Not my favorite. Not the best...but...
The
MOST IMPORTANT and
WHY WAS IT IMPORTANT?
Rules/Guidelines:- YOU CAN'T GIVE MORE THAN 5. Five is the absolute limit.
- IMPORTANT means it had a profound impact on the film industry, on art, on social change, on mankind.
My choices:
Birth of a Nation (DW Griffith):
The first American epic. It was longer than any film and invented the "feature-length" film.
The single most controversial American film ever made. Some credit it with reinvigorating the KKK and inspiring a new wave of racism to take hold in the US.
It proved that film could be as important a social medium as an entertainment medium.
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola):
No film epitomizes the golden age of American cinema more than this film.
This film pioneered the frontier of American epics and changed the face of American filmmaking on an artistic level, giving American film it's first ever unique look and feel.
Star Wars: A New Hope (George Lucas):
This film redefined the Hollywood genre with groundbreaking special effects, mass appeal. This was the first American blockbuster.
For better or for worse, this film sent Hollywood into spiraling into the 80s with summer special effects blockbusters driving much of it's annual revenue.
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick):
It was so technologically advanced, it inspired everyone to start looking into their own future with a different light.
Few realize that this film kicked NASA into high gear propelling our space program into the forefront of the Cold War.
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles):
It wasn't just the greatest American film ever made, it was the first American film that proved that film was a legitimate art form and not just an entertainment medium.
Orson Welles was 26 when he made it. Seriously. 26.