One of the coolest things about being involved in an industry driven by vision and creativity is seeing all of the incredible ideas people are constantly bringing to life. Everyone has an experience that they want to share, everyone has a story that they want others to see from a new perspective, everyone has a message they want to communicate. And with so many different ways to express and represent the countless concepts, motifs, and archetypes we’ve all come to enjoy, it seems like we’ll never run out of new tales to tell.
Whether or not the movies that are tasked with presenting those stories to us are any good is a completely different conversation.
What exactly makes a movie ‘good’ though?
I know that’s a very subjective term, and everyone has their own tastes. Yet there are still a handful of organizations and publications which compile lists not just for the best films to come out in the past year, but for the best films of all time. Ask anyone what the best film ever made was and I guarantee most will mention Citizen Kane even if they’re never seen it. There’s this universal, unchallenged agreement about its status and its place in cinema history. Who makes those decisions, and how do they do it?
I’m glad you asked.
Genre
One way these rankings are established is by genre. It makes sense; the merits of a comedy film are totally different from the makings of a great horror movie, so comparing different genres can be like comparing apples and oranges and cherries and bananas and tomatoes and kiwis. They’re all fruit, but as far as commonalities go that’s the only thing they all share. Apples, cherries, and tomatoes are red, sure…but sometimes apples are yellow, like bananas.
These types of rankings are commonly done through publications with input from readers. In 2015 the readers of Rolling Stone decided that Mad Max 2 was the greatest action film of all time. In 2014 they decided that Blazing Saddles was the best comedy film ever made. And in 2017 the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show was voted the best movie musical ever made.
The international publication Time Out has talked to critics and journalists across the globe to get their opinions as well. The London edition talked to critics, journalists, essayists, and even scientists to get their thoughts on the best sci-fi film ever made back in 2014. It should come as no surprise that 2001: A Space Odyssey came out on top.
And who could possibly forget when the British film magazine Empire was informed by readers in 2015 that Die Hard is the best Christmas movie ever? Yes, it wasn’t just voted to be a Christmas movie, which is still a hot topic, but the best Christmas movie (meaning it beat out It’s a Wonderful Life).
Country of Origin
National film institutes and historians will often look at the cinematic history of their respective country. In Greece, the Greek Film Critics Association voted Evdokia the best film in 1986, and in 2006 its members voted on O Drakos. The 22 members of the Uruguayan Film Critics Association chose Whisky in 2015.
Sometimes these decisions are made at film festivals. At their 2008 festival, Zwartboek was voted the best Dutch film of all time by public members of the Netherland Film Festival. Czech journalists at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival voted Marketa Lazarova the best Czech film in 1994, and again in 1998 (this time winning over both Czech and Slovak journalists and film critics).
Much like publications, broadcast organizations will routinely check in with their viewers to get their opinions of the best movies that their country has made. We saw this in 2015 when the Bulgarian National Television public broadcaster asked viewers for their thoughts. Time of Violence was the winner of that poll. Finland’s national public broadcaster, Yleisradio Oy, ran its own poll in 2012. When they asked for opinions from bloggers as well as film critics, Inspector Palmu’s Mistake was voted the best Finnish fictional film of all time.
Of course, publications don’t only focus on genre. Perhaps the most interesting publication to run this type of poll was South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo, which looked at cinema from North Korea through the eyes of ex-North Koreans now living in South Korea. This 2002 poll resulted with Hong Kil-Dong being the winner, which is based on an old Korean novel and enjoyed popularity in Poland and Bulgaria after its release in 1986.
How these movies are chosen is going to vary by who is being asked. Some will look to box office earnings as the marker for success, but in hindsight a movie’s earnings mean very little in terms of its legacy. O Drakos was a disaster at the box office during its 1956 release, but many contemporary Greek critics and festivals continue to sing its praises to this day.
Others consider a film’s cultural impact and its place within a country’s cinematic history. The fictional Finnish character Inspector Palmu first appeared in a 1939 novel, so the character was already quite popular and well-loved amongst audiences when Inspector Palmu’s Mistake came out in 1960.
Media
Of course we can’t talk about the ‘best’ of anything without breaking it down by media too. Though animation is often brushed off as being ‘for kids’, no one can deny the role that Disney films have played in Western culture, especially here in the U.S. I don’t think I need to explain why the Online Film Critics Society voted Toy Story to be the best animated feature of all time back in 2003. And I definitely don’t need to explain why all twenty members of the International Documentary Association ranked Bowling for Columbine at the top of their top twenty lists back in 2002.
Sight and Sound Poll
The British Film Institute’s magazine Sight and Sound is one of the reasons why Citizen Kane is held in such high esteem, even amongst those who know it in name only. It holds a poll every ten years asking film critics from all over the world to rate the best movie ever made. An additional poll was added in 1992 for directors. Citizen Kane came in first in ‘62, ‘72, ‘82, ‘92, and ‘02 for both the critic poll and the director poll. In 2012 the critic poll selected Vertigo, while the director poll saw Tokyo Story take the lead.
The next poll will be held at the end of this year, so it won’t be long before we find out if Citizen Kane will take back its crown.
100 Years… Series
Some of you might be more familiar with the American Film Institute’s contribution, though it was short lived. From 1998 to 2008, AFI released a series of annual lists ranking the best American films. This series isn’t a poll like Sight and Sound, but rather a vote was cast to choose the top 100 films coinciding with a different theme each year. Aside from historians and critics, ballots were also sent to people actively involved in the film industry like directors, editors, and actors.
Initially the series looked at best films, best stars, and best amongst specific genres. They expanded in later years to vote on the best movie quotes, best movie songs, and best heroes and villains. All but two lists went up to 100- 2005’s great film scores was only 25, and 2008’s list was the ten best films of the ten classic genres of American cinema.
The top 100 films were voted on in 1998, the very first list in the series, and again in 2007. I dare you guess which film hit the number one spot both times. Here’s a hint- it rhymes with ‘Schmitizen Schmane’.
What’s Next?
Aside from BFI’s list at the end of the year, you can find innumerable lists and polls on various sites, forums, and across social media. The internet has both enabled everyone to access just about any and every film ever made, as well as given them a place to share their thoughts on which films they think are the best. Our definition of ‘best’ is no longer dependent on the opinions of ‘the elite’, so what constitutes as a ‘good’ movie -or a ‘good’ anything- has changed dramatically. Some might argue that this has rendered the word useless, but you could easily make the case that it’s improved and become more inclusive as we’re now able to look at content from creators who didn’t have a shot before due to industry gatekeepers. This has greatly broadened the perspectives we’re exposed to and the voices that are finally getting their chance to compete in the big leagues.
Who knows? Maybe the Streaming Wars will lead to the next generation of best film lists, with streams and subscriptions being considered as factors. Now that streaming services are creating their own original content, it will be interesting to see them compete against traditional studios and independent creators for a spot.
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