AFI released its Top 10 of Top 10 lists on Tuesday, an entertaining look at a wide swath of motion picture history. Like most lists, there were some I agreed with and some I didn't.

It got me to thinking about films shot in or featuring South Dakota. With the recent hoopla surrounding the National Treasure sequel starring Nicholas Cage, it's obvious others think about it, too.

So I put together my own list: The five best films made (in part) or featuring South Dakota. Please, feel free to disagree or make your own suggestions. I don't consider myself a movie buff or an expert on most anything.

5. "Into The Wild"

Based on the excellent book by John Krakauer, the "Into the Wild" motion picture garnered a lot of attention when Sean Penn made it his own personal mission to bring the intense character study to the big screen.

Featuring Emile Hirsch in the title role as 1990 Emory University graduate Chris McCandless on a search for meaning in the Western world, "Into the Wild" got even more attention here in South Dakota with filming in Carthage and the southern Black Hills.

4. "Incident at Oglala"

This highly celebrated and controversial movie was one of the catalysts that propelled the Leonard Peltier case into a cause celebre worldwide. Robert Redford's film, which follows the path largely set out by author Peter Matthiessen in "In The Spirit of Crazy Horse" in examining Leonard Peltier's role - or lack, thereof, depending on whom you ask - in the murder of two FBI agents on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the tumultuous 1970s when Dick Wilson's goons and American Indian Movement sympathizers turned the reservation upside down with violence.

It's a difficult issue, and Redford's film did an excellent job depicting the despair of reservation life and the violent 1970s. As for the Peltier case, it remains a controversial case today. For years the only U.S. prisoner to be recognized as a political prisoner by Amnesty International, Peltier is revered by many and reviled by many. He remains in a federal prison, likely never to see another sunrise as a free man.

3. "Deadwood"

OK, "Deadwood" isn't a movie, but if it were, what would it be rated?

The David Milch creation made quite a splash when it debuted in March of 2004. Most of the commotion was about the language, not the plot, which followed a mostly historical path in the early days of the mining camp and it's lawless nature. While many were taken aback at how many times the "F" bomb was dropped (43 times in the first hour of the series, nearly 3,000 over the three-year history of the series), the show also received rave reviews and adoration for its fascinating characters, chief among them bad guy Al Swearengen, played by Brit Ian McShane.

Hey, I was raised in Deadwood. So was my wife, Heidi. We can tell you first hand … there aren't many Brits in the historic city. And there probably isn't that much swearing, either, at least not since they took the poker tables out of the old Bella Union.

It's three year run from 2004 to 2006 is available on DVD, and while the show may not have provided HBO with the monetary reward it was hoping for with its release alongside shows such as "The Sopranos," it did help bring another boom to the old mining camp turned tourist haven in the Northern Hills.

2. "Dances With Wolves"

If "Deadwood" was a boon to one town, Kevin Costner's "Dances With Wolves" was a boon to the entire state.

Filmed in South Dakota, "Dances With Wolves" epic examination of the post-Civil War westward expansion by the U.S. Army and one man's fictional encounter with Native American culture and his immersion into it was Costner's crowning achievement, both as an actor and as a director. The film was a hit among movie goers and among movie critics.

For his efforts, Costner's epic Western won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and a Best Director award for Costner. The film was up for a dozen Oscars in all.

1. "North by Northwest"

When it comes to movies, Alfred Hitchcock is synonymous with suspense. And few films the master director made were more full of suspense than North by Northwest.

Although little of the film actually featured any part of the South Dakota, the finale set at Mount Rushmore is one of the most memorable finales ever shot.

The truth is, the actors scene wasn't shot in the Rushmore State, but inside a studio where they crawled next to a reproduction of the Shrine of Democracy. But exterior shots of the monument were shot and used in the movie.