. Following a re-release in 1971, Gone with the Wind retook the lead for a further year. Current total gross $198m.
  • The Sound of Music (1965): Highest gross from August 1966 until the re-issue of Gone with the Wind in 1971. Current total gross $163m.
  • The Godfather (1972): Highest grossing until 1975. Current total gross $134m.
  • Jaws (1975): Highest grossing until 1977. Current total gross $470m.
  • Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977): Highest grossing until January 1983. Current total gross $798m
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982): Highest grossing until 1993. Current total gross $757m. (Star Wars did not re-overtake E.T. until its re-release in 1997, by which time Jurassic Park had landed the top slot.)
  • Jurassic Park (1993): Highest grossing until 1997. Current total gross $920m.

Highest USA grossing film adjusted for inflation

File:Gwtw-original-poster.jpg
Gone with the Wind is the highest grossing film ever, when adjusted for inflation

By adjusting for inflated ticket prices, the popularity of films released at different times can be compared. This list estimates the number of admissions for each film by using the average ticket price at the time of each release . Gone with the Wind, when adjusted for inflation is still the highest grossing film ever. The film has had at least four substantial releases worldwide (in 1939, 1954, 1961 and 1971). The adjusted for inflation value of these releases is $3.8bn worldwide, $1.3bn in the United States (2004 dollars).

  1. Gone with the Wind (1939) $1,293,085,600
  2. Star Wars (1977) $1,139,965,400
  3. The Sound of Music (1965) $911,458,400
  4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $907,867,700
  5. The Ten Commandments (1956) $838,400,000
  6. Titanic (1997) $821,413,700
  7. Jaws (1975) $819,704,400
  8. Doctor Zhivago (1965) $794,466,900
  9. The Exorcist (1973) $707,639,500
  10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) $697,600,000

Films that have received the most Academy Awards

Ever since their inception in 1928, the Academy Awards (the "Oscars") have been seen as the most significant of the film award ceremonies. The first film to dominate an Oscars ceremony was Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1935. It was the first film to win five awards. Moreover it won the "Oscar grand slam" by winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay—a feat that has been repeated only twice more, by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1976 and by Silence of the Lambs in 1992.

In 1939, Gone with the Wind was nominated for 13 awards and two special citations. It won eight of the Awards to beat It Happened One Night's record. All About Eve (1950) broke the nominations record with 14, and won in six categories.

Gigi was the film to break Gone with the Wind's record, winning in all nine of its nominated categories at the ceremony for films made in 1958. However, its moment at the top was short-lived, as the epic Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Oscars from 12 nominations the following year. Eleven Oscars remains the record. This achievement in turn has been equalled twice—by Titanic in 1997 with 11 awards from 14 nominations, and by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won in all 11 of its nominated categories in 2003.

Films that are considered the greatest in their particular genre

Animation

File:Cover-akira.jpg
Akira was voted best anime film in 2001
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is the highest-grossing animated film of all time when adjusted for inflation. Snow White also appeared at #49 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American movies (compiled in 1998), higher than any other animated film.
  • Tale of Tales (Сказка сказок) (1979) - Yuriy Norshteyn's short film was voted by a large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympiad of Animation and the 2002 Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films.
  • Akira (アキラ) (1988) was chosen as the top anime ever by Anime Insider in fall 2001.
  • Beauty and the Beast (1991), is the only fully-animated movie (computerized or not) to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It has also been nominated for a total of six Oscars, more than any other animated film. It was also the first animated movie to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical.
  • Toy Story (1995) was voted #1 on the Top 100 Animated Features of All Time by the Online Film Critics Society (list published March 2003). Toy Story was also the first animated movie to be nominated for a Best Screenplay award at the Oscars.
  • Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) (2001) was voted best animated movie by IMDb users. It was the first anime (Japanese animation) film to win an Academy Award. It is the only movie to earn $250M before its US release.
  • Shrek 2 (2004) is the highest-grossing animated film of all time without correcting for inflation.
  • The Incredibles (2004), which won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, also became one of only four animated movies ever to be nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar. The Incredibles has also been nominated for 16 Annie Awards (the top award ceremony honoring animation), more than any other film. It also has won 10 of its nominations, another record.
  • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), which won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, was nominated for 16 Annie Awards, and won ten of them, an exact record shared with The Incredibles.
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), the first stop-motion animated film ever to be released in theaters. This film was critically acclaimed at its release but failed expectations at the box-office. When realeased on video, the film gained a huge cult-following and soon enough gained enough status and popularity to be officially named a huge hit film and holiday Disney classic. This film also has one of the most successful merchandise franchise ever.

Comedy

Concert

  • Stop Making Sense (1984) Film critic James Berardinelli, wrote that Jonathan Demme's capturing of the Talking Heads in concert was "the best concert film to date when it first came out, and nothing in the past decade-and-a-half has come close to toppling it from that position." Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle had similar praise: "Has there ever been a live concert film as vibrant or as brilliantly realized? I don't think so."

Disaster

Documentary

Epic

Fantasy

Film noir

Horror/thriller

LGBT

  • Brokeback Mountain: Won more Best Picture and Best Director awards prior to the Oscars than any other film in motion picture history, including the Golden Globe, BAFTA, British Film Institute (Sight and Sound), Venice Film Festival, Independent Spirit, Golden Satellite, Broadcast Film Critics, Cinephile Society, Internet Entertainment Writers Assn., Online Film and Television Assn., The Directors, Writers and Producers Guilds, and the Film critics awards from many cities and regions.

Musical

  • Singin' in the Rain The highest rated movie musical at the IMDb. Highest ranked musical at the 2002 Sight and Sound poll.
  • The Wizard of Oz The highest ranked musical on AFI's list of the 100 best American films.
  • Grease was voted the greatest musical by viewers of Channel 4 in 2003.
  • The Sound of Music is the highest grossing musical when adjusted for inflation.
  • West Side Story is the winner of the most Academy Awards of any movie musical (10).

Propaganda

Romance

  • Casablanca - Voted best American-based film in which there is "a romantic bond between two or more characters, whose actions and/or intentions provide the heart of the film’s narrative" by the AFI.
  • Gone with the Wind, considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. After adjusting for inflation, it is the highest grossing film ever. The AFI voted it as the fourth greatest film of all time.

Science fiction

Silent

  • Battleship Potemkin (see Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above.)
  • Modern Times, the last major American film to make use of silent film conventions such as title cards for dialogue, is the highest-rated silent film on the IMDb. There is a recorded soundtrack; one scene has dialogue spoken over an intercom, and Charlie Chaplin sings nonsense lyrics to a song at the end. City Lights, another of Chaplin's films, is the highest-rated movie without any dialogue, spoken or sung. It too has a recorded soundtrack. Metropolis is the highest-rated movie that was totally silent when released. However, IMDb viewers most likely watched the restored version which has a recorded soundtrack.
  • The Big Parade is the highest-grossing silent film of all time, taking $22m world wide.

War

Western

In particular countries

Australia

File:Mad Max cover.jpg
Mad Max was voted the best Australian film ever

Brazil

  • City of God (Cidade de Deus in Portuguese), is the highest ranking Brazilian film featured in TIME magazine´s 100 best movies of all-time list . It is also the highest ranked (#18) in IMDB´s top 250 list.

Canada

China

Finland

  • The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas in Finnish), holds the record for the highest grossing domestic film in Finland, and received seven "Jussi" statuettes (Finnish Oscars) .

France

Germany

India

See also: List of popular Bollywood films See also: List of popular Kollywood films
File:PatherDVD.jpg
  • Pather Panchali (1955), the first film of director Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy, is the only Indian film to have ever appeared on Sight and Sound Critics's Top Ten Poll (ranked #9 in 1992). It was ranked the top Indian film in a 2002 popularity poll by the British Film Institute (BFI) conducted on the web, and number two in the BFI critics' poll in which critics were asked to compile a list of 50 best Indian as well as South Asian films .
  • Sholay is the highest grossing movie of all time in India. It was also the top film selected in the 2002 BFI critics' poll.
  • Gandhi (1982), an Anglo-Indian production, is the only Indian film to receive eight awards and eleven nominations at the Academy Awards.
  • Pushpak (The Love Chariot), from 1988, is the highest rated Indian film on IMDb.com.
  • Nayakan, Pyaasa and the Apu trilogy are the only Indian films in the TOP 100 best movies in the world, as rated by TIME magazine.


Ireland

Japan

File:SevenSamurai(ITA).jpg
The Seven Samurai
  • Rashōmon (羅生門): This 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa was the first Japanese film to gain world-wide acclaim. The highest-ranked Japanese film (#10) on the Village Voice list of 100 Best Films of the 20th Century. It was also the highest-ranked Japanese film on the Sight and Sound 2002 Directors' Top Ten Poll.
  • Tokyo Story (東京物語 Tokyo Monogatari), 1953. This film by Yasujiro Ozu about an aging couple as they journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in postwar Tokyo was declared the greatest film ever by Halliwell's Film Guide in 2005 25. It was also the highest-ranked Japanese film on the Sight and Sound 2002 Critics' Top Ten Poll. (As well as the only non-Kurosawa Japanese film in any of its polls.)
  • The Seven Samurai (七人の侍 Shichinin no samurai), 1954: Also by Kurosawa, this period adventure film is frequently cited as the greatest Japanese film ever; consistently the highest-rated foreign-made (outside of the United States) film on the IMDb Top 250, appropiately enough it is ranked #7 (as of June 2006).

Russia

Sweden

  • The Emigrants (Utvandrarna): Jan Troell's naturalist masterwork was the first Scandinavian film to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, and it is often cited in Sweden as the greatest Swedish film of all-time.
  • Persona: voted "Best Picture" by US National Society of Film Critics. This film by acclaimed director Ingmar Bergman also reached the highest postion (#5) of any Swedish film on Sight & Sound's 1972 list of greatest films of all time.
  • The Seventh Seal: also directed by Ingmar Bergman, is the highest rated Swedish film on the IMDB.

United Kingdom

United States


See also

References

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