Fair warning: I feel this list is about 95% complete. There are a handful of universally-recognized "great films" I have yet to see, including Jules et Jim, L'Avventura, Giant, and several others. However, I have seen a tremendous number of films from a wide collection of other critics' lists, and I do feel firmly that this is a useful list for all practical intents and purposes. Additionally, the blog post format allows me the opportunity to edit the list as the need arises. My hope is that I will be more diligent in this over the next few years than I have been over the last few.
Alright, get ready to fire up those Netflix cues--there's work to be done. Without further ado:
The Top 100
- Citizen Kane (1941)
- The Godfather (1972)
- Lawrence of
- Schindler’s List (1994)
- The Searchers (1956)
- The Godfather, Part II (1974)
- La Dolce Vita (1959)
- Seven Samurai (1954)
- Psycho (1960)
- The Seventh Seal (1957)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Gone With the Wind (1939)
- Rashomon (1950)
- The Bicycle Thief (1949)
- On the Waterfront (1954)
- The Graduate (1967)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- The Third Man (1949)
- Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
- The Great Dictator (1940)
- Raiders of the Lost
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- Annie Hall (1977)
- Vertigo (1958)
- It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
- Sherlock Jr. (1924)
- Raging Bull (1980)
- Jaws (1975)
- Ran (1985)
- Days of Heaven (1978)
- A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
- The Lord of the Rings (2003)
- Sunset Blvd. (1950)
- Metropolis (1926)
- Dr. Strangelove (1964)
- Taxi Driver (1976)
- Duck Soup (1933)
- Apocalypse Now (1979)
- A Clockwork
- It Happened One Night (1934)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
- Easy Rider (1969)
- There Will Be Blood (2007)
- All About Eve (1950)
- The Gold Rush (1925)
- Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
- The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
- Rear Window (1954)
- Network (1976)
- Paths of Glory (1957)
- Midnight Cowboy (1969)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- The
- Unforgiven (1992)
- Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind (1977)
- Nashville (1975)
- Bonnie and
- Double Indemnity (1944)
- 8 ½ (1963)
- Star Wars (1977)
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
- Notorious (1946)
- The Quiet Man (1952)
- Touch of Evil (1958)
- Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
- The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
- The Lost Weekend (1945)
- Kill Bill (2003)
- Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)
- The Elephant Man (1980)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
- Nosferatu (1922)
- Brazil (1985)
- The Sting (1973)
- Inglourious Basterds (2009)
- High Noon (1952)
- Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
- Miller’s Crossing (1990)
- The Man Who Shot
- King Kong (1933)
- The Battleship Potemkin (1925)
- Life is Beautiful (1999)
- Black Swan (2010)
- A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
- Patton (1970)
- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- E.T. – the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
- Cool Hand Luke (1967)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
- La Strada (1954)
- The Night of the Hunter (1955)
- The Conversation (1974)
- The Big Sleep (1946)
Honorable Mentions
- Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
- The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
- The Deer Hunter (1976)
- McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
- Goodfellas (1990)
- The 400 Blows (1959)
- M (1931)
- Some Like It Hot (1959)
- The Last Picture Show (1971)
- The Right Stuff (1983)
- Modern Times (1936)
- United 93 (2005)
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Mr. Smith Goes to
- Requiem for a Dream (2000)
- The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- Traffic (2000)
- Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- Blow-Up (1966)
- The Wild Bunch (1969)
- North By Northwest (1959)
- This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Give me feedback here! What have I missed? What are you surprised by? Let's talk this through in the comments section.
5 comments:
What do you have against O Brother, Where Art Thou? It's Clooney, isn't it?
Jeremiah Johnson
This property is condemned
There are many on that list that I have not seen. Creating a list of this magnitude is very intimidating, especially calling it "best" and not qualifying it as "in my opinion."
Good stuff.
I for one am glad that someone on that internet has finally put his foot down about what is and is not a good film.
Kudos to you for making the definitive list.
I do have a question/argument starter. I love the Marx brothers, or at least I love the idea of the Marx brothers. I laugh at the jokes in written form, I like Groucho's mustache, I wish there were more modern films that relied on wit and farce instead of fecology, and the weird humor of having pretty girls say dirty things. I like Peter Sellers and other actors who do similar things to the Marx Brothers.
In practice, Duck Soup is one of those movies that was fine when I saw it, but I'll never bother seeing it again. I'm not sure why this is.
It's easy to explain why a group of people might more readily decide to watch Ghostbusters on a Friday night than, say, Citizen Cane. One is more accessible, goofy, and lighthearted. But why would I rather watch Ratatouille, Bottle Rocket, or even the Sandlot, than Duck Soup? I get the humor, I get the satire, but the film struck me as mostly dull and indulgent, not riotously hysterical as I wanted it to be. It's like a ninety minute standup routine that's pretending to be
I know that the obvious answer to this is that the style of acting and comedy from that period are highly stylized, being heavily influenced by stage performance, and I just am not used to it.
But I have another answer: is it possible that we've just gotten a lot better at making movies and that even the most slatternly K.I. Wayans-level hack has a better idea of how to make an engaging film than Leo McCarey and the Bros. did.
Ugh, I think my students are rubbing off on me.
*pretending to be a story.
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