AFI’s 10 TOP 10 — CHALLENGE RANK: EPIC
Hello and welcome to “AFI’s 10 Top 10 — Challenge Rank,” this is an article series where we put to test the American Film Institute’s various list rankings through a critical and audience consensual assessment scale. We will be breaking down “AFI’s 10 Top 10” lists, right here. The “AFI’s 10 Top 10” originally broke down by genre of what are the 10 best films in that specified genre. We have covered Courtroom Drama, Romantic Comedies, Mystery, Animation, Western, Sci-Fi, and Gangster in the seven prior articles in the series so far, as we are now going to tackle “AFI’s 10 Top 10: Epic” category. Here’s the list of films and how they ranked from “AFI’s 10 Top 10: Epic”:
1.) “Lawrence of Arabia”
2.) “Ben-Hur”
3.) “Schindler’s List”
4.) “Gone with the Wind”
5.) “Spartacus”
6.) “Titanic”
7.) “All Quiet on the Western Front”
8.) “Saving Private Ryan”
9.) “Reds”
10.) “The Ten Commandments”
If you want to see the actual AFI page of the Top 10? The link is below: http://www.afi.com/10top10/category.aspx?cat=10
Now, this is how AFI ranked the best films of the epic genre. But do critics and audiences agree with AFI’s consensus? Well, through a rather collective algorithm from various critical and audience aggregators, I came to forming an overall consensual ranking of the collective films from “AFI’s 10 Top 10: Epic”. I was a rather surprised how things turned out here among the consensual rankings compared to AFI’s rankings but here’s how it laid out:
Consensual Placement: 10th
TITANIC (1997)
AFI’S RANKING: #6
LOGLINE: A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
DIRECTED BY: James Cameron
STARS: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane and Katy Bates
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Titanic” dropped 4 spots from #6 to #10 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.
Consensual Placement: 9th
REDS (1981)
AFI’S RANKING: #9
LOGLINE: A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia, and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.
DIRECTED BY: Warren Beatty
STARS: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann and Jack Nicholson
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Reds” stayed put at #9 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment matching AFI’s placement of the film on their list.
Consensual Placement: 8th
BEN-HUR (1959)
AFI’S RANKING: #2
LOGLINE: When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
DIRECTED BY: William Wyler
STARS: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd and Haya Harareet
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Ben-Hur” plummeted 6 spots from #2 to #8 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list. This was the biggest drop among all films on the list.
Consensual Placement: 7th
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956)
AFI’S RANKING: #10
LOGLINE: The Egyptian Prince, Moses, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people.
DIRECTED BY: Cecil B. DeMille
STARS: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter and Edward G. Robinson
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “The Ten Commandments” moved up 3 spots from #10 to #7 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.
Consensual Placement: 6th
SPARTACUS (1960)
AFI’S RANKING: #5
LOGLINE: The slave Spartacus leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic.
DIRECTED BY: Stanley Kubrick
STARS: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons and Charles Laughton
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Spartacus” dipped 1 spot from #5 to #6 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.
Consensual Placement: 5th
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
AFI’S RANKING: #4
LOGLINE: A manipulative woman and a roguish man conduct a turbulent romance during the American Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
DIRECTED BY: Victor Fleming
STARS: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell and Hattie McDaniel
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Gone with the Wind” lowered 1 spot from #4 to #5 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.
Consensual Placement: 4th
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
AFI’S RANKING: #7
LOGLINE: A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
DIRECTED BY: Lewis Milestone
STARS: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray and Arnold Lucy
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “All Quiet on the Western Front” climbed 3 spots from #7 to #4 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.
Consensual Placement: 3rd
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)
AFI’S RANKING: #8
LOGLINE: Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
DIRECTED BY: Steven Spielberg
STARS: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore and Edward Burns
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Saving Private Ryan” scaled 5 spots from #7 to #3 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list. This was the biggest climb among all films on the list.
Consensual Placement: 2nd
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1972)
AFI’S RANKING: #1
LOGLINE: The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
DIRECTED BY: David Lean
STARS: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn and Jack Hawkins
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Lawrence of Arabia” downtrended 1 spot from #1 to #2 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.
Consensual Placement: 1st
SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
AFI’S RANKING: #3
LOGLINE: In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.
DIRECTED BY: Steven Spielberg
STARS: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley and Caroline Goodall
CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Schindler’s List” jumped 2 spots from #3 to #1 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.
In concluding, you can see the critical consensual assessment with critics and audiences ranked pretty differently in certain cases and slight differently in other cases with every placement except for one position in AFI’s ranking list. So, how would you personally rank these top-tier epic films?
Article Note: All loglines are sourced from IMDb.com.
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