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[LaNaranja]

I feel like a lot of the movies on the list have similar better movies. Reservoir Dogs and Django are better Tarantino movies than Pulp Fiction. Strangers on a Train is a better Hitchcock movie than Psycho. The Big Sleep is a better film noir than Double Indemnity.

Also the lack of 12 Angry Men is crazy. Angels with Dirty Faces and Witness for the Prosecution probably deserved spots too.

 

[eot]

I've only seen 6 movies on that top 50, heh.

 

[Dragon1893]

I like the second half of the list a lot more lol, nice to see The 25th Hour and Groundhog Day, really like those.
Am I the only one who feels Gladiator and Cast Away deserved a spot?

 

[Reuenthal]

A lot of old films I haven't seen but most of the ones I have seen and are in the list deserve to be in a top 100 list. The list has too few great modern films though.

Most of the modern films that would had been in my list and aren't there:

The Thing
Se7en
Silence of the Lambs
Open Range
Unforgiven
Terminator 2
Die Hard
Terminator
A.I
Matrix
Shawshank Redemption
Die Hard
There will be blood
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Insider
Casino
Heat
Moon
Jurassic Park
Alien
Aliens
Twelve Monkeys
Children of Men
No Country for Old Men

 

[not psycho]

I certainly like them and have watched them more than NCFOM and Memento. Not that those are bad movies either. They're pretty damn different movies - different genres, different goals. I think Oz and The Band Wagon are better, yes, but don't see the point of comparing them.

I'm actually a big fan of old musicals, but Oz and The Band Wagon don't do it for me.

The Band Wagon is especially inexplicable; it's just not that good. And among Astaire's films in that period it is well below Easter Parade, which in turn is well below Royal Wedding. And nothing he did in that period is as good as his films with Ginger Rogers.

 

[Gonzalez]

Can't agree there. Every scene in Pulp Fiction is so well balanced, and the sum of the parts is incredible. It really is a nearly perfect film. Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown are very, very good, but Pulp Fiction has a special quality I haven't felt in any of Tarantino's other movies besides Kill Bill. It's hard to put into words.

That said, Tarantino is one of the greatest living directors IMO. He's never made a film that's less than great, and I insist that this applies even to Death Proof.

It's the quality of the acting, and tightness of the script that puts it over the top as his best film for me. The only other film of his that comes close to me is Inglorious Basterds.

RD is a great introduction to his style, but you can tell none of the actors really knew how to approach the material at the time. Plus, QT had a lower budget, and shorter shooting schedule to work with.

 

[Discotheque]

what about harvey keitel? reservoir dogs was a cakewalk for him, he was playing characters like that for long before.

 

[Gonzalez]

what about harvey keitel? reservoir dogs was a cakewalk for him, he was playing characters like that for long before.

I felt Harvey was miscast as Mr. White. He looked really uncomfortable playing the straight man. He came off way better in Pulp Fiction as the no-nonsense character, The Wolf.

 

[KooopaKid]

No "The Shawshank Redemption".
List is invalid.

.

 

[SpaceHorror]

Best thing about this list is how high The Magnificent Ambersons is.

Also, the token "lol Citizen Kane is boring/sucks/overrated" posts are just as tired as it being number 1 all the time. It's great enough to be number 1, though I don't know if I'd put it there.

 

[Le_Samourai]

I absolutely love it when people project their own shortcomings onto the film medium. Bland films are forgotten, poweful ones are remembered. Though they may be archaic in construction or primitive in their approach, these films have earned a name in the history books because they are powered by intemporal vision. You don't understand it because you have no respect for the art form and seek only entertainment, and thus, when disappointed because an old film didn't deliver something you expected and take for granted, you assume it doesn't hold up because your priorities are twisted. It's not even about age, either, I can imagine you'd react the same to any contemporary auteur like Zvyagintsev or Ceylan. You step into a world you are not equiped to understand and try to judge it using the wrong set of rules.

Do I assume too much?

That is the exact kind of people that appear every time this lists are published, good post.

 

[Blader]

Oh look, its another one of "those" movie lists where the majority is filled with productions in the 60's or earlier, how edgy. Granted, I'm not some elitist movie snob but only 4 movies from this millenium made the list. I have to believe I have seen some really great movies since the year 2000. The Departed, for example. Or District 9. Ahh, forget it. Like someone mentioned, this is just another old fart movie list.

This is not a list of the 100 only good movies ever made.

 

[Htown]

Wow, this list has Rio Bravo on it. I respect that.

To me, Rio Bravo is the perfect example of a very well-executed standard western. If somebody had never seen a western and wanted to know what that genre of movie was, I'd show them Rio Bravo first.

 

[purdobol]

Gonna be "that guy". Top 50 and no Blade Runner? Shit list
Well at least Do the Right Thing is there...

 

[Gonzalez]

Gonna be "that guy". Top 50 and no Blade Runner? Shit list .

Robot rape doesn't play well with today's audiences.

 

[Branduil]

Vertigo but not The Birds? Why?

Because The Birds is not that good?

 

[Ridley327]

Robot rape doesn't play well with today's audiences.

I dunno, I think the Transformers films could be brought up on charges of sexual assault on audiences, and they still make bank.

 

[Peru]

I'm actually a big fan of old musicals, but Oz and The Band Wagon don't do it for me.

The Band Wagon is especially inexplicable; it's just not that good. And among Astaire's films in that period it is well below Easter Parade, which in turn is well below Royal Wedding. And nothing he did in that period is as good as his films with Ginger Rogers.

You're not all wrong about The Band Wagon, but it's still catnip to me, with some memorable routines (and songs of course).

 

[WorriedCitizen]

Best thing about this list is how high The Magnificent Ambersons is.

Also, the token "lol Citizen Kane is boring/sucks/overrated" posts are just as tired as it being number 1 all the time. It's great enough to be number 1, though I don't know if I'd put it there.

Yea it's nice to see it getting some recognition for a change. Personaly i like it a lot more then Citizen Kane.

 

[MisterR]

Yea it's nice to see it getting some recognition for a change. Personaly i like it a lot more then Citizen Kane.

They are both great, as is touch of evil.

 

[MisterR]

no shawshank redemption is the best thing about that list.

Yes. I enjoy Shawshank Redemption, but it's not a great film.

 

[jmdajr]

Mulholland Drive the only film from the 00s?

 

[TangoAlphaLima]

Wow, heavy bias towards older films on this list. Nothing since 2001 deserves to be in the Top 50? Only 5 films since 1980 are in the Top 50?

 

[Speevy]

By classical standards, why isn't Fargo up there?

It's absolutely hilarious. It's a pitch perfect black comedy that has incredible acting (Oscar-nominated), great camera work, several scenes of nail-biting suspense, and it's actually rewatchable.

I would argue that it's a masterpiece in the classical sense.

 

[jtb]

If I had to choose one post-2000s film for the list, it would be Mulholland Dr. so good on these critics.

For me, the most disagreeable thing about the list is Barry Lyndon over Dr. Strangelove. I love Barry Lyndon but that is insane, Dr. Strangelove has a damn good claim to being the best American film of all time.

 

[MisterR]

If I had to choose one post-2000s film for the list, it would be Mulholland Dr. so good on these critics.

For me, the most disagreeable thing about the list is Barry Lyndon over Dr. Strangelove. I love Barry Lyndon but that is insane, Dr. Strangelove has a damn good claim to being the best American film of all time.

I agree. Dr. Strangelove is the better movie.

 

[Z..]

Am I the only one who feels Gladiator and Cast Away deserved a spot?

Good god I surely do hope so... were you on drugs when you watched those?

 

[Fuchsdh]

ITT: Eight pages in, people still boggled that lists of best films of all time are heavily weighted with films not from the time they were watching films in the last thirty years.

 

[GeordieMark]

I'm just happy to see that Jaws made the cut.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I absolutely love it when people project their own shortcomings onto the film medium. Bland films are forgotten, poweful ones are remembered. Though they may be archaic in construction or primitive in their approach, these films have earned a name in the history books because they are powered by intemporal vision. You don't understand it because you have no respect for the art form and seek only entertainment, and thus, when disappointed because an old film didn't deliver something you expected and take for granted, you assume it doesn't hold up because your priorities are twisted. It's not even about age, either, I can imagine you'd react the same to any contemporary auteur like Zvyagintsev or Ceylan. You step into a world you are not equiped to understand and try to judge it using the wrong set of rules.

Do I assume too much?

The "old fart" thing is definitely something that seems odd to me, you don't have to be an old fart to appreciate how older films affected the medium. A ton of these films are way easier to sit through than say Fritz Lang German expressionist films.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

The "old fart" thing is definitely something that seems odd to me, you don't have to be an old fart to appreciate how older films affected the medium. A ton of these films are way easier to sit through than say Fritz Lang German expressionist films.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is about 70 minutes. It's, like, infinitely easier to sit through than any Marvel Comics movie.

In general, I think people have gotten so used to the MTV-style, ADHD-suckling quick-cutting and (paradoxically sterile) hyperstylization that inflects much of modern filmmaking that many older movies, even relatively "broad" crowd-pleasers, seem slow and boring by comparison, if you're not used to them. I have trouble imagining someone finding Citizen Kane "slow and boring", for example, as it's really a pretty lean and breezy movie, one that continually surprises and broaches new narrative and aesthetic territory, but you have several in this very thread with those very complaints.

 

[Sobriquet]

What an old fart list.

What movies do you feel like don't belong on the list? I'm assuming you've seen all of them.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is about 70 minutes. It's, like, infinitely easier to sit through than any Marvel Comics movie.

Seeing the length kind of blows me away. I remember it being much shorter for some reason.

 

[Crossing Eden]

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is about 70 minutes. It's, like, infinitely easier to sit through than any Marvel Comics movie.

In general, I think people have gotten so used to the MTV-style, ADHD-suckling quick-cutting and (paradoxically sterile) hyperstylization that inflects much of modern filmmaking that many older movies, even relatively "broad" crowd-pleasers, seem slow and boring by comparison, if you're not used to them. I have trouble imagining someone finding Citizen Kane "slow and boring", for example, as it's really a pretty lean and breezy movie, one that continually surprises and broaches new narrative and aesthetic territory, but you have several in this very thread with those very complaints.

Most definitely, and it's not like there aren't lists of the best modern films out there.

 

[Speevy]

I absolutely love it when people project their own shortcomings onto the film medium. Bland films are forgotten, poweful ones are remembered. Though they may be archaic in construction or primitive in their approach, these films have earned a name in the history books because they are powered by intemporal vision. You don't understand it because you have no respect for the art form and seek only entertainment, and thus, when disappointed because an old film didn't deliver something you expected and take for granted, you assume it doesn't hold up because your priorities are twisted. It's not even about age, either, I can imagine you'd react the same to any contemporary auteur like Zvyagintsev or Ceylan. You step into a world you are not equiped to understand and try to judge it using the wrong set of rules.

Do I assume too much?

That is a problem that doesn't exist in any other medium, so why should it exist in film?

There are songs from every era and genre that can entertain contemporary audiences.

There are books from every era and genre that can entertain modern readers.

There are paintings, sculptures, and other types of art that can delight fans alongside something that was created yesterday.

My problem is not that older films are appreciated. They should be. Someone stepped out on a limb and laid the groundwork for all future films. They created genres. They created camera techniques. This took tremendous vision, like you said. People will continue to appreciate classic films for all time. My only contention is that these golden age filmmakers wanted their films to entertain. They didn't see their films as museum pieces. What good is a film you can only list? Films are meant to be watched, but with the expectation that you can appreciate the ever-evolving nature of the medium.

If no film historian or casual moviegoer can tell me why Citizen Kane is better than Pulp Fiction, then the two should not be ranked.

These lists have no methodology, just a never-changing acknowledgement that the older films are the best and only a handful of newer films are worth mentioning. I don't think even Alfred Hitchcock had that in mind. I could interchange every pre 1970 film from this list with an equal number of pre 1970 movies and I doubt anyone would mind, and THAT is the problem.

People list these old movies so much that they are forgetting to watch them.

 

[GK86]

I thought I would compile a list of what is available across Netflix regions. In case anyone was interested in watching them.

2) Godfather - Canada/Sweden
8) Psycho - Mexico
10) The Godfather Part II - Canada/Sweden
12) Chinatown - US/Canada
19) Taxi Driver - US/Germany/Switzerland
20) GoodFellas - Sweden/France
21) Mulholland Drive - Brazil/France
23) Annie Hall - US
28) Pulp Fiction - US/Mexico/Germany/Sweden
29) Raging Bull - Mexico
30) Some Like it Hot - Mexico
33) The Conversation - US/Mexico
39) The Birth of a Nation - US
45) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - US/Mexico
46) Marnie - Mexico
50) His Girl Friday - US/Canada/UK
55) The Graduate - USA/France/Australia
56) Back to the Future - France/Germany/Switzerland
57) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest -
60) Blue Velvet - US
62) The Shining - Netherlands/Sweden
65) The Right Stuff - Sweden
73) Network - UK
74) Forrest Gump - US/Canada/Mexico/Sweden
78) Schindler’s List - Mexico
79) The Tree of Life - Canada
85) Night of the Living Dead - US/France
86) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - UK/Sweden
90) Apocalypse Now - US
93) Mean Streets - UK
94) 25th Hour - Mexico
96) The Dark Knight - Switzerland/France
99) 12 Years a Slave - Canada

 

[Super_Cobra]

The Godfather is awfully overrated. Also birth of a nation is not that great either.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

That is a problem that doesn't exist in any other medium, so why should it exist in film?

There are songs from every era and genre that can entertain contemporary audiences.

There are books from every era and genre that can entertain modern readers.

There are paintings, sculptures, and other types of art that can delight fans alongside something that was created yesterday.

My problem is not that older films are appreciated. They should be. Someone stepped out on a limb and laid the groundwork for all future films. They created genres. They created camera techniques. This took tremendous vision, like you said. People will continue to appreciate classic films for all time. My only contention is that these golden age filmmakers wanted their films to entertain. They didn't see their films as museum pieces. What good is a film you can only list? Films are meant to be watched, but with the expectation that you can appreciate the ever-evolving nature of the medium.

If no film historian or casual moviegoer can tell me why Citizen Kane is better than Pulp Fiction, then the two should not be ranked.

These lists have no methodology, just a never-changing acknowledgement that the older films are the best and only a handful of newer films are worth mentioning. I don't think even Alfred Hitchcock had that in mind. I could interchange every pre 1970 film from this list with an equal number of pre 1970 movies and I doubt anyone would mind, and THAT is the problem.

People list these old movies so much that they are forgetting to watch them.

I could give you 1,000 reasons Citizen Kane is better than Pulp Fiction, because it is.

Old films are art. They communicate ideas, not merely pioneer technique.

 

[haikira]

I thought I would compile a list of what is available across Netflix regions. In case anyone was interested in watching them.

2) Godfather - Canada/Sweden
8) Psycho - Mexico
10) The Godfather Part II - Canada/Sweden
12) Chinatown - US/Canada
19) Taxi Driver - US/Germany/Switzerland
20) GoodFellas - Sweden/France
21) Mulholland Drive - Brazil/France
23) Annie Hall - US
28) Pulp Fiction - US/Mexico/Germany/Sweden
29) Raging Bull - Mexico
30) Some Like it Hot - Mexico
33) The Conversation - US/Mexico
39) The Birth of a Nation - US
45) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - US/Mexico
46) Marnie - Mexico
50) His Girl Friday - US/Canada/UK
55) The Graduate - USA/France/Australia
56) Back to the Future - France/Germany/Switzerland
57) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest -
60) Blue Velvet - US
62) The Shining - Netherlands/Sweden
65) The Right Stuff - Sweden
73) Network - UK
74) Forrest Gump - US/Canada/Mexico/Sweden
78) Schindler’s List - Mexico
79) The Tree of Life - Canada
85) Night of the Living Dead - US/France
86) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - UK/Sweden
90) Apocalypse Now - US
93) Mean Streets - UK
94) 25th Hour - Mexico
96) The Dark Knight - Switzerland/France
99) 12 Years a Slave - Canada

Thanks. That's pretty awesome.

Also annoying as someone in the UK, seeing that only four of the one hundred are available.

 

[Poimandres]

Mulholland Drive is the only post 2000 release in the top 50. Interesting! It was pretty well received on release, but time has been particularly kind to that film. I think it totally belongs on this list.

There are some absolutely puzzling omissions here though, like anything by PTA (There Will Be Blood in particular!)

 

[RibMan]

Change #1 with #2 and the list is correct.

 

[cooljeanius]

Okay, I've seen 1-4, but what's #5, The Searchers, all about? The last film textbook I read only had Stagecoach as John Ford's big movie...

 

[SpaceHorror]

Okay, I've seen 1-4, but what's #5, The Searchers, all about? The last film textbook I read only had Stagecoach as John Ford's big movie...

Sounds like an awful film textbook.

 

[RoadHazard]

Utterly shocked at #1.

 

[oti]

Where's The Room?

 

[Fuchsdh]

Okay, I've seen 1-4, but what's #5, The Searchers, all about? The last film textbook I read only had Stagecoach as John Ford's big movie...

It's about the searchers, duh.

Honestly all you need to know is it's one of the best westerns of all time. If you like westerns, you should like this. If you don't like westerns, you should at least watch the film to see if it changes your opinion any.

 

[Htown]

Okay, I've seen 1-4, but what's #5, The Searchers, all about? The last film textbook I read only had Stagecoach as John Ford's big movie...

From wiki:

The Searchers is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, set during the Texas–Indian Wars, and starring John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood), accompanied by his adoptive nephew (Jeffrey Hunter). Critic Roger Ebert found Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, "one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created".

The film was a commercial success, although it received no Academy Award nominations. Since its release, it has come to be considered a masterpiece, and one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. It was named the greatest American western by the American Film Institute in 2008, and it placed 12th on the same organization's 2007 list of the 100 greatest American movies of all time. Entertainment Weekly also named it the best western. The British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine ranked it as the seventh best film of all time based on a 2012 international survey of film critics and in 2008, the French magazine Cahiers du cinéma ranked The Searchers number 10 in their list of the top 100 best films ever made.

In 1989, The Searchers was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry; it was in the first cohort of films selected for the registry.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

The Searchers is a movie with an AWFUL romance subplot whose only real pretense to "depth" is that Wayne's character is openly racist, not just implicitly so.

In terms of Ford Westerns with Wayne, both The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Stagecoach are quite a bit better.

 

[GK86]

Where's The Room?

Disqualified because it is too great.

 

[DrSlek]

They got The Godfather was better than the sequel Godfather II. This list is alright with me.

I agree with this. I only just got around to watching parts 1 & 2 recently. I know Part 2 is hailed as a masterpiece, but I don't see it. I found part 1 to be infinitely better. I think part 2 could have been much better in my eyes if it ditched Michaels plot and focussed on the Ascension of Vito.

I think I even like part 3 better than 2....with the glaring flaw being the acting of Sophia Coppola.

 

[Blader]

Okay, I've seen 1-4, but what's #5, The Searchers, all about? The last film textbook I read only had Stagecoach as John Ford's big movie...

Your film textbook ended in 1939?

The Searchers is a movie with an AWFUL romance subplot whose only real pretense to "depth" is that Wayne's character is openly racist, not just implicitly so.

In terms of Ford Westerns with Wayne, both The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Stagecoach are quite a bit better.

That was my take on it too when I first saw it. I haven't seen Stagecoach yet but Liberty Valance is definitely a better, more interesting film.