by Mitch Wiley
What’s the best Christmas movie? Every December, many lists are posted around social media and the Internet regarding personal rankings and preferences of Christmas movies. It’s a unique subgenre that seems to capture the affections of American moviegoers. There is no shortage of new Christmas movies, which has been turned into a cottage industry thanks to people like my grandmother and the Hallmark Channel.
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by Mitch Wiley
With the Oscars around the corner, one of my favorite parts of the ceremony is the montages of film/Oscar history. The 1943 Best Picture winner, Casablanca, is certain to be on whatever historical montage plays of any given year. It’s revered as one of the best and most beloved American films not only of the classic Hollywood era, but in cinema history. If The Wizard of Oz is the most influential and Citizen Kane the greatest, then Casablanca is the beloved classic American film.
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The most respected “Top Films” list is the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound Magazine Critics’ Top 250 list. The iMDB Top 250 may represent a certain type of online movie buff, but the Sight and Sound poll is comprised of a variety of professional film critics from around the world. Every decade, the magazine polls the top critics. For five straight decades, Citizen Kane took the top spot as the greatest film of all time. In 2012, it was finally dethroned by Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which will also make an appearance in this blog series on 25 American Classics.
Saying Citizen Kane is the greatest movie of all time is like saying that Michael Jordan is the best basketball player or Babe Ruth is the best baseball player—it’s safe, predictable, and probably right.
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The second of Victor Fleming’s 1939 iconic films is The Wizard of Oz. Few movies have stuck in the ether of American souls and imaginations than the journey on the yellow-brick road with Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say The Wizard of Oz is the most iconic movie in film history.
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After the Silent Era, American cinema enters the 1930s. While the ‘30s was a difficult decade for America with the Great Depression, the fallout from World War 1, and the inevitability of World War 2, the decade saw the continuing rise of Hollywood. The Golden Age of Hollywood is thought to be the 1930s and 1940s. 1939 is often cited as the best year in Hollywood history. Two movies directed by Victor Fleming, in particular, captured the hearts of the nation – Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. This post reviews the former.
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Where to start in a 25-film survey of American cinema? The silent era is the obvious place. The first movie with audible dialogue didn’t arrive until 1927 (The Jazz Singer). This ushered in the era of “talkies.” From 1903 with The Great Train Robbery until 1927, there was an era exclusively comprised of silent films.
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