That’s no reason to rate it no. 1. I don’t see Birth of a Nation in their “Epics” lists anywhere.
How long did the Iliad take?
Marc
They lost me when they misspelled Spielberg on screen.
“Speilberg.” Snert.
Yes. It should have been in the Top 10 Sci Fi. No point arguing this with me. You won’t win. 
(Sorry I misplaced Big in the wrong category. I was fuming.)
I skipped out of the rest of the show after they dissed Star Trek. Any other highly qualified films get snubbed? (Where did they put Gone With the Wind and Ben-Hur?)
They were in “Epics.”
I always assumed “epic” (in terms of a motion picture) meant “more than three hours.”
That’s what I was waiting for. Instead, we got courtroom dramas. Snooze. And why just romantic comedies?
I love AFI shows…I love film clips. I love guessing the winner. So I will not listen to your snarkiness.
Yeah, there should’ve been a Horror category; and maybe a “War Movie” category, or a “Biopic” (although where would you put Lawrence of Arabia – epic? biopic? war?) And I never think of To Kill a Mockingbird as a courtroom drama; it’s a drama, with a courtroom scene. That’s why I didn’t pick it as my winner.
For the record, I picked SciFi, Western, Gangster and Epic correctly; my Fantasy, Mystery and RomCom came in #2.
Interesting that the top 2 overall films – Citizen Kane and Casablanca – didn’t fit into any category.
Yeah, they need a general drama category for Kane, Casablanca, All About Eve, etc.
I waited and waited for the “horror” genre. Seriously, if you have your own section in the video store, you’re a genre worthy of recognition. There’s no “courtroom drama” section, but there is a “horror” section. Get with the program.
(I’d just like to point out that, despite my diss of courtroom dramas above, I get sucked into watching Twelve Angry Men any time I see it’s on TV. That’s a damn good movie. I’m a bit hesitant to call it a “courtroom drama”, though, since you only glimpse an actual courtroom once, briefly, at the beginning of the movie; for the remainder of the running time, it’s a “jury room drama”.)
As for “science fiction” versus “fantasy”, the best way I’ve heard of determining what category a movie falls into is this: if the story completely relies upon the presence of the technology, and if the removal of the technology makes the plot impossible, then you’ve got a science fiction movie. Without the DeLorean time machine, Back To The Future’s storyline would have been impossible. Therefore, it’s science fiction. It’s debatable whether the “presence of aliens” makes a movie science fiction or fantasy; up to you, I guess.
And sorry folks, but 2001 is just not that good, unless you’ve taken a lot of drugs.
“Epic” to me (and I’m sure to the AFI folks) means a huge movie, usually set in another place and time, with elaborate costumes and sets, and a cast of hundreds if not thousands. Although I’ll admit that I’ve never considered Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List to be “epics”; maybe I’m just opposed to history that recent being “epic”. How convenient that Spielberg got two of his films on that list.
OK, there should’ve been:
Romance
Drama
Comedy
Musical
Horror
But if you’re locked into 10 categories, you have to draw the line somewhere.
No way Wrath deserves inclusion over the ignored first Terminator, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Forbidden Planet, Close Encounters of the Third Kind Planet of the Apes and The Empire Strikes Back.
I didn’t watch the special, but from a quick perusal, I’d have to say that this might actually be one of the best of the AFI compilations. They nailed the Animated features just about right (a nice retort to the Madness debacle in the Game Room ), and I really can’t argue with the #1 choices of any of the other categories, though they wouldn’t necessarily match my personal preferences.
Nice to see classics (both new and old) like Groundhog Day, The Thief of Bagdad, Bull Durham, McCabe & Mrs. Miller alongside the more predictable usual suspects. My big issue, of course, would be that there’s no Mann or Boetticher amongst the westerns, but at least there is still a Hawks and a Peckinpah.
As for the worst inclusions (most of them not good films at all), I’d cite these in each of the categories: Animation/Shrek, Fantasy/Field of Dreams, Sci-Fi/T2, Sports/Caddyshack, Westerns/Cat Ballou, Gangsters/DePalma’s Scarface, Mystery/Dial M for Murder, Romantic Comedy/Sleepless in Seattle, Courtroom/A Few Good Men, Epics/Titanic
“In Cold Blood” is a courtroom drama? With 28 seconds of Will Geer waving a knife, a tube of blood and a bible?
Why not wait until the next AFI list, which can include Police Procedurals along with Horror and War catagories?
AFI has already done stand-alone lists for most of these categories, so that’s probably why they didn’t do them this time around.
Oh, yeah. On WHAT PLANET is Field of Dreams more of a Fantasy than a Sports movie???
I wanted War movies.
I like War movies.
I have some strong and ignorant opinions of War movies.
Why was there no War movies category?
I’m ok with this…it’s a sports movie where all the sports are played by ghosts.
i like AFI alot. i guess they can’t please everyone though. plus I really like the films they show at the theater near me.
I normally like the AFI specials. I normally disagree with their pick for number one but last nights list upset me with several of their number one picks. Raging Bull as the best sports movie I wouldn’t even put it in the top 10, the same goes for 2001 as the best sci-fi. But the one that got me was the western pick Searchers is a long and boring move that sucks, it wouldn’t even make my list of the top 10 John Wayne movies, heck The Cowboys is a better movie.
Can’t it be a fantasy movie about sports?
(It’s one of my favorite fantasy movies of all time, BTW)