THE GREATEST
To borrow from ttaskmaster who said in a thread on AQOTWF's board:
At a time when films were not such commonplace events, this is the FIRST time people who were never in the front line of a war got to hear and see something of what it was really like.
That is the most important context - These are the secrets that veterans never spoke about, even to their closest family.
That fact that the CGI generation are still watching it means it's something special.
But also to expand on that: how AQOTWF was one of the first wide release movies with sound. How it was one of the first globally successful films equally enjoyed by Russians and Argentinians. With all the above reasons it therefore not surprisingly swept the 3rd Academy Awards taking all the major awards. About how when it along with the Novel were made contraband under Hitler, German projectionists faced summary execution for holding the wrong celluloid canisters.
When all the above evidence is stacked up it's easy to see why despite wooden acting, poor sound, and other quaint imperfections of a nascent art-form this film must hold it's place as one of Greatest Films of All Time. share