Epinions' definitive list of groundbreaking movies: Updated Feb. 14, 2012 and still needing your helpApr 19 '08 (Updated Feb 14 '12) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Epinions is fortunate to have a wealth of reviewers and readers who know movies. Let's capitalize on some of that richness with a collaborative effort sparked by captain D. - Update: Feb. 14, 2012 1984 Red Dawn: first movie released with PG-13 rating __________ Many people have contributed to this effort, but there is still potential for improvement. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions, additions, arguments, observations or anything else to add. The original introduction is at the bottom after the list. New material will be posted initially at the top to make it easier to find for those who come back to this list. When it is incorporated on the list below, it will be marked with an asterisk. Stephen Murray points out in a comment that this enterprise can be only aspirational because achieving "definitive" is not possible. Stephen is almost certainly right. Or just maybe definitiveness can be attained and we are the folks to do it. THE REVISED LIST (Current as of Feb. 14, 2012) * marks material added or revised after Dec. 1, 2011. 1880s Eadweard Muybridge's zoopraxiscope device captures moving pictures in a film-like process. He used it first to show a horse galloping, a still from which proved that horses sometimes have all four legs in the air when they run. Muybridge also created non-pornographic moving pictures of fully nude men and women. 1890 The short film of two men dancing started it all. It was directed by William Dickson for Thomas Edison's studio. An earlier bit of filmed imagery captured by Dickson as an experiment in his lab was never released. * 1895 Annabelle Serpentine Dance: This short film of a woman dancing was hand-tinted to make it the first film shown in color. The first movie filmed in color was the documentary With our King and Queen Through India (1912) and the first color feature was The World, The Flesh, and the Devil (1914). This clarifies goodfellamike's suggestion of Becky Sharp (1935), which was the first feature-length filmed in a three-color process. 1896 La fee aux choux: This short is the first film directed by a woman, Alice Guy. She also directed features, starting in 1905 with Rehabilitation. 1897 The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight, directed by Enoch J. Rector: It is considered lost but contemporary reports put its running time at 100 minutes, making it the first full-length feature. Previous films had shown boxing only one round at a time. This one showed all 14 rounds. It also is considered the first documentary because it includes a five-minute prologue featuring boxer John L. Sullivan and his manager, and the introductions of the referees and the fighters. 1898 Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon (aka La Lune a un Metre): first special effects 1903 The Great Train Robbery: First narrative fiction film. Suggested by pmills1210. 1906 Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, directed by J. Stuart Blackman: first animated film 1908 Romeo and Juliet: Started the practice of adapting literary classics. (A later version, with its legendary credit of "Additional Dialogue by William Shakespeare," started the tradition of taking liberties with classics, which led to such movies as West Side Story.) * 1909 Pippa Passes: The first movie reviewed by The New York Times (Oct. 10) is a silent short about a woman who makes everyone she passes happy when they hear her sing. 1910 Frankenstein: Based on Mary Shelley's pioneering novel and adapted and directed by J. Searle Dawley for the Edison Studios, this is the first horror movie. * 1911 Dante's Inferno (aka L'Inferno): The first feature shown in its entirety in a single screening. Previously movies were divided into seperate features because it was believed audiences would not sit through an entire movie. Dante's Inferno also is the first non-pornographic movie to show fully nude men. (See 1915 below for female nudity.) * 1913 Quo Vadis?: This epic was the first two-hour long movie. Suggested by ChrisJarmick. [This corrects our earlier citation of Birth of a Nation (1915).] 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur: Widely miscredited as the first animated film, this one by Winsor McCay is the first to feature a dinosaur. 1915 Birth of a Nation: Set the scene for all the epics that followed. 1915 The Tramp: Charles Chaplin established the concept of a franchise based on a single character, as in the James Bond and Indiana Jones movies. 1915 Inspiration: The first non-pornographic movie to show female nudity showed star Augrey Munson from the back and side as she played a model posing for an artist. The next year, A Daughter of the Gods showed Australian swimmer in the first full female nudity in a movie. 1916 The Fall of a Nation: The follow-up to D.W. Griffiths' Birth of a Nation is the first movie sequel. It is considered lost. Suggested by goodfellamike. * 1916 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: With underwater scenes filmed in the Bahamas, this silent film became the first to feature underwater photography. * 1917 El apostal, directed by Quirino Cristiani of Argentina: The first animated feature-length film is considered lost. The oldest surviving animated feature is the German Adventures of Prince Achmed, aka Die Abenteur des Prinzen Achmed, (1926). The first U.S. animated feature is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), suggested by pmills1210. * 1919 Marked Men: This western based loosely on the story of the three wise men from the Nativity story in the Christian Bible is the first movie remake. It retells the story of Three Godfathers (1916). * 1921 L' uomo mecccanico (aka The Mechanical Man): the first movie to feature robots 1925 The Lost World: The first film with stop-motion animation became the first in-flight movie when it was shown for passengers flying from London to Paris in April 1925. 1927 The Jazz Singer: Ushered in talkies. 1927 Metropolis is the first film UNESCO named to its Memory of the World registry of significant international cultural artifacts. Movies added later include 1,400 short films produced by Louis and Auguste Lumiere and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Non-film artifacts on the registry include the archives of the League of Nations, Anne Frank's diary and South Africa's criminal complaint against Nelson Mandela. * 1929 Broadway Melody: the first to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (The previous year the honor was split between two movies, Wings, which won for Best Production, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, which was cited for Best Artistic Quality of Production. 1932 Grand Hotel: first all-star cast 1933 King Kong: When the movie was released on laserdisc it was accompanied by the first audio commentary track. 1934 It Happened One Night: The first movie to win the five major Academy Awards for picture, director, screenplay, actor and actress. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) have done that since. Suggested by goodfellamike. * 1937 Grand Illusion (aka La grande illusion): Jean Renoir's French film was the first foreign language film nominated for an Academy Award. The Academy established the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1956. Grand Illusion is the first movie released on DVD by the prestigious Criterion Collection. Suggested by pmills1210. * 1939 Gone With the Wind: first color film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture 1940 Fantasia: First full-length music video and innovative use of multichannel stereophonic sound. Suggested by voxpoptart. * 1941 Citizen Kane: Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz tell their story from multiple perspectives, as Akira Kurosawa famously does in Rashomon (1950). Suggested by pmills1210. 1941 The Maltese Falcon: Opened the door to film noir. 1945 Anchors Aweigh: Gene Kelly's dance with Tom (of Tom & Jerry) blends animation with live action. 1948 I Remember Mama: First movie to inspire a television series. Suggested by masonbarge. 1949 On the Town: Innovative use of on-location filming. Suggested by befus. 1950 Sunset Boulevard: Other movies had used flashbacks, but the audacious one here set the stage for Memento and all movies that defy strict chronological order. 1950 No Way Out: The doctor played by Sidney Poitier blazed a trail for other black characters who are not slaves, servants or stereotypical comic relief. 1952 High Noon: The final 60 minutes are in real-time, which had not been done extensively before. The 84-minute movies tells a story that covers 100 minutes. Suggested by dolphinboy. * 1952 Bwana Devil: first movie shown in 3-D (This corrects my citation of House of Wax.) * 1953 Little Fugitive: The French film was the first movie made independently of the major U.S. studios to be nominated for an Academy Award for its screenplay (by Ray Ashley, Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin). 1954 Dragnet: First movie based on a TV show. Suggested by goodfellamike. 1955 Gumbasia: first claymation (stop motion clay animation) movie * 1957 Island in the Sun: The first movie to feature an interracial kiss, this one between John Justin (white) and Dorothy Dandridge (African-American.) Previous films had shown kisses in which the African-American character was a white actor wearing blackface. Suggested by yakkowarner. 1957 The Seventh Seal: Its success opened the U.S. market for foreign films in art house theatres throughout the country. 1960 Psycho: Its influence is in every subsequent serial killer movie. * 1966 Thunderbirds are Go: First feature with an all-puppet cast. Suggested by ChrisJarmick. [This corrects our earlier citation of The Dark Crystal (1982).] * 1968 Faces: John Cassavetes' feature opened Hollywood and the general public's mind to the possibilities of independent filmmaking, paving the way for such movies as Slacker (1991) and Reservoir Dogs (1992). Suggested by ChrisJarmick. [This corrects our citation of She's Gotta Have It (1986).] * 1968 Greetings: This movie, directed by Brian DePalma and starring Robert DeNiro, is the first rated X by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). 1969 2001: A Space Odyssey: innovative special effects 1970 Boys in the Band: first mainstream gay movie 1971 The Nightcomers: This movie starring Marlon Brando shows what happens before the events in Turn of the Screw (1961, aka The Innocents), making it the first prequel. 1975 Jaws: This was the first summer blockbuster and its phenomenal success sparked interest in box office numbers among people outside the movie industry. * 1976 The Young Teacher: This South Korean drama was the first movied released for home video on VHS. The next year the first American VHS releases were The Sound of Music, Patton and M*A*S*H. 1977 Star Wars: Other movies had some merchandising associated with them, but this one ushered in the marketing blitzes that are standard today. 1978 Superman: The Movie was the first with a computer-generated title sequence. 1979 Alien: first to feature a woman as an action hero. Suggested by talyseon. 1981 Looker: first computer-generated human character 1982 Bladerunner: First major feature to have a "director's edition" released after the movie's original theatrical run. Suggested by telynor. 1982 Tron: first extensive use of computer-generated images (CGI) * 1983 Stars War Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi is the first movie shown with the THX sound quality assurance system that ensures the sound will best match that intended by the movie's mixing engineer. Suggested by yakkowarner. 1984 The Adventures of Andre and Wally B: first computer-generated animated short 1984 The Last Starfighter: First "integrated CGI" in which the effects represent real objects. In this case it was the starships. 1986 Luxo Jr.: This short was the first computer-generated film to be nominated for an Academy Award. 1986 Platoon: The first Hollywood movie to offer a gritty realistic look at how modern war really is. Suggested by jeff_wilder78. 1988 Willow: First movie to feature morphing technology. Suggested by captaind. * 1988 Akira: The first state-of-art visual effects, large production budget, and fluid animation in an Anime movie. Suggested by yakkowarner. * 1990 Henry & June: The first feature rated NC-17 by the MPAA. 1991 Beauty and the Beast: The first animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture. Suggested by goodfellamike. Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) also scored Best Picture nominations. 1994 Radioland Murders: First to feature computer-generated sets. Suggested by carstairs. 1995 Toy Story: first computer-animated feature * 1996 Twister: the first movie released for home video on DVD 1999 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is the first movie to be screened with digital projection technology. Suggested by goodfellamike. 1999 The Blair Witch Project: early major success for on-line marketing 2001 Final Fantasy: Spirits Within was the first to use the motion capture technology employed later for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Polar Express (2004) and the upcoming Tintin. Suggested by swoeste. * 2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is the first movie filmed on digital video. Suggested by goodfellamike and yakkowarner. _____ Films that will become groundbreaking if any others follow the trail they blazed: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946): The only film for which a single actor (Harold Russell) has won two Academy Awards for the same role. Suggested by rkingfish. This accomplishment seems likely to remain unique because the Academy changed its rules to discourage a repeat. Midnight Cowboy (1969): The only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Suggested by goodfellamike. For this list, any film rated NC-17 would qualify. Passion of the Christ (2004): The only Bible film rated R. Suggested by goodfellamike. ________________ The original introduction (April 2008) Adam Ant is a visionary. More than 20 years ago the British pop star sang about our culture's pervasive tendency to wallow in instant and meaningless hype: "Two weeks and you're an all-time legend, I think they really go much too far." Mr. Ant hadn't seen anything yet. Since he sang that, a list of words that have been stripped of any meaning through careless overuse would have to include legend as well as superstar, icon and diva. We have the chance to save two words from falling into meaninglessness: "groundbreaking" and "revolutionary" as they are used in many movie reviews. By pooling our collective experiences and judgments, we can compile a list of the only movies that genuinely deserve to be called either revolutionary or groundbreaking. What follows is a start to that list. Please leave in the comments section your additions, corrections or arguments. Anything is fair game. Perhaps a movie mentioned here is not the one that deserves credit. Or maybe an advance cited here is not influential enough to count. Be as bold, supportive or contrary as you like. Your passion can spark life in the project. This enterprise started when captaind suggested in a recent post on the Epinions movie message board that reviews heralding a "revolutionary" or "groundbreaking" movie tend not to persuade. With your help, we can preserve those adjectives for the relatively few movies that have earned them.  |
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