What makes a fantastic film? You might as well ask what makes a good red wine, or abstract painting, or an attractive face.
Not every blockbuster is a “quality” film, and certainly not every “quality” film is a blockbuster. Some films are held in high regard, but are so “artsy” that it can be difficult to enjoy them (Eraserhead). Some movies are wildly popular (Die Hard), but hated by critics. A film can have a great script, but bad director, or a great director but the worst possible actor (Denise Richards in The World is Not Enough). Sometimes the special effects are awful (Howard the Duck, and let’s not forget the unfinished production on Cats). Sometimes the budget is practically zero (the $400,000 budget of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was partially financed by the rock bands Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Jethro Tull), while others have tremendous budgets and huge followings and are so awful they still fail (Solo, A Star Wars Story had a budget of $250 million and couldn’t break even—how can you lose with Star Wars?). When all these things come together—a good story, good writing, good actors, good directors, good marketing, and sometimes good timing (even Lilo and Stitch had to be retrofitted because of a plane and building scene right after 9/11)—you can hit a home run clear out of the park.
Obviously, everyone has different tastes. Porky’s is my go-to when I need a stupid laugh. Yeah, it’s not high-brow. Forty years later, I still don’t understand the humor in Ghostbusters. 2001: A Space Odyssey is an incredibly beautiful movie, far ahead of its time, but with zero dialogue for the first 20 minutes, and I think it’s one of the most boring movies I’ve ever seen. I have endlessly tried to understand the hoopla of Blade Runner, read all the discussion on it, and I’m still missing the genius. I’ll just agree it’s an important film, and carry on. My favorite romance movie is Raiders of the Lost Ark—not generally on any romance list.
So, anyone trying to pick the top 100 films of all time is truly facing an endeavor in futility, whether you’re the American Film Institute or a bunch of friends at dinner. I gathered results from eight different polls, and tried to tabulate the results. AFI, no surprise, is a bit snooty and prefers their films pre-1950, and doesn’t care much for popularity or genre films. Rotten Tomatoes focuses on user recommendation and critic reviews. Empire Online focuses more on popularity, artistic merit, and cultural impact. IMDB uses user ratings. British Film Institute includes far more foreign-language films than we get exposure to, with the ratings of more than 1600 critics, academics, and curators. Sight & Sound, which is run by the Criterion Channel, uses more than 1500 critics choices. Overall, drama far outweighed comedies, and musicals and animated films were few all around.
How many of these have you seen? Which ones would you recommend?
1. 12 Angry Men
3. 400 Blows
4. Alien
7. Annie Hall
11. Beau Travail
12. Bicycle Thieves
13. Blade Runner
14. Bonnie and Clyde
15. Breathless
16. Bringing Up Baby
18. Casablanca
19. Chinatown
20. Citizen Kane
21. City Lights
22. Close Up (1990)
24. Double Indemnity
25. Dr. Strangelove
26. Duck Soup
27. ET
29. Forrest Gump
30. Get Out
31. Godfather
32. Godfather II
34. Goodfellas
35. In the Mood For Love (2000)
36. Intolerance
39. Jaws
40. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
41. King Kong
43. M
45. Maltese Falcon
46. Metropolis
47. Modern Times
48. Moonlight
49. Mulholland Drive
50. Nashville
51. Network
54. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
55. Parasite
56. Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
57. Pather Panchali
58. Persona
59. Psycho
60. Pulp Fiction
61. Raging Bull
63. Rashomon
64. Rear Window
67. Schindler’s list
68. Seven Samurai
72. Some Like it Hot
73. Sound of Music
74. Spirited Away
76. Sunrise: Song of Two Humans
77. Sunset Boulevard
78. Taxi Driver
79. The Dark Knight
80. The General
81. The Searchers
82. The Shining
83. Titanic
84. Tokyo Story
85. Toy Story
86. Vertigo
87. Wizard of Oz
89. Cabaret
93. Easy Rider
94. The Deer Hunter
95. MASH
96. Platoon
97. Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse
99. Up
100. West Side Story (original)
Just to push myself, I tried, tried to pick my 100 top films, but couldn’t get further than 50. Do I pick the ones I’ve watched the most times (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan)? Do I pick the ones I think are technically perfect (Casablanca)? Do I pick the ones I felt most deeply? (I cried for two hours after Edward Scissorhands) The most mind-bending (Dr. Strange)? Something sentimental I remember from childhood (The Poseidon Adventure)? It becomes too difficult to choose. So, these are the first ten films I’d pick to be stranded on a desert island with (assuming I had the means to watch them) (and I’d prefer more):
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