Summary
- Movies like Psycho and Scream revolutionized the horror genre, introducing suspense concepts and deconstructing tropes.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars redefined sci-fi with groundbreaking special effects, serious storytelling, and iconic themes.
- The Godfather and The Avengers inspired a wave of similar movies, while Toy Story made 3D animation the standard for animated films.
The most lauded movies of all time are those that were not just successful in their own right but completely redefined the genre to which they belong. Movies such as The Matrix are consistently referenced throughout pop culture but also influenced larger trends in Hollywood. Movies like The Godfather and The Avengers inspired a series of similar movies with their success.
A genre-defining movie may be so just because it demonstrates the potential success of the genre. In multiple cases, the success of one movie helped an entire genre become more respected in cinema circles. Yet milestone movies also cause the proliferation of certain special effects and filmmaking techniques, or storylines that are suited to a particular genre.
10 Psycho (1960) – Horror
Psycho introduced concepts of suspense and boldly broke the Hays Code.
Alfred Hitchcock's concepts of suspense in storytelling shaped cinematic horror history overall. However, his movie Psycho truly changed the genre. Famously showing protagonist Marion Crane murdered mid-way through the movie by the notorious Norman Bates, Psycho was one of the first horror movies where the main villain is not a supernatural monster. Bates being a human serial killer makes the movie even more terrifying. Additionally, Psycho broke the Hays Code by depicting more morally ambiguous characters (via CBR).
9 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Sc-Fi & Space Adventure
Revolutionary effects and iconic music first appeared in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
2001: A Space Odyssey showcases revolutionary special effects while meditating on human evolution. According to Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor John Knoll (via movies that inspired Barbie. Barbie's opening sequence where the Original Barbie appears is notably a parody of one of the older movie's famous scenes.
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8 Apocalypse Now (1979) – War
Apocalypse Now is still a divisive war movie.
Apocalypse Now and later Saving Private Ryan focused on realistically portraying war, yet the former gives more focus to the psychological and moral concerns of war. Whether Apocalypse Now is an anti-war movie has been the subject of continuous debate, although director Francis Ford Coppola argues that it is not (via psychological war movies appeared before Apocalypse Now, Coppola helped standardize this and realism as elements of war movies.
7 Toy Story (1995) – Animated
Toy Story made 3D the standard for animated movies.
Toy Story is famously the first feature-length animated movie made with 3D computer animation. While it would take another 15 years for most animation studios in Hollywood to completely abandon 2D animation, the process began with Toy Story. Since the Oscars' Best Animated Feature category did not yet exist, Toy Story was recognized with a Special Achievement Academy Award. Today, animators are revolutionizing 3D animation again with the incorporation of different artistic styles. Movies such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem are examples of this.
6 The Matrix (1999) – Action
The Matrix introduced game-changing action sequences.
The Matrix is also constantly referenced in pop culture. This includes the scene in Barbie when Weird Barbie prompts Stereotypical Barbie to choose between a sandal and a high heel, alluding to Morpheus offering Neo the red pill or the blue pill. In addition to its general contribution to the cultural zeitgeist and AI revolution plots, The Matrix made a huge impact on cinema with its action sequences.
According to Keanu Reeves' Matrix stunt double (via Vulture), Hollywood action movies rarely featured fight sequences based around martial arts before The Matrix. The Wachowksis worked with fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping to create more elaborate battles between the heroes and villains. The Matrix also showed how special effects could be used to enhance fight scenes, including the famous "bullet time" sequence.
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5 The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) – Fantasy
Fantasy was taken more seriously after the Lord of the Rings movies.
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy did for the fantasy genre what 2001: A Space Odyssey did for sci-fi. The setting of Middle Earth is rich and complex, conveying a serious tone and giving rise to the epic fantasy franchise in Hollywood. The Harry Potter movie franchise also began in 2001, but the first two movies emulate a more whimsical atmosphere. Jackson's team also broke ground with their special effects. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring could have damaged the fantasy genre if the effects had been poorly executed. However, most of the movie's CGI and practical effects look realistic.
4 The Godfather (1972) – Crime
The Godfather inspired a wave of crime dramas, many featuring the same actors.
Coppola demonstrates his skill as a filmmaker by redefining multiple genres. The Godfather tells a compelling story about the crimes of the Mafia while also making the characters and family nuanced and even sympathetic people. The cast of The Godfather went on to star in many other gangster movies including Scarface, The Untouchables, and The Irishman. In addition to inspiring many other crime dramas, Tom Brueggemann (via IndieWire) credits The Godfather with "inventing" the Blockbuster, while Tom Santopietro (via Smithsonian Magazine) describes how "The Godfather Effect" changed how Italians are depicted in movies.
3 The Avengers (2012) – Superhero
The first Avengers movie showed the true potential of comic book adaptations.
In the late 2000s, Marvel set out to create a movie franchise like never before. The studio slowly built to the cinematic milestone of The Avengers with individual, interconnected superhero movies. The first time the Avengers assembled in theaters, audiences were stunned. Since then, the MCU has only grown, while other studios have scrambled to create their own cinematic universes. The failures of the DCEU and the Dark Universe demonstrate that it is not an easy concept to effectively replicate. None have had the same impact as the first theatrical Avengers movie.
2 Scream (1996) – Slasher
Scream deconstructs established tropes of horror.
The characters in Scream reference many horror movies that came before it. A movie-buff character explicitly lays out the tropes of the horror genre, most notably how victims in horror movies are implicitly being punished for sin, including sexual expression and alcohol and drug use. This ties in with the main character Sidney's storyline of coming to with her mother's death.
Sidney's mother had several extra-marital affairs before her gruesome murder, and Sidney is uncomfortable with intimacy because she does not want to be like her mother. Scream is a genre-defining horror movie because it frames female characters in a more sympathetic light, paving the way for more self-conscious horror movies in the late 1990s and 2000s. Additionally, the original 1996 Scream's ending is considered one of pop culture's best plot twists.
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1 Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) – Sci-Fi
A New Hope includes ground-breaking special effects and one of the most iconic stories of all time.
Hollywood likely did not expect a new sci-fi movie with a space setting to change the genre yet again less than a decade after 2001: A Space Odyssey came out. Yet Star Wars became the biggest franchise of all time, with Star Wars: A New Hope being the second highest-grossing movie of all time when adjusted for inflation (via boxofficemojo.com). All blockbuster movies are held up to Star Wars as a comparison.
George Lucas' team notably used miniature models of futuristic ships to capture sequences of them flying through space while further developing the computer-generated effects of the time. Luke's storyline also helped popularize the "Hero's Journey" in cinema, which appears in The Matrix and Lord of the Rings (via IMDB). This demonstrates how genre-defining movies' influence may prove essential to yet another significant moment in cinematic history.
Source: CBR, Variety, The Guardian, Vulture, IndieWire, Smithsonian Magazine, boxofficemojo.com, IMDB
