Several weeks/months ago I started collecting people’s answers to a question about what they consider to be the most memorable movies. Now, some people might have been asked a slightly different question: to some people I actually asked what they thought the most memorable films in their life were, but to others I asked to name off the first 15 films that came to their mind. I know they’re not exactly the same thing, but if they’re memorable they’d come to mind first, right? Regardless of the question, everybody had the same 15 minute time limit to add a sense of urgency and had people thinking a little harder about it.
As I pored over the answers, it didn’t take long for me to notice patterns develop as certain films emerge as popular choices. What I began to realize as the answers coalesced into cohesive whole was that when enough people list a film as being “memorable” it becomes something greater than that – it becomes iconic. What you see below is a list of films that indeed does single out 15 iconic films – and because a list without analysis is an empty thing, I’m gonna include some thoughts on what this list might be saying and what it isn’t saying.
So what’s not in this list?
- I’m surprised not to see a Cameron Crowe picture on here. More than anything else, his movies make an impression by tapping into a lot of universally memorable moments in people’s lives (except maybe Vanilla Sky).
- It was pointed out by a friend that Speilberg is conspicuously absent from the list. For such an accomplished and supposedly popular director, his films haven’t penetrated the psyche of the moviegoing public too well.
- Despite its unmistakable rise in popularity (almost to the point of market saturation) their absense from this list relegates the Superhero film to the level of fad. Give it time, they’ll get there.
- No horror films here either – I guess people try harder to forget them for the most part. Otherwise, the genres seem fairly evenly distributed here.
- Despite those who assert that the Lord of the Rings supplants Star Wars as the greatest movie trilogy ever, it didn’t place even in the top 30. Fantasy as a whole fared far worse compared to its cousin, science fiction.
While some films might purport to be great and get posted for such a reason on Rotten Tomatoes and American Film Institute lists, our list is relevant because it indicates that no matter their critical merits, they’ve actually had an effect on people. What good is a great movie if nobody has seen it or it doesn’t leave an impression? To put it zen-ly: If a film is great in theatres, and there’s nobody around to see it, did it play at all?
It’s hard to take the AFI too seriously, even if I do consider them to be “the authority” as far as “the canon” of great American films go. After all, they liked Alien better than Aliens & they still list Birth of a Nation in their top 100 for chrissakes!
As far as Rotten Tomatoes goes, their system is founded on a secret mathematical formula, so it can often overlook or ignore more ephemeral qualities of what makes a movie great. Well reviewed and favourite are mutually exclusive terms.
IMDB might even have a more flawed methodology than my own, which is why the two lists appear to have the most in common. They didn’t stick to our “only one film per franchise” rule, so you can see The Godfather and Star Wars both showed up twice – a testament to their popularity that their franchises split the vote but they still did extraordinarily well.
PS. I haven’t forgotten that I offered a shiny prize for a lucky respondent, and the winner of a brand-spanking-new copy of War Games on DVD is: Cheryl Bloxham!
