The 6 Most Imitated Films of the Last 70 Years

6. American Graffiti -- Popularized multi-protagonist films, a structure which is very common in streaming shows now. The mother of all hang-out movies was imitated by "American Hot Wax" ( 1978), "Saturday Night Fever" (1977), Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dazed and Confused, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Slacker, The Breakfast Club

5. Chungking Express (1994) -- the plot of the second half directly influenced "Amelie" (2001), the greatest French film ever made. The look of Chungking Express came from guerilla shooting at night on the streets. Saturated neon colors. Crowds, speed ramps. Step printing. The director said he was influenced by A-ha's video for the song "Take On Me."

4. Seven Samurai (1954) -- follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who seek to hire samurai to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. Widely known and loved within the film making and screenwriting community, the film was considered to have perfect pacing which was often replicated nearly exactly, to the page . Many of the imitators have "seven" in their titles: The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Invisible Six (1970), Oceans Eleven, Star Wars: New Hope, Sicario.

3. The Godfather (1972) -- revived gangster films, a staple during the 1930s. Spawned Goodfellas, The Sporanos and every other mafia film made after 1972.

2. Jaws -- perfected the formula Spielberg found in Duel, eg a sustained battle with an irrational or anthropomorphic adversary. Jurrassic Park, etc. Revived the practice of opening films on as many screens as possible and making the opening a cultural event.

1. The Searchers (1956) -- inspired Star Wars, Taxi Driver, The Road Warrior / Mad Max series, The Missing (Ron Howard, 2003), Hardcore (Schrader, 1979), Paris Texas (Wenders, 1984), Lawrence of Arabia, Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, 5 Year Drive-by (Douglas Gordon, art project, 1995), Searchers 2.0 (Alex Cox, 2007), Django Unchained, Breaking Bad finale (Vince Gilligan), and the Buddy Holly hit song "That'll Be the Day" and every wide screen movie made after 1956. All the spaghetti westerns.

Among those obsessed with "The Searchers" are Martin Scorsese, John Millius, Steven Spielberg, Paul Schrader, Peter Bagdonovich, Alex Cox, and Akira Kurosawa.