After weeks of work, the first part of my Ultimate Greatest Movies of All Time list is ready. I used several lists to calculate the best movies ever and over the next few days I'll be publishing the results. This first part includes the films ranked 77th-115th. The films placed above these will be published in the coming days. To see how I completed the list, click here. You can click on a film's title to read my review of it.
=77th (8 points) Amadeus (1984)
=77th (8 points) Amadeus (1984)
Oscar winning Mozart biopic.
American Beauty (1999)
Oscar winning drama about a man on the edge. Debut film of Sam Mendes.
Andrei Rublev (1966)
The highest placed Russian movie on my list.
City Lights (1931)
Sweet Charlie Chaplin romantic comedy, regarded as one of the greatest of its genre.
Die Hard (1988)
First in the now ageing series. Still the best.
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Ealing Black comedy.
King Kong (1933)
Pre-code monster drama, famous for its closing sequence.
Nashville (1975)
Musical drama which appears on six of the lists I looked at.
Rio Bravo (1959)
Howard Hawkes Western.
Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
Documentary which got all of its points from the Rotten Tomatoes list.
The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957)
Oscar winning war drama.
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Henry Fonda lead drama, appearing on four lists.
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Early film Noir, Humphrey Bogart stars.
The Matrix (1999)
Influential science fiction-action film. Appears only on Empire and IMDb lists.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
American romantic comedy.
=92nd Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Silent Russian movie about a 1905 mutiny. Popular with Sight & Sound and Rotten Tomatoes. First of two Russian movies on my list.
Bringing up Baby (1938)
Screw ball comedy starring Katherine Hepburn and Carey Grant. High up on the Entertainment Weekly List.
City of God (2002)
Brazilian slum drama. Appeared on four lists and got a lot of points from the IMDb list.
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Classic Paul Newman prison drama.
Gladiator (2000)
Turn of the millennium General turned slave turned hero epic. Oscar winner.
Heat (1995)
Michael Mann's thriller which finally joined De Niro and Pacino on screen.
Intolerance (1916)
The earliest film on the list. D. W. Griffith's response to racist accusations. Appears only on Sight and Sound and Entertainment Weekly's lists.
Notorious (1946)
The first of many Hitchcock movies on this list. Post war espionage thriller.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Sergio Leone's epic crime drama. As long as time itself.
Persona (1966)
Ingmar Bergman's modernist masterpiece.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Tarantino's assured debut. His first appearance in the top 100.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Steven Spielberg's war movie, famous for its beach scenes.
Sherlock Jr (1924)
Buster Keaton detective comedy.
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Italian-Algerian co-production about the Algerian-French war of 1954-62.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Cult Coen Brothers comedy.
The Conformist (1970)
Italian Political drama. Popular on the less populist lists.
The General (1926)
Second Buster Keaton film to turn up on the list. Often considered as his greatest film.
The Interrupters (2011)
Documentary which gets all of its points from the Rotten Tomatoes list.
The Lives of Others (2006)
German stasi drama, a sleeper hit which becomes more popular with age.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Golden Age thriller. A rare hit for a black and white film on the Empire list.
The Sting (1973)
Robert Redford lead caper with Paul Newman. A big hit at the Oscars.
The Usual Suspects (1995)
One of the all time great reveals, appearing on the populist lists.
Three Colours Red (1994)
Conclusion of the Three Colours trilogy, the highest place of the three movies.
Unforgiven (1992)
Oscar winning Western featuring a late period Clint Eastwood.
Wow, my film history teacher would probably freak if he saw The Battle of Algiers and Battleship Potempkin behind some of these other films. It's fun to see stuff like Die Hard, The Usual Suspects, and The Big Lebowski.
ReplyDeleteOne movie I'm surprised hasn't come up is Airplane. I thought that would definitely be in the top 100.
I can tell you that Airplane! only came in at number 496.
ReplyDeleteI think the list on the whole tends to favour the modern against the old because of lists from popular magazines and the IMDb. I don't think Battleship Potempkin was very high on any of those whereas stuff like Die Hard was generally top 50. That's why I took from as many as I could.