A Brief History
On January 10, 1927, Fritz Lang’s classic film Metropolis was released in Germany. This iconic film, made during the “silent film era,” cost the modern equivalent of 21 million Euros and is considered to be among the greatest films ever made.
Digging Deeper
Oddly enough, Orson Welles, creator of another candidate for “Greatest Movie,” Citizen Kane, called Metropolis, “Silly.”
Some of the other films others have called, “The Greatest,” include Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Vertigo, Jaws, The Seven Samurai, The Godfather, Battleship Potemkin, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Obviously, criteria such as biggest box office take, most people who have seen it, opinion polls, and critical reviews can all be used to determine the so called “greatest movie.” Which film do you place at the top of the list?
Question for students (and subscribers): Counting only the movies you have personally seen, which one do you rate as “The Greatest?” Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Movies International. The 100 Greatest Movies: A Movie-Lover’s Guide to the Greatest Films of All Time; Movie-Watching Journal. Independently published, 2019.
O’Connell, Michael. The 365 Greatest Movies Ever Made and the Days You Should Watch Them. BookBaby, 2022.
The featured image in this article, a poster by Boris Konstantinovitch Bilinsky (1900–1948) for the 1927 film Metropolis, is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: The author died in 1948, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.
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