The Pursuit of Greatness
Film, like all art, is subjective. What works for one film might not work for another. And yet some films are considered to be overwhelmingly great. As a film enthusiast and an aspiring filmmaker, I can’t help but wonder what truly makes a film great.
Some might argue that film is as much a business as it is an art, so we should let the box office numbers speak for themselves. In that case, we come up with a list of the greatest films ever, topped by James Cameron’s Avatar, Anthony and Joe Russo’s’s Avengers: Endgame, Titanic, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Eight out of the top ten highest-grossing films of all time are from the last ten years. The results are skewed towards more recent major American productions, and in 2022, this usually means big franchise films like those from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
It’s impossible to deny the commercial and cultural success of the MCU. Since about 2016, the idea of "the movies" has become entangled with Marvel movies. Out of the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time, ten are from the MCU. In fact, in 2018, 2019 and 2021, the top-grossing film was from the MCU. These films are clearly getting people to go to theaters and are extremely profitable, but does that mean that they’re some of the greatest films ever made? Several critics and acclaimed directors say no.
Martin Scorsese infamously compared superhero movies to theme parks. "It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional and psychological experiences to another human being," he said. And that was one of the milder opinions shared about the genre. On the other end of the spectrum, Alejandro G. Iñárritu expressed his displeasure, saying, "They have been poison, this cultural genocide because the audience is so overexposed to plot and explosions and shit that doesn't mean anything about the experience of being human." Both directors lament a human aspect that they think is lacking and affects the quality of these films. So, what films do directors and critics who share similar lines of thinking consider great?
One of the most popular and well-respected compilations of great films is the Greatest Films of All Time poll by the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound. Each decade, several critics and directors are invited to vote for the ten films they consider to be the greatest of all time. These are then compiled into one list of 100 films, which are usually regarded as part of the film canon.
The Sight and Sound poll has existed since 1952 and, as you can imagine, has undergone several changes since then. In the first iteration, only 63 film professionals were involved in the voting process. That figure has risen to 1,639 by 2022. This year, the pollwas topped by Chantal Akerman’s 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, with films like Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane following close behind.
The majority of the films on the list date from the 1950s to the 1970s. To put this in perspective, only 19 films were from the last three decades. Despite this seemingly low number, it’s an increase from the 2012 poll, where 12% were from the three most recent decades. This is expected from an expanded voting body, but people like director Paul Schrader think this number discredits the integrity of the poll. The predominant argument posed by detractors of this year’s list was recency bias, which they felt was evidenced by the presence of Get Out, Moonlight, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. There’s this misconception that we can’t declare a film one of the greatest of all time unless it’s at least a decade old.
The past is held in high reverence in most art circles. There will always be classics or staples of a medium, but that does not mean that people cannot create something of similar or surpassing quality. The idea that this isn’t possible is particularly harmful to young creatives. As a Black aspiring filmmaker, I was elated to see Get Out and Moonlight so widely appreciated. However, the reaction to their appearance on the Sight and Sound list was dissuading. I was given the impression that even though people like myself have more opportunities to share our stories now, they will never be taken as seriously as those by a white man 50 years ago. My work could be good, but it would never be truly great.
We seem to be at a point where prestige is still something virtually inaccessible for people of color, women, and other marginalized identities. When we’re in blockbusters, we’re there to fill a "diversity quota," but when we’re in more serious films, the director has gone "woke." It is simultaneously tedious, frustrating, and exhausting. And those frustrations often carry over to the majority-white film canon for some.
I’m convinced that what makes a film great is its ability to fundamentally move you as an individual. While Ladri di biciclette may not have done anything for me, Titane did, and so I consider it to be a great film. The inverse is true for others, and that is completely valid as well. There have been great films in the past, there are great films now, and there will be great films in the future. The past is a treasure trove of ideas and information, just as are the present and future. Instead of completely rejecting one or the other, the only way we can truly progress is to embrace and try to reconcile those differences.