The Godfather came into this world, in the form of Mario Puzo’s novel, as pulp. In a feat of creative alchemy arguably unsurpassed before or since, Coppola and his collaborators turned the Mafia melodrama into popular art that satisfies on every possible level — as a family drama, a crime saga, a visual and musical ravishment and an impeccable evocation of a historical period.
“If I was on a desert island, I’d bring The Wizard of Oz with me,” says Elizabeth Daley, dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. “It always makes me feel alive. I could watch it over and over.” And people have. In fact, it’s the most-watched film of all time, according to the Library of Congress, thanks to regular showings on broadcast television since the mid-1950s. That yellow brick road clearly is made of gold.
Critics have hailed this for decades as “the greatest American movie ever made,” making it an all-too-easy pick for anyone’s greatest-movie list. But not all moviegoers are enthralled with the story of Charles Foster Kane and his long-lost sled. Among poll respondents in their 20s, for instance, it was only the 26th-favorite film. Among the under-20s, it was 53rd. For those over 60, though, it was No. 1 or 2.
Of all the adaptations of Stephen King stories — and they are legion because he is the most-adapted living writer — this is the only one to make the list.
All that Shawshank love apparently came after the film’s unexceptional theatrical release, when it began popping up on cable TV nearly as regularly as Geico commercials. In 2013, 151 hours of basic cable time was devoted to airing the 142-minute movie. That’s about six days of watching Robbins try to escape from prison.
It was the first outer-space movie to take outer-space — and special effects — seriously. Sure, it creaks beside its successors, including Close Encounters and Star Wars, but 2001 does have one of the most famous match-cuts in movie history (the bone turning into a spaceship). And even though the smooth-talking computer in the film has an operating system that’s 46 years old, people still want to own it: The HAL 9000 app on iTunes has been downloaded an estimated quarter-million times.
The most shocking thing about this emotionally wrenching black-and-white drama isn’t that it’s about an act of heartbreaking kindness during the Holocaust; it’s that Spielberg released it only months after his other big hit of 1993, the one with the dinosaurs. Unlike Jurassic Park, this film took home seven Oscars, including best director and best picture (the first black-and-white movie to win that statuette since 1960’s The Apartment).
“Quentin has always been a student of film, and after Reservoir Dogs he said to me: ‘The second movie from a filmmaker is almost more important than the first. We’ve got to get it right,'” recalls Lawrence Bender, Tarantino’s longtime producing partner. Tarantino got it right, all right. In fact, Miramax’s Pulp Fiction might be the most influential movie made during the 1990s, inspiring scads of imitators (nicknamed Tarantinies) and dozens of knockoffs. “We didn’t think we were taking a big risk,” says Bender. “We just though we were making something really cool.”
CASABLANCA, from left, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, 1942
Arguments over which Godfather is greater, the first or second, began as soon as the sequel was released. The first film has the edge among this poll’s respondents, but Part II has die-hard fans as well. “It’s one of those movies,” says producer Albert Berger, “that has every element of cinema working at the highest level. And it’s entertaining, and it says something about our country.”
It’s the first Spielberg film on the list but hardly the last (he has seven). And it totally makes sense that E.T. would be his most popular because it’s basically The Wizard of Oz in reverse. Think about it: A 3-foot-tall munchkin lands on Earth, where he’s befriended by a trio of locals (and their little dog) who help him phone to no-place-like-home until, at the end, where does E.T. go in his spaceship? That’s right — over the rainbow. “I never thought of that before,” said Spielberg a few years ago when the theory was presented to him. “Do you mind if I steal that?”
Star Wars set the bar for lots of things: special effects, box-office receipts, the incorporation of mythological storytelling structure, the number of aliens that can fit comfortably into a bar. But its real legacy is The Deal: Lucas negotiated rights to both the merchandising and the sequels — deemed worthless by Fox in 1977, but today they are worth billions.
Fox was filming Family Ties when Zemeckis tapped the 24-year-old television star to play unwitting time traveler Marty McFly. (He was replacing Eric Stoltz, who had shot a few scenes but proved the wrong fit.) Fox worked nights and weekends, which explains why he looks so exasperated in most of the film.
Dreamed up while George Lucas and Spielberg were vacationing in Hawaii, Raiders indulged Lucas’ desire to make an old-fashioned serial and scratched Spielberg’s itch to make a globe-trotting James Bond film (incredibly, the 007 producers had turned down his services). When Jeff Bridges said no to the role of Indiana Jones (initially named Smith) and Tom Selleck couldn’t get out of his Magnum P.I. contract, Lucas turned to his Han Solo.
The mind-blowing CGI — from the floating feather to removing Sinise’s legs — helped put Gump over the top in one of the most competitive best picture races in memory. The Shawshank Redemption (No. 4) and Pulp Fiction (No. 5) also were nominated that year.
It’s still the longest film to win best picture (nearly four hours) and the first to have an African-American castmember win an Oscar (Hattie McDaniel). Ironically, its only surviving star is Olivia de Havilland, 97, whose character was the main one to die.
More than 50 years later, this is still a pitch-perfect portrait of race and rural America during the Great Depression. No wonder it’s Superman’s favorite movie (according to Clark Kent’s Wikipedia page, at any rate).
Harvey Keitel got fired. Brando showed up overweight and unprepared. Sheen had a heart attack and nearly died. And storms destroyed many of the sets. Has a better film ever been made from worse circumstances?
For years there have been rumors of a bootleg cut of an original, much longer version — titled Anhedonia — which supposedly was more of a surreal murder mystery than a love story. Please let THR know if you’ve got a copy.
It was Capra’s favorite, and Stewart’s, too, but it bombed when it first was released. Like George Bailey, though, it got a second chance, becoming a holiday classic thanks to endless Christmas TV showings.
It was Capra’s favorite, and Stewart’s, too, but it bombed when it first was released. Like George Bailey, though, it got a second chance, becoming a holiday classic thanks to endless Christmas TV showings.
This is the first of three Nicholson films to make the 100. But he’s beaten by Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro (both with four) and by Marlon Brando and Harrison Ford (with five apiece).
The only horror film ever to win best picture. It also won best director, adapted screenplay, actress and actor (for Hopkins’ 25-minute turn, the second-shortest performance to win that trophy behind Peter Finch’s in Network).
Steven Spielberg once estimated that remaking it today would cost close to $300 million. Also, these days, they’d probably need to add some estrogen; the 227-minute movie has not a single line spoken by a woman.
The original summer blockbuster. It cost only $9 million to make and grossed nearly as much its first weekend alone. And yet … the shark still looks fake.
Such a cheery spirit-lifter, during the Cold War the BBC reportedly planned to air the film after a nuclear strike to improve the morale of survivors. “So Long, Farewell” being the perfect post-apocalyptic melody.
Reynolds once said that making this film and giving birth were the two hardest things she’d ever done. Kelly reportedly was a tyrant on the set.
More proof that men and women are different: Hughes’ after-school detention drama was the ninth-most-popular film for female respondents, but 75th for males.
Which of these actresses was not considered for Mrs. Robinson: Deborah Kerr, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Doris Day, Shelley Winters, Ava Gardner, Patricia Neal or Ingrid Bergman? Trick question: All supposedly were up for the part.
Despite studio tinkering (adding a voiceover, slapping in aerial footage shot for Kubrick’s The Shining to give the ending a sunny feel), it remains the ultimate noir sci-fi detective movie.
Kirk Douglas optioned Ken Kesey’s book in the early ’60s but decided he was too old to play McMurphy, so he gave the rights to his son, Michael, who produced it instead.
Hardly anyone saw Rob Reiner’s adaptation of William Goldman’s comic-fantasy novel in theaters. But this was back when video could create a cult hit — and that’s precisely what happened.
An almost Shakespearean tragedy. The hero loses a hand but gains a father. And his best friend is frozen solid. Try and imagine the second installment of another giant sci-fi franchise that ends on such a downer. Go ahead.
This is one of four films on the list to have inspired hit TV shows that are current Emmy contenders. The other shows are Bonnie and Clyde, Hannibal and Bates Motel.
Chevy Chase, Kevin Costner, and John Travolta all reportedly were considered for the part of Lester Burnham (which, incidentally, is an anagram for “Humbert learns,” one of the film’s many hat tips to Lolita).
It’s the film that began the debate over violence in cinema. Kubrick was so horrified by a copycat murder in England that he pulled the movie from U.K. theaters.
Hughes paid homage to his earlier movies via the license plates on the characters’ cars: “VCATION” for National Lampoon’s Vacation, “MMOM” for Mr. Mom and “TBC” for The Breakfast Club.
Peter Sellers was the first actor to be nominated for a single Oscar for playing three characters (he lost on all three counts to Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady).
According to sources on the set, Crystal and Ryan hated each other’s guts. Talk about great acting.
Kubrick realized that the shot of Nicholson repeatedly typing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” would make no sense to European audiences, so he had the line typed in Italian, German and Spanish.
Bonham Carter’s line after her sex scene with Pitt — “That was the best f– I’ve had since grade school” — was a replacement. The original, more offensive line: “I want to have your abortion.”
Hitch’s serial killer thriller was a shocker — but not just because of the shower scene. It was the first film to show a toilet.
When they shot the film’s most famous scene — the alien bursting through Hurt’s chest — the filmmakers didn’t tell the cast what would happen. The horror on their faces is real.
Each CGI frame took from four to 13 hours to render, nearly as long as the last iPhone update.
A virtual-reality prison. Sentient computer programs. Downloadable abilities. Bullet-time. Whoa. No wonder it was the first DVD to sell a million copies.
Both were the biggest of their day (882 feet for the vessel; $200 million for the film). But the boat sank, while the film went on to become the second-largest grosser in history (after Avatar).
Spielberg used real amputees wearing prosthetics to simulate soldiers losing their limbs during the opening Omaha Beach battle scene.
“Everybody quotes me as saying kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler,” Tony Curtis told a reporter a few years before his death. “I never said that. I said that kissing Marilyn was like f–ing her, the way she would grind against me.”
“Who is Keyser Soze?” was the question that drove the summer of 1995. Shot on a $6 million budget, Singer’s breakthrough crime thriller would win Oscars for Spacey and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie.
It’s the only movie in which you can watch Kelly smoke a cigarette — if you’re into that sort of thing.
There was a four-way bidding war for Michael Crichton’s novel: Warner Bros. wanted it for Tim Burton, Fox liked it for Joe Dante, Columbia chased it for Richard Donner, but Universal won for Spielberg.
The Dude was inspired by film promoter Jeff Dowd, who helped secure distribution for the Coen brothers’ first film, Blood Simple.
It got 14 Oscar nominations, a record that stood until it was tied by Titanic 47 years later.
Terrence Malick suggested the bittersweet ending (in the original version, Damon and Driver drive off into the sunset).
In real life, Cassidy’s gang was called The Wild Bunch, but Hill changed it to “Hole in the Wall” to avoid confusion with the Sam Peckinpah film.
Screenwriter Paul Schrader was inspired by the diaries of Arthur Bremer, who shot George Wallace, and Scorsese turned to Psycho composer Bernard Herrmann, who initially turned down the job (“I don’t write music for car movies”).
The film helped revive Winslet’s career by proving she could do (quirky) comedy. “It took me right away from that English period-film thing and put me in the U.S. market,” she recently told THR.
Ledger took the Joker very seriously, even applying his own face paint before each shot.
Directors, editors and writers like it most. Everybody else taking the poll still can’t get over the fact that it’s narrated by a dead guy.
“It was pretty shocking that people were so threatened by it. Like somehow we had backed into territory long held only by white heterosexual men of a certain age,”says Susan Sarandon of her role in Ridley Scott’s 1991 groundbreaking female-bonding road movie. Geena Davis doesn’t disagree — “I don’t think any of us knew it would strike a nerve the way it did.”
The only French film to make it into the top 100, thanks mostly to under-20s (it was that group’s sixth-favorite film).
“My category was called first, and I got lucky. And then Rita [Moreno] got lucky. What a perfect night,” recalls George Chakiris of the night he and Moreno picked up Oscars for their performances as Bernardo and Anita in West Side Story.” Moreno recalls it slightly differently. “I had to wait a long time. At that point, West Side Story had swept the awards, and I thought, ‘My Puerto Rican luck; I’ll be the only one who doesn’t get an award.’ ” When her name was called, she walked to the podium and delivered one of the briefest speeches ever for an Oscar.
Martin Landau’s character was secretly gay, at least according to Landau, who claimed it made more sense for the plot.
Bill Murray reportedly was bitten by the groundhog twice during shooting. Why isn’t that on the DVD extras?
Julie Andrews did the film because she lost My Fair Lady to Audrey Hepburn. But Andrews got the last laugh: She won the Oscar.
Scorsese used chocolate as blood in the boxing scenes because it showed up better in black and white. That explains how De Niro gained 70 pounds.
It was the top-grossing animated film until Toy Story 3 passed it in 2010 and then Frozen topped them both.
It’s the highest grosser of all time, which explains the three sequels that will start rolling out in December 2016.
The original script was set half in the Middle Ages, half in the 20th century until Terry Jones suggested doing the King Arthur story.
It was Russell Crowe’s big entrance as a Hollywood star (he won an Oscar) and Oliver Reed’s big exit (he suffered a fatal heart attack during filming).
The No. 1 film in the most recent Sight & Sound critics’ poll (2012) has a ways to go on this list.
One of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s most beloved performances — and he delivered the whole thing while suffering from the flu.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
Alan J. Pakula was so intent on re-creating the Washington Post newsroom, he had the paper’s trash shipped to Hollywood to clutter desks on the set.
Brooks offered John Wayne a part in the film, but the Duke declined.
Pierre Boulle, who wrote the 1952 French novel on which the movie is based, also wrote Planet of the Apes.
Ang Lee won best director, but in one of the biggest Oscar upsets in recent memory, Brokeback lost best picture to … see if you can remember.
In the original script, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was just one of 50 monsters, but Reitman estimated it would have cost $300 million to produce them all.
The last surviving jurist, Jack Klugman, died in 2012.
The most engaging silent movie since Chaplin left the screen: There’s no “human” dialogue for the first 40 minutes.
Contrary to popular belief, Brando’s most famous line — “I coulda been a contender” — was not improvised.
Tom Hulce practiced piano four hours a day for the role, but the music ended up being dubbed in anyway.
There were many failed attempts at a live-action adaptation of LOTR, dating back to the 1960s, when The Beatles asked Stanley Kubrick to direct a version for them to star in.
The mini-mart on Olympic Boulevard where Reginald VelJohnson bought Twinkies is now a dry cleaners.
Nolan himself is a lucid dreamer, which he has said inspired much of the film.
The studio wasn’t thrilled with the “head in a box” ending, but Pitt and Freeman refused to promote the film if it got changed.
It was the first animated film ever nominated for best picture.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Gibson didn’t want to play the lead — he thought he was too old — but Paramount wouldn’t make the film without him.
Nolan reportedly was going to cast Alec Baldwin in Guy Pearce’s part, but he must have forgotten.
Stallone wrote the script’s first draft in just three days, then refused to sell it unless he was cast in the lead role.
Pixar has calculated it would take 26.5 million balloons to actually lift the house in the animated feature.
When John Cazale got sick during filming, the studio wanted to recast, but Meryl Streep threatened to walk off the picture if it did.
Peter O’Toole turned down the title role, so David Lean settled on another Lawrence of Arabia star, which is how Sharif went from playing an Arab prince to a Russian physician.
It’s the only Spanish-language movie to make the list.
The film that forever changed the way people think about Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Barbara Billingsley and especially Leslie Nielsen.
It’s actually not Tarantino’s debut feature; the first film he directed was 1987’s My Best Friend’s Birthday, much of which was destroyed in a lab fire.
One of the films that buried the Hays Code, though today it looks about as risque as basic cable.
It’s the only Japanese film on the list and later was remade as The Magnificent Seven, a Western with Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson.
