The Movie Forums Top 100 of All-Time Refresh: Countdown

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  • 531 points
  • 31 lists
2. The Godfather


Director

Francis Ford Coppola, 1972

Starring

Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S. Castellano




  • 538 points
  • 31 lists
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey


Director

Stanley Kubrick, 1968

Starring

Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Douglas Rain



The Movie Forums Podcast

The All-Time Refresh Podcast

Go behind the scenes and find out what it's like to compile one of these lists! Learn about several films that just missed the cut! Find out just how late @TheUsualSuspect stayed up doing it! And definitely listen to hear the crazy circumstances surrounding the final ballot that changed the #1 film.

The best way to listen is to subscribe with iTunes. The next best ways are to just download it with this link (or add the podcast feed into your RSS reader). Or you can just listen right now with this embedded player:

(Oh, and apologies, the audio is rougher than it should be/has been for a long time. I made the mistake of overcorrecting some volume disparities and didn't separate the inputs, either. Hopefully it's not too bad.)



I will be back later to post my list, but I want some credit for calling 2001 over Godfather many pages ago. Just because I never get $hit right.
__________________
Letterboxd





2001: A Space Odyssey was #1 on both the MoFo ‘60s and the MoFo Sci-Fi Lists. The Godfather was #1 on the MoFo ‘70s List.


Here are the top ten finishers from the previous MoFo Lists that placed on this countdown.

Pre-‘30s (1): Metropolis
1930s (2): The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind
1940s (4): Casablanca, The Third Man, Citizen Kane, and It’s a Wonderful Life
1950s (7): 12 Angry Men, Rear Window, Sunset Boulevard, Vertigo, North by Northwest, The Seven Samurai, and Singin’ in the Rain
1960s (8): 2001: A Space Odyssey, Psycho, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Once Upon a Time in the West, Lawrence of Arabia, The Apartment, and Rosemary’s Baby
1970s (10): The Godfather, Jaws, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Alien, Chinatown, A Clockwork Orange, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Apocalypse Now, and The Godfather Part II*
1980s (8): The Shining, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, The Terminator, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Blade Runner, Raging Bull, and Die Hard
1990s (8): GoodFellas, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, SE7EN, The Shawshank Redemption, The Big Lebowski, Magnolia, and Schindler’s List
Millennium (6): LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Muholland Drive, There Will Be Blood, City of God, and No Country for Old Men
Westerns (5): The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Unforgiven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Searchers
Horror (8): The Shining, The Thing, Alien, Psycho, The Exorcist, Halloween, Rosemary’s Baby, and Suspiria
Sci-Fi (10): 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, The Thing, Alien, Back to the Future, Star Wars, A Clockwork Orange, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, The Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and The Terminator**
Animated (2): Toy Story and Spirited Away
Comic Book Movies (0): none
Documentaries (0): none
Directed by Women (0): none

*plus Rocky and The Exorcist for the entire top 12
**plus The Matrix and Aliens for the entire top 12

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



2001: A Space Odyssey was #1 on both the MoFo ‘60s and the MoFo Sci-Fi Lists. The Godfather was #1 on the MoFo ‘70s List.
Perfect. That really sums it up, huh? Both #1s, but now something had to give. And it kinda did...by just seven points.



Stats

Before I get into these, some good news: I've got all these things logged by ID, so I can look up lots of stuff about them in aggregate, maybe even on request. Obviously I can't promise I'll be able to fill any request here, and some might be harder/less plausible than others (and it's not always obvious which ones), but if you have a statistic you'd like to ask about, go ahead and ask! If it's moderately easy to check, I may be able to do it.

But, barring that, here's the broad stuff:

Countdown Films by Decade

  • 1970s: 20
  • 1990s: 20
  • 1980s: 17
  • 1960s: 14
  • 1950s: 10
  • 2000s: 10
  • 1940s: 4
  • 2010s: 2
  • 1930s: 2
  • 1920s: 1

Countdown Films by Year

Films from 54 different years appeared on the list. These ones showed up the most:
  • 1974: 4
  • 1999: 4
  • 1995: 4
  • 1998: 3
  • 1984: 3
  • 2001: 3
  • 1966: 3
  • 1985: 3
  • 1982: 3
  • 1968: 3
  • 1979: 3
  • 1994: 3
  • 1980: 3

Countdown Films by Director

74 different directors appeared on the list. The most represented directors:
  • Steven Spielberg (5)
  • Stanley Kubrick (4)
  • Alfred Hitchcock (4)
  • Martin Scorsese (3)
  • Francis Ford Coppola (3)
  • James Cameron (3)
  • Peter Jackson (3)

Countdown Films by Actor

About 4,400 different actors appeared on films in the list (at least according to the cast data at TMDB). The most frequently appearing actors were:
  • Arthur Tovey! (6)
  • Robert De Niro (6)
  • Burnell Tucker (5)
  • Harrison Ford (5)
  • John Rhys-Davies (4)
  • Ian Holm (4)
  • Bess Flowers (4)
  • Alfred Hitchcock (4)
  • Joe Spinell (4)
  • Hugo Weaving (4)
  • Elijah Wood (4)
  • Robert Duvall (4)