The American Film Institute (AFI) broadcast its "AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers" program -- counting down the 100 most inspiring American movies of all time, as chosen by experts of the motion picture community -- in a three-hour television event on CBS the evening of Wednesday, June 14, 2006.
The results are now in, and It's a Wonderful Life took the top spot (as it often does in various polls), followed by To Kill a Mockingbird, Schindler's List, Rocky, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, all certainly inspiring films. For the complete list, visit the AFI site.
Looking at the 300 nominations, Frank Capra and Steven Spielberg are the most-represented directors, as any movie fan could have predicted (and both took spots in the top 5). And apparently more inspiring films were released in 1939 than in any other year, if you're to believe the nominations. (And we do, as evidenced by our own The Greatest Years in Movie History article.) Tom Hanks, Henry Fonda, Sidney Poitier, Gary Cooper and Denzel Washington got a lot of nominations among actors, and quirky Jean Arthur was tops among the female nominees, thanks to her close association with the aforementioned Frank Capra.
Of course, one person's inspirational movie is another's propaganda film, depending on your politics. Pacifists won't care for all the military-themed films, from Air Force to Wings, while conservatives probably won't approve of Born on the Fourth of July or Do the Right Thing. Traditionalists may not think films such as American History X or 8 Mile belong on the list at all, while younger fans may wonder what all the fuss is about when they see Destry Rides Again and The Thief Of Bagdad on the list (movies made before even their parents were born). But in the end we'll probably be presented with a list that will look an awful lot like the very first AFI list, since the many of the greatest films are also the most inspiring. Expect to see Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, On the Waterfront and Schindler's List (all in the original AFI Top 100) among the top 10 or 20 most inspiring films, along with can't-miss flag-wavers like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, To Kill A Mockingbird, and The Best Years of Our Lives, all among the top 40 in the original list. (NOTE: This was written several weeks before the broadcast, and turned out to be quite true!)
As I say every year, it's all for a good cause (film preservation), and if it introduces more people to some great older films, it was definitely worth the trouble. The program is always fun to watch, too. You can see a complete list of the nominees on a pdf file from the AFI site. Here's another discussion of the program from The Greatest Films.
