Retrospectively, it is regarded as one of the best films of Powell and Pressburger's partnership, and in 1999, it was voted the ninth greatest British film of all time by the British Film Institute. In the intervening years, it has garnered status as a cult film and an archetypal dance film.[54] In 2017, a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the fifth best British film ever.[72] Filmmakers such as Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg have named it one of their all-time favourite films,[73] and Roger Ebert included it in his list of Great Movies.[7]
The film is particularly known for its cinematography and especially the use of Technicolor. In the introduction for The Criterion Collection DVD of Jean Renoir's The River, Scorsese considers The Red Shoes and The River to be the two most beautiful colour films.
