The “Top 100 American Movies” List Is Full of Lies

By Choire Sicha July 21, 2015

@MarkHarrisNYC I’d put Saws II through IV higher than they are, and move Saws V and V down a bit.

— Jeff Ryan (@Jeff__Ryan) July 21, 2015

Here is a weird list of the Best 100 American Films, as polled by the BBC and their crony film critics? Let me spoil you the top ten:

10. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
9. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
8. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
7. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)
6. Sunrise (FW Murnau, 1927)
5. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
3. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
2. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

I’ll give them 2001 as American on a technicality, since it was financed by MGM, but… honestly that is not an American film. We’ll keep Kubrick though, he was a nice boy from the Bronx.

But it is a top ten film! But ANYWAY that is not what I came here to say, I came here to say that your list is invalid because it does not include the following films in its top 25: