TCM's 15 Most Influential Films

[RobertR]

Turner Classic Movies is celebrating their 15th Anniversary, my favorite channel, and they've put out a list of their 15 most influential movies of all time. Here's the list.

 

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Metropolis (1927)

42nd Street (1933)

It Happened One Night (1934)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Gone with the Wind (1939)

Stagecoach (1939)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Bicycle Thieves (1947)

Rashomon (1950)

The Searchers (1956)

Breathless (1959)

Psycho (1960)

Star Wars (1977)

 

 

That's a more than respectable list, although there are reasons to quibble. (I've seen all but Birth of a Nation and 42nd Street btw.) I'd suggest that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Nosferatu belong on the list for Horror (or perhaps Whale's Frankenstein). Perhaps you don't need two westerns. Perhaps All Quiet on the Western Front for war. And I'd suggest either Easy Rider or Sex, Lies, and Videotape as representatives of independent cinema. (I'm drawing a line between Influential and Best, fwiw.) 15 is a tough number to work with though for so broad a subject, so I'm only quibbling here.

 

Robert

[TooLiveBrew]

Definitely agree on Nosferatu. That film, to me, could easily be in the top 5.

[fondybrewfan]

I had to watch Pyscho in my college film history class and it was an extremely well done film. I had never seen it up to the point and I will say that it was a brilliant movie and the ending did catch me a little offguard.

 

Citizen Kane was the only other one we watched on that list. Interestingly the other movie we watched in that class was Fargo. Obviously quite the contrast from the other 2.

[PlayerHader]

What about Dr. Strangelove?

[Baldkin]

What about Toy Story?

 

The first computer animated movie, has pretty much changed the face of animated films.

[ryne100]

These lists really bother me. Really? There hasn't been ONE movie from the past 32 years that was considered a top 15 influential film? It's like the guys that say "ohhhhhh baseball was only pure in the 50's and 60's, those teams could beat anyone right now"

[RobertR]

These lists really bother me. Really? There hasn't been ONE movie from the past 32 years that was considered a top 15 influential film? It's like the guys that say "ohhhhhh baseball was only pure in the 50's and 60's, those teams could beat anyone right now"

 

That's partly because influence is better measured over time.

 

What would you suggest? I think Toy Story is a good suggestion. I could see people suggesting stuff like Tron, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park for effects breakthroughs. One of the Dogme films? Hong Kong action like The Killer? Indie cinema like Blood Simple, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Clerks, or Reservoir Dogs? Something like Batman that got the comic book movie craze started?

 

Robert

[ryne100]

Yes, I totally agree with Toy Story and Jurassic Park for their effects. Wizard of Oz should probably be mentioned, even though that one is also older. How about E.T.?

[fondybrewfan]

I'll try to keep this from getting religous but I might nominate "Passion of The Christ" only because it the only movie ever made where I really had a hard time watching it.

 

I liked Jurassic Park at the time but the stupid sequels kind of ruined it for me. I would also agree with Toy Story, I can't remember exactly when it came out but I was pretty stunned that they could make a movie like that.

[chrisisoutrunning]

I have to preface by saying I've only seen four of the 15, but I have a hard time believing there's any way you can create a top movies list that goes beyond 10 and fails to include The Godfather... I'll just blame it on Part III... I realize it's not a "top" movies list per se, but I still believe that it should be on that list.

[RobertR]

To play Devil's Advocate, what are the influences of E.T. and The Godfather. Popular movies, no doubt, but I'm not sure they're revolutionary in any real way. Kind of like Casablanca.

 

I suppose if we're considering technological breakthroughs, The Jazz Singer has to be mentioned.

 

Robert

[InsomniacInkRoss]

I think Star Wars fills the who special effect slot and you don't need a Jurassic Park on the list

 

Agree 100% that Toy Story should be on there.

 

These films are the most influential to what though? Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Indiana Jones, Matrix, and many others have influenced pop culture a lot more than most of these (except Star Wars)

[nate82]

I think Star Wars fills the who special effect slot and you don't need a Jurassic Park on the list

 

Agree 100% that Toy Story should be on there.

 

These films are the most influential to what though? Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Indiana Jones, Matrix, and many others have influenced pop culture a lot more than most of these (except Star Wars)

I was about to post almost exactly what you wrote. Star Wars basically has the whole special effects slot covered for influences in that. Yes other movies have advanced it but the influence came from Star Wars.

 

Toy Story definitely needs to be on there b/c of its influence on current movies like Shrek and any other computer animated movies.

 

This is not really about current or old it is just about where the influence came from and basically that can only come from something in the past. Also the Superman movies is probably the start of the comic book to movie crave came from.

[yount19.u]

As far as indie films go, Pulp Fiction would deserve a nod. Before it came out, there were indie films that did well and had success on video, but none were as big of a box office success as Pulp Fiction was. After it's release, it spawned a bunch of larger budget indie films with big stars trying to duplicate the success of John Trevolta. I think it helped to officially put indie films on the map in this country.

[lovehate]

Do The Right Thing comes to mind, not just because it probably opened a lot of doors for other films and actors, but i thought Lee's style was totally different.

 

I would say The Godfather only because I'll bet 70% of people working in film would list it as having influenced them.

[thebruce44]

I would argue that Reservoir Dogs accomplished the same thing as Pulp Fiction 2 years earlier, so it should cover the Indie category.

 

I would also say that Saving Private Ryan could be on there. Going into it, I had watched many war movies. Leaving the theater I felt as though I had witnessed war for the first time in my life. It wasn't glorified violence or over the top...it was just dramatic and gut wrenching due to the effects, acting, sound, stunts, and superb camera work.

 

Robert can probably tell us the true origin of the "handheld camera effect," but for me Saving Private Ryan was the first time I saw it used so effectivly. It has been copied quite a bit since then in basically every Michael Mann movie and in the amaizing battle scene in Children Of Men.

[RobertR]

I'd really like to think of something trashy and exploitive to add to this list, but I'm drawing a blank. There's definitely a spot for something like that. SAW perhaps.

Let me say that I think the list is fine for what it is. 15 is just too small to fit everything in and it's a good basic list. Here's a few more that I think would have been strongly considered. (I'm skipping many that have been mentioned earlier. You can add Toy Story to this list, for instance.)

1. The Gold Rush - Chaplin. Silent, feature length comedy. Do I need to elaborate?

2. Nosferatu - Expressionistic horror. You could perhaps argue that Caligari is more influential. And Frankenstein or Phantom of the Opera more popular in their time.

3. Scarface (Shame of a Nation) - Better gangster movies came later. This is the root. Exploitive and influential.

4. All Quiet on the Western Front - Still perhaps the best war movie ever. Grim and grisly.

5. Rules of the Game - Ensemble film and commentary on its society. You can draw a pretty straight line from this to Altman. Altman drew it himself with Gosford Park.

6. Detour - Film noir at its bleakest. I have it edging out M and Double Indemnity.

7. A Streetcar Named Desire - Hello method acting. And post-war sexuality.

8. North by Northwest - Hitchcock had done similar things earlier, The 39 Steps and Saboteur for instance, but this is pretty much the model for every man on the run thriller since.

9. The Thing From Another World - The precedent for the modern sci fi/horror film. There'd be no Alien without it. Maybe no Star Wars either.

10. 8 1/2 - Film as personal confession. Fantasy and reality intermingle. The director is the true star.

11. A Hard Day's Night - Celebrity non-actors and the roots of music videos.

12. Airplane! - Certainly one of the progenitors of the modern spoof. Maybe you could go with Young Frankenstein or Blazing Saddles as well.

13. Heaven's Gate - Negative influence. Helped kill off big budget personal projects. Killed a studio. The flip side to the success of Star Wars, Jaws, and The Exorcist.

Robert

[RobertR]

Elsewhere I've seen suggestions for my "trashy and exploitive" slot of Night of the Living Dead/Dawn of the Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Shaft. Maybe I should toss in Enter the Dragon. (Where's Katuluu when you need him?)

 

I've also seen strong arguments for Easy Rider or Cassavettes's Shadows for an indie cinema slot.

 

Robert

[valpocrewsader]

Ha, I was going to suggest Airplane! in a half serious/ half joking way.

[TheRealMattKain]

Wow. JAWS absolutely has to be on that list. JAWS pretty much single-handedly invented the summer blockbuster, revolutionized the way movies are marketed on a national level and through ancillary products and tie-ins, and established the wide-release distribution structure now used by all major studios for about 99.9% of their movies.

 

And as much as I like seeing BREATHLESS on that list, part of me wants to argue that L'AVENTURRA has had a greater and more lasting influence on the style of art cinema or "auteur cinema". I don't really see much of BREATHLESS in today's films (despite what Tarantino wants us to believe), but L'AVENTURRA's legacy can be seen in some of the most critically acclaimed of contemporary art cinema: Kiarostami, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Tsai Ming Liang, Breillat, Jia Zhangke, Bela Tarr, Angelopoulos, etc., etc. Furthermore, in terms of establishing the explosion of the whole New Wave/Cahiers du Cinema/Left Bank craze, I think just as much, if not more, of an argument can be made for THE 400 BLOWS or HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR as can be made for BREATHLESS.

 

MK

[TheRealMattKain]

5. Rules of the Game - Ensemble film and commentary on its society. You can draw a pretty straight line from this to Altman. Altman drew it himself with Gosford Park.

So true. Altman doesn't exist without Renoir.

 

7. A Streetcar Named Desire - Hello method acting. And post-war sexuality.

Great addition. I can't think of another film that more clearly displays a quantum leap in acting style.

[igor67]

I'd make an argument for LOTR radically altering the expectations of fantasy movies.

[cubfan1126]

Two movies come to mind, both happen to be science fiction.

 

For the first, I'll just say 'Gort, Claatu virada nickto'. How many of us that grew up in the 50's don't remember those words from the original "the Day the Earth Stood Still?" A sci-fi thriller long before all the innovations that amp up today's thrillers.

 

I recently heard someone comment that a good movie is one that you continue to think about after you leave the theater. I saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" in 1968 and I'm still thinking about it trying to figure out what happened and it's 8 years after it would have happened.

[Brian the Automator]

Wow, no love for "Chopping Mall".

[Katuluu]

I'm coming, I'm coming. As for "trashy" films, Texas Chainsaw Massacre seems like a fairly obvious choice. Other good horror films that were hugely influential both to future directors and pop culture could be Night of the Living Dead or Halloween. Halloween pretty much started the slasher craze, and Night of the Living Dead is low budget Indie film making at its finest. I'm also partial to Black Christmas as it pretty much invented every modern horror cliche (faceless killer, first-person camera perspective, abrasive "protagonists" and probably a few others I am forgetting).

 

I think it is kind of odd that Metropolis or M aren't mentioned. M pretty much was the beginning of film noir and really showcased how directors could use sound in a film by have a distinct lack of sound. Pretty much every crime film and thriller pays something to M. And Metropolis is a hugely influential sci-fi film as well as a being filled with numerous technological achievements. Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and Jeunet/Caro practically owe their careers to Metropolis, and it is clearly influencing films like the Alien franchise, Brazil and Bladerunner.

 

Then of course you have movies like The Rules of the Game, Ten Little Indians and Seven Samurai which are influential for their iconic stories which have been remade, reworked, redone and ripped off countless times.

 

And it might be considered cheating but I really think A Trip to the Moon should be on the list no matter what.