This list is my personal preference of movies. While the list in order, it is subject to change. In fact it will change frequently, for this isn’t as easy as it seems. However, I tried as best as I can to place an order to these landmarks of cinema. Again, the list isn’t as accurate as many other lists for I do not measure by the greatness of the picture but by personal preference. For example, while I really like The Shawshank Redemption, I wouldn’t dare call it a greater movie than Citizen Kane or 2001: A Space Odyssey.
1. Taxi Driver
2. It’s a Wonderful Life
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Das Boot
5. Citizen Kane
6. Eyes Wide Shut
7. The Exterminating Angel
8. Apocalypse Now
9. Synecdoche, New York
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey
11. Raging Bull
12. 8 1/2
13. On the Waterfront
14. The Deer Hunter
15. The Godfather Part II
16. The Godfather
17. Psycho
18. Lost in Translation
19. Dark City
20. Jaws
21. Cool Hand Luke
22. Mean Streets
23. Grave of the Fireflies
24. Hud
25. Exterminating Angel
26. Vertigo
27. One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest
28. Casablanca
29. Schindler’s List
30. Unforgiven
31. The Searchers
32. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
33. Revolutionary Road
34. The Seventh Seal
35. Gone With the Wind
36. Saving Private Ryan
37. Goodfellas
38. The Lives of Others
39. Seven Samurai
40. Bonnie and Clyde
41. Battleship Potemkin
42. Cries and Whispers
43. Tokyo Story
44. The Shining
45. Hoop Dreams
46. Che Guevara The Bolivian Diaries
47. The Kid (1921)
48. Persona
49. Titanic
50. The Rules of the Game
51. The Third Man
52. Singin in the Rain
53. The Motorcycle Diaries
54. Do the Right Thing
55. Old Yeller
56. The Right Stuff
57. City of God
58.Nosferatu
59. M
60. Floating Weeds
61. Once Upon a Time in America
62. The Bicycle Thief
63. The Grapes of Wrath
64. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
65. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
66. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
67. The Birds
68. A Clockwork Orange
69. The 400 Blows
70. The Conversation
71. A Beautiful Mind
72. Lilja 4-ever
73. The Great Dictator
74. Nanook of the North
75. Man with a Moving Camera
76. The Pianist
77. Pan’s Labyrinth
78. Brokeback Mountain
79. Into the Wild
80. Life is Beautiful
81. The Others
82. The Sixth Sense
83. E.T.: Extra Terrestrial
84. Cinema Paradiso
85. The Silence of the Lambs
86. Jurassic Park
87. Adaptation
88. I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
89. Bang the Drum Slowly
90. Touch of Evil
91. Reservoir Dogs
92. North by Northwest
93. Shadow of a Doubt
94. Strangers on a Train
95. Pulp Fiction
96. Rear Window
97. Notorious
98. The Wizard of Oz
99. Modern Times
100. Dog Day Afternoon
The Cinephile Fix 
Interesting because it has some new names to ponder!
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I’m still working on the list but there are certain new films that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere and am confident will stay on my list no matter how many times I edit it (I have Synecdoche, New York in mind 🙂 )
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Synecdoche ofcourse—awaiting my third visit—I am relatively comfortable after the second
excursion.
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The first tiime I watched it, I’ll admit I didn’t understand what I had ust witnessed but I knew one thing was for sure. It was an epic movie about life that changed my life. Like 2001:A Space Odyssey, it has that grand scope on life in general. I’m ust curious what are some of your favorite movies S M Rana?
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I just saw your question. I have seen 56 in your list. In no particular order some of mine are:
1.Most of Billy Wilder.
2.Courtroom dramas:A Few Good Men, My Cousin Vinny, Inherit the Wind
3.All Ray: specially Aparajito, Chess Players
4.Adoor Gopalakrishnan: Ascent, Rat Trap
5.Amadeus
6.Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on Kwai
7.Godfather
8.Among Kurosawa: Rashomon
9.Among Bergman: Wild Strawberries
10.400 Blows
11.Grave of Fireflies
12.8 and a half
13.Kane
14.Vertigo
15.Duck Soup
16.Chaplin’s Circus
17.Schindler’s List
18.Silence of Lambs
19.Singin’ in Rain, My Fair Lady, Oliver!, Cabaret(’72), Chicago
20.2001, Solaris, Stalker.
21.All the Herzog movies
……..I think I must be missing many real good ones, and this list could probably be doubled.
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Interesting. I love the fact that you covered almost every genre in there 🙂
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There are many great ones I’d love to see again. In case of “A Clockwork Orange”, it’s well-made, but I still have some headache about this movie. I watched “Synecdoche, New York” in this May and loved it. I will see it again someday. Life is the state of mind. However, It is usually out of control and gets smaller and bigger. I watched Eroll Morris’ “Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control” recently, and I found something not so far from “Synecdoche, New York” in the end.
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A Clockwork Orange isn’t that great of a movie and I refuse to rewatch it but the fact that it is so memorable and haunting is why I have it on the list. I haven’t watched Fast Cheap and Out of Control yet…I will do so now that you’ve mentioned it in the same sentence as Synecdoche, New York 🙂
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You and Ebert with your distaste of A Clockwork Orange. 😉 I’ll tell you what: I’ll read the book, then I’ll see the movie again and tell you if I still enjoy it. Of course 2001 belongs on any list of great movies, as does Grave of the Fireflies. And while I can argue with you about movie placement on this list, most of the movies listed here belong here. But Eyes Wide Shut? Really?
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It’s not that I dislike A Clockwork Orange, I think it’s one of the most powerful movies of all time…yet for the wrong reasons. I will always consider it one of the greatest for the beautiful imagery and effect it had on me upon the first viewing. However, I can’t seem to see a point or message in the movie. I know it has a strong social commentary but was it really necessary to deliver it through that content?
As for Eyes Wide Shut, yes. This movie is beyong greatness in my book. The first time I watched it, I gave it a mere 3/5 but I gave it a second chance and started to notice all these great things about the movie and how we gradually enter Cruise’s mind and lose control of reality. For example that scene where Kidman tells Cruise about her fantasies with this sailor and how she would’ve given him as well as their child up for one night with him. The scene is so powerful and focused and then all of a sudden it’s interrupted by a phone call and we snap out of it. This is the key scene that triggers the rest of the movie. Anyway, the following scene is when Cruise visits a patient and the woman sitting next to him somehow resembles Kidman so much and makes a move on him. He stops her and reminds her that she’s married when she replies, “I would give him up for you. Let’s just run away and leave everything behind.” The exact same “tale” Kidman told the previous scene. A few seconds later her husband arrives and looks exactly like Cruise. In other words, Cruise may have been present in that room at that given time yet he is replaying what his wife had told him in his head and that’s when we first get a glimbse of what he’s thinking. I’d recommend watching the movie a second time and then watch this very good analysis of the movie. I gurantee you, you’ll consider it as one of the greatest works of a master. : http://www.collativelearning.com/EYES%20WIDE%20SHUT%20analysis.html
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Interesting. This list is certainly a conversation piece, although I don’t know where to begin.
I will say this, the absence of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ is unforgiveable. 😉
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Oh God, did I leave Lawrence of Arabia out? How embarassing hehe …I’m working on an update on the list. I keep forgetting a lot of movies but you’re right Lawrence of Arabia should be in there. How come the Academy still hasn’t awarded Omar Sherif with an Honorary Oscar. I mean the guy does deserve an Academy Award as a makeup.
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Twenty-one watched, twenty-three if you count movies I don’t remember.
Have to say I’m intrigued by your choices. Jurassic Park, dog Day Afternoon over 12 angry men, Seven Samurai over Rashomon… nice list anyway, I wouldn’t have the patience to draw out a list of a hundred movies.
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As I stated in the paragraph before the actual list..it’s more of a preference list. “2001: A Space Odyssey” is a better movie than “The Shawshank Redemption” but I like “The Shawshank Redemption” more.
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Aren’t all such lists?
I was only intrigued by your preferences.
For example, it’s probably true that Seven Samurai is a better made movie than Rashomon, but I’m always confounded by people liking the former more.
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Mmm…I always felt that there’s a huge difference between the questions “which is the better movie?” and “which movie do you prefer?” Taxi Driver is my favorite movie of all time…”Citizen Kane” is far superior in every way. Some of the movies you mentioned (Dog Day Afternoon) are childhood favorites..I’m sure we all have those.
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There Will Be Blood
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Amazingly insightful list. Regarding a discussion comment you made, the reason A Clockwork Orange is both powerful and repulsive is that it presents the horror of violence right along with functional systems of glamor and camaraderie that always threaten to make it appealing to someone. So, it’s apocalyptic: exposes a dark side of human nature thus challenging viewers to acknowledge there’s something in us that needs to be worked on. Far from wrong reasons for being powerful, in my book!
I’m right with you on Eyes Wide Shut’s brilliance, too.
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Thank you 🙂 I can’t deny the brilliance of Kubrick. People may not like “A Clockwork Orange” but they certainly respect it. It’s a very psychologically challanging movie to accept as great which explains why it may be often overlooked. It’s like Anthony Perkins performance in “Psycho” He gave one of the greatest supporting performances in film history but wasn’t even nominated..maybe it was people hated the character. They still need to know that the whole point was to hate him and therefore he was simply brilliant. Sorry for going off topic there.
Eyes Wide Shut is nothing short of a masterpiece. Like most Kubrick films within the next fifty years, people will acknowledge it’s brilliance. It’s ahead of it’s time and that time is still to come. What other movies beside Kubrick’s masterpieces do you like?
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[Off-topic]My favourite reviews of EWS:
http://doormouseetc.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-touch-make-love-with-ten-foot.html
http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=1481
I find Ebert’s almost juvenile.
🙂
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I actually really like Ebert’s review of “Eyes Wide Shut”..” It also resembles a nightmare; a series of strange characters drift in and out of focus, puzzling the hero with unexplained details of their lives….Kubrick pays special attention to each individual scene. He makes a deliberate choice, I think, not to roll them together into an ongoing story, but to make each one a destination–to give each encounter the intensity of a dream in which this moment is clear but it’s hard to remember where we’ve come from or guess what comes next.”_Roger Ebert
I also like the reviews you proivided especially the first one. I’d also recommend this video of Ebert and Scorsese discussing “Eyes Wide Shut” as one of the best movies of the 90’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLAxSQU_9ws
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Yeah, but he wanted the movie to end with Cruise seeing those characters dead, and then accuses the movie of tying up loose ends. That sounds like the rantings of a juvenile to me. I’ve read the transcript of the show, and I was surprised to find that Scorsese’s impression was much like mine.
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I personally prefer the ending as it is but I do find Ebert’s suggestion interesting since it would be one hell of a twist. Still, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think it was Ebert who also suggested “Psycho” would be better without the psychiatrist explaining everything at the end of “Psycho”. I have to agree with him on that one. Roger Ebert is no juvenile, he’s an expert in the field but it’s ok to disagree with him every once in a while. What other movies do you like? Have you read the “Eyes Wide Shut” Analysis by Rob Ager? I think it’s most indepth analysis of the movie ever written on “Eyes Wide Shut”. Let me know what you think. Here it is: http://www.collativelearning.com/EYES%20WIDE%20SHUT%20analysis.html
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Sorry, I forgot to explain myself properly. That would have been a good ending if the movie was a mystery thriller or something, but it wasn’t, and that end would have lost any real interest built up by turning it into an unsolved mystery rather than a human story. I just thought he went juvenile this once. We all have our flights of fancy, right?
I’ll read that analysis sometime soon, but thanks for the link.
As for my favourite movies, look here: http://ronakmsoni.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/lists-2009/
Just 2009, but there are very few great movies I watched before ’09.
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Interesting list. I can tell that you have great taste in movies 🙂 Is that your blog? Let me know when you read the analysis of “Eyes Wide Shut”. I’d recommend downloading the video version of the analysis since it provides visual examples of what the author discusses.
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I think he over-reached when he suggested that Kubrick put messages in the body of a newspaper article, but otherwise he was remarkably observant and got them together really well. Thanks for introducing me to him.
Yes, that is my blog.
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I still haven’t checked out the newspaper article scene in “Eyes Wide Shut” but I plan on doing so. You’re welcome, he normally does some very good analysis of movies check out his other videos if you can.
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I think I can get more best movies here. It’s pretty great list. http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-movies-of-all-time
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I always used to read paragraph in news papers but now as I am a user of net thus from now I
am using net for articles or reviews, thanks to web.
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Glad to see The Lord of The rings in here but it higher in my list.
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