AFI Names Finest Genre Movies
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Snow White, Dorothy Gale, the HAL 9000 computer, Charles Chaplin’s Little Tramp, and Marlon Brando’s Godfather share top billing among the American Film Institute’s best genre movies. Films featuring those characters were among the no. 1 picks on the AFI’s top-10 lists of the finest flicks in 10 genres, including mystery, Westerns, sports tales, and courtroom dramas.
The winners included “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” for animation; “The Wizard of Oz” for fantasy; “2001: A Space Odyssey” for science fiction; Chaplin’s “City Lights” for romantic comedy, and Brando’s “The Godfather” for gangster flicks. The other no 1 movies: Westerns: “The Searchers”; sports: “Raging Bull”; courtroom drama: “To Kill a Mockingbird”; epics: “Lawrence of Arabia,” and mysteries: “Vertigo.”
Not surprisingly, Alfred Hitchcock dominated the mystery category. Besides “Vertigo,” he landed three others on that top-10 list: “Rear Window” at no. 3, “North By Northwest” at no. 7, and “Dial M for Murder” at no. 9. Chaplin’s “City Lights” from 1931, one of only two silent films to make the genre lists, was a surprise, beating such popular modern romances as “Annie Hall” (no. 2), “When Harry Met Sally …” (no. 6), and “Sleepless in Seattle” (no. 10).
The best genre movies were announced in the CBS special “AFI’s 10 Top 10,” the latest in the institute’s annual best-of shows. The winners were chosen by actors, filmmakers, critics, and others in Hollywood from ballots that included 50 nominees in each genre.
Walt Disney ruled the animation category. Trailing 1937’s “Snow White,” the first feature-length animated film, in the top five were the Disney tales “Pinocchio,” “Bambi,” “The Lion King,” and “Fantasia.” The only non-Disney cartoon was “Shrek” at number 8.
Steven Spielberg had nos. 3 and 8 among epics with “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan,” respectively, and no. 3 among sci-fi movies with “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” Besides “2001,” Stanley Kubrick had the no. 4 sci-fi tale with “A Clockwork Orange” and the no. 5 epic with “Spartacus.”
Along with “Raging Bull” in sports, Martin Scorsese was on the gangster list with “Goodfellas” at no 2.
Such popular Westerns as “Dances With Wolves” and “The Magnificent Seven” were excluded, while best-picture winners “Chariots of Fire” and “Million Dollar Baby” landed outside the top-10 in the sports category.