‘Vertigo’ Replaces ‘Citizen Kane’ as Best Film of All Time

In a surprising turn of events, the poll conducted by Sight and Sound to vote for the best movies of all time resulted in a new first place winner. More than 1000 critics, programmers, academics, distributors and writers voted on the movies. For the first time in 50 years, “Citizen Kane” fell from the top spot on the chart, replaced by Alfred Hitchcock’s 45th film, “Vertigo.

“Vertigo” finished the voting with 191 votes while “Citizen Kane” finished with 157. Only Ozu Yasujiro’s “Tokyo Story” and Jean Renoir’s “The Rules of the Game” finished with over 100 votes, outside of the two winners. It was a close win for “Vertigo,” which comes as less of a surprise after it finished only five votes behind the Orson Welles’ classic in the last poll.

There were 846 Top 10 lists with 2,045 different movies on the lists. This decade’s list was the most voted on in the history of the poll and “Citizen Kane,” even in the loss, received three times more votes than it received last time.

“Citizen Kane”

For years, film scholars held “Citizen Kane” up as the best movie, technically, of all time. Welles made the classic in 1941 and did little with his career following his remarkable film. This is partially because “Kane” was a commercial and critical failure when released. A number of years had passed before anyone gave it the respect it deserved.

The movie tells the story of a journalist, loosely based on William Randolph Hearst, whose final words are “Redbud.” The movie then follows a reporter who is trying to figure out what those words symbolize while we see the rise and fall of the powerful man through flashbacks.

The movie reigned supreme on the Sight and Sound list until this year. It also sits at the top of the American Film Institute’s “100 Years … 100 Movies” list. Mainstream audiences have not been so warm, the film sitting at the 43rd spot on the IMDB rankings. Rotten Tomatoes ranks it at 100-percent fresh by critics and 91-percent fresh by fans.

“Vertigo”

“Vertigo” has always been fondly remembered as well, one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best movies. The 1956 film tells the story of a retired police detective with a fear of heights, hired to follow the wife of an acquaintance to figure out her strange behavior. Much like “Citizen Kane,” it audiences reacted mildly yo the movie when it hit theaters. However, Hitchcock called the movie his favorite, and when the studio finally released it on home video in 1984, it became an enormous success.

Over the last three decades, “Vertigo” jumped from fourth place to second place before finally hitting first place in the rankings conducted by Sight and Sound. The American Film Institute gave it little respect, ranking it at No. 61 in their “100 Years … 100 Movies” list. It ranks slightly lower than “Citizen Kane” for IMDB users, at 49th. At Rotten Tomatoes, critics only ranked it at 98-percent fresh while fans placed it above “Kane” at 92-percent.