First 10
Casablanca (1942) (Michael Curtiz)(Julius Epstein)
The Third Man (1949) (Carol Reed)(Graham Greene)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) (Otto Preminger)(John D. Voelker)
The Godfather (1972) (Francis Ford Coppola)(Mario Puzo)
Bull Durham (1988) (Ron Shelton)
Goodfellas (1990) (Martin Scorsese)(Nicholas Pileggi)
Basic Instinct (1992) (Paul Verhoeven)(Joe Eszterhas)
Groundhog Day (1995) (Harold Ramis)
The Usual Suspects (1995) (Bryan Singer)(Christopher McQuarrie)
Jackie Brown (1997) (Quentin Tarantino)
Second 10
The Maltese Falcon (1941) (John Huston)(Dashiell Hammett)
Inherit the Wind (1960) (Stanley Kramer)(Jerome Lawrence)
Cool Hand Luke (1967) (Stuart Rosenberg)(Donn Pearce)
In the Heat of the Night (1967) (Norman Jewison)(John Ball)
Patton (1970) (Franklin Schaffner)(Ladaslas Farago)
American Graffiti (1973) (George Lucas)
Body Heat (1981) (Lawrence Kasdan)
Field of Dreams (1989) (Phil Alden Robinson)(W. P. Kinsella)
A Few Good Men (1992) (Rob Reiner)(Aaron Sorkin)
Fargo (1996) (Coen brothers)
Third 10
Duck Soup (1933) (Leo McCarey)
To Have and Have Not (1944) (Howard Hawks)
The Court Jester (1956) (Melvin Frank)
The Graduate (1967) (Mike Nichols)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) (Arthur Penn)
Five Easy Pieces (1970) (Bob Rafelson)
The Sting (1973) (George Roy Hill)
Godfather 2 (1974) (Francis Ford Coppola)
Beautiful Girls (1996) (Ted Demme)
LA Confidential (1997) (Curtis Hanson)
Fourth 10
The Great Escape (1963) (John Sturges)
The Last Picture Show (1971) (Peter Bogdanovich)
Carnal Knowledge (1971) (Mike Nichols)
Jaws (1975) (Steven Spielberg)
Diner (1982) (Barry Levinson)
Stand by Me (1986) (Rob Reiner)
When Harry Met Sally (1989) (Rob Reiner)
Red Rock West (1992) (John Dahl)
Out of Time (2003) (Carl Franklin)
No Country for Old Men (2007) (Coen brothers)
Fifth 10
Marty (1955) (Delbert Mann)
Touch of Evil (1958) (Orson Welles)
Badlands (1974) (Terrence Malick)
California Split (1974) (Robert Altman)
Ten (1979) (Blake Edwards)
My Dinner with Andre (1981) (Louis Malle)
Rain Man (1988) (Barry Levinson)
My Cousin Vinny (1992) (Jonathan Lynn)
The Pianist (2002) (Roman Polanski) (Wladyslaw Szpilman)
The Departed (2006) (Martin Scorsese)
Sixth 10
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) (Frank Lloyd)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (Stanley Kramer)
The Hustler (1961) (Robert Rossen)
Goldfinger (1964) (Guy Hamilton)
Charade (1963) (Stanley Donen)
To Live and Die in LA (1985) (William Friedkin)
Something Wild (1986) (Jonathan Demme)
Mystic Pizza (1988) (Donald Petrie)
Pulp Fiction (1994) (Quentin Tarantino)
Donnie Brasco (1997) (Mike Newell)
Seventh 10
The Great Waltz (1938) (Julien Duvivier)(Gottfried Reinhardt)
White Heat (1949) (Raoul Walsh)
North by Northwest (1959) (Alfred Hitchcock)
A Shot in the Dark (1964) (Blake Edwards)
Chinatown (1974) (Roman Polanski)
Amadeus (1984) (Milos Forman)
Back to the Future (1985) (Robert Zemeckis)
Eight Men Out (1988) (John Sayles)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) (Jonathan Demme)
Bowling for Columbine (2002) (Michael Moore)
Eighth 10
The Big Sleep (1946) (Howard Hawks)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) (Robert Hamer)
The Paper Chase (1973) (James Bridges)
Manhattan (1979) (Woody Allen)
Eye of the Needle (1981) (Richard Marquand)
White Nights (1985) (Taylor Hackford)
Barfly (1987) (Barbet Schroeder)
Midnight Run (1988) (Martin Brest)
Back to the Future 3 (1990) (Robert Zemeckis)
Reservoir Dogs (1992) (Quentin Tarantino)
Ninth 10
All the King's Men (1949) (Robert Rossen)
In Cold Blood (1967) (Richard Brooks)
Goodbye Columbus (1969) (Larry Peerce)
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) (Norman Jewison)
All the President's Men (1976) (Alan J. Pakula)
Raging Bull (1980) (Martin Scorcese)
Breaker Morant (1980) (Bruce Bereford)
Hannah and her Sisters (1986) (Woody Allen)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) (Frank Oz)
Working Girl (1988) (Mike Nichols)
Tenth 10
Notorious (1946) (Alfred Hitchcock)
Rear Window (1954) (Alfred Hitchcock)
On the Waterfront (1954) (Elia Kazan)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (David Lean)
Vertigo (1958) (Alfred Hitchcock)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (Robert Mulligan)
Moonstruck (1987) (Norman Jewison)
Liberty Heights (1999) (Barry Levinson)
A Beautiful Mind (2001) (Ron Howard)
Sideways (2004) (Alexander Payne)
Honorable Mention
A Night at the Opera (1935) (Sam Wood)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) (Michael Curtiz) (Seton Miller)
Murder, My Sweet (1944) (Edward Dmytryk)
The Killers (1946)(Robert Sidmak)(Ernest Hemingway)
Out of the Past (1947) (Jacques Tournier)
Boomerang (1947) (Elia Kazan)
Kiss of Death (1947) (Henry Hathaway)
The Naked City (1948)(Jules Dassin)(Malvin Wald)
Romance on the High Seas (1948) (Michael Curtiz) (Julius Epstein)
The Inspector General (1949) (Henry Kostel) (Nikolai Gogol)
D.O.A. (1950) (Rudolph Mate)(Russell Rouse)
In a Lonely Place (1950) (Nicholas Ray)(Dorothy B. Hughes)
The Big Heat (1953)(Fritz Lang)
Niagara (1953) (Henry Hathaway)
The Caine Mutiny (1954) (Edward Dmytryk)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) (Anthony Mann)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (Robert Aldrich)
The Ten Commandments (1956) (Cecil B. DeMille)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957) (Billy Wilder)
Ben-Hur (1959) (William Wyler)
Psycho (1960) (Alfred Hitchcock)
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) (John Frankenheimer) (Thomas Gaddis)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) (Mike Nichols)(Edward Albee)
Alice's Restaurant (1969) (Arthur Penn)
Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969)(Paul Mazursky)
Summer of '42 (1971) (Robert Mulligan)
The Anderson Tapes (1971) (Sidney Lumet)
Harold and Maude (1971) (Hal Ashby)
Play Misty for Me (1971) (Clint Eastwood)
Klute (1971) (Alan J. Pakula) (Andy Lewis)
The Getaway (1972) (Sam Peckinpah)
Frenzy (1972) (Alfred Hitchcock)
Play it Again, Sam (1972) (Woody Allen)
The Long Goodbye (1973) (Robert Altman) (Raymond Chandler)
Brannigan (1975) (Douglas Hickox)
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Meatballs (1979) (Ivan Reitman)
Airplane (1980) (Jim Abrahams)
Private Benjamin (1980) (Howard Zeiff)
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
Prince of the City (1981) (Sidney Lumet)(Robert Daley)
Arthur (1981) (Steve Gordon)
Stripes (1981) (Ivan Reitman)
Absence of Malice (1981)
Gandhi (1982) (Richard Attenborough)
Missing (1982) (Costa-Gavras)
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan) (1982) (Nicholas Meyer)
Tootsie (1982) (Sydney Pollack)
The Right Stuff (1983) (Philip Kaufman)
A Soldier's Story (1984) (Norman Jewison) (Charles Fuller)
A Christmas Carol (1984) (Clive Donner)
The Breakfast Club (1985) (John Hughes)
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) (John Schlesinger)
Out of Africa (1985) (Sydney Pollack)
Witness (1985) (Peter Weir)
Back to School (1986) (Alan Metter)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) (John Hughes)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Radio Days (1987) (Woody Allen)
House of Games (1987) (David Mamet)
Tin Men (1987) (Barry Levinson)
Crossing Delancey (1988) (Joan Micklin Silver)
The Naked Gun (1988) (David Zucker)
Gorillas in the Mist (1988) (Michael Apted)
Road House (1989) (Rowdy Herrington)
Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989) (Steven Soderbergh)
Major League (1989) (David S. Ward--w&d)
The Two Jakes (1990) (Jack Nicholson)
Avalon (1990) (Barry Levinson)
Thelma and Louise (1991) (Ridley Scott) (Callie Khouri)
The Naked Gun 2 and 1/2 (1991) (David Zucker)
Mr. Saturday Night (1992) (Billy Crystal)
Wayne's World (1992) (Penelope Spheeris)
Malcolm X (1992)(Spike Lee)
Medicine Man (1992) (John McTierman)
The Sandlot (1993) (David M. Evans)
Sleepless in Seattle (1993) (Nora Ephron)
In the Line of Fire (1993) (Wolfgang Petersen)
Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) (Chris Columbus)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) (Mel Brooks)
Forrest Gump (1994) (Robert Zemeckis)
Clerks (1994)(Kevin Smith)
The Chase (1994) (Adam Rifkin)
Speed (1994) (Jan de Bont)
While You Were Sleeping (1995) (John Turteltalb)
GoldenEye (1995) (Martin Campbell)
Get Shorty (1995) (Barry Sonnenfeld)
Murder in the First (1995) (Marc Rocco)
Apollo 13 (1995)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
A Time to Kill (1996)(Joel Schumacher)(John Grisham)
Trial and Error (1997) (Jonathan Lynn)
Liar, Liar (1997) (Tom Shadyac)
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
Gattaca (1997)(Andrew Niccol)
Chasing Amy (1997)(Kevin Smith)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) (Clint Eastwood)
Kissing a Fool (1998) (Doug Ellin)
The Wedding Singer (1998) (Frank Coraci)
Wild Things (1998) (John McNaughton)
Rounders (1998) (John Dahl)
Out of Sight (1998) (Steven Soderbergh)
Simon Birch (1998)(Mark Steven Johnson)
Ever After (1998) (Andy Tennant)
A Perfect Murder (1998) (Andrew Davis) (Frederick Knott)
Office Space (1999) (Mike Judge)
The Green Mile (1999) (Frank Darabont)
10 Things I Hate about You (1999)(Gil Junger)(Karen McCullah Lutz)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)(Anthomny Minghella)(Patricia Highsmith)
Man on the Moon (1999)(Milos Forman)(Scott Alexander)
High Fidelity (2000) (Stephen Frears)
Pay It Forward (2000)(Mimi Leder)
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) (Coen brothers)
A Knight's Tale (2001)(Brian Helgeland)
Attila (2001) (Dick Lowry)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)(Steven Speilberg)
The Good Girl (2002)(Miguel Arteta)(Mike White)
Mystic River (2003) (Clint Eastwood)
Matchstick Men (2003) (Ridley Scott)
Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie (2003)
Out of Time (2003) (Carl Franklin)
The Reckoning (2003) (Paul McGuigan)
The Notebook (2004) (Nick Cassavetes)
The Terminal (2004) (Steven Spielberg)
Garden State (2004)(Zach Braff)
The Aviator (2004) (Martin Scorsese) (John Logan)
Wedding Crashers (2005) (David Dobkin)(Steve Faber)
Borat (2006) (Larry Charles)
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007)(Jim Brown)
Gran Torino (2008)(Clint Eastwood)(Nick Schenk)
Elegy (2008)(Isabel Coixet)(Philip Roth)
Adam Resurrected (2008) (Paul Shrader)
Valkyrie (2008) (Bryan Singer)
Public Enemies (2009) (Michael Mann)
He's Just Not that Into You (2009)(Ken Kwapis)(Abby Kohn)
Chloe (2009) (Adam Egoyan)
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3 comments:
My reactions to the list.
1. Surprises (too low)
-The Bridge on the River Kwai
-Vietnam films missing?
I don't see any of the highly rated Vietnam movies. I wasn't that fond of Platoon, but Full Metal Jacket and Deer Hunter maybe deserve slots. Maybe slots for Apocolypse Now or The Killing Fields? What about the movie Taxi Driver? I think it captures the awkwardness and anxiety of a soldier coming back from war (Vietnam) and trying to integrate back into society very well.
-Not a fan of Kubirk at all, eh?
-Quentin Tarontino did quite well on your list. He does well (too well I think) on IMDB as well. I liked Pulp Fiction a lot, each time I saw it, but nothing else from him impressed me. I saw his new movie and didn't like it. Part of the problem was language because much of the movie is in French or German and the subtitles were in Dutch here instead of English. Also, just too violent for me. Same with Kill Bill I and II. Resevior Dogs bored me, but maybe I should finish the whole movie sometime. Maybe I should watch Jackie Brown if you think that is his best.
-No Shawshank?
-Modern Movies left out: Fight Club, Into the Wild, American Beauty. Where is American Beauty? I think this movie should be way above a lot of those 1980s movies, and above its contemporaneous rivals (Beautiful Mind, Sideways, Out of Time, Liberty Heights) and close to Fargo.
-Modern, foreign films: I see another gap in this area. I think City of God (Brasilian, IMDB #17), Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico, IMDB #71), and The Lives of Others (German, IMDB #58) belong on any top 100 list.
2. Surprises (too high)
-Basic Instinct: You always rate this so high, but oh well. I did finally watched it, with Laura. She enjoyed it quite a bit and I thought it was a fine movie. But I would agree more with IMDB's 6.8 rating, far from even their Top 250.
-Out of Line?
Other Thoughts:
-I see you have been watching some Kevin Smith films. What were your thoughts on Clerks?
-I see the Coen Brothers got three hits. Laura and I both found their 2008 movie Burn After Reading funny and very entertaining. It had George Clooney, Brad Pitt and John Malkovich in it.
Why no Schindler's List?
Like Shelly, I do not like movies featuring abuse, hence no Schindler's List. Shawshank probably should be on there but it too has lots of abuse.
The Deer Hunter was an ungodly mess of a movie, and its winning the Oscar was an absolute joke. Its director, Michael Cimono, tried to con the public into thinking the film was partly autobiographical. He stated he had been “attached to a Green Beret medical unit" during the Tet offensive in Vietnam, a claim later proven to be false--he had six months active duty in 1962 as a reservist and was never in Vietnam. Cimono then went onto the debacle "Heaven's Gate" in 1980, a film which was a complete bomb and nearly bankrupted the studio which was financing it. Wikipedia doesn't mention this in its bio, but part of what was discovered when the accountants and auditors finally went over the finances is that Cimono had used studio money to buy himself some land in Montana. In short, The Deer Hunter is a mess of a movie made by a mess of a human being.
I also saw "Coming Home", and it was less obnoxious but still not very good IMO. Apocalypse Now I also saw, it has some good scenes but didn't hold together very well for me.
Taxi Driver I saw parts of but I need to watch the whole thing and then maybe it will get onto the list.
I like the fact that Kubrick uses chess in his films, but none of his movies has ever done anything for me.
I just didn't care for American Beauty.
I am putting Burn after Reading on my netflix queue. I watched Elegy yesterday after updating my list--excellent!
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