The Ottawa Citizen (25/Mar/1987) - Citizen Kane judged best U.S. movie
Details
- article: Citizen Kane judged best U.S. movie
- author(s): Kathleen Neumeyer
- newspaper: The Ottawa Citizen (25/Mar/1987)
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho (1960)
Article
Citizen Kane judged best U.S. movie
HOLLYWOOD — A consensus of film critics and historians has named Citizen Kane as the best American movie ever made. John Ford was selected as best director.
The study conducted by Douglas A. Lonnstrom, a professor of statistics, and Thomas O. Kelly II, a history professor, listed the top 10 American films, and the top 10 films in 10 various categories.
Citizen Kane, the story of the rise to power of an American newspaper tycoon played by Orson Welles, rated No. 1, well ahead of second place Gone With the Wind and third-place Casablanca.
Rounding out the top 10, in order, were: It's a Wonderful Life, On the Waterfront, The Searchers, The Godfather, Birth of a Nation, The Wizard of Oz and City Lights.
The national survey of 113 critics and historians, conducted by New York's Siena College Research Institute, was announced Monday at a news conference sponsored by the Hollywood Centennial Committee at the Roosevelt Hotel — site of the first Academy Award ceremony in 1929 — as part of the community's 100th birthday celebration.
"I think I can say that in terms of expert opinion, this is THE list," Kelly said.
"We hope that it will generate a great deal of interest in films and a desire to see the movie again, which is possible through video rentals," he said.
But Kelly, anticipating an uproar among film buffs, said he considers the list less than definitive.
"I don't even agree with the list myself," he said. "For example, I think Citizen Kane is a boring movie, but when I teach film history, it's a great film to teach about."
The top 10 directors list was headed by John Ford, who was followed by Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Frank Capra, John Huston, Stanley Kubrick, D.W. Griffith, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks and Woody Allen.
The top films in other categories were:
- Comedy, pantomime/slapstick: Duck Soup
- Comedy, sophisticated/screwball: It Happened One Night
- Western: The Searchers
- Musical: Singing in the Rain
- War: All Quiet on the Western Front
- Horror: Psycho
- Science Fiction: 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Mystery, Crime: The Maltese Falcon
- Action, Adventure: Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Silent Film: Birth of a Nation
