Godfather dons 'best ever film' mantle

Where did all the foreign films go?

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Entertainment, 25th September 2008 08:49 GMT

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Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather has emerged as the best film ever in a poll of the top 500 films compiled by Empire magazine.

Crowd-pleasing favourites - such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, The Shawshank Redemption and Jaws are the other choices to make Empire's top five, which is best on a survey of readers, film directors and critics.

Critics' favourite Citizen Kane falls well outside the top 10, at number 28 in the poll, while the only film from this century to make into the top 20, The Dark Knight, slots in at number 15. Over at the Internet Movie Database The Dark Knight appears third on a list of best films behind The Godfather and The Shawshank Redemption, following a summer-long click-off between fans of the three films.

There's plenty to enjoy browsing through The Empire list, but perhaps its most serious anomaly is the lack of foreign films in the top 20. Surely both City of God and The Seven Samurai deserve a place at the top table?

Empire's full run-down of The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time can be found here. ®

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