Mafia masterpiece is named greatest film

• Goodfellas wins Total Film greatest film award

• Vertigo second, Jaws third, Fight Club fourth

• Wicker Man highest placed Scottish film at 79th

Key quote

"[Goodfellas] is so visceral and exciting. It's a modern classic and that's why people love it so much. It tends to be at the top of most people's lists of modern movies anyway, so I'm not surprised" - Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman film critic

Story in full MARTIN Scorsese's mobster masterpiece Goodfellas has beaten Citizen Kane and any number of Hitchcock classics to be named the finest film ever made.

It tops a "definitive guide" to the 100 greatest movies, pushing Orson Welles's 1941 classic into sixth place.

Total Film magazine, which compiled the list, said: "Goodfellas has it all - story, dialogue, performances, technique. It is slick, arguably the slickest film ever made. But it is also considered, layered and freighted with meaning."

Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 thriller Vertigo is second on the list, followed by Jaws, the film widely credited with inventing the summer blockbuster.

Fight Club, the dark 1999 drama starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, comes in fourth, despite being branded "an advert for fascism" by one critic, while The Godfather: Part II, another film that has topped countless movie polls, is fifth.

The film buffs' favourite, Tokyo Story, made by the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu in 1953, is seventh, and The Empire Strikes Back, the second Star Wars film, lies eighth.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the global phenomenon that launched the career of Scots actor Billy Boyd, is ninth.

The top ten is rounded off in light-hearted fashion with Cary Grant's wartime comedy His Girl Friday.

However, Scottish films do not fare so well: The Wicker Man comes in at 79th and Trainspotting is a distant 97th, while Local Hero doesn't feature at all.

The Scotsman's film critic, Alistair Harkness, hailed Goodfellas as a "perfect combination of material, director and story". He said: "It is so visceral and exciting. It's a modern classic and that's why people love it so much. It tends to be at the top of most people's lists of modern movies anyway, so I'm not surprised.

"Citizen Kane is a brilliant film and the roots of modern cinema can be traced back to it. It stands the test of time and it needs to be in the top ten, but perhaps it is a bit predictable to always put it at number one."

However, he picked Fight Club as his personal favourite in a list that is destined to reopen a thousand bar-room debates. "It summed up a moment in time, that pre-millennium era, in a similar way as The Graduate did in the Sixties," he said.

As for the shortage of Scottish films, Harkness felt Local Hero should have been included.

"It is so beloved," he said. "It stands out as being quite influential and was recently voted by film critics as having the best use of British location."

Nicola Hay, the programmer of the Edinburgh Film Guild, the UK's oldest film society, said she was disappointed in the overall selection.

"While no-one can begrudge Scorsese the accolades his career so richly deserves, looking at this list, it is disappointing to note the overabundance of modern American product and the dearth of British film and world cinema," she said.

"As to whether Goodfellas is the best film ever made, I personally don't think so. Some of the others in the top ten definitely aren't that fantastic, such as The Empire Strikes Back and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy."

Goodfellas stars Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of the terrifying character Tommy DeVito.

The story revolves around a real-life gangster, Henry Hill, who "ratted out" his Mafia buddies in 1980 and has lurked in the federal witness protection programme ever since.

Despite this, Hill has appeared on US television and radio shows and even written the best-selling Wiseguy Cookbook, featuring his favourite Italian recipes.

Total Film said it put together the list as the "definitive guide to the finest films ever made".

"Choosing the final 100 provoked endless rows and debates, but we think we've put together the definitive list," said a magazine spokesman.