David Fincher names the three greatest American movies ever made
A David Fincher film is instantly recognisable by its steely colour palette, gritty narrative worlds, and the pervasive sense of misanthropy emanating from its characters. From the sharp, dialogue-driven collaboration with Aaron Sorkin on The Social Network to the dark, twisted tones of Fight Club and Seven, Fincher has crafted a visual and narrative style defined by meticulous precision and attention to detail. Despite being regarded as one of the modern greats, Fincher himself has drawn inspiration from the masters, citing three films as his all-time favourites.
In 2020, Fincher famously told the story of legendary screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz, who penned the 1941 film Citizen Kane. However, the pressure to portray this character goes further than the quest for historical accuracy and into a personal territory for Fincher, with the director professing his reverence for Citizen Kane. When asked about this, he explained, “I don’t think it’s the greatest American movie ever made, but it’s in the top three — and they made it in 1941.”
The film has an additional personal connection for Fincher, describing his brother Jack as “the most important writer in my life, and not only the person who first introduced me to ‘Citizen Kane’ but the person who first introduced me to movies”. Jack tragically died from pancreatic cancer in 2003, at the time he was working on the eighth draft of the screenplay for Mank.
But Fincher also described two other films that he would rank among the top American films ever made, with one of them being The Godfather: Part II, which continues Francis Ford Coppola’s saga of the Corleone family and their many crimes and misdemeanors, attempting to expand their business to Los Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba. Many people have cited it as the superior to the first part, which is a rare achievement for a sequel.
The final film that Fincher listed as one of the greatest achievements within American cinema is, of course, Chinatown. Considering who directed it, Chinatown is frustratingly good, following detective Jake Gittes as he becomes swept up in a conspiracy involving a rich land-owner in Los Angeles and the mysteriously depleting water supply. It became one of the definitive modern film noirs, exploring a world of smoke and mirrors as Jack Nicholson’s character wanders through the city and untangles a web of deceit and corruption, slowly losing faith in humanity itself with each new discovery.
Chinatown is shot in a very intentional way that deliberately frames and obscures information, with the camera adopting a voyeuristic view that mimics Gittes’ constant feeling of being observed, with no place to hide from the gaze of power in the barren desert. This style is something we can definitely see in Fincher’s own work, with a crystal-clear and layered visual style that heightens the unease of each film.
Elsewhere, Fincher is said to be in conversation with Netflix to direct the upcoming Squid Game adaptation, which will supposedly be re-filmed in English.
