Facebook Face Off: Best Movie of the 20th Century

What is the best movie of the 20th century?  I am conducting a facebook contest amongst my vast army of 150 facebook friends in a one by one faceoff until a top movie is determined.  Voting has ranged from a low of  seven votes to pick between Modern Times and Duck Soup, to a high of 31 between The Lion King and Mary Poppins.  It's interesting to me that this is roughly the same vote range that I got when I conducted Best Actor and Best Actress contests  at a time when I only had 50 to 60 friends.  It's like there's a weight of only so many people that can be active friends on facebook at any given time.

I have selected movies from various lists including AFI, an Imdb list of top 250 favorite films, box office rankings and my own warped sense of judgement.  There are no foreign language films on the list, and it is skewed more towards films in the last three decades of the century.  If I put too many older films, I get a lot of people complaining that they haven't seen the films, ergo explaining the vote totals for Modern Times vs. Duck Soup.  I also have tried to stay within some loose genre categories for films to compete against each, particularly for the first round.  I get a lot of apples and oranges complaints.  But if you're going to have one winner, sooner or later very different films are going to have to compete against each other.

I am going to list all the contests to date so that everyone can see where we're at, and will periodically update.  I am not presenting this as a bracket because 1) I'm not sure who will match up to whom in the second round because it will be based on voting strength, matching strongest to weakest of the first round winners and 2) I don't know how to do it.

So are the winners to date:

Round 1, Contest 1 : The Shawshank Redemption wins over Rocky, 18 to 2 (34)
Round 1, Contest 2 : The Godfather wins over Chinatown, 7 to 2 (12)
Round 1, Contest 3 : Star Wars wins over Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, 17 to 3 (31)
Round 1, Contest 4:  Forrest Gump wins over Stand By Me, 12 to 7  (17)
Round 1, Contest 5:  The Lion King wins over Mary Poppins, 16 to 15 (17)
Round 1, Contest 6:  The Sixth Sense wins over Halloween, 13 to 6 (20)
Round 1, Contest 7:  Duck Soup wins over Modern Times, 4 to 3 (5)
Round 1, Contest 8:  Schindler's List wins over Apocalypse now, 9 to 3 (15)
Round 1, Contest 9:  Titanic wins over The Grapes of Wrath, 8 to 5 (11)
Round 1, Contest 10: E.T. wins over Alien, 10 to 4 (16)
Round 1, Contest 11: Grease wins over American Graffiti, 17 to 5 (29)
Round 1, Contest 12: Toy Story wins over Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 13 to 12. (14)
Round 1, Contest 13: Jaws wins over The Silence of the Lambs,  8 to 6 (10)
Round 1, Contest 14: Back to the Future wins over The Graduate, 10 to 3 (17)
Round 1, Contest 15: Saving Private Ryan wins over Raging Bull, 10 to 6 (14)
Round 1, Contest 16: Gone with the Wind wins over The Color Purple, 13 to 6 (20)
Round 1, Contest 17: Raiders of the Lost Ark wins over Terminatot 2, 15 to 0 (30)
Round 1, Contest 18: Top Gun wins over Scarface, 8 to 5 (11)
Round 1, Contest 19: The Sound of Music wins over Singin' In the Rain, 7 to 6 (8)
Round 1, Contest 20: Rear Window wins over Vertigo, 4 to 3 (5)
Round 1, Contest 21: Animal House wins over Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 9 to 6 (12)
Round 1, Contest 22: To Kill A Mockingbird wins over Driving Miss Daisy, 17 to 2 (32)
Round 1, Contest 23: Casablanca wins over Citizen Kane, 8 to 4 (12)
Round 1, Contest 24: A Clockwork Orange wins over 2001: A Space Oyssey, 8 to 7 (9)
Round 1, Contest 25: Butch Cassidy and the SunDance Kid wins over High Noon, 12 to 1 (22)
Round 1, Contest 26: The Wizard of Oz wins over The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 22 to 0 (44)
Round 1, Contest 27: Psycho wins over The Exorcist, 6 to 5 (7)
Round 1, Contest 28: Blazing Saddles wins over Young Frankenstein, 8 to 6 (10)
Round 1, Contest 29: Blade Runner wins over Metropoli, 6 to 0 (12)
Round 1, Contest 30: It's A Wonderful Life wins over Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 7 to 5 (9)
Round 1, Contest 31: Open voting winner When Harry met Sally, 5 nominations (10)
Round 1, Contest 32: Open voting winner Sleepless In Seattle, 5 nominations (10)

ON TO ROUND 2!!!!

Round 2, Contest 1:  The Wizard of Oz wins over Duck Soup, 16 to 5 (27)
Round 2, Contest 2:  The Shawshank Redemption wins over Rear Window, 8 to 5 (11)
Round 2, Contest 3:  To Kill A Mockinbird wins over Psycho, 8 to 6 (10)
Round 2, Contest 4:  Star Wars wins over Sound of Muisc, 12 to 6 (18)
Round 2, Contest 5:  Raiders of the Lost Ark wins over A Clockwork Orange, 17 to 0 (34)
Round 2, Contest 6:  It's A Wonderful Life wins over Grease, 11 to 5 (17)
Round 2, Contest 7:  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid wins over Sleeples In Seattle, 8 to 7 (9)
Round 2, Contest 8:  Gone with the Wind wins over When Hearry Met Sally, 20 to 4 (36)
Round 2, Contest 9:  The Sixth Sense wins over Jaws, 12 to 8 (16)
Round 2, Contest 10:  Blazing Saddles wins over Back to the Future, 9 to 8 (10)
Round 2, Contest 11:  Forrest Gump wins over Top Gun, 15 to 3 (27)
Round 2, Contest 12:  The Lion King wins over Titanic, 12 to 8 (16)
Round 2, Contest 13:  E.T. wins over Blade Runner, 14 to 2 (26)
Round 2, Contest 14:  Casablanca wins over Schindler's List, 10 to 7 (13)
Round 2, Contest 15:  Toy Story wins over Animal House, 11 to 6 (17)
Round 3, Contest 16:  Saving Private Ryan wins over The Godfather, 7 to 5 (9)



I will update at least once a week.  Based on number of votes for combined with victory margin (the number given in parantheses), I would say Round 3 will feature, for example,  Gone With the Wind vs. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Raiders of the Lost Ark vs. Saving Private Ryan.  Let the complaints begin!