American Film Institute to Issue Updated Tenth Anniversary List of 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time

Ten years ago the American Film Institute kicked off their 100 Years 100 Movies list with the mother of them all, the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. To nobody's surprise, Citizen Kane topped the list ten years ago. (How Lawrence of Arabia, a film written, directed, produced and starring Brits even made the nominating stage is still one of the great mysteries of the modern age). Surprisingly, the American Film Institute has decided to issue another list of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. Since that first list, the AFI has put out such top 100 lists as the best comedies, best villains and heroes, and best romantic movies. Apparently, they ran out of ideas so they've returned to where it all began.

What is most shocking about this decision is that in the ten years since the first list came out it is beyond question that no movie has been released that stands to make the new top ten. There's very little reason to suspect that any new movie will crack the top twenty. I am dubious that any movie released in the last ten years would slide into the top thirty. But that would be if the people making the lists really had an agenda of deciding on the best movies of all time. Remember, folks, these are the same people who chose the original Star Wars over what is universally agreed upon as the best Star Wars movie of all time, at least up till then: The Empire Strikes Back. These are the same people who chose Rocky as one of the 100 greatest movies of all time. These are the same people who decided that Lawrence of Arabia was an American film despite not having one single American in a position of genuine power in its cast or crew.