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100 Greatest Films |
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100 greatest
films by Adam Suraf Rating the best films of all time seems to be superficial and pointless. Certainly there are more than 100 masterpieces that film can be judged on. Thus anybody who undergoes such a task has an incredible amount of picking, choosing, and cutting to do of some great films. Yet it is a task that any serious film buff wants to try at least once, weather it be at a young age, or after years and years of experience. I chanced it at the age of 22, and I will probably look upon it 22 years later when I’m 44 and see that a many of these choices look out of place, and I’m sure I’ll think I was crazy.
Choosing the field is an arduous task.
First one must compile a possibilities list, which in itself ranges
far more than 100 titles. Then
comes the burden of narrowing it down to 100.
How many should be on from any one director?
Is it fair that the list is American heavy, at almost 3-1?
After all don’t we all start out with the American classics?
My list is part essentials, part personal favorites, and part
no-brainers. Of course Citizen
Kane will hold a high spot, film history and years and years of study
has proven it to be such a milestone, and the fact that it is still a
knockout picture. A pick like
Citizen Kane is an easy one to make, but what about other Orson
Welles films? Does The Magnificent Ambersons make the grade, after a severe chop job by
the studio, despite the fact the film is still a gem?
How many films from my favorites Billy Wilder and Akira Kurosawa
should make the list, and is it fair to devote such precious space to just
two men? Then there is Alfred
Hitchcock, who of any director has possibly the greatest resume of
masterpieces of all time, which ones should be included?
It is such questions one faces in himself that induces hair pulling
and constant erasing, yet it is part of the joy of remembering that there
are directors with such incredible film lists to choose from.
Finally after much speculation, I jotted down 100 titles.
Billy Wilder is the king of the list with 4 films and who would
have it any other way? Seven
directors are represented with 3 films apiece, ranging from Americans John
Ford and Francis Ford Coppola to world favorites like Kurosawa and Ingmar
Bergman. Broken down there
are 69 directors represented, 49 of them by only one film.
The movies hail out of 13 different countries, 64 American, 1
Canadian, 1 British, and the rest foreign films with France leading the
pack at 8. The most frequent
decade was by far the ‘50s with 30 films, followed by the ‘40s with
16, the ‘60s with 13, the ‘70s with 12, the ‘30s with 10, the ‘20s
with 8, the 80s with 4, and the most recent decade, the ‘90s with a
scant 4 entries. 91 of the
pictures speak while 9 are of an age before they knew how.
A whopping 67 films are two colored, black and white, while 33
explore the various combinations color can bring to a film. And finally there is a 72 year difference between the oldest
film (Battleship Potemkin and The
Big Parade of ’25) and the most recent (The
Sweet Hereafter and L.A.
Confidential of ’97).
To say this is a definitive list for everybody to tack on their
walls and live by would be saying a lot.
The choices were mine to make and for that matter they represent
what I felt could possibly be said to be 100 of the best.
Certainly some of the finest films ever made had to be sacrificed
to make room for more controversial picks that normally wouldn’t befall
such a list. This is a list
that, if nothing else, could be a starting point for the film buff in
training to use as a launching pad. 1.
Citizen
Kane,
1941 d: Orson Welles 2.
Casablanca,
1942 d: Michael Curtiz 3.
Gone
with the Wind,
1939 d: Victor Fleming 4.
The
Godfather Part II,
1974 d: Francis Ford Coppola 5.
The
Searchers,
1956 d: John Ford 6.
Seven
Samurai,
1954,d: Akira Kurosawa 7.
Sunset
Boulevard,
1950 d: Billy Wilder 8.
Grand
Illusion,
1937 d: Jean Renoir 9.
8
˝,
1963 d: Federico Fellini 10.
The
General,
1927 d: Buster Keaton 11.
Lawrence
of Arabia,
1962 d: David Lean 12.
The
Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali
(’55), Aparjito (’56), The World of Apu (’58) d: Satyajit Ray 13.
The
Dekalog,
1988 d: Krzysztof Kieslowski 14.
City
Lights,
1931 d: Charles Chaplin 15.
Tokyo
Story,
1953 d: Yasujiro Ozu 16.
Raging
Bull,
1980 d: Martin Scorsese 17.
Chinatown,
1973 d: Roman Polanski 18.
Napoleon,
1927 d: Abel Gance 19.
The
Best Years of our Lives,
1946 d: William Wyler 20.
Singin’
in the Rain,
1952 d: Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly 21.
L’Atalante,
1934 d: Jean Vigo 22.
Sunrise,
1927 d: F.W. Murnau 23.
Notorious,
1946 d: Alfred Hitchcock 24.
Umberto
D,
1952 d: Vittorio DeSica 25.
The
Grapes of Wrath,
1940 d: John Ford 26.
The
Four hundred blows,
1959 d: Francois Truffaut 27.
The
Apartment,
1960 d: Billy Wilder 28.
On
the Waterfront,
1954 d: Elia Kazan 29.
The
Graduate,
1967 d: Mike Nichols 30.
Pandora’s
Box,
1928 d: G.W. Pabst 31.
Rashomon,
1950 d: Akira Kurosawa 32.
The
Seventh Seal,
1957 d: Ingmar Bergman 33.
Annie
Hall,
1977 d: Woody Allen 34.
The
Godfather,
1972 d: Francis Ford Coppola 35.
It’s
a Wonderful Life,
1946 d: Frank Capra 36.
Nashville,
1975 d: Robert Altman 37.
2001:
A Space Odyssey,
1968 d: Stanley Kubrick 38.
Jaws,
1975 d: Steven Spielberg 39.
E.T.
The Extra Terrestrial,
1982 d: Steven Spielberg 40.
Battleship
Potemkin,
1925 d: Sergei Eisenstein 41.
Dr.
Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb, 1964 d: Stanley Kubrick 42.
The
Third Man,
1949 d: Carol Reed 43.
All
About Eve,
1950 d: Joseph L. Mankiewicz 44.
My
Darling Clementine,
1946 d: John Ford 45.
The
Bicycle Thief,
1947 d: Vittorio DeSica 46.
The
Crowd,
1928 d: King Vidor 47.
The
Maltese Falcon,
1941 d: John Huston 48.
Schindler’s
List,
1993 d: Steven Spielberg 49.
Modern
Times,
1936 d: Charles Chaplin 50.
Pulp
Fiction,
1994 d: Quentin Tarantino 51.
The
Treasure of the Sierra Madre,
1948 d: John Huston 52.
M,
1931 d: Fritz Lang 53.
La
Strada,
1953 d: Federico Fellini 54.
Rear
Window,
1954 d: Alfred Hitchcock 55.
Glory,
1989 d: Edward Zwick 56.
Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
1969 d: George Roy Hill 57.
Mean
Streets,
1975 d: Martin Scorsese 58.
Manhattan,
1979 d: Woody Allen 59.
Bringing
Up Baby,
1938 d: Howard Hawks 60.
Wild
Strawberries,
1958 d: Ingmar Bergman 61.
The
Passion of Joan of Ark,
1928 d: Carl Th. Dryer 62.
Apocalypse
Now,
1979 d: Francis Ford Coppola 63.
Double
Indemnity,
1944 d: Billy Wilder 64.
The
Earrings of Madame De...,
1953 d: Max Ophuls 65.
The
Hustler,
1961 d: Robert Rossen 66.
High
Noon,
1952 d: Fred Zinnemann 67.
Days
of Heaven,
1978 d: Terrence Malick 68.
Brief
Encounter,
1945 d: David Lean 69.
Ordet,
1955 d: Carl Th. Dryer 70.
Vertigo,
1958 d: Alfred Hitchcock 71.
Rules
of the Game,
1939 d: Jean Renoir 72.
Los
Olvidados,
1950 d: Luis Bunuel 73.
Night
of the Hunter,
1955 d: Charles Laughton 74.
Sansho
the Bailiff,
1954 d: Kenji Mizoguchi 75.
Sullivan’s
Travels,
1941 d: Preston Sturges 76.
The
Big Parade,
1925 d: King Vidor 77.
Some
Like it Hot,
1959 d: Billy Wilder 78.
Medium
Cool,
1969 d: Haskell Wexler 79.
Mr.
Smith goes to Washington,
1939 d: Frank Capra 80.
Shane,
1953 d: George Stevens 81.
A
Night at the Opera,
1935 d: Sam Wood 82.
Throne
of Blood,
1958 d: Akira Kurosawa 83.
His
Girl Friday,
1940 d: Howard Hawks 84.
War
Trilogy: A Generation (’54), Kanal
(’57), Ashes and Diamonds (’58), d: Andrzej Wadja 85.
Being
There,
1979 d: Hal Ashby 86.
Rebel
Without a Cause,
1955 d: Nicholas Ray 87.
Touch
of Evil,
1958 d: Orson Welles 88.
Beauty
and the Beast,
1946 d: Jean Cocteau 89.
The
Manchurian Candidate,
1962 d: John Frankenheimer 90.
12
Angry Men,
1957 d: Sidney Lumet 91.
The
Sweet Hereafter,
1997 d: Atom Egoyan 92.
Landscape
in the Mist,
1988 d: Theo Angelopoulos 93.
The
Empire Strikes Back,
1980 d: Irvin Kershner 94.
The
Conformist,
1971 d: Bernardo Bertolucci 95.
Paths
of Glory,
1957 d: Stanley Kubrick 96.
Night
of the Shooting Stars,
1982 d: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani 97.
L.A.
Confidential,
1997 d: Curtis Hanson 98.
Shame,
1968 d: Ingmar Bergman 99.
My
Life to Live,
1963 d: Jean Luc Godard 100.
A
Shot in the Dark,
1964 d: Blake Edwards |