The 10 Most Influential American Movies of the 1990s

"In particular, the years 1994 and 1999 are often cited as two of the greatest years for film, producing such iconic films as Fight Club, The Shawshank Redemption, Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut and Forrest Gump to name but a few – and there are still four other entries included on this list. It was the decade when post-modernism became the new normal and when it was more of a twist if your film didn't, in fact, end in a twist. It produced directors that still cause a stir of excitement when they announce their next feature and actors that still dominate the box office to this day. If you had told anyone leaving a 1997 screening of Titanic that it would be almost two decades until Leonard DiCaprio won an Academy Award for acting, they would have called you a liar. Likewise, there are stars, such as Juliette Lewis and Alicia Silverstone, that are a crystallisation of the era – not particularly lasting culturally past the decade but acting as a perfect representation of their moments in time."