1997 AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies List of Films That Did Not Make the 2007 List  39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO MGM, 1965 PRINCIPAL CAST Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay, Rod Steiger DIRECTOR David Lean PRODUCER Carlo Ponti SCREENWRITER Robert Bolt Lean’s sweeping saga set against the Russian Revolution is the story of a young doctor/poet torn between two women. But it is his love for Lara that propels the film, memorable for its haunting music score and stunning cinematography. Lean collaborated with cinematographer Freddie Young for the second time.  44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION Epoch, 1915 PRINCIPAL CAST Lillian Gish, Henry B. Walthall DIRECTOR D.W. Griffith PRODUCER D.W. Griffith SCREENWRITERS D.W. Griffith, Frank E. Woods A groundbreaking technical achievement, this controversial milestone epic about the Civil War and its aftermath still sparks debate today. President Woodrow Wilson said, “It is like writing history with lightning.”  52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY Columbia, 1953 PRINCIPAL CAST Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra DIRECTOR Fred Zinnemann PRODUCER Buddy Adler SCREENWRITER Daniel Taradash The image of waves crashing over the passionately embracing Kerr and Lancaster is one of the most sensual ever filmed, in this story of Army life in Honolulu on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack. The US’ sudden involvement in World War II interrupts the two love affairs in the film.  53. AMADEUS Orion, 1984 PRINCIPAL CAST Tom Hulce, F. Murray Abraham DIRECTOR Milos Forman PRODUCER Saul Zaentz SCREENWRITER Peter Shaffer Abraham’s Antonio Salieri declares war against the heavens for speaking through the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, played by Hulce. Flashbacks illuminate the mad, energetic brilliance of Mozart and Salieri’s struggle with his own mediocrity. “There are simply too many notes, that’s all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.”  54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT Universal, 1930 PRINCIPAL CAST Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray DIRECTOR Lewis Milestone PRODUCER Carl Laemmle, Jr. SCREENWRITERS George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews This antiwar drama based on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel follows the lives of a group of fresh-faced German boys who join the Army during World War I. In one of the film’s most memorable moments, Ayres reaches for a butterfly, juxtaposing all the violence swirling around him in the trenches. 57. THE THIRD MAN Selznick, 1949 PRINCIPAL CAST Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli DIRECTOR Carol Reed PRODUCERS Alexander Korda, Carol Reed, David O. Selznick SCREENWRITER Graham Greene The rotting streets of postwar Vienna are a metaphor for the paranoia in this bleak film noir of a supposed dead man and the old friend who wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Mercury Theatre collaborators Welles and Cotten play a chilling game of cat and mouse.  58. FANTASIA Disney, 1940 DIRECTORS Joe Grant, Dick Huemer PRODUCER Walt Disney Disney’s groundbreaking union of classical music and animated images is a visual feast for young and old. Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is one of film history’s most indelible icons.  59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE Warner Bros., 1955 PRINCIPAL CAST James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo DIRECTOR Nicholas Ray PRODUCER David Weisbart SCREENWRITERS Nicholas Ray, Irving Shulman, Stewart Stern Dean’s defining role as a tortured high-school student also seemed to define a generation of 1950s teenagers who felt isolated from their parents and sought solace with friends and authority-defying drag racing.  63. STAGECOACH United Artists, 1939 PRINCIPAL CAST John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell DIRECTOR John Ford PRODUCER Walter Wanger SCREENWRITER Dudley Nichols Ford’s first film shot in his beloved Monument Valley, the film single-handedly reinvented the Western genre. The movie also made a star out of Wayne, a vengeance-seeking fugitive transformed when he boards the stagecoach.  64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND Columbia, 1977 PRINCIPAL CAST Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Francois Truffaut, Melinda Dillon DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg PRODUCERS Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips SCREENWRITER Steven Spielberg Dreyfuss is a power company technician who becomes obsessed with the possibility of extra-terrestrial life after a brief encounter with them. He shuns career and family in pursuit of something that he knows means something: “This is important.”
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