The Great Films
I was first asked to create a top 100 films in my sophomore year in high school when the AFI released their list of the 100 best American films. By the time I was a senior, I was embarrassed at the list I had produced. So, I decided to embark upon a year's long journey to create another list. This list is not a definitive list of the great films. It is not ranked because the rankings are completely arbitrary. Rather, it is in alphabetical order and represents the films that I believe have most affected me and impacted cinema. So, my bias towards certain genres and directors is certainly here. That being said, how I complied the original 120 films on this list list was to re-watch 400 films in one year. Going through and wheedling them down to 120. Since then, I have added to the list and, very recently, reviewed films that have come out in the past 25 years. This is always a good place to start if you are interested in cinema, whether it is my list, or Roger Ebert's, or a good friends doesn't matter. Enjoy!
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
The 400 Blows (Truffuat, 1959)
4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days (Mungiu, 2007)
8 1/2 (Fellini, 1963)
A Woman Under the Influence (Cassavetes, 1974)
Adaptation (Jonze, 2002)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog, 1972)
Alien (Scott, 1979)
All About Eve (Mankiewicz, 1950)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Milestone, 1930)
All The Real Girls (Green, 2003)
Amadeus (Forman, 1984)
American Graffiti (Lucas, 1973)
Annie Hall (Allen, 1977)
Apocalypse Now! (Coppola, 1979)
Au Revoir Les Enfants (Malle, 1987)
The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo, 1966)
The Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925)
Belle De Jour (Bunuel, 1967)
The Bicycle Thief (De Sica, 1948)
Blade Runner (Scott, 1982)
Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986)
Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 1967)
Boyhood (Linklater, 2014)
Brazil (Gilliam, 1985)
Breaking the Waves (von Trier, 1996)
The Bride of Frankenstein (Whale, 1935)
The Bridge over the River Kwai (Lean, 1957)
Brokeback Mountain (Lee, 2005)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene, 1919)
Cache (Haneke, 2005)
Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)
Chariots of Fire (Hudson, 1981)
The Children of Paradise (Carne, 1943)
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
Citizen Kane (Wells 1941)
City Lights (Chaplin, 1931)
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg 1977)
The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)
Dancer in the Dark (von Trier, 2000)
Days of Heaven (Mallick, 1978)
Dead Man Walking (Robbins, 1994)
The Decalogue (Kieslowski, 2000)
The Deer Hunter (Cimino, 1978)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Bunuel, 1972)
Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989)
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick, 1964)
Duck Soup (McCarey, 1933)
Ed Wood (Burton, 1994)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)
Eve’s Bayou (Lemmons, 1997)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick, 1999)
Fantasia (Sharpsteen, 1940)
Fargo (Coen, 1996)
The Fog of War (Morris, 2003)
Gandhi (Attenborough, 1982)
Gates of Heaven (Morris, 1978)
The General (Keaton, 1927)
The Godfather (Coppola, 1976)
Goodfellas (Scorsese, 1990)
Greed (Von Stroheim, 1925)
Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)
High and Low (Kurosawa, 1963)
Hoop Dreams (James, 1994)
The Hustler (Rossen 1961)
If…(Anderson, 1969)
Ikiru (Kurosawa, 1952)
In America (Sheridan, 2002)
In Cold Blood (Brooks, 1967)
Inside Out (Docter, 2015)
It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946)
Ivan the Terrible Pat I and Part II (Eisenstein)
JAWS (Spielberg, 1975)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese 1988)
La Dolce Vita (Fellini, 1960)
La Strada (Fellini, 1954)
Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
Leaving Las Vegas (Figgis, 1995)
M (Lang, 1931)
Malcolm X (Lee, 1992)
The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941)
The Manchurian Candidate (Frankenheimer, 1962)
Manhattan (Allen, 1979)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman, 1971)
Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973)
Metropolis (Lang, 1926)
Moonlight (Jekins, 2016)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra, 1939)
Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)
My Dinner with Andre (Malle, 1981)
Nashville (Altman, 1975)
Network (Lumet, 1976)
Nixon (Stone, 1996)
No Country for Old Men (Coens, 2007)
North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)
Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946)
On the Water Front (Kazan, 1954)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Forman, 1975)
Pan’s Labyrinth (del Toro, 2006)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1928)
Paths of Glory (Kubrick, 1957)
Patton (Schaffner, 1970)
Persona (Bergman, 1966)
Pinocchio (Sharpsteen, 1940)
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (Hughes, 1987)
Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki, 1997)
The Producers (Brooks, 1968)
Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)
Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980)
Raiders of the Lost Arc (Spielberg, 1981)
Ran (Kurosawa, 1985)
Ratatouille (Bird, 2007)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
Rebecca (Hitchcock, 1940)
Remains of the Day (Ivory, 1993)
Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli, 1968)
Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski, 1968)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson, 2001)
The Rules of the Game (Renoir, 1939)
Saraband (Bergman, 2005)
Schindler’s List (Spielberg, 1993)
Seven (Fincher, 1995)
Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954)
The Seventh Seal (Bergman, 1957)
Sex, Lies, and Videotapes (Soderbergh, 1989)
The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont, 1994)
The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
The Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991)
Singing in the Rain (Donen, 1952)
Some Like it Hot (Wilder, 1959)
Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001)
Star Wars: A New Hope (Lucas, 1977)
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (Kershner, 1980)
The Sweet Hereafter (Egoyan, 1997)
Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman, 2008)
Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)
That Obscure Object of My Desire (Bunuel, 1977)
The Third Man (Reed, 1949)
This is Spinal Tap! (Reiner, 1984)
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1954)
Tootsie (Pollack, 1982)
To Live (Yimou, 1994)
Tree of Life (Mallick, 2011)
“Up” Documentaries (Apted)
Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
Wild Strawberries (Bergman, 1957)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Zemeckris, 1988)
The Wizard of Oz (Fleming, 1939)
