The interviews of Martin Scorsese and Samuel L. Jackson are taken from AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies: America's Greatest Movies (1998). Morgan Freeman's interview is an outtake from AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars: America's Greatest Screen Legends (1999).
The list spans chronologically from Safety Last! (1923) to The Matrix (1999) and The Sixth Sense (1999).
Harrison Ford and Claude Rains are the most represented actors on the list each starring in four films.
Nine Alfred Hitchcock films made the list, including Psycho (1960) (#1), making him the most represented director. His frequent cameos also make him the most represented actor on the list with his appearances in all these films except Dial M for Murder (1954) (#48), where he appears in a photograph on the wall.
Steven Spielberg directed six films on the list, two of which are in the top 10. Spielberg also wrote and produced Poltergeist (1982). Stanley Kubrick directed five films on the list.