Pajiba

I've only seen three of these, but I think it's probably pretty accurate -- these seem (from what I know of those I haven't seen) to have all influenced either filmmaking as a whole or a specific genre of film. Citizen Kane was boring as hell, though -- probably why I never finished it.

I don't know about the ranking but, yeah, I guess (though I'd still argue against "Gone With The Wind").

"Rashomon"'s on Criterion, Jim.

Yes I can see how Wicked Witches Poisoning Albino Women who live with Midgets can be one of the most influencal movies of all time... I see it tastefully reinacted in modern film making everyday.

Jim, I'm not sure if its still available, but I netflixed Rashomon a couple of years ago.

Lindsay, I think it was either the first or one of the first feature films Disney made or something. It had a huge budget and they had a whole bunch of new animation techniques featured. Oh, and I think it was the first full length animation to be done in colour.

"Birth of a Nation" AND "Gone With the Wind." For those nights when you're really looking for a good reason to hate somebody.

It was Disney's first feature film. Plus it's beautiful and still pretty damn dramatic. I'm pretty sure it won some awards.

Having watched a fair number of these films in various film classes, I can see where this list is coming from. Though watching most of them gives me a headache.

Rashomon IS available on DVD, though I doubt you'll watch it more than once. I don't know what it is with old-school Asian cinema that they thought you had to yell at each other in order to be dramatic.

Lindsay, Snow White is influential because it was the first animated full-length feature: all other cartoons before then were only seven minutes long. Before it was released critics felt no one would sit and watch an animated movie for an entire 70 minutes (Snow White's length, iirc--it's been a long time since I've seen it.)

Snow White was the first full length animated movie. It was also the first one to do rotoscoping on a large scale. The characters move believably. The handdrawn animation is amazing, and still blows away a lot of CGI done today. Look at the rain, the water, reflections, dust in the air, the way the fabrics move. Plus, the ladies who painted in the cels on the back added real makeup on the front of the cels to give the women a more natural look. If you haven't watched Snow White in a while (or ever) give it a watch. You'll be amazed how good it is.

Metropolis has some amazing special effects. However, it's a lot of fun to makeup your own dialog to it, as it offers up a host of Lord of the Rings references (the main character is Fredo and he wears knickers and a collarless shirt) and Star Trek references (they had TV's and various computer equipment before they were invented, and one character down in the engine room reminds me of Scotty).

I had to watch three of those films in their entirety for Intro to Film and actually, we watched clips of the rest of them. This list is the syllabus for Knox College's Intro to Film.

Also, Citizen Kane is very good and the Searchers is John Wayne at his best.

I'm confounded by the presence of Star Wars but, again, I'm not really a space movie kind of person.

Watched most of these for film class I enjoyed them on my own. I tell everyone to watch Citizen Kane twice: once for the plot of the movie, and once for the reason we had to watch it in film class; because you need to look for camera angles/noises/shadows that Orson Welles used that were influential for the time. Although showing zooming closeups and filming from the ground up or showing Charles Foster Kane's reflection in a mirror a million times is no biggie now, supposedly back then it was a big deal.

Woodrow Wilson screened Birth of a Nation in the White House. Nice.

Whoa, so much hate for Citizen Kane. WTF!?!

Much like Faulkner's Light in August, it is one of the most in depth portrayals of a fictional character's psyche ever. Almost every decision made by the character can be traced back to an earlier part of the story. I dare you to find a character as well mapped out as Charles Foster Kane. Search all of film history and no other character even comes close. That's why it is important. Damn, add to that the cultural relevance of Wells publicly mocking Hearst...

I'm shocked that no one else is sticking up for this movie.

Good list though.

Gone With The Wind is on the list because of the way it was filmed - the cinematography was pretty cutting edge for its day, and I do believe filming in color was very new back then, too. It was a major blockbuster and was nominated for ten Academy Awards. Star Wars is probably also on the list for technical reasons - those special effects were the first of their kind in the 70s.

Citizen Kane is incredible - people are just being contrary.

Light In August is my favorite Faulkner. Citizen Kane is my favorite Welles.

and yet, in my now advanced 30s and without the free time i enjoyed in college, i just can't go back and spend the time to work through them as i once did.

The film class I took wasn't a film class, it was English, IIRC, and we had to write analyses. There were 12 or 13, one a week for a semetser. "Citizen Kane" is the only one on this list I know for sure that we watched. Going by (ancient) memory, some of the others were "The Great Train Bobbery," a couple short Chaplins, "His Girl Friday," "Days of Wine and Roses," "On the Waterfront," "Rain," maybe "The African Queen" and damned if I can remember the rest.

I like "Citizen Kane," FWIW.

Quick question? Where is "The Wizard of Oz?" I mean, I know it isn't perfect and a smidge overrated, but without that movie, children's movies may not be as popular. Plus, it is as it so proudly proclaims, "a movie for those young at heart."

Maybe I haven't been to the cinema in a while, but last time I was there there didn't seem to be a plethora of films about klansmen lynching black guys because they tried to rape white women, so I'm having trouble understanding why Birth of a Nation is #1. Yes, I understand from a TECHNICAL standpoint the movie was something of a landmark, but nobody -- nobody -- in the last 50 years at least has given any nod to the aesthetic sensibilities expressed in this movie. And while Reithenshtal's aesthetic sensibilities at least get referenced obliquely in the random modern movie scene (Sauroman's speech in The Two Towers, Palpatine's speech in Revenge of the Sith), I don't see anything like that for "Birth of a Nation".

You need to settle down missy!

If I had to have one, I'd rather have Jaws on the list than Star Wars.

First blockbuster, hugely influential in the ascension of popcorn/action "cinema" to the forefront of the current industry and a better film to boot.

Citizen Kane should be at the top. It's like the Beatles. Kids today don't get it because they sound like everybody else.... but that's because everybody else is biting their style. Citizen Kane looks unremarkable now because everybody since it has stolen from (paid homage to) it ever since.

I've seen five of these, and that's actually a pretty good score for me. Mostly I'm just proud of having seen Battleship Potemkin without taking a film class, though.

The Searchers was a damn fine movie. I haven't seen in in a few years, but it is really good.

Sorry, I never responded to all you who answered my question about Snow White (damn you, work, for distracting me!) Thank you! I may need to re-watch it now, I had no idea it was "the first" of its kind.

Where the hell is Casablanca?

And I know Neo-realism is important and everything, but the Bicycle Thief was ABYSMAL

I am sorta amazed that people didn't find the Value in Citizen Kane. It's an amazing film, and I'm fairly certain that there's almost nothing that CAN make you not like it except a hate of hype and over-raised expectations, or a lack of patience.

Also... how could Star Wars NOT be on the list? Whatever else it may be, the movie shaped filmmaking, marketing and popular culture forever. There will never again be a person born who won't hear a Star Wars reference sometime in his or her life, even if you never see a frame of any of them. And there's been a lot of frames recently that can freely be missed.

Well, again, the responses here show that film is not only subjective, but also somewhat subject to the age and taste of the viewer. Let's see how diplomatic I can be and how high I rate on the Obameter.
"Kane" I think is on the list for its cinematic achievements probably more than its screenplay. The directing and photography broke new ground for many innovations now considered commonplace in filmmaking.
"Snow White," as was correctly observed elsewhere, very likely made the list because it pioneered the animated movie as a feature vehicle.
"Rashomon" should be revered for its storytelling techniques. Quentin Tarantino would probably be little more than a rather odd cable TV installer without that film!
"2001" needs to at least tie with "Star Wars" at least. Both films did much to redefine the space/sci-fi genre, in terms of both presentation and box office hit potential. (Even those three deplorable "SW" prequels still had some great looks to them, and generated a ton of ticket sales.)
"It Happened One Night" was the breeziest of romantic comedies long before "When Harry Met Sally," which owes its zing to that classic.
"The Searchers" and "Stagecoach" defined the western genre as a uniquely American art form, right up there with jazz.
"Psycho," well, let's see ... that one established a subgenre for horror/thrillers that can be summed up in one word: HITCHCOCK. "Silence of the Lambs" owes its existence to that film. Important? Oh, yeah.
Most of the others are for various achievements that advanced the medium. Some don't hold up too well by today's standards ("The Battleship Potemkim" and "Birth of a Nation"), but you can still watch and appreciate them for what they accomplished.
There are, however, a few that maybe should be considered for a slightly longer list, including "Casablanca" and maybe a David Lean picture.
Lists that try to condense a century of great and landmark films into 15 picks should be taken with a grain of salt anyway, so toss out a few titles of your own. Chances are you've got some picks that rate inclusion for various reasons.