Greatest American Films

by Los Angeles Daily News
Readers' Poll


When the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California announced its list of 400 films to be voted upon for their selection of the 100 greatest American films of all time, the Los Angeles Daily News conducted its own poll in late 1997. They asked their readership to choose their own top feature films of the century from the same list of 400 candidates. The results were published in the December 3, 1997 issue of the paper, in the L.A. Life section.

Facts and Commentary About the L.A. Daily News' Readers' Choices:

  • The five front-finishers were all released between 1939 and 1946, the key years of Hollywood's Golden Age. They included "the greatest studio romance, the most innovative work of the field's finest artist, the ultimate paean to the average American's spirit, our glitziest historical epic and our purest, most resonant fantasy."

Greatest American Films

(according to L.A. Daily News Readers' Poll)

1. Casablanca (1942)
2. Citizen Kane (1941)
3. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
4. Gone With The Wind (1939)
5. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
6. The Godfather (1972)
7. The African Queen (1951)
8. The Sound of Music (1965)
9. Singin' In The Rain (1952)
10. Star Wars (1977)
11. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
12. Schindler's List (1993)
13. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
14. It Happened One Night (1934)
15. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
16. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
17. Patton (1970)
18. Dances with Wolves (1990)
19. King Kong (1933)
20. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
21. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
22. All About Eve (1950)
23. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
24. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
25. Stagecoach (1939)
26. Fantasia (1940)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. Ben-Hur (1959)
29. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
30. Psycho (1960)
31. (tie) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
31. (tie) Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
31. (tie) Oklahoma! (1955)
31. (tie) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
35. (tie) Forrest Gump (1994)
35. (tie) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
35. (tie) My Fair Lady (1964)
38. (tie) E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
38. (tie) Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
38. (tie) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
38. (tie) Some Like It Hot (1959)
38. (tie) To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
38. (tie) West Side Story (1961)
44. (tie) An American In Paris (1951)
44. (tie) Doctor Zhivago (1965)
44. (tie) From Here to Eternity (1953)
44. (tie) Laura (1944)
44. (tie) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
44. (tie) On The Waterfront (1954)
44. (tie) The Quiet Man (1952)
51. (tie) Frankenstein (1931)
51. (tie) The Graduate (1967)
51. (tie) North By Northwest (1959)
51. (tie) Rocky (1976)
51. (tie) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
51. (tie) The Ten Commandments (1956)

57. (tie) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
57. (tie) Braveheart (1995)
57. (tie) Double Indemnity (1944)
57. (tie) Lost Horizon (1937)
57. (tie) Mary Poppins (1964)
57. (tie) M*A*S*H (1970)
57. (tie) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
64. (tie) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
64. (tie) Giant (1956)
64. (tie) The Jazz Singer (1927)
64. (tie) Midnight Cowboy (1969)
64. (tie) Mrs. Miniver (1942)
64. (tie) Raging Bull (1980)
64. (tie) Rebecca (1940)
64. (tie) Wings (1927)
72. (tie) American Graffiti (1973)
72. (tie) Annie Hall (1977)
72. (tie) The Color Purple (1985)
72. (tie) The French Connection (1971)
72. (tie) The Gold Rush (1925)
72. (tie) The Longest Day (1962)
72. (tie) Rain Man (1988)
72. (tie) The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
72. (tie) The Sting (1973)
72. (tie) Tootsie (1982)
72. (tie) 12 Angry Men (1957)
72. (tie) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
84. (tie) Apocalypse Now (1979)
84. (tie) Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
84. (tie) Chinatown (1974)
84. (tie) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
84. (tie) Funny Girl (1968)
84. (tie) Gunga Din (1939)
84. (tie) Shane (1953)
84. (tie) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
84. (tie) The Third Man (1949)
93. (tie) Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
93. (tie) Blade Runner (1982)
93. (tie) Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
93. (tie) The Caine Mutiny (1954)
93. (tie) Chariots of Fire (1981)
93. (tie) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
93. (tie) East of Eden (1955)
93. (tie) Field of Dreams (1989)
93. (tie) 42nd Street (1933)
93. (tie) The Godfather, Part II (1974)
93. (tie) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
93. (tie) The Lion King (1994)
93. (tie) The Lost Weekend (1945)
93. (tie) Marty (1955)
93. (tie) Mister Roberts (1955)
93. (tie) On Golden Pond (1981)
93. (tie) The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
93. (tie) The Philadelphia Story (1940)
93. (tie) Rear Window (1954)
93. (tie) Stalag 17 (1953)
93. (tie) Taxi Driver (1976)
93. (tie) Vertigo (1958)
93. (tie) The Way We Were (1973)


Write-Ins With More Than One Vote:

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
The Good Earth (1937)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
Silverado (1985)

Movies on the Preliminary 400 List
That Did Not Receive One Reader Vote:

1910s: Richard III (1913) , The Cheat (1915)
1920s: Within Our Gates (1920)
1930s: Morocco (1930), Cavalcade (1933), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
1940s: Road to Morocco (1942), Bataan (1943), Hail the Conquering Hero (1944), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), Force of Evil (1948)
1950s: Gun Crazy (1949/50)
1960s: Tom Jones (1963), The Americanization of Emily (1964)
1980s: Melvin and Howard (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
1990s: Rambling Rose (1991)

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