FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 23, 2005

TIME.com: 'Movie Madness' Tournament

TIME.COM READERS VOTE STAR WARS, THE GODFATHER, THE SOUND OF MUSIC AND SCHINDLER'S LIST THE TOP FOUR MOVIES EVER

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Final Matchup To Be Announced Monday, June 27, With Voters' Choice of "Best Movie of All Time"
Announced on Wednesday, July 6
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Thousands of TIME.com Readers Have Voted, Less Than Two Weeks Left to Vote on TIME.com

New York -- In a March Madness-style matchup, TIME.com has invited readers to vote on their choice of the Best Film of All Time. Thousands of TIME.com readers have voted with less than two weeks left of voting. Currently, a fantasy film about interstellar battle in a galaxy far, far away (Star Wars - 1977) goes head-to-head with a black-and-white documentary of atrocities committed in a war closer to home (Schindler's List - 1993). In another bizarre duel, Mafioso (The Godfather - 1972) duke it out with a band of singing children (The Sound of Music 1965).

Online at: http://www.time.com/moviemadness

The TIME Movie Madness Tournament features 64 of the most honored and popular movies in an interactive fan poll designed to determine which film, from among this list, is the reader's choice for best movie. The film that survives all six rounds of voting will be crowned the Best Movie of All Time. The final matchup of two movies will be announced on Monday June 27, and the champion will be announced on Wednesday, July 6.

Spanning numerous genres from children's movies to war drama, the 64 movies were selected for the tournament according to strict criteria: the 32 films that have generated the biggest domestic box office (inflation adjusted) of all time and the 32 films that have garnered the most Oscar awards. Thus, past ticket sales and awards dictated the choice of eligible movies, but out of those selections, today's TIME.com readers determine which film takes home top honors.

While it has emerged victorious over its peers, Star Wars must now test the sheer numbers of its fanbase against the one of a completely different kind of genre. This match pits superstar directors against director, George Lucas versus Steven Spielberg, respectively.

The other semifinal matchup has The Godfather up against The Sound of Music, quite possibly the most bizarre match-up the tournament has seen so far. Think Mario Puzo as the Don in the story of crime, greed, and gunshots against the smiling Julie Andrews in an adapted musical originally panned by 1965 TIME critics as having "too much sugar, too little spice. "The gritty streets of mob-run New York City versus the untouched Tyrolean alps of Austria. A crime family full of henchman versus a real family complete with nuns. The list goes on.

To provide for the most compelling and entertaining head-to-head match-ups throughout the tournament, TIME.com arranged the films in four sections of the bracket by general theme. In the first rounds, Disney classics such as Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Snow White & the Seven Dwarves (1937) fought for PG-glory while across the court, horror movie fanatics cheered Hannibal Lector as The Silence of the Lambs (1991) devoured The Exorcist (1973) in competition. But die-hard Lector-ites would be disappointed to know that their favorite fava bean-loving fiend fell in the face of Oscar Schindler as Schindler's List moves on to the semi-finals.

Another quarterfinal match pitted Star Wars against The Lord of the Rings (2001), a perennial war no doubt waged on online message boards and sci-fi conventions long before Movie Madness. Though the numbers of costumed fanatics camping out for their respective premiers are close, Star Wars ultimately won with the grudge match. Knowing the tenacity of moviegoers from both camps, this will probably be only one battle in a series of rematches by bloodthirsty Tolkien fans.

Links to the original reviews of all the 64 most honored and popular movies can be found online at TIME.com as they appear in TIME's online archive. A chart of the tournament so far outlines the outcomes of all matches, illustrating which films seized an upset win, and which classics were prematurely knocked out.

Voting in the Final Four lasts until 11:59pm EST on Sunday, June 26, and voting for the finals concludes at 11:59pm July 5. Voters can also enter the TIME Movie Madness Sweepstakes and register to win a Sharp AQUOS TV. ( see information on http://www.time.com/moviemadness/ )

TIME's Movie Madness tournament coincides with the recent release of TIME magazine's list of the 100 All-Time Best Movies as selected by TIME's movie critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel. The full list is available on TIME.com and was published as part of the newly launched TIME archive ( http://www.timearchive.com/ ). The TIME archive includes a searchable database of over 266,000 TIME articles since the magazine's inaugural issue in 1923.

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CC: General Discussion

Another vote for GF.

Can you see the standings?

Final round of voting! The Godfather advances to the final round, versus Star Wars!

Cast your final votes now!

My vote, as always, goes to Don Corleone...

Star Wars won.

I love Star Wars, but c'mon now...!

SAY IT AINT SO!!!

Wow...

I love SW but I was hoping the GF would get it, it's such a beautiful film.

What the duck? I just checked back again after reading some disturbing news on TFN and it says Star Wars has won?! What's that about?

Can anyone explain this?

More people voted for Star Wars than The Godfather. That explains it.

I must be getting confused, I was certain that I saw a post here saying the Godfather won, but alas no, I can't find any evidence for this. Oh well.