Well, sure. If a film is influential, I'm not going to ignore its influence. I'd factor that in if I were making a "Greatest Movies" list as that's good criteria to use. However, I'm also concerned with how their stories hold up as I feel like that's another important part of a film. For example, Pi is one of my favorite films, and it's not particularly influential. However, I feel like it should get recognition in "Greatest Movies" lists, because I found its plot to be amazing. I consider it to be a great film. As for another example, Man With a Movie Camera is another one of my favorites. That film is influential as it pioneered multiple camera techniques. However, even if nobody was influenced by it, I wouldn't consider it to be any less great as the camera techniques and the other things I liked about it would still be there. A lack of influence wouldn't affect those aspects.LEAVES wrote:I would say there's a difference between appreciating something and claiming that it's something more than merely your preferences, something to which the word "best" or "greatest" would be more accurate. I do think that there are works of art that can be more meaningful or impactful than merely what one prefers - an easy example would be to step outside of the realm of aesthetics and say that a philosophically insightful film that influences culture in a meaningful way could be a "great" film even if you don't necessarily appreciate a lot about it. In this way "Best" takes on a meaning greater than mere "preference" or "favorite". The same could be true within an aesthetic context, but it's certainly a more difficult thing to parse. With Malick, the philosophical angle is obvious, so the opaque use of "best" implied the possibility of some unstated subtext. I think that's an interesting conversation... but not so much the "my favorite of what I've seen so far." In that way I care far less about whether or not you "back up your opinion", I'm more interested in that I "understand what you mean". Contrary to Ace's post, of course, but, well, again...
Besides, some of my favorites (which I also consider to be great movies) can be hard to influence such as Persona and Russian Ark. Both of those films are really unique and ambitious, and it may be harder for a director to be influenced over them while compared to other movies. However, I'm not about to disregard their strengths which I love if I were making a "Greatest Movies" lists just because they aren't an influential as other movies whose stories I find less impressive.
Anyways, my bottom line is: Influence is a good thing to base a film's greatness on as long as you factor in other aspects for your criteria.