The Top 100 Movies according to critics

[dalsh327]

The list seems to be an attempt at sophistication.

Maybe, but they have their own reasons and criteria on why they're "great" films.

Being sophisticated just means having an open mind to it; it has nothing to do with snobbery, which is pretty much anyone that makes a living as a movie or music critic. I think actors respected Ebert because he actually involved himself in making a movie vs someone who just sits their ass in a theater with a bucket of popcorn and rips it to shreds in the NY Times. No one reads what a movie critic has to say to see about the film anymore, but Twitter will destroy a movie in seconds.

A lot of those films had been under the radar for the general public, but it's not the case anymore. Most libraries buy Criterion movies and Netflix has most of them, people will see them on Turner Classics from time to time and just DVR it if they feel like watching old stuff on a rainy day. I always felt multiplexes should have one theater dedicated to showing classic movies, and I think some still do midnight showings of the cult classics. And it comes down to growing up watching something in "pan and scan" that you liked, and finally getting to see it how it was supposed to be seen, on a big screen with an audience, but one that's there for the same reasons you're there.

[wasted]

All garbage.

[GivenToFly]

When asked to make a list of all time best they probably focus more on impact and the place in history. When you see lists that have been compiled and the critics reviewed the movies individually it looks slightly different.

I don't like the top ten, 10 points through one method.

[bran]

edit: i have seen 5 of those movies

[Randy Lahey]

I've seen 12 of them. And I've got a few more downloaded that I haven't watched. That list needs more films from the 70's on it.

[arnold layne]

What a load of bullshit. There are only like five movies on that list that were made after 1975, and the newest is from the '80s.

Who are these critics? A bunch of retired fucks pining over the glory days? Fuck them.

I can't take any list that doesn't have Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure seriously.

[DieselDaisy]

I prefer these lists than the ones which include Terminator 2 and crappy Star Wars. Some people were not brought up on rubbish american films.

[wasted]

I wouldn't say Top 100, it's more like the most important movies in film history or the roots of cinema.

[MEXzilla]

I wouldn't say Top 100, it's more like the most important movies in film history or the roots of cinema.

Terminator 2, aliens, goodfellas,godfather,seven and many more modern films shit on those 100 films IMO

[wasted]

I've seen 35 of them.

It's really just the history of film. They were kind of at first important to the development of film. Then it just moves to the classics of early 40s, 50s, 60s.

One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest probably has more depth to it than Easy Rider. But I guess if you moved into 70s and 80s you'd get stuff like Deer Hunter and Weird Science.

The problem is in terms of narrative structure Maltese Falcon is the greatest film noir, people still make them and it's the thing just not as good. Every movie made now is generally a remake of those movies. So I guess if you're being a tight ass that how the list comes out. Blade Runner is just film noir in space pants.

Vertigo is the best suspense movie of all time.

Why isn't Tetsu: Body Hammer not on the list though?

or Empire State Building by Warhol.

Edited August 15, 2013 by wasted

[wasted]

I wouldn't say Top 100, it's more like the most important movies in film history or the roots of cinema.

Terminator 2, aliens, goodfellas,godfather,seven and many more modern films shit on those 100 films IMO

Pirates of the Carribean shits all over Moonfleet I can tell you.

It's not that, it's just done been done before. You could say Seven is a suspense film, so it's nothing new Vertigo or hitchcock movies really own that. Aliens is kind of horror, jump horror was done by Pyscho, ok it's aliens. But it terms of genre conventions it's nothing. They file these movies under special effects. Godfather is a grand narrative, Rebecca is a grand narrative I think. In terms of film theory they just look at narrative innovation, ok it's gangsters, but Mario Puzo is a hack. I love his books though. Goodfellas is nothing note worthy, it's like Some Like It Hot in the final analysis with mucho violence. If you see what I mean

I 'd rather watch those T2 movies to be honest.

I think it's in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls it kind of chronicles how they tried to have a revolution from Easy Riders, Coppola tried, but eventually the excesses took over and in the end it was Star Wars that influenced the next gen of movies that we grew up on. However hard they tried in the 70s, they lost and Star Wars invented the blockbuster movie and that is still playing out right now with 3D action movies. But very little genre innovation has happened.

We appreciate special effects though, as well as a good story.

Edited August 15, 2013 by wasted

[Guest Len B'stard]

I don't see why people get their knickers in a knot about this shit i mean, these people are film buffs and they compile their list with an eye on like, the history of it as opposed to how well it works as turn your brain off and enjoy with a bowl of popcorn type entertainment. If you ain't into films in that hardcore way then it shouldn't matter to you one way or another but don't sit there having a go, especially if you ain't seen none of the films to judge.

It ain't a crime to aspire to something a little more varied and, dare I say, high minded in this life, it ain't no law that you've gotta fuckin' like 80s Hollywood feel good movies or else you're just a pretentious twat.

[Dazey]

It ain't no law that you've gotta fuckin' like 80s Hollywood feel good movies or else you're just a pretentious twat.

It should be!

[wasted]

I find it hard to believe there hasnt been more innovations. But the studio has it locked up. People like Soderberg who start out indie end up doing genre pictures.

I like the Deer Hunter because it seems to have a philosophy behind it.

What is Terminator in essence. Is it basically The Fugitive. I think theres an early one from the 50s. Its kike a police man hunt. Which is what Terminator is basically.

Very few films are important.

What was before Animal House?

[Guest Len B'stard]

Loads of innovations have happened but the value of an innovation is only apparent after a period of time and you see what it offers to the medium.

It ain't no law that you've gotta fuckin' like 80s Hollywood feel good movies or else you're just a pretentious twat.

It should be!

The way i see it is i got one life to live and i want to take in and learn from as much different shit as I can, Terminator etc was great when i was 13 but i don't wannabe 13 for the rest of my life. If movies were limited to all that stuff i probably wouldn't've bothered with it after a certain age.

Edited August 15, 2013 by sugaraylen

[wasted]

But theres not many movies from the 70s and 80s on the list. Theres been enough time to work it out. Fact is genre conventions are hard to break. Also thats not a directors first priority. So its almost chaos theory. But the general trends being recorded seem to suggest a move towards bigger and dumber.

Scorcese doesnt make the list, QT is fucked.

Seems film hit a wall in the 70s. Godard isnt on the list?

Like Morrissey said all the films were made in black and white.

[Mao5]

This list was compiled in a book called John Kobal Presents The Top 100 Movies, published in 1988.

fyi the book is really cheap at amazon, around 1 cent.

[wasted]

Actually i dont think innovations is the right word in that they arent trying to make them.

Make no mistake Terminator 2 is as good a version of the hollywood narrative as the older movies. Its just not the first.

Maltese falcon isnt any better than Die hard.

But if your talking formal aspects nothing much has changed in devices used. The ticking cloxk, the protagonist having a problem to solve in that time. The obstacles in the way. The final clinch scene and problem solved. Its the same.

There is no right but when you look at 80s whats interesting is high concept event movies. Youre not talking about the nuances of formal aspects explored by an artist. Its action, effects, stars, box office.

So eventually Top Gun will get ear marked with Terminator or Blade Runner. But it will be on different criteria than that list.

In the 90s hollywood took on more european influences. Stone exploring characters, QT breaking up the narrative, but its been done before. So the new thing was hollywood art movies like Wild at Heart. Sex Lies n Videotape.So you look at that. But there was a lot ofstuff still coming out of europe that could considered which isnt on the list.

[supercool]

This list was compiled in a book called John Kobal Presents The Top 100 Movies, published in 1988. Kobal polled 81 international critics/filmmakers, the more famous of which include Nestor Almendros, Lindsay Anderson, Penelope Gilliatt, Leonard Maltin, Tony Rayns, Andrew Sarris, Susan Sontag, and Bertrand Tavernier. Kobal used the typical point system where he solicited top 10 lists with #1 getting 10 points, and #10 getting 1.

Do you agree with this list ?

What is your Top 10 movies ?

1. Citizen Kane (1941, Welles)
2. The Rules of the Game (1939, Renoir)
3. Potemkin (1925, Eisenstein)
4. 8½ (1963, Fellini)
5. Singin' in the Rain (1952, Kelly; Donen)
6. Modern Times (1936, Chaplin)
7. Wild Strawberries (1957, Bergman)
8. The Gold Rush (1925, Chaplin)
9. Casablanca (1942, Curtiz)
10. Rashomon (1951, Kurosawa)
11. The Bicycle Thief (1949, De Sica)
12. City Lights (1931, Chaplin)
13. Children of Paradise (1945, Carné)
14. Sunrise (1927, Murnau)
15. The Earrings of Madame de... (1953, Ophüls)
16. Grand Illusion (1937, Renoir)
17. The Searchers (1956, Ford)
18. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Kubrick)
19. Some Like It Hot (1959, Wilder)
20. Ivan the Terrible (1943, Eisenstein)
21. Jules and Jim (1961, Truffaut)
22. Stagecoach (1939, Ford)
23. Vertigo (1958, Hitchcock)
24. Seven Samurai (1954, Kurosawa)
25. Tokyo Story (1953, Ozu)
26. Andrei Rublev (1966, Tarkovsky)
27. Fanny and Alexander (1983, Bergman)
28. L'Atalante (1934, Vigo)
29. Viridiana (1961, Buñuel)
30. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, Hammer)
31. The Third Man (1949, Reed)
32. Ugetsu (1953, Mizoguchi)
33. Zero for Conduct (1933, Vigo)
34. Ikiru (1952, Kurosawa)
35. Apu Trilogy (1955, Ray)
36. The Band Wagon (1953, Minnelli)
37. Gone With the Wind (1939, Fleming)
38. The Maltese Falcon (1941, Huston)
39. La Dolce Vita (1960, Fellini)
40. Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959, Resnais)
41. Rome, Open City (1945, Rossellini)
42. Touch of Evil (1958, Welles)
43. L'Age d'Or (1930, Buñuel)
44. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Dreyer)
45. The Seventh Seal (1956, Bergman)
46. Amarcord (1973, Fellini)
47. Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Mizoguchi)
48. L'Avventura (1960, Antonioni)
49. The General (1927, Keaton)
50. Life of Oharu (1952, Mizoguchi)
51. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972, Buñuel)
52. Napoleon (1927, Gance)
53. The Sacrifice (1986, Tarkovsky)
54. Nights of Cabiria (1957, Fellini)
55. The Thief of Bagdad (1940, Powell)
56. Alexander Nevsky (1938, Eisenstein)
57. East of Eden (1955, Kazan)
58. The Lady Vanishes (1938, Hitchcock)
59. The Navigator (1924, Keaton)
60. Ordet (1955, Dreyer)
61. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975, Forman)
62. Ashes and Diamonds (1958, Wajda)
63. Senso (1954, Visconti)
64. Mirror (1974, Tarkovsky)
65. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, Wyler)
66. Claire's Knee (1970, Rohmer)
67. Earth (1930, Dovzhenko)
68. La Terra Trema (1948, Visconti)
69. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919, Weine)
70. Paisan (1946, Rossellini)
71. Casque d'Or (1952, Becker)
72. The Exterminating Angel (1962, Buñuel)
73. Last Year at Marienbad (1962, Resnais)
74. Manhattan (1979, Allen)
75. My Darling Clementine (1946, Ford)
76. The Scarlet Empress (1934, Sternberg)
77. Greed (1924, Stroheim)
78. A Matter of Life and Death (1946, Powell)
79. The Wizard of Oz (1939, Fleming)
80. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, Whale)
81. Bringing Up Baby (1938, Hawks)
82. if.... (1968, Anderson)
83. La Strada (1954, Fellini)
84. Ai-no Corrida (1976, Oshima)
85. The African Queen (1951, Huston)
86. The Great Dictator (1940, Chaplin)
87. Heimat (1984, Reitz)
88. Lawrence of Arabia (1962, Lean)
89. Signs of Life (1968, Herzog)
90. To Be or Not to Be (1942, Lubitsch)
91. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Minnelli)
92. Monsieur Verdoux (1947, Chaplin)
93. Brief Encounter (1945, Lean)
94. The Far Country (1955, Mann)
95. Freaks (1932, Browning)
96. Moonfleet (1955, Lang)
97. Night of the Living Dead (1969, Romero)
98. Psycho (1960, Hitchcock)
99. Rebecca (1940, Hitchcock)
100. Viaggio in Italia (1953, Rossellini)

Source: http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ejohnson/kobal/kobal.html

very good list, i like it

[Haters Gonna Hate]

At least Psycho is on it.

[bran]

glad the wizard of oz made it, still one of my favorite movies

[batman007]

glad the wizard of oz made it, still one of my favorite movies

Same here. I need to pick it up on blu ray. What did u think of Oz the great and powerful? I really liked it.

[GivenToFly]

This is a different list, compiled in 2012 from the votes of 846 critics in 73 countries:

1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
3. Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)
4. La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939)
5. Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
7. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
10. 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)

Top 250 can be read here: http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/critics

[wasted]

Lets watch them all. its kind of like the bucket list of movies.

[GivenToFly]

^ I'd kinda like to. Sounds like a good project.