- Director: Mike Nichols
- Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
- AFI Score: 17
- Metacritic Score: 83
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%
- Oscars Won: One win – seven nominations
“Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me!” This movie is full of quotable lines and is certainly a fantastic movie. A lot of people point out that The Graduate sneaks in a little bit of a generational rift through Ben. Ben doesn’t actually spend time with someone his age until he’s able to take Elaine out on a date, and even then, Mrs. Robinson is mad he does it.
Critic John Mahoney reviewed, “A brutally funny look at contemporary youth, encrusted with status symbols and guilt for rejecting the weights of privilege to rail against the tides of society they would rather reject than succumb to rather question than attend to. Both tuned and attuned to its subject and on target for most of its course.”
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Cast: Robert De Niro, Cathy Mariarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent
- AFI Score: 4
- Metacritic Score: 89
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
- Oscars Won: Two – nominated for eight
Raging Bull may look like a sports movie (similar to Rocky), but it very much isn’t. It is an emotionally taxing film about a man’s emotions and how it controlled every aspect of his life, leading to his downfall. Because of this, Jake LaMotta is both the antagonist and protagonist of the film. It is about his ability to self-destruct.
Critic Michael Bertin with The Austin Chronicle said, “The performances are riveting and the visuals are stunning. The boxing sequences are brutally realistic - there are no crappy Rocky theatrics here - and the humanity oozes out of every scene.”
- Director: Robert Mulligan
- Cast: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Philip Alford, John Megna
- AFI Score: 25
- Metacritic Score: 88
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%
- Oscars Won: Three – nominated for eight
Pretty much everyone that's alive has seen To Kill a Mockingbird as it was part of school curriculum, but there's a reason for that. The novel and movie deal with very serious social problems that are difficult to handle, especially as a child. Instead of looking at the situation through the eyes of an adult, it's told through six-year-old Scout. She sees her father, Atticus Finch, fights for a black man's equality as he's been falsely accused of assaulting a woman.
Critic Michael Wilmington of Chicago Tribune said, “Few films have caught the special feel and rhythms of childhood so well, with such uncondescending warmth and humor. And few bring out more powerfully the themes of anti-racism and the virtues and joys of community and family.”
- Director: Francis Coppola
- Cast: Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
- AFI Score: 30
- Metacritic Score: 94
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%
- Oscars Won: Two – nominated for eight
Many people who watch Apocalypse Now are left with one question: Why is this movie so great? That’s a pretty fair assessment, but love it or hate it, the film is one that AFI adores. The movie itself was a retelling of a Joseph Conrad novel "The Heart of Darkness." The movie wasn't supposed to be uplifting but rather dark and gritty.
Critic Roger Ebert said, “The film has one of the most haunting endings in cinema, a poetic evocation of what Kurtz has discovered, and what we hope not to discover for ourselves. The river journey creates enormous anticipation about Kurtz, and Brando fulfills it.”
- Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Cast: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, George Sanders
- AFI Score: 28
- Metacritic Score: 98
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
- Oscars Won: Six – nominated for 14
All About Eve made waves in the film community and beyond because of the realistic and disturbing way it depicted show-business. The movie was filled with people that were willing to do anything – and we mean anything – to get ahead. It helps that the main actress is Bette Davis, who was more than ready for this role.
Critic James Berardinelli with Reel Views goes into say, “All About Eve possesses one of the best screenplays ever to grace the silver screen. It also has one of the best performances by an actress in the history of Hollywood features.”
- Director: Victor Fleming
- Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland
- AFI Score: 6
- Metacritic Score: 97
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%
- Oscars Won: 10 – 15 nominations
Today, Gone with the Wind has been considered problematic for romanticizing Antebellum South. It's undeniable that there are some problematic things about the movie, it's about so much more. Maybe the best way to explain the movie is through a Washington Post article by Alyssa Rosenberg.
Critic Alyssa Rosenberg with Washington Post writes, “’Gone With The Wind’ captures both the terrors of total war, and the self-pity that lingered after the Confederacy’s defeat… ‘Gone With The Wind’ — particularly in film form — is both the pretty clothes and the argument for stripping them away, a justification for Southern anger and an argument that it’s possible to thrive by leaving that anger behind.”
- Director: Victor Fleming
- Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr
- AFI Score: 10
- Metacritic Score: 92
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%
- Oscars Won: Two – five nominations
The Wizard of Oz is a timeless classic. The music is memorable, the screen play is top-notch, but what really makes it stand out? It's a mix of childish fantasy and adult satire that never grows old. That made it a hit for all ages, even as you grew older and watched it over and over again. It represents old-school MGM at its best.
Critic James Berardinelli stated, “Not only is it wonderfully entertaining, but the issues it addresses, and the way it presents them, are both universal and deeply personal. And therein lies The Wizard of Oz's true magic.”
- Director: Frank Capra
- Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
- AFI Score: 26
- Metacritic Score: 73
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
- Oscars Won: One – nominated for 11
We love a movie that gets the government riled up, and this one did just that. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is all about exposing corruption, and government officials responded by trying to get the movie banned! A little suspicious if you ask us. It was called anti-American and communist, but what's more American than this underdog story fighting for good? Critics, on the other hand, loved it. It became a box office hit, and people flocked to see it.
Time published a review of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington that said, “The acting of the brilliant cast is sometimes superb. But Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is bigger than any of these things. Its real hero is not calfy Jeff Smith, but the things he believes, as embodied in the hero of U. S. democracy's first crisis, Abraham Lincoln.”
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Cast: Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Drew Barrymore
- AFI Score: 24
- Metacritic Score: 91
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
- Oscars Won: Four – nominated for nine
You might be asking yourself: Why is E.T. added in the AFI list above all others? Well, we asked ourselves that same question, but after a little digging, it became obvious. Not only did it spawn a ton of interest for science fiction in younger generations, it’s also a movie all about love, friendship, trust, and loyalty. Spielberg himself drew the story from his parents' divorce and how it affected him as a child (and Elliot in the film). It's more than just an alien who gets stranded.
Critic James Bernard with the Daily News wrote, “Spielberg's direction and Melissa Mathison's script never lose sight of the realistic, low center of gravity world of childhood, in which such marvelous adventures happen every day that an alien knocking around the garage is not really such an unusual occurrence.”
- Director: John Ford
- Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin
- AFI Score: 23
- Metacritic Score: 96
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
- Oscars Won: Two – nominated for seven
The Grapes of Wrath was another one a lot of us saw in school. It was based on Steinbeck's novel by the same name and follows an Oklahoma family as they're driven off their farm during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. It tells the story of desperation, hope (and hopelessness), and poverty. To date, it's probably the best novel-to-movie adaption out there. We’d argue that the movie is so much better.
Critic Roger Ebert with The Chicago Sun reviewed, “The message is boldly displayed, but told with characters of such sympathy and images of such beauty that audiences leave the theater feeling more pity than anger or resolve. It's a message movie, but not a recruiting poster.”
- Director: Billy Wilder
- Cast: Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, George Raft
- AFI Score: 22
- Metacritic Score: 98
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
- Oscars Won: One – nominated for six
Some movies don't have to be groundbreaking. Some just need to be funny and stay funny nearly 100 years later. Even today, Some Like It Hot will have you belly laughing. It starts off like a firecracker and keeps throwing lively sparks until the end. It’s easy to say that this is one of Marilyn Monroe and Billy Wilder’s best movies.
Critic Scott Tobias with AV Club wrote, “A large part of what makes Some Like It Hot a perennial favorite is that it has the go-for-broke commitment of an early Marx brothers farce, but it's harnessed by a well-structured script that keeps building on itself. It's no fluke that the capper is the most famous closing line in movie history.”
Just in case you’re wondering, the final line, “Nobody’s perfect.”
- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
- AFI Score: 15
- Metacritic Score: 84
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
- Oscars Won: One – four nominations
Stanley Kubrick isn't a stranger to making some of the best films of his (and our) age. Even though this movie came out in 1960, it's just as fresh today. The movie has seamless transitions between scenes and features some of the best special effects you'll see from a '60s film. Even some '90s films can't stand up to it! Then, there's the chilling portrayal of HAL 9000. It's enough to send shivers down your spine.
Critic Scott Rosenberg with Salon writes, “Beloved for many different reasons, including its scrupulous scientific accuracy, its vast reach from "The Dawn of Man" to the next stage of human evolution, its unrivaled integration of musical and visual composition, its daring paucity of dialogue and washes of silence, its astonishingly creative psychedelic sequence and its still-gorgeous pre-digital special effects.”
- Director: Roman Polanski
- Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez
- AFI Score: 21
- Metacritic Score: 92
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
- Oscars Won: One – nominated for 11
A lot of people say that Chinatown has the best scripts that's ever been written in the industry, and that certainly says a lot. The film is an expert at subverting expectations and throwing red herrings out to the point where you barely know where the story is going. One of the greatest strengths with Chinatown is that it doesn't waste a single frame. Everything about the movie serves multiple purposes and you gotta watch it more than once to see it.
Critic Michael Blowen with The Boston Globe reviewed, “It's my favorite movie...Chinatown is a complex reminder of how movies were made when filmmakers held the cards - before product placement, marketers, and agents assumed control of the business. Before movies had to be sold to studios on the basis of zippy one-liners. I dare say that the movie wouldn't stand a chance of getting the green light today unless Julia Roberts was interested in playing Jane Gittes.”
- Director: Frank Capra
- Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
- AFI Score: 20
- Metacritic Score: 89
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
- Oscars Won: Zero – nominated for five
There are a few Christmas movies that are worthy for this list, but none more so than It's a Wonderful Life. During one of the biggest consumer holidays out there, It's a Wonderful Life is about doing what's right in life even if you don't get anything out of it. Loyalty is the biggest theme. You gotta put your full heart and soul into whatever you're trying to accomplish regardless of whether or not you can get results immediately or not.
Critic Roger Ebert with The Chicago Sun Times wrote, “It's one of those ageless movies, like "Casablanca" or "The Third Man," that improves with age. Some movies, even good ones, should only be seen once. When we know how they turn out, they've surrendered their mystery and appeal. Other movies can be viewed an indefinite number of times. Like great music, they improve with familiarity. It's a Wonderful Life falls in the second category.”
- Director: George Lucas
- Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
- AFI Score: 13
- Metacritic Score: 90
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
- Oscars Won: Seven – 12 nominations
Critic Ron Pennington with The Hollywood Reporter reviewed, “Lucas combines excellent comedy and drama and progresses it with exciting action on tremendously effective space battles. Likeable heroes on noble missions and despicable villains capable of the most dastardly deeds are all wrapped up in some of the most spectacular special effects ever to illuminate a motion picture screen. The result is spellbinding and totally captivating on all levels.”
I can go on and on about why Star Wars is a great film. It has a great story, fantastic writing, even better special effects, but what makes it stand out in history? First of all, it combines epic battles with comedy and drama effortlessly. Second, the villains and heroes are so captivating that you can’t look away. Third, the movie found some of the best actors we’ll ever see to play those characters we love.
- Director: Billy Wilder
- Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall
- AFI Score: 29
- Metacritic Score: 95
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%
- Oscars Won: Zero – nominated for seven
No one going into Double Indemnity back in the day knew what they were getting into. The movie was about an insurance guy on the surface, but underneath, it was all about suspense, bitterness, greed, and heartbreak. It wasn't easy to achieve this kind of tragic heroism, but this film did a great job of it.
Critic Paul Howlett with The Guardian said, “I love Double Indemnity because it's about a couple who are cheap and greedy but achieve a kind of tragic heroism; because it has one of the great father-son relationships (although they aren't actually father and son); because it's a thoroughly cynical thriller redeemed by just a fading touch of romance. And it also has a trio of superb performances.”
- Director: Elia Kazan
- Cast: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
- AFI Score: 19
- Metacritic Score: 91
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
- Oscars Won: Eight – nominated for 12
On the Waterfront has some of the best acting you'll ever see, but what can you expect from Marlon Brando? The movie is all about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. There's all sorts of corruption, extortion, and racketeering, and how people can get caught up in it. There hasn’t been a movie like it, and we doubt there will ever be.
Critic Roger Ebert with The Chicago Sun Times said, “The acting and the best dialogue passages have an impact that has not dimmed; it is still possible to feel the power of the film and of Brando and Kazan, who changed American movie acting forever.”
- Director: Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
- Cast: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley
- AFI Score: 18
- Metacritic Score: Unreviewed
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
- Oscars Won: Zero – hadn’t been founded yet
Even if you don’t recognize the name of this movie, you’ve seen clips. It’s crazy that a silent film made the list, but it’s clear why. This Buster Keaton classic isn’t as funny as his others, but that isn’t what it’s all about. The General flawlessly combines three movie genres (comedy, historical, and chase) in one film. At first, it wasn’t received very well, but now it’s considered one of the greatest films of all time.
Critic Roger Ebert wrote, “"The General” is an epic of silent comedy, one of the most expensive films of its time, including an accurate historical recreation of a Civil War episode, hundreds of extras, dangerous stunt sequences, and an actual locomotive falling from a burning bridge into a gorge far below.”
- Director: Billy Wilder
- Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
- AFI Score: 16
- Metacritic Score: Not reviewed
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%
- Oscars Won: Three – 11 nominations
Aging in Hollywood isn't an easy thing, and that's what Sunset Boulevard is about. It's about a silent movie star who's been forgotten and living in exile. She can only dream of a comeback. It has amazing performances that you'll never forget, but it's the emotions expressed throughout the movie that make it the legend it is today.
Critic Roger Ebert wrote, “The movie cuts close to the bone, drawing so directly from life that many of the silent stars at the movie's premiere recognized personal details…’Sunset Boulevard’ remains the best drama ever made about the movies because it sees through the illusions, even if Norma doesn't.”
- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles
- AFI Score: 14
- Metacritic Score: 97
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
- Oscars Won: Zero – four nominations
If any Hitchcock movie will be remembered, it's going to be Psycho. The movie is all about how monsters could be right around the corner. It made you look at the person next to you, wondering what they were really thinking. Needless to say, one of the hardest-hitting scenes was the shower scene that depicted the brutal death of Marion Crane. That, among other things, landed this film in the "legendary" status.
Critic Roger Ebert with Chicago Sun Times wrote, “What makes Psycho immortal, when so many films are already half-forgotten as we leave the theater, is that it connects directly with our fears: Our fears that we might impulsively commit a crime, our fears of the police, our fears of becoming the victim of a madman, and of course our fears of disappointing our mothers.”
- Director: John Ford
- Cast: John Wayne, Jeffery Hunter, Natalie Wood, Vera Miles
- AFI Score: 12
- Metacritic Score: 94
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
- Oscars Won: Zero – no nominations
The Searchers is more or less an American classic, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea. It leaves the viewer feeling beyond uncomfortable, and most wonder why it's listed as one of the greats. According to Scorsese, a film needs to make the viewer uncomfortable for it to be anywhere near the top. He even puts this one above his own.
Martin Scorsese did a piece, reviewing the film by writing, “Ethan also is genuinely scary. HIs obsessiveness, his absolute hatred of Comanches and All Native Americans and his loneliness set him apart from any other character Wayne played...the core of the movie is deeply painful. Every time I watch it...it haunts and troubles me.”
- Director: David Lean
- Cast: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif
- AFI Score: 7
- Metacritic Score: 100
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
- Oscars Won: Seven – 10 nominations
What isn't fantastic about Lawrence of Arabia? It has amazing performances, jaw-dropping cinematography, and a story that is riveting from beginning to end. It’s honestly no surprise that actor Peter O’Toole – relatively unknown before this film – became an international star overnight. The only bad thing about Lawrence of Arabia is that it seems like you can never watch it on a screen big enough.
Critic Josh Larsen with Larsen Film writes, “The movie manages both senses of scale—the intimate and the expansive—with equal majesty, merging them into something moving, mesmerizing, and poetic, in a way only Lean movies could really manage.”
- Director: Charlie Chaplin
- Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill
- AFI Score: 11
- Metacritic Score: 99
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
- Oscars Won: Zero
City Lights stands out beyond any other Charlie Chaplin movie in history for one big reason – it is easily his most dramatic and most hilarious movie ever. City Lights is his most sentimental and romantic film he's ever made, which really shows his range. He isn't just about comedy. That being said, this silent masterpiece also features the boxing scene that is an absolute hoot. It's one of the funniest scenes of any movie ever.
Critic Michael Phillips with the Chicago Tribune reviewed the movie stating, “The closing shot of Charlie Chaplin's face in City Lights, his heart breaking: the highest form of screen acting, the most effective tear extraction exercise the medium has yet to offer.”
- Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
- AFI Score: 9
- Metacritic Score: 100
- Rotten Tomatoes Score:
- Oscars Won: Zero – two nominations
Some would argue that Vertigo is so much better than Citizen Kane, but that's up in the air. I'll just talk about why this one is legendary. Like any Hitchcock movie, he certainly knows how to create a suspenseful and tense scene. It leaves the audience on the edge of their seat and has them walking away thinking about each scene days after they've seen it.
Critic Michael Wilmington with Chicago Tribune writes, “From the very first images of Saul Bass' credit sequence, the whorls and patterns revolving in darkness, the huge eye bathed in red, the movie lets us feel the heartbeat and divided soul of its hero. And its creator. It is a movie about desire, darkness and the pull toward destruction. Most of all, it is about impossible love and overwhelming fear--conveyed with consummate control and art. Watching it, we feel the fear, suffer the desire”
- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S Castellano
- AFI Score: 2
- Metacritic Score: 100
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%
- Oscars Won: Three – 11 nominations
We all know what The Godfather is about: an Italian-American mafia family trying to stay above water in a world of violent crime. The original won three Oscars while the trilogy won a total of nine Oscars. Saying it changed cinema doesn't give it enough credit. What made it stand out was that violence had never been portrayed in such a gritty, realistic way. It also showed a wide range of human emotions that wasn’t exactly the norm at the time for genres like this.
Critic Kenneth Turan with Los Angeles Times wrote, “Overflowing with life, rich with all the grand emotions and vital juices of existence, up to and including blood. And its deaths, like that of Hotspur in "Henry IV, Part I," continue to shock no matter how often we've watched them coming.”
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Cast: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
- AFI Score: 8
- Metacritic Score: 94
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%
- Oscars Won: Seven – 12 nominations
Steven Spielberg isn't a stranger to "best-of" lists, and Schindler’s List making this list isn't a surprise. Several people have said that they haven't felt the same since seeing the film. It isn't easy to make a movie about the Holocaust, but this one managed to be a massive success. It makes the audience feel heart broken, heavy, and stranded with the characters.
Critic Roger Ebert writes, “What is most amazing about this film is how completely Spielberg serves his story. The movie is brilliantly acted, written, directed and seen. Individual scenes are masterpieces of art direction, cinematography, special effects, crowd control.”
- Director: Fred Zinnemann
- Cast: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado, Thomas Mitchell
- AFI Score: 27
- Metacritic Score: 89
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%
- Oscars Won: Four – nominated for seven
High Noon is what all western movies strive to be. It stands out because it used the genre to discuss civic responsibility without all the violence we've become accustom with in Westerns. Some have claimed it was an allegory of the Cold War and the US foreign policy during the Korean War. The crazy part is that the film was shot in 31 days with just a $750,000 budget!
Critic Stephen Hunter with The Washington Post said, “A terrific piece of filmmaking. It's taut, believable as it unspools. It's charismatic, with a slow buildup of tension in near-real time that finally explodes into a blast of violence.”
- Director: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
- Cast: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen
- AFI Score: 5
- Metacritic Score: 99
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
- Oscars Won: Zero – two nominations
It's crazy to look back and see that Singin' in the Rain was such a critical and commercial failure. Today, we see it for an amazing musical and classic. It's fun and entertaining while teetering toward cheesy at times. That's just what makes it all the more charming. It was one-of-a-kind. Truly, there will never be another movie or musical like it.
Critic James Berardinelli wrote, “Watching Singin' in the Rain is an exuberant, magical experience – a journey deep into the heart of feel-good territory. Sitting through the film's 102 minutes is like ingesting a mood-altering drug. It's the perfect antidote to the blues and the blahs, and a way to bolster, enhance, and extend a natural high.”
- Director: Michael Curtiz
- Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
- AFI Score: 3
- Metacritic Score: 100
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
- Oscars Won: Three – nominated for eight
Sure, Casablanca is a love story, but it’s so, so much more. It’s the story of maintaining a connection and commitments with other people when the world is literally falling apart, and that’s portrayed in the ending. There’s something more important than relationships at that time. It makes people question their morals. The film itself takes place during the war, and it forces the audience to question their own morals, which can be hard for a film to pull off.
Critic Roger Ebert with The Chicago Sun Times wrote, “The dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not grown old-fashioned. Much of the emotional effect of Casablanca is achieved by indirection; as we leave the theater, we are absolutely convinced that the only thing keeping the world from going crazy is that the problems of three little people do after all amount to more than a hill of beans.”
- Director: Orson Welles
- Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Ruth Warrick, Evertt Sloane
- AFI Score: 1
- Metacritic Score: 100
- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
- Oscars Won: One – nominated for nine
It’s no surprise that Citizen Kane is the top film on the AFI’s list – it’s at the top of many people’s lists. It’s widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, but why? Young Orson Wells changed the game by introducing the non-linear timeline that's used so much today, but Welles also brought about the use of the unreliable narrator, which so many of our favorite films use today.
Critic Josh Larsen with Larsen Film commented, “There is hardly a shot in Orson Welles’ towering achievement that doesn’t employ some sort of ingenious trick involving the camera, editing, sound, staging or production design. Kane didn’t invent all of its techniques, but it’s one of the few pictures I can think of that uses almost everyone in the movie playbook. The film is like a dictionary of the cinematic language.”
