AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies

The most basic form of American heroism — the individual in lonely, dangerous situations, inspiring opposition to the oppressive, often deadly, system. All these guys are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore. Films include: MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, EASY RIDER, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, DANCES WITH WOLVES, SCHINDLER'S LIST.

Crime may be the subject closest to the melodramatic heart of the movies. Filmmakers have always loved to show us how organized crime gets itself organized to corrupt society. They have loved even more showing us the ways of disorganized crime — crimes of the dysfunctional heart and the disheveled spirit. Public enemies and private nightmares — they are equally the subjects of the show. Films include: THE MALTESE FALCON, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, BONNIE AND CLYDE, THE GODFATHER, GOODFELLAS, PULP FICTION, FARGO.

The family is our most treasured institution and our most vulnerable one. It is constantly threatened internally by generational fractiousness, externally by dislocating events. When it fails, people — especially young people — recreate it in surrogate forms. When it surmounts its challenges, it warms our hearts. Films include: THE JAZZ SINGER, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, GIANT, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, THE GODFATHER: PART TWO, AMERICAN GRAFFITI.

Buried treasure, of course. But, more importantly, of states of grace — spiritual, secular, sexual. Quests are another essential movie form. They are often the occasion for mighty spectacle, high-impact action. But as we'll show, the questing impulse is no less powerful when it comes to a man trapped in a room alone. Films include: THE GOLD RUSH, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, BEN-HUR, ROCKY, VERTIGO, THE SEARCHERS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, FORREST GUMP.

It's sweetly sentimental sometimes. But it is also snappy, scrappy, and sappy. Occasionally it's gender-bending; often it is touched by poignancy, not to mention tragedy. How do we love one another? Let us chart the many forms this fever takes. Films include: CITY LIGHTS, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, BRINGING UP BABY, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, WEST SIDE STORY, THE GRADUATE, TOOTSIE.

Movies, we like to say, are the great art form of our time. But that ignores the claims of weaponry. In the age of mass destruction, war has inevitably been one of the movies' central preoccupations. And no medium has more powerfully, more vividly presented its horrors — and, yes, its occasional glories. Films include: THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, PATTON, APOCALYPSE NOW, THE DEER HUNTER, PLATOON.