Recently a panel of critics, producers, directors, actors, and other assorted film types wrote up a list of what they considered the very best of American filmmaking. Part of the criteria seemed to be that the films had to be popular with both the critics and the public, so you won't find any great little obscure flicks on the list - virtually none of these movies were anything less than box office smashes. Which isn't such a bad thing, really; unlike books and music, where genius too often gets overlooked by indifferent yahoos and the maestro dies penniless in the gutter only to be revived generations later, the corollation between quality and popularity is generally quite high with movies. This can be attributed partly to the fact that there aren't, relatively speaking, that many movies out there. Only a few hundred are released a year, compared to the thousands of books and records that exist, and unlike rock music with its fertile underground, most independently released films aren't worth watching. A big budget does matter when you're making movies, which means that most must-see movies still come, and will continue to come for the foreseeable future, from the Hollywood hack mill. Which brings me to my second point: movies, because their monetary constraints force an often quite unhealthy balance between art and commerce (that is almost always tilted decisively towards commerce), are diluted in effect when compared to, say, novels. The cliche that Hollywood always gives you a happy ending is very true; almost all of the films listed below have happy endings. The ones that don't are invariably the ones in which the director as auteur has more than usual control over his movies - Orson Welles, Francis Ford Coppola, Sam Peckinpah. Which brings me to my third, and final point since I'm rambling and had better shutup now: the star system in Hollywood has done as much as anything to ruin movies. Actors, who should by all rights be considered less important than writers and directors who actually create instead of parroting, are instead bigger than anyone else. I have lots of respect for actors, mind you - they are skilled craftsmen who ought to be rewarded as such. In other words, their salaries ought to be the same as a good carpenter (which is damn good money, believe me) - not in the millions, and screw this celebrity fame bullshit, I quit hanging up posters of idols on the wall when I was 15 years old. Yeah, despising Hollywood is as American as apple pie, because anyone who's watched many movies and knows much about them realizes that Hollywood hates America. They think we're idiots and dumb down everything they release. Of course, they say no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public....

I couldn't agree more. This character study was revolutionary in terms of style and subject matter (it was the first movie to show ceilings!). Consistently engrossing, with a lot of depth, this hasn't aged a single bit. It has what most Hollywood product doesn't have, genuine complexity, and rarest of all, holds up as that commodity we call art. Great art.

I'm not quite sure I would rank the greatest date movie of all time quite as high as #2, but what the heck. This wrote the rules on Hollywood romance, and many of its lines have permantly enfixed themselves on our tongues. Of course, the most famous line - "Play it again, Sam" - is never actually spoken in the film. "Round up the usual suspects," actually is - and I bet you didn't realize it made its first appearance in this movie.

What can you say? This is perfection, the American Dream given a cynical twist and the realization that the crime business is after all only a business like any other. I can't offer any criticism except that Part III (1990) wasn't very good; this is the standard against which all crime dramas and family portraits have to compare, and most don't measure up. But how could they?

A sentimental epic that I've never cared a whole lot for; I'm not saying it's not a great movie, but it's not one that does much for me personally. The whitewashing of history with its happy lil' pickaninnies on the plantation isn't anywhere near as offensive as The Birth Of A Nation, but the unconscious (?) insensitivity to the real suffering caused by slavery is there and has to be dealt with. I'm not trying to be a politically correct nitpicker - slavery isn't nitpicking - and since I'm from the South I can insult the region and its stupid traditions all I want. As a enlightened product of integrated public schools of the New South, I for one have not the slightest bit of nostalgia for the Old South - I am so glad it's gone. Next time you watch this, remind yourself that the landed slave-owning aristocracy represented by Rhett and Scarlett were only between 1% or 2% of the population; everyone else, black and white, endured miserable poverty working in the fields.

A stunning film. A four-hour epic in which not a scene should or could be trimmed without doing harm to the whole. Some of the best cinematography ever; one truly imparts the sensation of how vast and endless the desert is....

Okay, one for the kiddies. I really don't have much desire to see this again since I'm all grown up, but I don't have any problems with its inclusion. I was a kid once, too, and does anyone who's ever seen this movie ever forget it?

One of those movies that defines a generation, and a classic. Mrs. Robinson has entered our collective consciousness as shorthand for a dirty old woman (hey, that's what they call a man who seduces a girl young enough to be his daughter - unless "Mr. Clinton" is going to wind up in our slang phrases), and the soundtrack has entered our consciousness also, but in a decidedly different way.

Brando at his best, and that's saying something. "I coulda been a contendah"....perfect Top 10 material.

The Holocaust is one of those events that we should never forget, and should never experience "closure" for, or something's wrong with the world. Thanks for reminding us, Steve. The only complaints when this came out were from some who thought that Spielberg didn't have the right use the Holocaust as material since he never experienced it, a quite facetitious argument in my opinion since by that logic Margaret Mitchell should never have written Gone With The Wind since she never experienced the Civil War.

Ixnay! Tapdancing is as much an "art" as throwing a basketball through a hoop, and this crap is very dated. No one born after 1945 has any reason to watch this movie today, unless you're one of those smarmy lounge/cocktail-nation/swinger '40s revivalists who are into this type of thing so you can wear cool clothes. If you've gotta have dancing, then pick Saturday Night Fever instead; yeah, disco sucks, but ignore that and you've got a pretty entertaining movie.

Move this up one position so it gets into the Top Ten. I've seen this more times than probably any other movie on the list since they show it on TV twenty times every Christmas, and I can still watch it and not get bored. Everybody needs a little sentimental cornball sometimes, especially if it's Frank Capra cornball. Sadly, American has turned into a land of Pottervilles with its soulless suburbias, and the evil bankers (who seem to merge every other week and offer less service with higher charges - grrrr!) have taken over.

Surprisingly psychologically sophisticated for its time, and pretty scary; parts of this are dated, but it has held up very well, and still grips. I wouldn't rate it quite this high, but it certainly belongs somewhere on the Top 100 list, maybe in the 60's or thereabouts.

A pretty good film, I suppose, but it doesn't really merit inclusion on the list. Plenty of other action films have surpassed it, and so have plenty of war films. Move Platoon from #83 up here instead.

This was a pleasant surprise in several respects, since I didn't figure this would be that great of a movie. It was hilarious, and in the gay '90s the homosexual overtones are virtually impossible to miss. Also, I've never been all that attracted to Marilyn Monroe, but after seeing her performance in this movie - whoo-wheee! Now I understand why a generation of red-blooded males fell for her. So you could say this movie was kind of an educational experience in certain ways.

The first movie I ever saw, and it's weird because even though I must have only been 3 I remembered all of it. I cried when Obi-Wan died - one of my earliest memories - and even had the original posters on my wall, which must have cost all of two dollars then and are probably worth $2,000 now if they hadn't become regrettably lost over time. This is probably the most influential movie of the post-WWII era, though not in an altogether good way: it ushered in the reign of big-budget special-effects movies in which plot and characterization took a backseat. However, this movie is unforgettable, and anyone who hasn't seen the trilogy - I doubt there are many left! - needs to do themselves a favor and rent this tonight.

I really don't see why this movie was included. It's alright, and if you need Bette Davis, then she's superb as an over-40 actress being supplanted by a younger, fresher face. It also has some interesting things to say about the theatre, which by that time was entering its twilight as film supplanted it. I love the line about a piano thinking it has composed a concerto - darn it, actors ought to keep their egos in check and realize they wouldn't even have lines to mouth if it weren't for writers: Shakespeare is still read, but does anyone care about famous thespians of the 16th century? As a whole, I found the movie kind of dull, despite all that I liked.

You gotta have classic Bogie, and if you're into Katherine Hepburn (I'm not) then you gotta have the classic fiery-tempered redhead, and this movie gives you both. Hepburn plays a part originally written for Bogart - is that proto-feminist or what? And oh yeah, I do agree with the crotchety old-timers on this issue: it's actually sexier when couples don't take their clothes off, and let innuendo and tension do the job instead.

Hitchcock's most overrated film. I'd pick almost any other movie of his over this. The fact of the matter is that this movie just isn't very scary, and there isn't much suspense. Then again, I've never been a fan of horror films - I find them just plain silly. This is better than your average horror flick - in fact it's not silly at all - but I'd prefer, oh I don't know, The Man Who Knew Too Much maybe?

Talk about a convoluted plot - it makes Raymond Chandler seem like Anton Chekov by comparison. Of course this film belongs.

This is the movie that caused our homeless problem, because after watching this people felt sorry for mental patients and let them loose on the streets. It's a complicated problem, and one that I don't pretend to have a solution for. As for the film, it has Jack Nicholsen at his craziest and hammiest, and a bunch of other actors who wound up on Taxi. Despite the fact that Jack would become a self-parody in short time, this is still a great movie.

One of the rare films that nearly equals the book in sheer majesty and power. John Ford's masterpiece. The "I'll be there" speech is one of the greatest pieces of oratory on film.

It must have been exciting at the time, especially if you were watching it "under the influence", but this has dated horribly. The only point of the movie (no interesting characters and not much of a plot) is the special effects, which by modern standards look like nothing more than cheap splashes of prismed technicolor. Without a doubt the most boring movie on this list, and in fact one of the most boring movies I've ever sat through. Exception: the first few scenes with the apes, which mistakenly gave the impression this would be a masterful epic.

Did Bogie ever have a more perfect role than that of Sam Spade? The wiseguy detective noir that its zillions of imitators take their cues from.

What is wrong with film critics? They rate the worst Martin Scorsese film (even Boxcar Bertha was better) as his masterpiece? Yeah, whatever. Jake LaMotta just isn't an interesting character, and two hours with him is pretty wearying. Now, looking over this list, I find that this and Rocky are the only films about sports included. Since the jock genre has been egregariously overlooked, I nominate either Pride of the Yankees or Cobb, two great baseball films, over this boxing turkey.

Chalk another one up for the kids; actually, one for the kid inside all of us, especially those who had invisible friends. It's weird to think about how Drew Barrymore turned out....

This starts out kind of dull, but before long you get caught up in this warped parallel universe of Stanley Kubrick's and can't take your eyes off the screen. Sort of the filmic equivalent of Catch-22, the irony and cynicism perfectly fit the subject matter of a world gone mad, or at least the military-industrial complex.

One of those romps that's just plain lots of fun, except the ending which is all bloody. Who cares if the real life Bonnie & Clyde were considerably less sexy than Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty? This is Hollywood, after all, and it ain't history, it's mythos.

Apparrently the story behind the making of this film is as twisted and gripping as the final product, as Coppola approached the insanity of Brando's character. The scene where Sheen smashes the mirror was real - he didn't mean to cut himself, which is what gives that shot its peculiar intensity. A very loose adaptation of Conrad's Heart Of Darkness that bears about the same relation to the reality of Vietnam as Star Wars did to the Roman Empire, this is one weird trip. My only disappointment is that no one gets to say, "The horror! The horror!" at the end.

With our awareness of the rampant corruption and venality within the Beltway in the post-Watergate era, this film might seem quaint, with Jimmy Stewart's initial Boy Scout naivette very hard to believe. However, the America of Capra's time really was more innocent, and this film has held up surprisingly well. It's still relevant, and it's still worth watching.

"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no stinkin' badges!" Need I say more?

Folks split into two camps with Woody Allen: those who like him serious, and those who like him funny. I find the guy hard to take seriously, so guess which camp I fall into. I hated Manhattan and loved Bananas. This is a transitional work that seems to attempt a fusion of Allen's two sides, and it works remarkably well. The only problem is sometimes I can't tell whether a piece is meant to be a joke or not. His paranioa about anti-Semitism? That lobster scene - he's not that much of a wimp, is he? Is he?

Everything I said about the first part holds for the second. I disagree with most critics, however, in that I prefer the first installment of the trilogy. As close to perfection as American filmmaking gets.

The best part about this movie is the structure. The action begins at 10:40 A.M. and unfolds in real time until noon, paralleling the length of the film. This gives this rather standard Western that extra edge it needs to engage the viewer.

This isn't as good as the book; Hollywood changed the plot too much in order to make it more palatable to moviegoers. Other than that, this is a fine flick. We had to read the book and watch the movie back in highschool, and I can't remember anybody really hating either, which says quite a bit considering what highschool kids are like.

How come every movie Frank Capra made was so perfect? I'm not a fan of '30s screwball comedies, but I found this pretty funny, and surprisingly racy. Worth seeing for the hitchhiking scene alone.

Couldn't agree more. Loved this through and through. The only X-rated movie to ever win an Academy Award. It's only an R by today's standards, though, and it gained an X due to the subject matter more than anything actually pornographic. Is there any profession more useless than that of a male prostitute? The kid's going to have to find out the hard way....

This isn't a movie, this is a piece of propraganda designed to make returning WWII veterans adjust to home life. It's alright for a public awareness video, but after serving its admirable purpose, it became obsolete. Heck, nobody's going to nominate all those "Just Say No" anti-drug movies, are they? So why this?

I suppose a token film noir ought to be thrown in somewhere near the bottom of the list, but at #38 this is way too high. I enjoyed this, but there's nothing here you won't find done better on old Perry Mason reruns, not to mention your average post-Hill Street Blues cop show.

Not a great film, and pretty boring in spots, I still found it watchable. Omar Sharif and Julie Christie deliver good performances. There are just too many epics on this list, in my opinion. Length doesn't equal quality.

A relatively lightweight Hitchcock thriller, this basically has the same setup as The Man Who Knew Too Much; between the two films it's a coin toss as to which is better, and since there are already enough Jimmy Stewart movies on the list, then this Cary Grant feature gets the nod. Too bad all those Sean Connery James Bond movies were British, since they were the pinnacle of the genre.

Thereotically the marriage of music and narrative ought to take both to new heights, but in practice the narrative suffers because it has to find corny ways to incorporate the songs and the music suffers because individually inspired songs are outnumbered by makeshift hack pieces designed to move the plot along. The world would be a much better place if no one ever penned an opera or musical ever again. You have to be Mozart to barely pull it off, and this ain't Mozart. He's further down the list.

There are just a tad too many Jimmy Stewart movies and a tad too many Hitchcock movies on this list, but why quibble? Stewart as a Peeping Tom is worth the admission.

You know what this is a metaphor for? Big brute black man rape little white woman. The film itself is fun to watch, though in modern times it's more interesting for the insight into pre-Civil Rights America's warped racial/sexual fantasies.

It's funny they placed this right behind King Kong.... This might be the worst film I have ever sat through. Ignoring the fact that it completely distorts history and glorifies the KKK, the damn thing is just plain poorly put together and boring. Maybe in 1915 this constituted a technical advance in the art of filmmaking, but it sure hasn't held up over time.

About time Tennessee Williams showed up on the list. Brando smolders - did you expect any less?

Kubrick did a fine job of transferring a great novel to the screen. A powerfully disturbing masterpiece of filmmaking. It's downright eerie what they do to Ludwig Van, and "Singin' In The Rain" is much more palatable in this context. Not as half as good as the book, though, and I really wish a director other than Kubrick - who might be the most boring great director of our time - had tackled Anthony Burgess' novel.

John Hinckley Jr. watched this film over and over. Another powerful study in alienation, the only thing off about this film is the cheesy '70s soundtrack cueing you in to the action. Both Robert De Niro and Jody Foster deliver some of their best roles, and this is one of Scorsese's very best - maybe his best?

When I was a kid this movie nearly scared me from ever going near the water again. Of course, I grew up in landlocked Arkansas and swam in fresh water lakes, so my fears were basically groundless....

A good cartoon, but switch places with Fantasia, which grownups can enjoy a lot, too. Too bad Wiley Coyote and the Road Runner never made a feature film, or else I'd want that here instead. Or how about - heh heh - Beavis & Butthead Do America? That like rules, dude!

You know, this might very well be the greatest buddy movie ever made. How can you beat Paul Newman and Robert Redford? The Sting was great, too, but I agree that to be fair you ought to include only one film featuring the duo. These two just share a natural ease with each other on the screen, and it spills over into the audience; I can't imagine anybody not liking this movie.

Look, I'm just not a big fan of Katherine Hepburn - I find that annoying fake British accent (oh, sorry, "Mid-Atlantic") of hers plain grates. I'm also not a fan of formulaic screwball comedies that were so popular during the Depression. This isn't a bad example of the genre, but I have no use for this type of film.

I wholeheartedly agree with this inclusion. Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Ernest Borgnine - reads like a who's who of great American actors, and all deliver some of their finest performances. Probably the best WWII movie I've seen.

Despite its rewriting of history (Hollywood rivals Joseph Stalin in this offense), this is a great piece of entertainment. The only real problem is that Milos Forman doesn't try to give you any insight into one of music's greatest geniuses - he just portrays him as a party animal. Also, for some reason the soundtrack inexplicably left off "Rock Me Amadeus".

Another film we were required to watch in highschool, as should every generation be. Certain nations gearing up for war have banned this film, which should tell you something about how powerful an anti-war piece this is even today.

Completely against my will I and my helpless classmates were forced to watch this in elementary school. The only time I've ever cheered on the Nazis.

This is possibly the only case in recorded history in which the TV show was actually better than the movie it spun off from. Not that this isn't a very good film, though I certainly would have preferred one of Robert Altman's later films such as Nashville or The Player, but then again I'm not really that big of an Altman fan.

Who said Orson Welles never made another great movie after Citizen Kane? Who said Graham Greene couldn't write a great thriller? On atmosphere alone this is a classic - I must let loose a sigh now that post-war Vienna, with its cobblestones and zither, is irretrievably lost to the winds of time.

Hey, just what is this doing so low? A revolutionary film that let Disney's magicians at their peak stretch the boundaries of what could be done with animation, this has influenced everyone who's picked up a paintbrush and reel since, and as such certainly belongs in the Top 20. It's too bad that since the good old days cartoonists have gotten lazy and churned out animation with less detail and wit; cartoons are one of the few things in popular culture that have grown noticably worse since your grandfather's day.

James Dean's legend overshadows his achievement, which actually wasn't much: three films, all of which display some talent, but not enough to warrant his overrated status. If he hadn't have died young, chances are he'd be remembered as a decent but unremarkable '50s actor/teen idol. I've never cared for this picture; it's dated, and you have to be a retro '50s-obsessed revivalist to get worked up over it. Influential, for sure, but I've always had a soft spot for The Outsiders.

A completely thrilling joyride, nothing more or less. All I have to say is that the sequel, Temple Of Doom, was better.

Alfred Hitchcock was one sick puppy. His psycho-sexual obsessions are nowhere as obvious as in this twisted masterpiece about a man who just can't get that icy blonde out of his head. I hear that this movie is a metaphor for lonely and unnattractive Hitchcock's lifelong crush on Grace Kelley. This one has attracted a cult following who consider it Hitchcock's best; I don't, since it's not as suspenseful or thrilling as some of his others, but it has a depth that places it in his top rank.

One of the more entertaining comedies, it also has an interesting setup that might make you stop and think about just how it would feel on the other side of the gender wars. Of course this deserves inclusion, and #62 is a good number.

I suppose for historical reasons this might deserve inclusion, as it made John Wayne a star and advanced filmmaking techniques in certain ways. However, there are plenty of better Westerns; too bad all those great Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood films are Italian.

Sure, this deserves inclusion. It's too bad that none of the Star Trek movies were half as good as the TV series (any of them). Also, I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering why not a single example of classic campy '50s sci-fi was included on the list. If you're going to include kitschy film-noir like Double Indemnity, it's only fair that you should include kitschy sci-fi. How about Invasion Of The Body Snatchers? The Day The Earth Stood Still? The Fly?

Oh, come on now. The AFI is completely clueless when it comes to picking good recent films. I didn't enjoy this very much, and if you want a genuinely scary psychopath, then pick Fatal Attraction. If you need to pick out scary trash with lots of sex and murder from the '90s, then you've got....uh, a pretty big playing field. I don't know, how about Basic Instinct, or better yet Scream.

Hey, this is a movie with an actual message that actually takes chances and tells painful truths about our society that might actually offend some people! Wow! Talk about a rarity in Hollywood! Everyone who cares about how the media manipulates our society ought to see this movie, which is as relevant (and acidicly funny) today as 20 years ago.

To tell the truth, my favorite Frank Sinatra movie was The Man With The Golden Arm, but director Otto Preminger was German, so it can't be included. This example of Cold War paranoia has dated due to what we now know about brainwashing - it's nothing quite as simple as "Play solitaire" - but otherwise this is a quite worthy addition to the list. Also, the parallels to the Kennedy assination which would occur a year later are kind of eerie.

One Gene Kelly tap dancing special was more than enough. Replace with The Decline Of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years and give the old fogies who voted for this tinnitus.

If you like Westerns, you'll consider it a classic, and if not, then you won't like the movie very much (probably). I'm split down the middle myself on this tale of a young boy and his relationship with the mysterious stranger who moves onto the ranch. You know, I just realized something: there isn't a single example on this list of the love of a boy and his pet. In fact, there aren't any cute animal movies on this list! Where's Old Yeller? Black Beauty? Darn it, where's The Amazing Journey?

The car chase scene is an amazing thing, but I feel that despite this movie's reputation better crime dramas have been filmed since then. I'd pick almost any movie with Mel Gibson or Nick Nolte or Eddie Murphy, to mention a few names, playing a cop over this any day.

A neat little film - there's no profound message, it's just good entertainment, which where anti-Gump critics went wrong. Tom Hanks is the Jimmy Stewart of our time, and is there anything wrong with that?

This film should be included to have at least one example of the type of over-the-top big lavish production Hollywood was making in the late '50s due to their fear that TV would take away their audience. It didn't happen, and Hollywood sensibly scaled down. However, I don't mind seeing this spectacle in limited doses; the huge sets with hundreds of actors are mightily impressive, especially the overview of Rome that looks like something out of Triumph Of The Will. This is a Charles Heston movie but for some reason they left guns and apes out.

Groan.... this is a movie for housewives who read trashy romance novels, which in fact the book it's based on was (it's only considered a "classic" because it was written in the 19th century, not the vulgar 20th). Emily Bronte was the Danielle Steele of her time. Sure, Laurence Olivier can act, but will Americans please get over their misguided prejudice that English accents somehow automatically denote sophistication and intelligence?

Hey, wait a minute. It took this long for a Charlie Chaplin film to make the list? #74 is way too low! At the very least move this into the Top 50.

Simply put, this is one hell of an overrated film. Kevin Costner takes himself far, far too seriously, and turns every film he stars in into a boring, turgid dirge. He winds up making a far greater fool of himself than Jim Carrey and Pee Wee Herman combined with his grim-faced schitck, if you ask me. Hollywood's portrayal of Injuns as noble savages is one of those deepseated racist traditions that is long overdue to go, too. I'm just waiting for the Hollywood movie that shows what Native American life in modern times is really like - let's see casinos and reservation alcoholism in place of wig-wams and buffalo hunts. Of course, some people would rather cling to their sentimental prejudices than face harsh social realities.

Three Chaplin films is one too many, and despite the quality of this I'd have to let it go. Instead, I would place a Buster Keaton film in its place. It's outrageous that not a single Keaton film made it onto this list, since in my opinion he was the more entertaining and innovative filmmaker. Insert The General then; young filmmakers in particular ought to study every frame and learn a little about camera technique.

I can't remember how many times I've seen this movie. A portrait of a generation held together by a love of cars and a genuinely great soundtrack. George Lucas never made a better movie, Star Wars included.

"My old man told me that I'd have to use my body 'cuz I didn't have much of a brain." Thus Sylvester Stallone neatly sums up his entire movie career in one line.

Yet another powerfully affecting movie about the mess our leaders got us into called Vietnam. The characters are curiously flat, even De Niro's leading role, yet there are certain scenes that are impossible to forget, particularly the ones involving Russian roullette.

If I were to draw up my personal list of the greatest American movies then this would be perfect at #80. However, comparing it to most of the movies preceding it on the AFI's list, I must protest - this is far better than most of its company. Sam Peckinpah is an underrated director; no one better captures the lyricism of violence and its pervasiveness in America.

Well, it's too bad Metropolis wasn't American, but any film by Chaplin is alright by me. The scene with the rotating lunch machine is priceless; big businesses still tend to think in such thoughtless terms.

Yessiree, this big ol' film shows Texas exactly as it is, and sometimes that's not a pretty sight. I was quite surprised at the honest treatment of racism for a film released in the '50s, and Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean are all superb. #82 is perfect placing.

He's rightly criticized for rewriting history, but if you can just accept his films for what they are - fiction - then Oliver Stone's record is a sterling one. He hasn't made a movie I don't like, except for the all-too paranoid and drearily long J.F.K., and now that I think about it, U-Turn and Natural Born Killers, both of which are (funnily enough) bad Quentin Tarintino knockoffs. This is a great film, but my personal favorite is Eric Borgosian's eerily prescient Talk Radio - an overlooked gem that was perhaps too dark and scathing for the public.

ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR MINDS? This isn't even the best Coen brothers film! Replace with Raising Arizona, a Top 50 film in my book.

Just my style - a film where the dialogue consists of nothing but snappy one-liners. It would be criminal not to include at least one Marx brothers film. Hail Fredonia!

I have no problem placing this somewhere near the lower reaches of the list. Of course, the Battleship Potemkin was better, but it was made by damn Soviet Commies!

A real snore. Might have been shocking at the time, and maybe even scary, but hasn't dated well. The Godzilla line was made by the Japanese - the monster movie is one of those American inventions that the Japs do better, along with other products.

Some of the hippy rhetoric is kind of laughable, but those were different times, and this is as good a snapshot of the era as you'll likely see. There isn't much of a plot and the ending is hard to believe (sure, the roads are filled with rednecks who like to going around shooting unarmed strangers!), but heck, a classic's a classic.

From the minute the crazed general marches in front of an American flag and starts delivering his harangue about warfare ("No son of a bitch ever won a war dying for his country. He won by making sure some other poor bastard died for his country."), you're hooked. Sometimes being stuck with a warmongering lunatic is a pleasant way to spend three hours.

Historical significance is the only reason to include this film, which is pretty dull and quite dated. It's also a bit of a cheat since most of the dialogue is conveyed through printed words - Al Jolson only lets sounds come out of his voice when he sings, and for about two minutes in a scene with his mother.

Yeah, whatever. Shouldn't they disqualify this since it was written by Brits, has a British subject, and British actors? George Bernard Shaw is that rare playwright who is great on the page but talky and long-winded on stage or screen. Also, if you're going to pick an Audrey Hepburn movie... Breakfast At Tiffany's isn't on this list?!? Why not boggles the mind.

Good placing for this adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. And any movie with Montgomery Clift as the star is A-OK with me.

Hey, Shirley Maclaine isn't just some ditzy member of the Psychic Friends network - she can act! #93 is a good spot for this entertaining farce. Of course with sexual harassment laws the company would be sued out of existence nowadays, but those were different times.

A great gangster movie, but I would also include, in no particular order: Scarface, Donnie Brascoe, Dead End (Bogie!), Mean Streets, The Untouchables, and Public Enemy #1 - uh, hey wait a minute: HOW COME THERE IS NOT A SINGLE JAMES CAGNEY GANGSTER MOVIE ON THIS LIST? Move over, Double Indemnity, you're making room for Jimmy.

How come this is so low? They rated Silence Of The Lambs as better than this? The most influential film in recent memory? Top 20 material this is!

Haven't seen it yet, but it's a John Wayne Western, and that's a mark of quality.

Seeing as I don't care for Katherine Hepburn and I'm pretty lukewarm with regards to Cary Grant, and I don't care for the '30s screwball comedy genre (if you're not familiar with that term, it means a movie in which the hero and heroine start off hating each other and wind up falling in love), I have no use for this movie. It's kind of alright, and the leopard was cute (turns out I was wrong when I made that statement earlier - there is a cute animal flick on the list), but I'd rather watch the Three Stooges do slapstick.

Probably for political reasons, Dirty Harry didn't make the cut - a lot of people are disturbed by its unsavory right-wing message, myself included. Which doesn't mean Dirty Harry isn't a great film, and Clint Eastwood's perfect role. This is a good inclusion, though, a Western with a little thoughtful content for a change, and one that keeps you glued to your seat.

This film is dated, which is a good thing - whites and blacks can marry each other nowadays without too much trouble (there are still quite a few bigots around). A fine inclusion, but I'd rather see A Raisin In The Sun instead for my dose of Sydney Poitier. Which brings up a troubling point: there just aren't really any movies on this list featuring African-Americans. It's practically lily-white. I realize that there weren't any good black films until the '70s because blacks were segregrated and didn't have the money to finance films, so the exclusion is understandable to an extent. However, not having a single Spike Lee film on the list is simply inexcusable. Lee is one of America's greatest directors, and though I don't agree with some of his positions (at times he comes across as a racist against white people, particularly Jews and Italians), Do The Right Thing ought to be in the Top 50 at the very least. The '90s in particular have delivered quite a few eminently worth films made by non-WASPs, reflecting our culture's increasing diversity and opportunity, but none were included. Don't get me wrong: I don't want any black films in to fill quotas (politically I'm opposed to affirmative action); I just think that there are several that should get in on their merits as good films, period. This is supposed to be a colorblind society, right?

Like I said: if you're going to have a James Cagney movie, make it a James Cagney gangster movie!

Okay, I've given you my two cents. I found myself agreeing with the AFI's list more than I disagreed with it, surprisingly. The main problem is that the people who made the list obviously weren't familiar with a great many films made in the past quarter century, and their selections for the '80s and '90s are really bad. It would take too long to list all the movies I think merit inclusion, but let me mention a couple of overlooked genres: modern comedies and '80s teen movies. These two genres overlap, and 95% of the movies made in them are pure crap. However, the teen '80s movies gave us at least three genuinely great films: Fast Times At Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, and the greatest movie of all time, Heathers (I even wrote a paper in graduate school on the movie comparing it to Christopher Marlowe's The Jew Of Malta - and I got an A, believe it or not). As far as comedies go, well I love the Marx Brothers as much as anyone but I wish the AFI were a little more up to date. The Blues Brothers is a great film, and I know every line of dialogue verbatim since I've seen it so many times - put that in the Top 30! I could go on now that I'm brainstorming and remembering all the great movies that weren't included, but let me make one final addition: Breaking Away. It's a personal favorite of mine, and perhaps the best coming of age flick I've seen. The bicycling and the faking Italian are nice touches, but the core of this film is the friendship between the four main characters, and hey, it's filmed in Real America - Bloomington, Indiana - not Hollywood! And on that note, I've got to give a shout out to homeboy Billy Bob Thornton (literally - Malvern, Arkansas, pop. 10,000) for Sling Blade - I'd think it a great film even without my hometown prejudices. Oh, and while you're at it, what about David Lynch's Blue Velvet? Whit Stillman's Barcelona? I suppose I'd better stop now....!

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