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The Wizard of Oz Is Officially the Most Influential Film of All Time

Sorry, Citizen Kane.
judy garland in wizard of oz
By Moviestore/REX.

According to a group of Italian researchers who analyzed 47,000 films across 26 genres, the most influential movie ever made is . . . The Wizard of Oz. No surprise there, as the fantasy blockbuster starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, a girl who gets whisked away to a magical realm, has long been considered a game changer in Hollywood. Now there’s a neat bit of data to back it up.

The data was collected by a group of researchers from the University of Turin, whose study was published in Applied Network Science. They were aiming to measure the success and significance of certain films, based on metrics other than box-office success and critical reviews. So they focused on data that shows references to films in subsequent movies, looking through citations available on IMDb. They analyzed 47,000 films from around the world, noting release years, genres, and countries of production in order to cull further trends and patterns. That said, the group notes in their findings that IMDb is “highly biased toward European and North American movies and personalities,” which had an impact on the results.

According to The Guardian, the other films that join the Wizard of Oz in the top five are Star Wars, Psycho, King Kong (1933), and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The rest of the top 20 is peppered with the usual suspects, including Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Metropolis, Dr. Strangelove, and The Godfather.

The study also ranked the influence of certain directors and actors. Alfred Hitchcock topped the directors list, followed by Steven Spielberg, while Samuel L. Jackson topped the actors list, followed by Tom Cruise. The actress list was slightly less predictable: Carrie Fisher was named the most influential (due, no doubt, to Star Wars), while Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond films, was named second most influential.

In the study, the researchers also note when different countries have been at their most influential. Italy released its most influential films around the 1960s (post neorealism, but right in the Fellini sweet spot), for example, while Germany released its most influential films in the 1930s. Genre also impacted the findings; Japanese monster movies (“kaiju” films) from the 1950s specifically influenced Western cinema.

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