AFI 100 Years, 100 Movies: No. 26


Back in 1998, the American Film Institute unveiled its list of the 100 greatest films as voted on by members of the cinematic community. The year, I'm looking at the films on that list, re-ranked according to my preference. Check back Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year as we walk through this list of classic films.

Walsh: Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

Chinatown (1974)
Original List Position: 19
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston
Director: Roman Polanski
About: This is a complicated film. The story is great. The performances are great. The sequences, many of them, are iconic. But it is somewhat hard to think about the Polanski of it all. This is one of his iconic early films, and remains wildly popular. It was No. 19 on the original list and listed at No. 21 on the follow up list. It isn't much lower than that for me, and was certainly one of the films I pointed to in my look at films from the 1970s. I enjoy Nicholson here in a part that's complex and a story that certainly makes you think.

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