The Internet Movie Database Daily Poll: Proving Today's Movie Fans Have No Knowledge of Film History

Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) presents a daily poll. These polls can range from the wastefully stupid like "To me Matt Damon will always be..." to the genuinely interesting like "Favorite movie involving amnesia" to the surprisingly educational: "Which actor are you shocked to discover is 5'7" or shorter?" Along the way the IMDB daily poll offers questions about TV shows, film history, directors, actors, and just about anything else having to do with celluloid or video. The polls can really run the gamut, in other words, but there is a common theme to the poll results that can always be relied upon and says volumes about the importance of demographics and advertising.

Almost every IMDB poll that asks people to make a choice over movies or personalities that span the decades has a very predictable result. The more recent the choice-regardless of the general consensus of talent or ability or fame-will be found near the top and the choices more distant from the date of the poll will be found near the bottom of the results. The most recent and stunning example of this was the poll featured on August 18, 2007: Which decade produced the best movies?

The first indication of the demographical nature of the visitors to IMDB is that the 1930s, which would have been my pick, wasn't even listed as a choice. And should you be the type of person who thinks movies have been going downhill since the introduction of sound you were also out of luck. Since I figured the 1970s would be the solid choice of most respondents considering the decade of The Godfather, Star Wars and the rise of Scorsese and Spielberg is commonly looked back upon as the most recent Golden Age of Cinema, I decided to cast my vote for the 1940s in an attempt to help it along. I can only say that my jaw dropped when I saw the actual results. (Note: At the time I cast my vote, the final tally was not accurately reflected: early voting had the 1990s in first place and the 1970s in second.)

1. 1970s
2. 1990s
3. 1980s
4. 2000s

It is that number 4 position that is most troubling. Assuming that the 1930s would have garnered fewer votes as well, what the film fans who take the time to vote in the IMDB daily poll are saying is that the past seven years have produced better movies than any decade before the 1970s. As an example of how bizarre that concept is consider that just in the minds of the IMDB voters the ten best films of this decade include things like all three of the Bored of the Rings trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum and The Departed. Now let's look at some of the top ten films of the 1940s-again, chosen by IMDB visitors, not critics: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Rebecca. How about the 1950: The Seven Samurai, Sunset Blvd., North by Northwest and Paths of Glory. And the decade that wasn't even worth putting up as a choice alongside the 2000s, the 1930? Check these films out: I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, M, The Wizard of Oz, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Raise your hand if you think any of those films that top the list of this decade will be considered the classics those other films are?

It is hard to imagine anyone who has actually seen all these movies actually believing that those made in the 2000s are superior in any way. Even the special effects of LOTR are less impressive than the tornado in The Wizard of Oz considering the state of the art at each respective time. But the IMDB poll fiasco isn't really about film taste. It is about film knowledge and history; or rather the lack thereof. One illuminating poll inquired which of the AFI's top ten movies of all time respondents had not seen. An amazing 10% of respondents claimed not to have seen any of the top ten. What is especially bizarre about this is why if you haven't seen such staple motion pictures as these are you even visiting IMDB in the first place.

Perhaps IMDB just go ahead and do away with even offering choices of films made before 1970 since it appears most people who regularly take the time to cast a vote in these polls are thoroughly unacquainted with these films anyway. The idea that the greatest decade for films was the 1990s and this past decade ranks anywhere near the top is nothing less than horrifying. Advertisers could learn a lot by studying these polls, however. What these polls consistently show is that young people are absolutely convinced that the entertainment choices they are offered are the best of all time. The reason behind this is, of course, is that these kinds of choices are relative. If you've never seen any movie or heard any music not made in the last ten years, obviously you will conclude that nothing that came before could possibly be better.

What is the point? The point is that advertisers and entertainment execs are constantly looking for any kind of demographic advantage that gives them a peek into the mindset of a group. IMDB is, without question, the number one site on the internet for movie searches. The conventional wisdom suggests that internet surfers of all ages visit IMDB and perhaps take part in the polls. The numbers suggest otherwise. The fact that older movies are routinely at the bottom of the polls strongly indicates that while movie lovers of all ages visit IMDB, it is only those of a younger age that actually vote. In fact, the numbers very strongly suggest that the bulk of those voting in the IMDB daily polls are under 25. The question raised is whether it is mere coincidence that you are hard-pressed to find a movie made before 1970 on any network other than TCM; or is there a correlation between the seemingly widespread disinterest in older movies among the most vocal visitors to the number one internet site for movies and that lack of televised film history? If so, then it become a vicious circle that could eventually wind up biting movie execs in their collective butts because eventually today's movies that are shown back to back on TNT or Spike or AMC are going to be old too. And they'll have to put them out to pasture just like the movies made before 1970.

If movie fans voting on the IMDB daily poll today are completely oblivious to the fact that so many more greater films exist, and so they are perfectly happy with a standard monthly rotation among the major national cable services of fifteen to twenty movies all made within the last fifteen years and shown over and over again--have any idea how many times The Godfather aired on Bravo during July and August of 2007? Fourteen times. Fourteen. But wait, you say. Isn't The Godfather an older movie? It wasn't made in the last fifteen years. Isn't that what you want? Okay, aside from the fact that fourteen airings of the same movie over a two month period is way too much for any movie; how many people haven't already seen it? The Godfather is the number one ranked movie on the IMDB top 250 list. I'm pretty sure about 90% of adults Americans have seen The Godfather at least once in their lives. I'm glad that Bravo is taking a break from their seemingly 24/7 marathon of Kathy Griffin, Hey Paula and Top Chef to actually show a movie. Bravo used to be one of the go-to places on cable for foreign films by directors like Bergman and Kurosawa. Now, instead of seeing bravos and applause for exposing the greatness of Ingmar Bergman, the cable network expects bravos and applause from people who can actually sit through two helpings of Griffin denigrating her lessers. But, hey, instead of showing The Godfather fourteen times in two months, how about showing The Public Enemy, Little Caesar or the original Scarface. Give those IMDB voters who think that The Godfather is the greatest movie ever made a little history lesson by showing them it isn't even the greatest gangster movie ever made.