Mr.G's Movie Picks: Top 100 Films

Our own Mr. G(uglielmo), film fan and trivial pursuitist extaordinaire, picks some of the best movies in film history, with just a little help & grief from his friends. [Updated in 2006, G- forgive me, with some picks from fellow film buffs Nicole, Alysia and yours truly.]

It's in alphabetical order, but the following films are all definitely among the best you'll find in the given genre. Join the debate, have fun!!

    Action/Adventure/Suspense
  1. Apocolypse Now (1979 - Coppola, with Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall)
  2. Casablanca (1942; Curtiz, with Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman)
  3. Clockwork Orange
  4. Easy Rider
  5. Five Easy Pieces
  6. Godfather (1972 - Coppola, with Marlon Brando)
  7. Goldfinger
  8. Notorious (Hitchcock, with Cary Grant, Ingrid Begman)
  9. Psycho (1960 - Hitchcock, with Anthony Perkins)
  10. Pulp Fiction
  11. Raiders of the Lost Arc (with Harrison Ford)
  12. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  13. Strange Days
  14. Vertigo (Hitchcock)

    Biography/Human Drama/Life
  15. Amadeus (Forman, with F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce)
  16. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  17. Citizen Kane (1941)
  18. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)
  19. Gone with the Wind (1939)
  20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
  21. Jules and Jim (Truffaut, 1961)
  22. The Killing Fields (Joffe, with Waterston, Ngor, John Malkovich)
  23. Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth)
  24. Manchurian Candidate
  25. On the Waterfront (1954)
  26. One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest (1975, with Jack Nicholson)
  27. The Piano (Campion, with Holly Hunter, Ana Paguin, Harvey Kietel)
  28. Raisin in the Sun (Sidney Portier)
  29. Roshomon (Kurosawa, 1950)
  30. Schindler's List (Speilberg, with Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes)
  31. The Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954)
  32. The Third Man (Reed, with Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten)
  33. Twelve Angry Men

    Broadway/Musicals
  34. West Side Story (1961)

    Comedy/Romance/Social Satire
  35. Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein
  36. Airplane (Zuckers, with Stack, Bridges, Hays, Nielson)
  37. Annie Hall (Allen, with Woodie Allen, Diane Keaton)
  38. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
  39. Crossing Delancey
  40. It Happened One Night (1934 - Top 5 Academy Awards - Capra, Gable, Colbert)
  41. Modern Times (Chaplin, 1935)
  42. Philadelphia Story
  43. Swept Away (Wertmuller)
  44. The Thin Man (1934 - William Powell and Myrna Loy)
  45. When Harry Met Sally (Musky, with Billy Crystal, Ryan, Fisher)

    Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Avant-Garde
  46. Cinema Paradiso (Tornatore, with Antonelli Attli, Enzo Cannavale)
  47. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  48. The Day the Earth Stood Still
  49. 8 1/2 (Fellini, 1963)
  50. E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982, Spielberg)
  51. Fantastic Voyage
  52. Forbidden Planet (Robbie the Robot, Morbeus, others)
  53. King of Hearts (with Alan Bates)
  54. King Kong
  55. La Dolce Vita (Fellini, 1960, with Marcello Mastroianni))
  56. Star Wars (1977)
  57. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, with Hal)
  58. Wizard of Oz (1939, Judy Garland et al)

    Westerns
  59. The Big Country (1958, with Gregory Peck) [G's #1 choice]
  60. Culpeper Cattle Company (1972, with Gary Grimes)
  61. High Noon (1952, with Gary Cooper)
  62. Jesse James (1939, with Tyrone Power)
  63. Last Train from Gun Hill (1959, with Kirk Douglas)
  64. The Magnificent Seven (1960, with Yul Brynner)
  65. The Outlaw Josie Wales (1976, with Clint Eastwood)
  66. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943, with Henry Fonda)
  67. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
  68. Shane (1953, with Alan Ladd)
  69. The Shootist (1976, with & about John Wayne- his last movie]
  70. Silverado
  71. Tombstone
  72. The Wild Bunch (1969, with William Holden)

    YOUR Nominations! Help choose the all time best films! These?
  73. Amelie
  74. American Beauty
  75. Bananas
  76. Being There
  77. Best Years of Our Lives (1946 - on AFI and other film society lists)
  78. The Big Chill
  79. Chicago
  80. Chinatown (1974 - Movieline says the best film ever from Nicholson, Dunaway, Polanski)
  81. A Christmas Carol
  82. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
  83. Dr. Strangelove (1964 - AFI's #26 choice)
  84. Duck Soup (Marx Brothers, 1933 - AFI's #85 choice)
  85. Easy Rider
  86. Educating Rita
  87. Fahrenheit 911
  88. The Gods Must Be Crazy
  89. The Graduate (1967, Dustin Hoffman - AFI's #7 choice)
  90. Harry Potter and the ...
  91. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  92. Lawrence of Arabia (1962- American Film Institute's #5 ranked movie)
  93. Life is Beautiful
  94. Matrix
  95. Million Dollar Baby
  96. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  97. My Left Foot
  98. A Night at the Opera/A Day at the Races
  99. Rocky Horror Picture Show
  100. Rosemary's Baby
  101. Run Lola Run
  102. Sex, Lies, and Videotape
  103. Taxi Driver
  104. Terms of Endearment (AFI/Academy Choice)
  105. The Vanishing
  106. Woodstock



From filmsite.org: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Titanic (1997), Ben-Hur (1959) are the three Best Picture winning films with the most Oscars wins (11). (The closest Best Picture winning runner-up for most Oscar wins was West Side Story (1961) with 10 Oscars (out of 11 nominations). What do you think? Which of the 100+ should leave the list, and what should be added?

Comments? Contributions? You can send e-mail to: Mr. G's Movie Picks


Copyright © 1997-2006 Michael Fenichel, Ph.D.