Overview
On September 18th, 2004 I looked at the IMDB Top 250 (the top 250 films of all-time as ranked by IMDB users) and got an idea: try to watch all of them. It's not as easy as it sounds, watching movies, mainly the hardest part is getting a hold of them in the first place - the real movie with working sound and in English - particularly difficult if it's a French silent picture from 1928. Secondly, just watching the movies can be difficult - some of the "best movies of all-time" are some of the worst movies of all-time, you pound on your desk and pray for it to end. Finally, watching all movies on the list is difficult because the list keeps changing - people keep voting and new movies get released all the time. It is for this last reason that the IMDB 250 ballooned, for me, into the IMDB Top 320.Tonight I finished watching "Slumdog Millionaire" - the final movie on the list.
This has been an extremely interesting experience. Film is part of American culture and there are so many references, phrases, concepts etc. that make so much more sense once you see where they came from. Films themselves make reference to other films (the title to "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" comes from "Sullivan's Travels" [#231], Christopher Lloyd hanging from the clock hands in "Back to the Future"[#142] is an homage to Harold Lloyd hanging from clock hands in "Safety Last" [#224], the title "The Big Lebowski" [#222] is a play on the title "The Big Sleep" [#108], etc, etc, etc).
And yet I wouldn't exactly recommend others do the same. For most people, this would be a HUGE waste of time and even with a list of "good" movies, it's a very subjective medium and you're going to hate what you're watching much of the time.
A Few Brief Observations
The Overrated: First off, at various times, "The Godfather" will bubble up to #1. I've never understood this - "The Godfather" is a good movie but I've never understood this "best movie of all-time" designation (ironic on the Family Business forum I know). Likewise I find Stanley Kubrik extremely uneven. I hate some of his movies ("A Clockwork Orange" [#73] is one of the worst movies I've ever seen imo) however I appreciate others ("Spartacus" [#164] is a classic and "Dr. Strangelove" [#16] is really good). The same with Woody Allen (I don't find any of his movies funny but "Manhattan" [#121] is perhaps the best looking movie ever). Not a fan of Ingmar Bergman - he constantly does something different but it's usually not for me. "Dark Knight" [#4] is a really good movie but there's no way it should be #4. What the hell is "Spiderman 2" doing on this list?
The Appropriately Rated: Alfred Hitchcock was a genius, his movies can age another 50 years and will still be just as amazing. Kurosawa, the director's director completely lives up to his reputation. Frank Capra and Orson Welles also live up to their hefty reputation. I like every movie the Marx brothers ever did. Jimmy Stewart can read the phone book and still be interesting.
The Underrated: This one's probably even more arbitrary than all previous but I'll try. "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" doesn't make the list but would be in my personal top 3. I think "Driving Miss Daisy", "Awakenings", "Giant" and "Apollo 13" should be on there. "Glory" at #119 should be waaay higher. Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton made silent films that are absolutely brilliant yet are almost completely unknown to the average person nowadays because no one watches silent films.
Best/Worst List
Most Overrated Movie on the List / Worst Movie on the List: "Dogville" [#127] gets both titles. This movie is on this list yet would be a finalist in my list of worst movies ever made. Each successive second of this movie is like having weights of ever increasing mass dropped on my scrotum.
Best Movie: Any one of "It's a Wonderful Life"[#27], "Glory" [#119], "The Shawshank Redemption"[#2], "This is Spinal Tap"[#208] or "The Empire Strikes Back"[#13].
Coolest Actor: James Dean in "Giant".
Favorite Actor: James Stewart in "It's A Wonderful Life" [#27], "Harvey" [#195], "Rear Window" [#14], and on and on.
Favorite Actress: Audrey Hepburn in "Charade" [#170]. Honorable mention to Grace Kelly in "Rear Window" [#14] (I'd honorable HER mention)
Best Movie I Hadn't Seen Before Starting the List: Tie: "The Great Escape"[#78], "Judgement At Nuremberg"[#245] or "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"[#187].
Worst Comedy: "Some Like It Hot" [#44]. Not funny but it has Marilyn Monroe which I assume is why it's on the list.
Longest Movie: "Fanny och Alexander" [#241] - 312 minutes. I watched a movie that was quite boring and I watched it for over 5 hours.
Most Surprising Movie: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" [#187] - it's black and white, it's 40 years old, it's three hours of nothing but people talking (really!) and yet it's interesting for every second.
Best Movie Featuring The Elephant Man: "The Elephant Man" [#130].
Best Old-School Violence: "Ben-Hur" [#128] - A dude takes a flaming
torch and shoves it in another guy's face and it looks real.
Weirdest Trivia Factoid: "Rosemary's Baby" [#214] - "Directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife actress Sharon Tate was murdered in 1969 by Charles Manson and his followers, who titled their death spree "Helter Skelter" after the 1968 song by The Beatles, one of whose members, 'John Lennon,' would one day live (and in 1980 be murdered) in the Manhattan apartment building called The Dakota - where Rosemary's Baby had been filmed."
Least Eventful Movie: "Fa yeung nin wa" [#248] A Chinese film, this is the closest I've ever seen a film come to depicting nothing. The amount of plot really does approach zero.
The Movie None of My Friends Have Even Heard of But Would Definitely Like: "Oldboy" [#205] - Violent Korean action-thriller about revenge with a sufficiently F'ed up ending. Has a fight sequence filmed as one continuous shot that's incredible.
The List
X | Rank | Title (Year) | My RatingX 1 Godfather, The (1972) - 7
X 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) - 10
X 3 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) - 6
X 4 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) - 6
X 5 Shichinin no samurai (1954) - 8
X 6 Schindler's List (1993) - 9
X 7 Casablanca (1942) - 9
X 8 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) - 6
X 9 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) - 6
X 10 Star Wars (1977) - 9
X 11 Citizen Kane (1941) - 9
X 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - 6
X 13 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - 10
X 14 Rear Window (1954) - 9
X 15 Pulp Fiction (1994) - 8
X 16 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - 9
X 17 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - 8
X 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) - 9
X 19 Memento (2000) - 8
X 20 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) - 8
X 21 12 Angry Men (1957) - 6
X 22 North by Northwest (1959) - 8
X 23 Cidade de Deus (2002) - 9
X 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - 7
X 25 Psycho (1960) - 8
X 26 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) - 8
X 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - 10
X 28 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) - 6
X 29 Goodfellas (1990) - 6
X 30 American Beauty (1999) - 5
X 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) - 7
X 32 C'era una volta il West (1968) - 7
X 33 Vertigo (1958) - 8
X 34 Matrix, The (1999) - 8
X 35 Apocalypse Now (1979) - 6
X 36 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - 6
X 37 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - 8
X 38 Pianist, The (2002) - 9
X 39 Third Man, The (1949) - 8
X 40 Fight Club (1999) - 8
X 41 Paths of Glory (1957) - 6
X 42 Taxi Driver (1976) - 7
X 43 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) - 5
X 44 Some Like It Hot (1959) - 4
X 45 Double Indemnity (1944) - 7
X 46 Boot, Das (1981) -
X 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) - 5
X 48 Chinatown (1974) - 8
X 49 L.A. Confidential (1997) - 8
X 50 M (1931) - 8
X 51 All About Eve (1950) - 6
X 52 Requiem for a Dream (2000) - 6
X 53 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) - 8
X 54 Se7en (1995) - 8
X 55 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) - 6
X 56 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) - 8
X 57 Rashômon (1950) - 8
X 58 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) - 8
X 59 Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 9
X 60 Raging Bull (1980) - 7
X 61 Alien (1979) - 7
X 62 American History X (1998) - 6
X 63 Léon (1994) - 7
X 64 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) - 9
X 65 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) -
X 66 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) - 7
X 67 Sting, The (1973) -
X 68 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) -
X 69 Modern Times (1936) - 6
X 70 Reservoir Dogs (1992) - 8
X 71 Vita è bella, La (1997) - 4
X 72 Touch of Evil (1958) - 9
X 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) - 2
X 74 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - 6
X 75 Ran (1985) -
X 76 On the Waterfront (1954) - 8
X 77 Amadeus (1984) - 3
X 78 Great Escape, The (1963) - 9
X 79 Finding Nemo (2003) - 7
X 80 Apartment, The (1960) - 8
X 81 Annie Hall (1977) - 7
X 82 Jaws (1975) - 7
X 83 Wo hu cang long (2000) - 7
X 84 High Noon (1952) -
X 85 Braveheart (1995) - 9
X 86 Aliens (1986) - 6
X 87 Metropolis (1927) - 9
X 88 Shining, The (1980) - 7
X 89 Fargo (1996) - 9
X 90 City Lights (1931) -
X 91 Strangers on a Train (1951) - 9
X 92 Donnie Darko (2001) - 7
X 93 Blade Runner (1982) -
X 94 Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) - 7
X 95 General, The (1927) - 9
X 96 Sixth Sense, The (1999) - 8
X 97 Great Dictator, The (1940) -
X 98 Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1989) - 7
X 99 Duck Soup (1933) - 9
X 100 Mononoke-hime (1997) -
X 101 Princess Bride, The (1987) - 9
X 102 Ladri di biciclette (1948) -
X 103 Full Metal Jacket (1987) - 3
X 104 Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946) - 8
X 105 Rebecca (1940) -
X 106 Notorious (1946) -
X 107 Yojimbo (1961) -
X 108 Big Sleep, The (1946) -
X 109 Lola rennt (1998) - 8
X 110 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - 8
X 111 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - 6
X 112 Forrest Gump (1994) - 9
X 113 Patton (1970) - 8
X 114 Toy Story 2 (1999) - 8
X 115 It Happened One Night (1934) -
X 116 Graduate, The (1967) - 7
X 117 Deer Hunter, The (1978) - 9
X 118 Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) - 7
X 119 Glory (1989) - 10
X 120 Cool Hand Luke (1967) - 7
X 121 Manhattan (1979) - 7
X 122 Ying xiong (2002) - 9
X 123 Once Upon a Time in America (1984) -
X 124 Mystic River (2003) -
X 125 Unforgiven (1992) -
X 126 Philadelphia Story, The (1940) -
X 127 Dogville (2003) - 1
X 128 Ben-Hur (1959) - 9
X 129 African Queen, The (1951) - 8
X 130 Elephant Man, The (1980) - 9
X 131 Searchers, The (1956) - 7
X 132 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) - 9
X 133 Green Mile, The (1999) - 8
X 134 Hable con ella (2002) - 6
X 135 Bringing Up Baby (1938) -
X 136 Grapes of Wrath, The (1940) - 4
X 137 Smultronstället (1957) -
X 138 Stalag 17 (1953) - 8
X 139 Amores perros (2000) -
X 140 Shrek (2001) - 7
X 141 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) - 8
X 142 Back to the Future (1985) - 9
X 143 Night of the Hunter, The (1955) - 5
X 144 Lost in Translation (2003) - 9
X 145 Platoon (1986) -
X 146 Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) -
X 147 Christmas Story, A (1983) - 9
X 148 Straight Story, The (1999) - 8
X 149 Gold Rush, The (1925) -
X 150 Gone with the Wind (1939) - 7
X 151 Hustler, The (1961) -
X 152 Wild Bunch, The (1969) -
X 153 All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - 6
X 154 Young Frankenstein (1974) - 6
X 155 His Girl Friday (1940) -
X 156 Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925) - 7
X 157 Die Hard (1988) - 8
X 158 Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938) -
X 159 Life of Brian (1979) -
X 160 Quatre cents coups, Les (1959) - 7
X 161 Grande illusion, La (1937) - 7
X 162 Monsters, Inc. (2001) - 7
X 163 Witness for the Prosecution (1957) - 8
X 164 Spartacus (1960) - 8
X 165 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (1962) - 8
X 166 Gladiator (2000) - 7
X 167 Festen (1998) - 7
X 168 Big Fish (2003) - 6
X 169 Roman Holiday (1953) -
X 170 Charade (1963) -
X 171 Sling Blade (1996) -
X 172 Hotaru no haka (1988) - 7
X 173 Magnolia (1999) - 9
X 174 Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951) - 7
X 175 Ed Wood (1994) - 6
X 176 Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951) -
X 177 Conversation, The (1974) - 6
X 178 Toy Story (1995) - 8
X 179 Killing, The (1956) - 4
X 180 All the President's Men (1976) -
X 181 Almost Famous (2000) -
X 182 Brazil (1985) - 7
X 183 Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994) -
X 184 Night at the Opera, A (1935) - 9
X 185 Insider, The (1999) - 9
X 186 To Be or Not to Be (1942) - 8
X 187 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) - 9
X 188 Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - 7
X 189 Ikiru (1952) - 8
X 190 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) -
X 191 In America (2002) -
X 192 Gandhi (1982) - 8
X 193 21 Grams (2003) -
X 194 Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) -
X 195 Harvey (1950) - 9
X 196 Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - 6
X 197 Stand by Me (1986) - 8
X 198 Twelve Monkeys (1995) -
X 199 Exorcist, The (1973) - 4
X 200 Being John Malkovich (1999) -
X 201 Trainspotting (1996) - 7
X 202 Terminator, The (1984) -
X 203 Groundhog Day (1993) - 10
X 204 Mulholland Dr. (2001) -
X 205 Miller's Crossing (1990) -
X 206 Lion in Winter, The (1968) - 8
X 207 Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, La (1928) - 7
X 208 This Is Spinal Tap (1984) - 10
X 209 Strada, La (1954) - 7
X 210 Laura (1944) -
X 211 Right Stuff, The (1983) - 7
X 212 Rain Man (1988) - 7
X 213 8½ (1963) -
X 214 Network (1976) - 8
X 215 39 Steps, The (1935) - 8
X 216 King Kong (1933) -
X 217 Whale Rider (2002) - 9
X 218 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) - 7
X 219 Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - 4
X 220 Midnight Cowboy (1969) -
X 221 Snatch. (2000) -
X 222 Big Lebowski, The (1998) - 9
X 223 Adaptation. (2002) - 9
X 224 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) - 8
X 225 Stagecoach (1939) - 8
X 226 Rio Bravo (1959) - 8
X 227 Thin Man, The (1934) - 6
X 228 X2 (2003) - 4
X 229 Station Agent, The (2003) - 5
X 230 In the Heat of the Night (1967) - 8
X 231 Untouchables, The (1987) - 8
X 232 Die xue shuang xiong (1989) - 4
X 233 Persona (1966) - 5
X 234 Planet of the Apes (1968) - 3
X 235 Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - 3
X 236 Others, The (2001) - 6
X 237 Sullivan's Travels (1941) - 8
X 238 Being There (1979) - 5
X 239 Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) - 8
X 240 Enfants du paradis, Les (1945) - 6
X 241 Fanny och Alexander (1982) - 5
X 242 Heat (1995) - 7
X 243 Beauty and the Beast (1991) - 8
X 244 Sleuth (1972) - 8
X 245 Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) - 9
X 246 Red River (1948) - 9
X 247 Spider-Man 2 (2004) - 3
X 248 Traffic (2000) - 5
X 249 Good Will Hunting (1997) - 6
X 250 Minority Report (2002) - 7
X 179 Garden State (2004) - 7
X 205 Oldboy (2003) - 8
X 215 Before Sunset (2004) - 8
X 246 Last Samurai, The (2003) - 7
X 248 Fa yeung nin wa (2000) - 5
X 250 Barry Lyndon (1975) - 7
X 4 The Dark Knight(2008) - 7
X 33 WALL·E(2008) - 8
X 46 The Departed(2006) - 8
X 52 Leben der Anderen, Das(2006) - 8
X 61 Laberinto del fauno, El(2006) - 8
X 74 Untergang, Der(2004) - 9
X 81 The Prestige(2006) - 7
X 85 Sin City(2005) - 6
X 86 No Country for Old Men(2007) - 8
X 91 Hotel Rwanda(2004) - 8
X 97 Batman Begins(2005) - 7
X 103 There Will Be Blood(2007) - 8
X 136 Into the Wild(2007) - 6
X 139 The Bourne Ultimatum(2007) - 5
X 140 Million Dollar Baby(2004) - 4
X 142 Notti di Cabiria, Le(1957) - 6
X 144 Ratatouille(2007) - 6
X 146 Diaboliques, Les(1955) - 8
X 154 Brief Encounter(1945) - 6
X 161 V for Vendetta(2005) - 5
X 163 The Incredibles(2004) - 7
X 167 Battaglia di Algeri, La(1966) - 7
X 170 The Thing(1982) - 8
X 171 Children of Men(2006) - 8
X 172 Scarface(1983) - 6
X 175 The Lion King(1994) - 5
X 178 Letters from Iwo Jima(2006) - 8
X 182 The Ox-Bow Incident(1943) - 7
X 185 Crash(2004/I) - 8
X 189 Umberto D.(1952) - 5
X 191 Scaphandre et le papillon, Le(2007) - 9
X 196 The Lady Vanishes(1938) - 8
X 197 Belle et la bête, La(1946) - 7
X 198 Casino(1995) - 6
X 200 Dial M for Murder(1954) - 9
X 205 The Lost Weekend(1945) - 8
X 207 The Kid(1921) - 6
X 208 Little Miss Sunshine(2006) - 8
X 214 Rosemary's Baby(1968) - 7
X 215 Rope(1948) - 8
X 216 Anatomy of a Murder(1959) - 8
X 218 Frankenstein(1931) - 3
X 230 In Bruges(2008) - 8
X 231 Sweet Smell of Success(1957) - 5
X 235 Låt den rätte komma in(2008) - 6
X 236 Iron Man(2008) - 7
X 237 Rocky(1976) - 8
X 238 Mou gaan dou(2002) - 7
X 240 Casino Royale(2006) - 5
X 243 Hauru no ugoku shiro(2004) -
X 244 The Nightmare Before Christmas(1993) - 5
X 245 Cabinet des Dr. Caligari., Das(1920) - 4
X 246 Ace in the Hole(1951) - 8
X 250 Shaun of the Dead(2004) - 7
X 42 Slumdog Millionaire(2008) - 7
X 71 The Wrestler(2008) - 8
X 81 Gran Torino(2008) - 8
X 136 Salaire de la peur, Le(1953) - 5
X 145 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(2008) - 8
X 197 Watchmen(2009) - 7
X 224 Changeling(2008) - 9
X 226 Safety Last!(1923) - 8
X 242 Great Expectations(1946) - 7
X 248 Harold and Maude(1971) - 7
The "shuffled" rankings are due to adding new movies to the end of the list. The rankings are a snapshot of a particular time but of course they've changed and will continue to change. The incomplete personal ratings do not indicate an incomplete list - I've seen every movie. I didn't think to give a rating to each one until well into it and I don't want to rate a movie "in retrospect" just so I can throw a number up there.
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