The twenty best films ever made

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• 1 - Dirtgrain

  Mar 11, 2004 at 10:34 pm

  Also consider these:
  Affliction
  Barfly
  Brazil
  The Big Lebowski
  Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
  Frankenstein
  Henry V (1989)
  Hope and Glory
  In the Name of the Father
  Jacob's Ladder
  Night on Earth
  Orphans
  Pi
  Requiem for a Dream (2000)
  Shawshank Redemption, The
  Unforgiven

• 2 - Mark Saleski

  Mar 11, 2004 at 11:21 pm

  Cabin Boy

• 3 - Chris Kent

  Mar 11, 2004 at 11:23 pm

  What a terrific list....
  
  I am disappointed you did not do at the very least small descriptions on the other 15....Days of Heaven is a classic, but that film MUST be watched at the theater, and I argue Terrence Malick, a truly gifted genious, having two films in the top three. I have argued vehemently for years how The Thin Red Line was vastly superior to Saving Private Ryan the year it was filmed. I mean Nick Nolte's performance is just fucking extraordinary.......But of Malick's three films, which do you possibly include and leave out?!.....
  
  I truthfully cannot argue with a single one of your listings except Full Metal Jacket.....Dr. Strangelove or Paths of Glory I feel are superior.....Kurosawa's Ikiru or Seven Samurai I would have considered, as well as The Wild Bunch, Best Year of Our Lives, The Seventh Seal and Vertigo.......but no complaints.....

• 4 - Eric Olsen

  Mar 12, 2004 at 10:59 am

  Fascinating, thanks. I would include some "family" films like The Wizard of Oz, a Disney animated, probably Pinnochio, but also not, maybe Mary Poppins. It's recent and hasn't withstood time, but so far the first LOTR is holding up very well.
  
  Re war, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan all show the visceral horror, arbitrary fates, but also the potential for human nobility in war.

• 5 - JR

  Mar 12, 2004 at 11:55 am

  I don't know if I would take a small kid to The Fellowship of the Ring; that's pretty heavy stuff. As a youngster I was always partial to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

• 6 - Shark

  Mar 12, 2004 at 12:00 pm

  re. BEST KIDS MOVIES:
  
  Pollyanna - which also belongs on the 'best films ever made' list
  
  Return to Oz -
  
  All Ray Harryhausen films -
  
  
  
  

• 7 - John Lars Ericson

  Mar 12, 2004 at 1:02 pm

  Citizen Kane, City Lights and Aparajito are all perfectly acceptable to show to children.

• 8 - Eric Olsen

  Mar 12, 2004 at 1:19 pm

  but not specifically made for "the child in all of us" and such crap

• 9 - Rodney Welch

  Mar 12, 2004 at 1:40 pm

  The Thin Red Line had about an hour's worth of a good movie shovelled between two dull ones of no interest. The film as a whole was sappy and pretentious and, I thought, quite the inferior of Saving Private Ryan -- which really, really puts you in the thick of war. I never thought much of Badlands either; the film defines "fake pathos." I personally would have put Citizen Kane, L'Avventura and Rules of the Game much higher, but that's just me. As for the others, I had no use at all for Stalker -- Tarkovsky at his most glacial, which is saying a lot; looks like a madcap romp next to it -- and I think City Lights is corny, especially that famous ending, a desperate attempt by Chaplin to wring tears from the audience.

• 10 - Rodney Welch

  Mar 12, 2004 at 1:45 pm

  The above should read -- "L'Avventura looks like a madcap romp next to it"

• 11 - Hal Pawluk

  Mar 12, 2004 at 1:57 pm

  I'd want to add The Cranes are Flying. I saw this Russian film 40 years ago and it's still stuck in my brain.

• 12 - John Lars Ericson

  Mar 12, 2004 at 3:16 pm

  I love what Jonathan Rosenbaum had to say about Saving Private Ryan: "Steven Spielberg's 1998 exercise in Oscar-mongering is a compilation of effects and impressions from all the war movies he's ever seen, decked out with precise instructions about what to think in Robert Rodat's script and how to feel in John Williams's hokey music. There's something here for everybody--war is hell (Sam Fuller), war is father figures (Oliver Stone), war is absurd (David Lean, Stanley Kubrick), war is necessary (John Ford), war is surreal (Francis Coppola), war is exciting (Robert Aldrich), war is upsetting (all of the preceding and Lewis Milestone), war is uplifting (ditto)--and nothing that suggests an independent vision, unless you count seeing more limbs blown off than usual (the visceral opening sequence, showing Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944) or someone getting graphically shot underwater."

• 13 - The Dude

  Mar 12, 2004 at 3:19 pm

  It's all subjective, but I would add:
  "Tokyo Story" and "Faces."

• 14 - Toby

  Mar 12, 2004 at 3:25 pm

  I'm glad to see the Thin Red Line is as appreciated as I think it deserves. Without attempting to start an argument, I thought Saving Private Ryan was an infinitely inferior film. To draw an analogy, Saving Private Ryan is like a high school text book on Napoleon's invasion of Russia sat alongside Tolstoy's War and Peace. The themes Mallick draws on are just that much bigger than the relatively narrow field of vision Spielberg gives us.
  Nick Nolte, Sean Penn both give amazing performances in the film (sadly Travolta once again manages to overact even in his small role). The poetic beauty of the final scenes are heartbreaking, but (excuse the flowery language) dizzily euphoric.
  I also agree with the inclusion of Rear Window, about as perfect as a film can be. I think Wild Bunch should also be included.
  Seeing Raging Bull I tried to think which Scorsee film should be there. Taxi Driver while a great film didn't aspire to as much as Raging Bull. Goodfellas may be his most competent film, with the strongest characters and performances, but again was dealing with a much smaller canvas than Raging Bull.
  And just to start a controversy, I would include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in my top 20, as a near perfect example of dragging the audience in to a world of insanity and horror.

• 15 - Shark

  Mar 12, 2004 at 3:28 pm

  Cool Hand Luke
  Blood Simple
  Miller's Crossing
  The Gold Rush (Chaplin)
  Lawrence of Arabia
  The Crowd (1928 - silent)
  The Godfather
  

• 16 - Toby

  Mar 12, 2004 at 3:32 pm

  Forgot Godfather II.
  Apocalypse Now, Godfather, Godfather II, the Conversation. I mean seriously what the hell happened to Coppola over the last two decades?

• 17 - Jim Carruthers

  Mar 12, 2004 at 3:49 pm

  I look to my DVD collection and I'd have to add:
  "The Bride of Frankenstein"
  "Blade Runner"
  "The Searchers"
  "Singin' In The Rain"
  "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
  "Some Like It Hot"
  "Casablanca"
  "Touch of Evil"
  "Shakes the Clown"
  "True Romance"
  "Videodrome"
  "Animal House"
  
  and whole bunch of others, but I really agree with "Days of Heaven". I saw it in a rep theatre in the late 70s and it has stayed with me.

• 18 - Eric Olsen

  Mar 12, 2004 at 4:05 pm

  Jim, your list would be closer to mine.
  
  Of the Coen Bros, my fave is Raising Arizona, and I also love O Brother. I think Big Lebowsky is pondersome and arch, Fargo vile and Barton Fink ludicrous. I like Blood Simple much better in their "slippery slope to cruel fate" mode.

• 19 - Mark Saleski

  Mar 12, 2004 at 4:14 pm

  Casablanca
  Citizen Kane
  Apocalypse Now
  Diva
  Mystery Train
  Koyaanisqatsi
  Metropolis
  Repo Man
  A Clockwork Orange
  It Happened One Night
  PI

• 20 - Jim Carruthers

  Mar 12, 2004 at 4:36 pm

  I deliberately left off any Coen Brothers movies because I am so conflicted about them in a somewhat "Chinatown" way (should be on the list). "I like your movie - slap - I'm not sure - slap".
  
  The Coen's movies really highlight the frustration of doing a list. I really like "The Big Lebowski", but is it better than "O Brother"? It took me four tries before I had a "oh, I get it" moment with "The Hudsucker Proxie", and "Barton Fink" is more of a puzzle than a movie going experience.
  
  For other reasons, I left off Kevin Smith movies because he is a much better writer than director. I really like "Chasing Amy", but think how good it could have been with a really top notch director like Paul Thomas Anderson.

• 21 - Jim Carruthers

  Mar 12, 2004 at 4:41 pm

  Plus I agree with William Goldman's opinion that Russ Meyer is the only true auteur in the US.
  
  "Beneath The Valley of the UltraVixens" should be on it's own list.
  

• 22 - duane

  Mar 12, 2004 at 5:21 pm

  There are way too many great movies. Here are some of my favorites. Not saying that these necessarily have the highest artistic merit. I'm a sucker for Spencer Tracy, William Holden, and Gregory Peck movies.
  
  1) Apocalypse Now
  2) The Godfather
  3) Raging Bull
  4) Rear Window
  5) The Deer Hunter
  6) The African Queen
  7) Cool Hand Luke
  8) To Kill a Mockingbird
  9) 12 Angry Men
  10) Shane
  11) Executive Suite
  12) Bad Day at Black Rock
  13) Annie Hall
  14) Blade Runner
  15) It's a Gift
  16) Sullivan's Travels
  17) Mutiny on the Bounty
  18) Man in the Grey Flannel Suit
  19) Sunset Boulevard
  20) Alien
  
  + 200 others

• 23 - Eric Olsen

  Mar 12, 2004 at 5:31 pm

  Oooh, I love Repo Man and Diva also.
  
  I vacillate on Hitchcock faves. As much as I love Rear Window sometimes I think it too stagey and self-conscious. Probably my fave all around is North By Northwest.
  
  Alien is probably greatest sci-fi and horror for me: great story, horrifying and believable premise, extreme tension, amazing art design, great cast.

• 24 - Jeff

  Mar 12, 2004 at 6:41 pm

  I can't allow 2001 to be on that list. If you have read the book and watched the movie you know that Kubrick left out the best line in the whole book (ok that's my opinion really). The part of the book that gave me goosebumps. Great movie and deserving of this list if Dave Bowman had one more line.

• 25 - Jeff

  Mar 12, 2004 at 6:44 pm

  OK, I just realized that it was your list...so I guess you can put anything you want on there :)
  
  ("God Jeff you're such an idiot!").