And so it began…
So the other day I was in this most esteemed website’s chat room when I offhandedly commented that the 80’s was not a good decade for movies, especially outside of comedies. I did not realize what I was starting.
Furor erupted! “Heresy!” they screamed! I had no idea people felt so strongly about it! They listed some good movies. Could I be so wrong? WAS the 80’s a good decade for film? And that leads to a bigger question, what is the GREATEST decade for film? I had to find out!
Interlude for the Important Stuff: Comic Book Movies!
First, let’s take a moment to address the most pertinent question: what was the greatest decade for COMIC BOOK movies? I welcome argument, but I think this one is obvious.
Sorry, 70’s and 80’s. I know you tired, but even when the source material was taken seriously, the technical side just wasn’t ready yet. So despite Superman (1978), multiple made for TV Hulk’s, and Batman (1989), I just can’t hand either of you the title.
Ah, the 90’s. While you saw the decline of Batman, you hinted at greater things to come with the likes of The Rocketeer (1991), The Crow (1994), Men in Black (1997), Spawn (1997), and Blade (1998). Still, we weren’t quite there yet…
Enter the new Millennium! Wow, what a great time to be a comic book fan. From X-Men (2000) to Watchmen (2009), it was the first real decade to do the genre justice. With gems as diverse as The Dark Knight (2008), Road to Perdition (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Sin City (2005), and 300 (2007), just to mention a few, the 00’s have definitely been the greatest decade for comic book movies.
Will the 10’s be better yet? While everyone (at least on this site) might argue over each films overall quality, I’m betting everybody enjoyed at least one of this years offerings. In live action we got Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Losers, RED, and Kick-Ass. In animation we got Planet Hulk, Batman: Under the Red Hood, Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths, and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. Looking forward to the rest of the decade, we already know we’ve got Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, and the Avengers on the way. I think it will give the 00’s a run for their money. Now, let’s take a look at…
Film Overall!
The Method: I’m a big stickler for objectivity…except when I already know that my opinion is the only one that matters…which is usually the case…but not this time! This time I’m going to get all mathy and sciencey on it! If there is anything I love besides comics and movies, it’s a good spreadsheet! (Man…I am such a nerd. Moving on!) But how does one try to objectively determine something so subjective as the quality of films in a given decade? Well, here’s what I did.
First, I pulled a whole bunch of lists of the top films of all time. Specifically:
(((IMDb Top 250)))
(((All-Time 100 Movies)))
(((The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made)))
(((Rotten Tomatoes: Top Movies)))
(((AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies)))
(((They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?)))
(((AMC Filmsite Top Films of All-Time)))
Then I took each list and determined what percentage of movies on it came from each decade. Then I averaged each decade’s percentage across all the lists, and ranked the movies by this percentage. I also ranked each list individually and determined the average rank and median rank, and sorted them that way. Did you follow all that statistical mumbo jumbo? Doesn’t matter! Just trust me. I think its pretty darn objective. What I’m really figuring out is what decade produced the highest number of great movies. Before we get to the results, let’s look at…
The Contenders: Now, unfortunately several of the above lists were created in the midst of the 00’s, so I really couldn’t analyze this most recent decade. I know, I know, but hey, we already gave the 00’s the award for best comic book decade, right? Besides, we’re still a little to close to the subject. We need some time to digest. You’d be shock at how many classics were panned at the time. So let’s look at what we’ve got left, starting with…
The 20’s! Yeah, probably only one of our CBM member remembers seeing them in theaters *Cough*Gusto!*Cough*, but the early days of cinema produced some great films including Charlie Chaplin’s
The Kid (1921), the science fiction masterpiece
Metropolis (1927), and the horror classic
Nosferatu (1922). The 20’s had influence and quality, just not quantity. Things were just getting started. So we move on too…
The 30’s! Nothing like a depression to get the creative juices flowing! A decade that opened with
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and
King Kong (1933) and ended with
The Wizard of Oz (1939) and
Gone with the Wind (1939) has a lot to say for itself, especially when the middle is full of the Marx Brothers and Frankenstein films. Once again, high quality, but perhaps not enough quantity to make it rise to the top. So what about…
The 40’s! What’s that? A Great Depression not enough for you? How about a World War? That’ll get ya’
The Grapes of Wrath (1940),
Citizen Kane (1942),
Casablanca (1942),
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and whole bunch of screwball comedies. Now were rolling! So let’s see what happens in…
The 50’s! Okay, we’re in the Cold War, but things are going pretty well. As a matter of fact, we’ve got a ton of money to throw at movies. Let’s see what we can get. Drama? How about
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951),
On the Waterfront (1954) and
12 Angry Men (1957)? Comedy? See if you can get a laugh out of
Harvey (1950) and
Some Like it Hot (1959). Sci-Fi? Marvel at
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951),
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and
The Fly (1958)! Adventure? We got
The African Queen (1952),
Seven Samurai (1954), and
Ben-Hur (1959). You wanna talk about Westerns? War movies? Musicals? Suspense movies with Hitchcock?!? TOUGH! We ain’t got that kinda time! It’s already…
The 60’s! Wow, nothing like a prior decade of peace (nobody remembers the Korean War) and prosperity to make the kids go absolutely crazy with the drugs and free love and what not. What have we got in this grab bag? Just such gold as
Psycho (1960),
Spartacus (1960),
Lawrence of Arabia (1962),
THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963)! Um, sorry…personal favorite. Also, to
Kill a Mockingbird (1962),
Dr. Strangelove (1964),
The Sound of Music (1965),
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and a bunch of fantastic, if long, Eastwood westerns, among other things! And the madness continues with…
The 70’s! Hey! Check it out! Some of you readers may actually be born before long! You’re coming in with such greats as
Patton (1970),
A Clockwork Orange (1971), and
The Godfather (1972)!
Hey, there’s Sleuth (1972) and
The Sting (1973)! Didn’t see that twist coming, did you? You were probably too scared by
the Exorcist (1973) and
Jaws (1975)!
Chinatown (1974) and
Taxi Driver (1976) keep it gritty while
Star Wars (1977) is like nothing else! Yeah, to bad the Vietnam War sucked, but at least we got
The Deer Hunter (1978) and
Apocalypse Now (1979). I know what you’re thinking:
Star Wars? End of discussion. That’s the answer. But we’ve still got the decade that sparked the whole debate…
The 80’s! Where a lot of us spent our childhood. So, what made me question this decade? NOT the films I am about to address. It was all the other crap. To repeat, it was not
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981),
Blade Runner (1982),
Aliens (1986), or
Die Hard (1988). Definitely not those. You also got
Raging Bull (1980)
E. T. (1982), and
Platoon (1986). As a side note, there was a huge amount of diversity between the different lists when it came to the 80’s. Many films only appear on one list and none of the others. I guess it was a time of transition and confusion before the last decade we have enough data on…
The 90’s! Now, I’ve heard a lot of people talk trash about the 90’s, but I think it’s our familiarity with it that makes it happen. Nobody sorted this decade out for most of us. We watched stuff ourselves as it hit the theaters, so we saw the good and the bad. Don’t let that bad stuff make you forget that the 90’s started with
Goodfellas (1990) and ended with
The Matrix (1999). Between those you managed to get the suspense of
The Silence of the Lambs (1991), the drama of
Schindler’s List (1993) and
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and the madness of
Pulp Fiction (1994). The 90’s also managed to pull off a great western in
Unforgiven (1992), a great war movie in
Saving Private Ryan (1998), and a new era in animation with
Toy Story.
The Result: We’ve looked at the contenders, sorted the lists, we’ve run the numbers, and the winner is…
The 50’s! Here are the full results:
Decade - Average Percent - Rank
50 ------------ 17.21% ---------- 1
60 ------------ 15.24% ---------- 2
70 ------------ 13.89% ---------- 3
40 ------------ 13.49% ---------- 4
80 ------------ 13.19% ---------- 5
90 ------------ 12.62% ---------- 6
30 ------------ 10.82% ---------- 7
20 -------------- 3.55% ---------- 8
By the way, no matter how you sliced it, 50’s was on top. The median and average rank sure helped the 80’s thought! Now if only people could agree more on which movies were the good ones.
Decade - Median Rank - Decade - Average Rank
50 -------------- 2 ----------- 50 ----------- 2.29
60 -------------- 3 ----------- 60 ----------- 3.29
80 -------------- 3 ----------- 80 ----------- 3.29
70 -------------- 4 ----------- 40 ----------- 3.86
40 -------------- 5 ----------- 70 ----------- 4.29
90 -------------- 6 ----------- 90 ----------- 4.29
30 -------------- 6 ----------- 30 ----------- 5.43
20 -------------- 8 ----------- 20 ----------- 8.00
Once again, I know what you’re thinking: Your favorite movies aren’t from the 50’s are they? Mine aren’t either. Well, that’s okay. Remember, we’re just talking about the decade with the most movies that people can agree are really great. I’d say two takeaways from this little study are as follows:
1) If you haven’t seen some of the great older movies listed above, you probably should. A lot of good stuff was made before most of us started going to the theaters. That list up there for the 50’s is really pretty impressive.
2) As time goes on opinions change. On IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes the 80’s made it into the top three!
So just keep getting people to watch the movies YOU know are good, and who knows what this list might look like in another decade? The greatness you see may finally be recognized by others!
Thanks for reading! Cast your vote for the greatest decade below!