100 Years...100 Movies

AFI's 10 Top 10
Film Genres

Part 10 (Epic Films)




The American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California, in 2008 honored America’s 10 greatest films in 10 classic film genres. The jury was asked to choose up to 10 movies per genre from a comprehensive list.

To compile the final list, AFI distributed a ballot with 500 Nominated Films (50 per genre) to a jury of over 1,500 leaders from the creative community, including film artists (directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers), critics and historians.

In previous years, the AFI has also produced other lists of the following:

AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies (1998) (original)
400 Greatest American Films (nominees) (original)
Read this site's Commentary on AFI's 100 Greatest American Movies (original)

100 Greatest American Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)

AFI asked jurors to consider the following criteria in their selection process:

  • Feature-length: Narrative format typically over 60 minutes in length.

  • American film: English-language film with significant creative and/or production elements from the United States. Additionally, only films released before January 1, 2008 were considered.

  • Critical Recognition: Formal commendation in print, television, and digital media.

  • Major Award Winner: Recognition from competitive events including awards from peer groups, critics, guilds and major film festivals.

  • Popularity Over Time: This includes success at the box office, television and cable airings, and DVD/VHS sales and rentals.

  • Historical Significance: A film's mark on the history of the moving image through visionary narrative devices, technical innovation or other groundbreaking achievements.

  • Cultural Impact: A film's mark on American society in matters of style and substance.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.



AMERICA's 10 Top 10
Film Genres

Part 10 (Epic Films)
Please see this site's extensive section on Epic Films

Epic Films:

AFI described epic films as "a genre of large-scale films set in a cinematic interpretation of the past. Their scope defies and demands—either in the mode in which they are presented or their range across time. A bloody sword fight in an ancient coliseum; carnage on an open battlefield; a country on the eve of revolution. With sweeping interpretations of turbulent times, epics depict characters that, whether nobly heroic or shamefully depraved, are living life on the grandest of scales."

Nominees: 16 movies were war films; 11 movies were based on Biblical events.

Winners: Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (# 1), Ben-Hur (1959) (# 2), Schindler's List (1993) (# 3), Gone With The Wind (1939) (# 4), Spartacus (1960) (# 5), Titanic (1997) (# 6), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) (# 7), Saving Private Ryan (1998) (# 8), Reds (1981) (# 9), The Ten Commandments (1956) (# 10).

Comments: No place for The Birth of a Nation (1915), Giant (1956), or Doctor Zhivago (1965) in the top 10? And why were war films grouped into epic films? -- there should have been an entire genre category for war films (or for Biblical films) instead. Malcolm X (1992) and the war-related Schindler's List (1993) aren't really epic films, by definition -- they are more dramatic biopics. Gone With the Wind (1939) should have been the # 1 Epic Film. And nominee Queen Christina (1933) is no epic, by any stretch of the imagination -- and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) isn't an epic on the same scale as other nominated films, such as The Big Parade (1925), The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).


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