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

---
Final Matchup To Be Announced Monday, June 27, With Voters' Choice of "Best Movie of All Time"
Announced on Wednesday, July 6
---

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.

--

CC: Godfather Trilogy forum

Done & done! Grazie for the heads up. I voted for The Godfather and Schindler's List

Me, too - even tho I adore the Star Wars franchise...

The Sound Of Music?

Four masterpieces, and very diverse from one another too. Shouldn't the plural of Mafioso be Mafiosi? And Schindler's List isn't a documentary.

Pedantic wanker what I am!

Mick

Voted for The Godfather and Schindler's List.

Voted. The Godfather was indeed my pick.

We're gonna make em an offer they cant refuse and put Godfather as #1

Was I the only one who voted for The Sound of Music?!?!

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Just kidding!

I voted for The Godfather and Schindler's List.

The hills are alive...with the sound of mu-sic!!!

Love all 4 movies, but STAR WARS and SOUND OF MUSIC in deep quality are just no match for Spielberg's career-technical best as a filmmaker and that mob movie by Coppola that re-ignited the American fascination with the Italian Mafioso that harkons back from the studio-days of the 1930s and 40s(Howard Hawks' SCARFACE, WHITE HEAT, LITTLE CAESAR, etc.)

GF of course!! I am not a huge fan of Sound of Music, and not into Star Wars, so I voted 2nd for Schindler's List, even though I didn't see it.

There's no way to tell who's in the lead?? When will results be posted?

TIS

I voted for Godfather and Star Wars

Well the Godfather won that round!!

It's down to GF vs Star Wars.

I voted for The Godfather again, but for some reason, I have a feeling Star Wars will put out the upset, with Star Wars fever running rampant.

I wanted to vote for Porky's, but I guess I'll vote for GF....

Glad GF won this round, but I agree that Star Wars will be tough to beat. It has such a huge following. So everyone here on the BB cast your GF vote and let's knock SW off.

TIS

That would be an interesting rumble: Darth Vader vs. Don Vito Corleone. "Darth, why don't you act like a man! Ever since you started hanging around that Emperor, you never spend time with your children, and a man that doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man."

What a scene that would be, SB!

Well, I got my vote in for GF...

I voted for the Godfather over The Sound Of Music, & for Star Wars over Schindlers List.

Now The Godfather vs Star Wars.


Sorry my fellow Godfather fans I had to vote for Star Wars( Awaits for the don to issue order to have me whacked. ) I'm a bigger fan of Star Wars, plus Star Wars has Darth Vader the best movie character ever created.

What???? I think the Iceman's gonna get iced. We're coming to get you!!!


TIS

Iceman, don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again!!! :p

Star Wars won.

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

I'm not surprised, seeing as Revenge of the Sith has gotten so much hype. It rekindled everyone's fascination with Star Wars, just as The Godfather Returns should have done for The Godfather.

I still cry foul, though!

Star Wars is to blame for the downfall of American cinema!