AFI's Top 100: Count Down the Films (2)

[A] The Maltese Falcon | Huston's directorial debut redefined detective movies forever. That black bird statue became cinema's most famous MacGuffin, driving everyone's obsessive greed.

[A] The Godfather: Part II | Parallel timelines show Vito's rise and Michael's corruption simultaneously. De Niro learned Sicilian dialect to authentically portray young Vito.

[C] One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Forman filmed inside an actual Oregon psychiatric hospital. Nicholson's rebellious spirit clashes tragically with institutional control systems.

[A] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Disney risked bankruptcy creating the first animated feature. Critics called it foolish until audiences proved them spectacularly wrong.

[A] Annie Hall | Allen broke the fourth wall repeatedly throughout. Keaton's quirky wardrobe started fashion trends that persist in menswear stores today.

[B] The Bridge on the River Kwai | Guinness portrayed military pride becoming destructive obsession. Lean filmed in Ceylon's jungles, enduring monsoons for visual authenticity.

[B] The Best Years of Our Lives | Wyler hired actual veteran Harold Russell, who'd lost both hands. Post-war readjustment struggles received honest, compassionate treatment.

[C] The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | Bogart played against type as a paranoid prospector. Gold fever destroys friendships in Huston's Mexican adventure morality tale.

[B] Dr. Strangelove | Kubrick satirized nuclear annihilation with pitch-black comedy. Sellers played three distinct roles, nearly adding a fourth character too.

[A] The Sound of Music | Andrews climbed real Austrian Alps singing joyfully. The von Trapp family story became history's most successful movie musical.

[B] King Kong | Stop-motion animation required painstaking frame-by-frame filming. Kong's Empire State climb remains an iconic emotional monster moment.

[D] Bonnie and Clyde | Penn revolutionized screen violence through graphic slow-motion deaths. Depression-era outlaws became glamorous antiheroes for sixties audiences.

[D] Midnight Cowboy | The only X-rated Best Picture winner ever made. Hoffman and Voight portrayed desperate friendship amidst New York's harsh reality.

[C] The Philadelphia Story | Hepburn bought film rights herself after Broadway success. Grant and Stewart compete for her affections in witty sophisticated comedy.

[D] Shane | Palance's villain terrified children nationwide for generations afterward. That gunfighter farewell scene broke hearts through young Joey's desperate calling.

[D] It Happened One Night | Gable's undressing scene reportedly devastated undershirt sales nationwide. This screwball romance swept all five major Oscar categories.

[B] A Streetcar Named Desire | Brando's raw sexuality shocked conservative fifties audiences thoroughly. Kazan brought Tennessee Williams' stage intensity to explosive cinematic life.

[C] Rear Window | Hitchcock confined Stewart to one apartment window entirely. The courtyard set became cinema's most famous voyeuristic playground.

[D] Intolerance | Griffith's massive sets rivaled ancient Babylon's supposed grandeur. Four parallel stories spanning centuries demonstrated cinema's ambitious narrative potential.

[B] The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | Jackson filmed all three movies simultaneously in New Zealand. Practical effects blended seamlessly with groundbreaking digital wizardry.

[D] West Side Story | Robbins choreographed ballet-trained gang members dancing violently. Bernstein's music transformed Romeo and Juliet into urban ethnic tragedy.

[B] Taxi Driver | Scorsese captured New York's dangerous seventies grime authentically. Foster was only twelve during filming, requiring careful guardian supervision.

[D] The Deer Hunter | That harrowing Russian roulette sequence traumatized viewers permanently. Cimino stretched three hours exploring Vietnam's psychological devastation.

[C] M*A*S*H | Altman encouraged actors improvising overlapping dialogue naturally. Korean War comedy became Vietnam-era antiwar statement through surgical humor.

[D] North By Northwest | That crop-duster scene featured no music, amplifying suspense brilliantly. Grant dangles from Mount Rushmore in Hitchcock's wildest adventure.

[C] Jaws | Mechanical shark malfunctions forced Spielberg suggesting rather showing terror. Williams' simple two-note theme became summer's scariest sound.

[A] Rocky | Stallone wrote the screenplay in three days flat. Philadelphia's steps became pilgrimage sites for aspiring underdogs seeking inspiration.

[A] The Gold Rush | Chaplin's starving prospector eats his shoe like spaghetti memorably. Comedy emerged from desperate survival during Alaska's gold rush.

[C] Nashville | Altman juggled twenty-four characters across country music's chaotic landscape. Improvised songs and interwoven plots created ambitious American mosaic.

[A] Duck Soup | Marx Brothers unleashed anarchic comedy against authority figures. Their mirror sequence remains slapstick perfection requiring impeccable physical timing.