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)
  15. No Country for Old Men (2007)

    Biography/Human Drama/Life

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

    Broadway/Musicals

  35. West Side Story (1961)

    Comedy/Romance/Social Satire

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

    Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Avant-Garde

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

    Westerns

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

    YOUR Nominations! Help choose the all time best films! These?

  74. Amelie
  75. American Beauty
  76. Bananas
  77. Being There
  78. Best Years of Our Lives (1946 - on AFI and other film society lists)
  79. The Big Chill
  80. Chicago
  81. Chinatown (1974 - Movieline says the best film ever from Nicholson, Dunaway, Polanski)
  82. A Christmas Carol
  83. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
  84. Dr. Strangelove (1964 - AFI's #26 choice)
  85. Duck Soup (Marx Brothers, 1933 - AFI's #85 choice)
  86. Easy Rider
  87. Educating Rita
  88. Fahrenheit 911
  89. The Gods Must Be Crazy
  90. The Graduate (1967, Dustin Hoffman - AFI's #7 choice)
  91. Harry Potter and the ...
  92. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  93. Lawrence of Arabia (1962- American Film Institute's #5 ranked movie)
  94. Life is Beautiful
  95. Matrix
  96. Million Dollar Baby
  97. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  98. My Left Foot
  99. A Night at the Opera/A Day at the Races
  100. Rocky Horror Picture Show
  101. Rosemary's Baby
  102. Run Lola Run
  103. Sex, Lies, and Videotape
  104. Taxi Driver
  105. Terms of Endearment (AFI/Academy Choice)
  106. The Vanishing
  107. 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?

[Updated]Here is a more recent take on which films most deserved to be or not to be the Academy award winner of a given year.

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



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