Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Marty's Mom and Robert de Niro in 'Good Fellas'
by Sam Juliano
Martin Scorsese’s wildly popular mobster epic, Good Fellas took top honors for the two-and-a half month long 1990’s voting by a razor thin margin over the first runner-up, according to official voting tabulator Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr. unveiling the results from his Binghampton, New York home. D’Arminio officially confirmed that Good Fellas scored 419 points in the weighted ballot tabulation, 14 more than Kieslowski’s Blue, which finished with 405. Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line, (with 312), Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter (with 305) and Kieslowski’s Red (with 302) rounded out the top five. Kieslowski, one of cinema’s greatest artists, led the field of directors by placing three films in the Top 25, with The Double Life of Veronique finishing at No. 14. A total of 16 American films placed in the Top 25 with one Canadian entry and one from the U.K. Seven foreign-language films were named. The 90’s poll attracted over 40 voters, and the final numbers were extraordinarily close. The final tabulation is as follows:
1 GOODFELLAS (SCORSESE) 419
2 BLUE (KIESLOWSKI) 405
3 THE THIN RED LINE (TERRENCE MALICK) 312
4 THE SWEET HEREAFTER (EGOYAN) 305
5 RED (KIESLOWSKI) 302
6 PULP FICTION (TARANTINO) 261
7 SCHINDLER’S LIST (SPIELBERG) 260
8 FARGO (COENS) 258
9 DEAD MAN (JARMUSCH) 257
10 THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (IVORY) 231
11 UNFORGIVEN (EASTWOOD) 229
12 MAGNOLIA (ANDERSON) 223
13 THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (DEMME) 220
14 THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE (KIESLOWSKI) 219
15 THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (DARABONT) 206
16 EYES WIDE SHUT (KUBRICK) 204
17 SATANTANGO (TARR; HUNGARY) 183
18 JFK (STONE) 176
19 A TASTE OF CHERRY (KIAROSTAMI) 170
20 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (WISE/TRUSDALE) 170
21 HEAT (MANN) 166
22 THE PIANO (CAMPION) 158
23 GATTACA (NICCOL) 144
24 BOOGIE NIGHTS (ANDERSON) 140
25 L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (HANSON) 140
- Juliette Binoche in Kieslowski’s ‘Blue’ which finished at #2
Screen capture from Terrence Malick's 'The Thin Red Line' which finished at #3
Ian Holm and Sarah Polley in Atom Egoyan's 'The Sweet Hereafter' which placed at #4
Irene Jacob in Kieslowski's 'Red' which finished at #5
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Writers/Founders
Thanks to all the loyal readers of WitD, who made this venture such a spectacular success. Thanks to Allan for his peerless countdown, which provided the springboard for some of the most extraordinary on line film threads over the past two months. Thanks to the WitD staff: Joel, Jamie, Dee Dee, Bob Clark and Tony d’Ambra, all of whom have made massive contributions to the polling and the follow-up discussions. Of course it goes without saying that our blogger friends are the heart and soul here, and so many made this decade poll work as well as it did, casting ballots an dlaunching enriching discourse.
Thanks to our Voting Tabulator Extraordinaire, Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr. for another efficient, lightening quick tabulation.
Sam, here’s my 90’s list, much too late for inclusion, of course, but it looks a lot different from the official tally.
1. A Taste of Cherry 2. Natural Born Killers 3. Schindler’s List 4. La Belle Noiseuse 5. Vanya on 42nd St. 6 Colonel Chabert 7. La Promesse 8. Affliction 9. The Straight Story 10. Remains of the Day.
My filmgoing really dropped off throughout the 90’s after squirming through celebrated gruel like “The Player” (Altman never made a decent film after the staggering “Nashville,” maybe the most precipitous falling-off in movie history), “Pulp Fiction,” “The Piano,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Casino” (despite Sharon Stone’s red-hot performance), “Magnolia,” The English Patient,” and the list is too depressingly long to go on.
What can you recommend from 2000-2010?
Mr Enduction Hour, I actually agree with you about Altman though I would throw Nashville in there as well in the overrated department. Give me McCabe, Goodbye, Thieves, and Cali Split any day………
Maurizio — Loved “The Long Goodbye,” it bubbles right under my top 10. “California Split” is a pleasant relaxation or pause right before the onslaught of “Nashville.” Haven’t seen “Thieves Like Us” or “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” since the 80’s, so I’d have to re-watch them before commenting. I vaguely remember “McCabe” as though it were filmed through a Pacific Northwest pea-souper or an opium haze. Vilmos Zsigmond is a master, so I’ll have to revisit that film. What about “M*A*S*H?” Too commercial? Pales in comparison to the sitcom? I remember it as an anarchic gutbuster. Try to reconsider “Nashville,” though. As the summation of an era, of an America unglued, of a national nervous breakdown I can think of no other Amercian film that approaches it. It’s a comedy, a drama, a great fugue, a musical and you don’t even have to like country music (I don’t) to love it. Tomlin, Blakely, Gibson, Black, Chaplin, Garfield, Carridine, Harris etc. are all first-rate. Altman obviously loves these corny characters and refuses to mock them as he later did in the similarly overpopulated “A Wedding.” I’m ready to watch it again.
I consider McCabe Altman’s best film and perhaps my favorite western ever. The Long Goodbye is a lock to make my noir countdown if I decide to add neo-noirs. The repudiation of the private dick in that film could only have been accomplished so thoroughly in the 70’s where societal upheaval was supposedly as bad as today (I was born at the tail end of the 70’s so I only have word of mouth). While there are many great young American directors working today, I wish more would attempt the daring genre deconstruction’s Altman did in his prime.
Not a fan of MASH in any form.
You think “McCabe” is a debunking of the Western myth? Just asking because I plan to see it after a long hiatus in the next few days.
Last night I saw “McCabe” after a 25-yr. hiatus so here goes —
I remember Kael calling “McCabe” a “pipe dream of a movie,” but she should have called it a “maryjane pipe dream,” because Altman must have inhaled a cropful of Maui Wowie when he took Edmund Naughton’s little novel, distended it to over two hours, and then tried to pawn it off as a revisionist Western. The original title of this snowglobe of murk was “The Presbyterian Church Wager,” which sounds more accurate considering the film’s about a strutting clown’s disastrous business acumen and the way he blows a golden windfall.
The romance between Beatty and Christie (off-screen lovers at the time, but who cares, Beatty finally ended up with Annette Benning, a far better actress than Ms. C., she of the Eternally Pouting Lower Lip) is a bust because Christie’s madam is just too wordly-wise for this dimwit, whose legend rests on an apocryphal story about killing some big-shot gubernatorial candidate. He’s just a poseur and we know it way before Hugh Millais (head hitman) spills the beans.
But “McCabe” does have an ethereal dreamscape, an analogue to Mrs. C’s opium addiction, that makes people love it (Zsigmond is too good for this picture). Perhaps if I rolled a fat one and watched this I would love it too. But a big, fat one would probably make “The Sound of Music” look great.
I’ll toss “McCabe” into the dustbin with Altman’s other disasters, but “Nashville” remains undiminished, as prescient as ever in this post-Watergate, post-Bicentennial, post-Lennon Hal Phillip Walker, tea-bagging horrorshow election cycle.
Great work WiTD folks with the poll. Truly an achievement.
9 of my 25 made it to the final list and it was a wonderful journey through Allan’s top picks. Thanks all.
9 is pretty good there JAFB! Thanks so much for the kind words and much-valued support.
Hi! Sam Juliano, Allan and Voting Tabulator Extraordinaire, Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr. and Wonders in the Dark readers…
Congratulation! on the top five choices…in the 90s Poll Countdown.
DeeDee 😉
Thanks for the continuous impassioned support Dee Dee. Mr. D’Arminio does deserve much credit as he worked extra hours in getting this early announcement out.
Congrats to the WitD staff on another fun and enlightening decade poll. I had 14 of the 25 in my poll, so I can obviously state that I like the outcome here 🙂
Question — is there a breakdown of how many ballots each movie was on? I’m just curious.
Question 2 — I notice that past polling threads are nowhere to be found. Is there an archive of these from the other decades. I wanted to go back and see who had voted for what in the past…
14 of 25 Troy??? That is unbelievable!!!! Be rest assured no other voter chose anywhere there that. But again, your help and enthusiasm (and hard work) fueled this venture as prominently as any other element.
A fascinating list and an impressive undertaking. Well done and thank you for organising this poll.
I am disappointed that only 3 of my 25 made it (Eyes Wide Shut, Satantango, Pulp Fiction).
I really hated Goodfellas (I despised every character and felt it lacked psychological nuance) but this result was to be expected.
Thanks very much Stephen!
Well it appears you are at the other extreme, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with beating your own drum.
Stephen, I think I see what you mean about the “psychological nuance”. However, I think this is more down to the characters being rather blinkered in pursuit of their primal and fiscal aims than to Scorsese’s approach not being subtle enough. In other words, that it’s not so much the film that’s not psychologically nuanced, but the characters it’s observing. (Also, I’m guessing you think Scorsese’s film meant to provide penetrating insight on the mob mentality, since you rate PF highly even though it eschews much more than pop psychology – which is fine by me; I rate both films highly.)
Out of curiosity, are you a Scorsese fan in general or do you find most of his work lacking? I’m big on the guy but I definitely know people who are not so keen (David Thomson for one).
I couldn’t get under the skin of these people. I couldn’t see the insecurities or fears or ambition that drove them and made them so trigger-happy. You could sense that’s what he was going for but all I got was people getting annoyed and then hitting each other.
Scorsese’s films lack nuance because, to me, the characters are an ‘attitude’ or an accent rather than 3-dimensional people. Departed got closer than any of his films to human depth – and yet remains worse than Infernal Affairs. You could swap characters across his films and the films would remain fundamentally the same.
Also, it gets rather tiresome seeing so many beatings and shootings (some rock-soundtracked) that seem to revel in themselves.
Well, maybe I didn’t explain myself well. What I mean is Goodfellas is merely a veneer, a grey and ugly pose. Goodfellas goes with the flow of the characters single-mindedness rather than digging – and that’s what keeps it from engaging with them and me.
Interesting – I like “the single-minded” flow/intensity of Scorsese’s cinema, so I don’t necessarily disagree with all of what you say, though I like the results more than you do. But I’m surprised to hear you say that about Departed – to me that was one of his more superficial movies, while fun. I agree that Infernal Affairs is probably a stronger piece of work though I might prefer to watch Departed at a given moment (down to the Boston setting, Nicholson’s scenery-chewing, and some of the set pieces I suppose).
I think the characters are “real” they’re just dominated by certain personality traits – 3 dimonsional, but one of the dimensions larger than life.
Are Kieslowski’s films really called just ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’? Isn’t it ‘Three Colours : Red’. I think it sounds awful otherwise and the average film-goer wouldn’t know that they relate to each other.
Yes, but in America they were released as just Blue, White and Red. In the rest of the world they were correctly prefixed by Three Colours (Trois Couleurs)
I see. Thanks.
Another great list. Congratulations to all on a fine job.While i am glad “Goodfellas” took the top spot (being a Scorcese admirer) I am glad to see “The Sweet Hereafter” placing so high. Great job!!!
John, I knew the results here would please you, and was thinking of you and Dave when GOOD FELLAS prevailed. Yes, THE SWEET HEREAFTER was a big favorite here, particular with David Schleicher, both Olsons and yourself!
Another great poll that was as enjoyable as usual. 11 of my Top 25 actually made this list, which is a pretty high number. My #1 film was predictably Goodfellas, so of course I like to see it finishing in the top spot. There are also some other results that are somewhat surprising to me, but not in a bad way. I really like Jarmusch’s DEAD MAN, but even I am a bit surprised to see it finish all the way at #8. I also am somewhat surprised to see THE THIN RED LINE finishing so high, but with my love for all things Malick, that is another result I’m glad to see.
Dave, I really didn’t see that #3 placement for Malick’s film coming, so I’ll admit it was a very pleasant surprise! Oh I knew you’d be thrilled with GOOD FELLAS!!! 11 out of 25 is real impressive! Thanks so much for the great enthusiasm you afford this project right along.
I never got my ballot in before the deadline. My apologies. But looking over this list, I couldn’t have done anything to improve these fantastic results. It was an American decade with a few key foreign-language films in the mix, so one can’t contest the choices with any degree of seriousness.
I had to look twice at Stephen’s comment above concerning the ‘lack of psychological nuance’ in the film, when that is in fact perhaps its strongest aspect.
Yeah, Stephen’s tough on the film Joe. But his opinion is as valid as the next guys. Thanks for all your support. Not voting is really no big deal, as few are expected to participate in every polling.
Yeah that’s a rather bizarre observation. Didn’t find that at all.
Congratulations to all who again gave us a decade examination that’s a keeper. There will never be complete agreement, even with a film like”Good Fellas” but that’s the nature of the game. Great choices from top to bottom.
Indeed Frank. The results here were, at least in numerical terms were not on par with Allan’s countdown, though most of the highest finishers did make his list further down and are considered masterpieces by him. Thanks for getting that ballot in under the wire.
Good to see THE THIN RED LINE ranked so highly. It is definitely one of the best films of the decade. Also, great to see DEAD MAN up there but I was bit surprised that JFK and HEAT ranked where they did for films that are usually regarded in such high esteem (of course, I voted for THE INSIDER so there’s that).
J.D., with thousands of films eligible for the poll, to finish in the Top 25 is quite a feat for any of the films that made it, so as I see it both JFK and HEAT did extremely well. But I know and respect your love for both, which I essentially share. Thanks for your much appreciative involvement!
Great films. Great polling. Great essays. Great enthusiasm.
Short, sweet and succinct Fred!
It was a fun ride, and commendations are in order for Mr. Fish, whose consistently outstanding essays fueled the discussions, the many who took time to cast ballots, and Sam, whose tireless energy kept the excitement until the very last day. I thought Goodfellas was a very fine choice – one that so many other 90’s polls have also supported – even if it didn’t make my own final ballot.
Thanks Peter for all your support right along.
I have to admit that I’m a little disappointed (though not remotely surprised) by the outcome here. With only a couple of exceptions these are all films that I admire, respect and most importantly enjoy, but not remotely in this order. “Goodfellas” was high on my list, but even I’ll admit that I grow tired of seeing sacred cows of its like toted from canon to canon, and it’s a feeling I share regarding pretty much every film on this list. Most of all, I’m rather shocked by the low tide of support for “Heat”, a movie I consider far and away superior to dreck like “Magnolia” and “Fargo”. Stuff I’m pleasantly surprised to see made the cut– “Dead Man”, “The Sweet Hereafter” and most especially “Gattaca”.
Eh. My only regret– I wish I’d remembered to include the Otomo anime-anthology of “Memories”. I much prefer “Robot Carnival” personally, but the shorts “Magnetic Rose” and “Cannon Fodder” are better than pretty much any other animated efforts of the decade, and I can do naught but chastise myself for neglecting to mention them.
Thanks Bob, it’s always a special treat to have your input. I can’t say that I was surprised by the top placement of GOOD FELLAS, though I saw that the Kieslowski films were giving Scorsese a run for his money. At the end of the day with polls like this, popularity plays a major role, though major critics have backed the Scorsese film as the best of the decade continuously in internet polls, a point you broached here yourself.
Tremendous List!!!!! Little bit of everything here. And although I would have prefered to see Kieslowski take the top position the fact remains he scored 3 films in the TOP 25!!!!!! WOW!!!!! Anyway, excellent job well done by all here and a big round of applause to Sam and Allan for bringing this thing off without a bump in the road. Its an honor to trade insights, feelings and passions for these films with such an intellectual and inspired group!!!!! BRAVO!!!!!
Thanks very much Dennis! Your role here during the unfolding was major!
Interesting.. didn’t expect Goodfellas to top the list.. Glad to see Thin red Line that high..
Kaleem, I must say the Malick completely surprised me. I didn’t see that one coming, but a mighty fine development, I must say.
Wowie zowie…I’m surprised to see JFK in there and THE REMAINS OF THE DAY so high…
Totally stoked about GOODFELLAS at the top (I thought PULP FICTION might prevail) and of course, THE SWEET HEREAFTER finishing strong at number 4.
Did this set the record for most ballots?
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful…great job as always, gents.
David, I believe we had a few more ballots for the 60’s poll, but I’ll have to check that out. In any case this was a great showing, especially with all the late ballots, which made figuring things out a near impossibility.
Congrats on THE SWEET HEREAFTER. You and Troy Olson carried the torch with #1 placements. A great film that deserved it.
Hey, wait just a minute….no BREAKING THE WAVES? I recall that being on many lists…can we demand a recount?
Just kidding…but seriously…that is the biggest surprise to me.
David, I believe it came very close to the top 25, maybe making the top 30, but yes this a major shock for me too.
A great list, and congratulations to Allan on all the thought-provoking reviews.
Where’s the original voting thread for this?
After searching for a half hour I give up… There appears to be no way to find it anywhere on the site. Even using google with “site:” I’m unable.
I like to read people’s personal lists.
Sadly, I think they disappear into the ether, lost forever. I’ve tried to find them in the past as well, to no avail.
Okay — I take it back. Having been given the unbridled power of admin rights, I checked and it appears that all of the comments from the old balloting posts are still around, they are all just in draft status.
I don’t want to be so presumptuous as to post all of those, but they really need a home (or at least a link on the sidebar).
Well I took the presumption, ha ha. They are all there, Trog (if you’re still here) – comments & all.
Trog: they have been restored to “published” status, comments intact. Scroll down the sidebar till you reach “Pages.”
Wow I may post my top 25 for all the decades I didn’t participate. It would be fun though completely trivial and unnecessary!!!!
Thanks much, for publishing the original polls.
Lots of great reading in the threads.
– troglodyte
You’re welcome, trog, happy hunting.
though some of the polls that are contained on 2 pages (like the 90’s is 192 comments, page two being comments 101-192), the link to page 1 is broken/missing. Meaning, that the initial lists and 100 comments are in the vast netherworld or gone.
The only thread this happened to is the 70s – and yes, unfortunately, the first 100 comments appear to have been deleted (maybe Angelo has a copy somewhere that he saved at the time of the poll?). Couldn’t even find the comments individually, let alone the thread page, seems to have vanished without a trace.