‘Apocalypse Now’ Named Top Film
LONDON (AP) – “Apocalypse Now,” Francis Ford Coppola’s anti-Vietnam War classic, is the greatest film of the past 25 years, according to a survey of British film critics and writers.
Two movies by Martin Scorsese also made the top 10 in the poll released Friday by the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound magazine.
The 50 respondents chose Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” as the second-best movie of the past quarter-century, followed by Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny And Alexander” in third place. Scorsese’s “GoodFellas” was fourth, with David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” coming in fifth.
The highest-ranking British film was Terence Davies’ “Distant Voices, Still Lives” at No. 9.
Films dating from January 1978 to this year were eligible.
Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound, said “Apocalypse Now” topped the list because it’s a richly complex, madcap experiment in war film-making that “never falls from the tightrope it walks between extravagance and profundity.”
James said “Raging Bull” was a close second, thanks to Scorsese’s direction, the wonderful texture of its black-and-white cinematography, and Robert De Niro’s performance as boxer Jake La Motta.
In August, another Sight & Sound poll chose “Citizen Kane” as the best film of all time.
In the latest poll, the top 10 are:
1. “Apocalypse Now” (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
2. “Raging Bull” (Martin Scorsese, 1980).
3. “Fanny and Alexander” (Ingmar Bergman, 1982).
4. “GoodFellas” (Martin Scorsese, 1990).
5. “Blue Velvet” (David Lynch, 1986).
6. “Do the Right Thing” (Spike Lee (news), 1989).
7. “Blade Runner” (Ridley Scott (news), 1982).
8. “Chungking Express” (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994).
9. “Distant Voices, Still Lives” (Terence Davies, 1988).
10. (tie) “Once Upon a Time in America” (Sergio Leone, 1983).
10. (tie) “Yi yi (A One and a Two … ) (Edward Yang, 1999).
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