top 100 movies
/In the last few years, I’ve started enjoying watching classic movies. I was never a movie person, so most of the movies I saw were the movies I took the kids to when they were growing up. But as I had more time, I noticed that I’d stumble across an old movie on TV and I loved the escapism into a time past. Aside from the movies themselves, it was fun to observe the décor, fashion, lifestyle, and culture of the time. Then I found a podcast called Unspooled, where the hosts watch the movies on the American Film Institutes Top 100 Films list. Each episode breaks down one movie in depth and I thought it would be a good way to choose new movies to watch. If you want to start with just one episode, listen to episode 116, where they go over the list and talk about what movies they would add or take away from the list. Here is the list and the titles in bold are the ones I’ve seen so far.
CITIZEN KANE - 1941
THE GODFATHER - 1972
CASABLANCA - 1942
RAGING BULL - 1980
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN - 1952
GONE WITH THE WIND - 1939
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA - 1962
SCHINDLER'S LIST - 1993
VERTIGO - 1958
THE WIZARD OF OZ - 1939
CITY LIGHTS - 1931
THE SEARCHERS - 1956
STAR WARS - 1977
PSYCHO- 1960
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY - 1968
SUNSET BOULEVARD - 1950
THE GRADUATE - 1967
THE GENERAL - 1927
ON THE WATERFRONT - 1954
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE - 1946
CHINATOWN - 1974
SOME LIKE IT HOT - 1959
THE GRAPES OF WRATH - 1940
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL - 1982
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - 1962
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON - 1939
HIGH NOON - 1952
ALL ABOUT EVE - 1950
DOUBLE INDEMNITY - 1944
APOCALYPSE NOW - 1979
THE MALTESE FALCON - 1941
THE GODFATHER PART II - 1974
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST - 1975
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS - 1937
ANNIE HALL - 1977
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI - 1957
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES - 1946
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE - 1948
DR. STRANGELOVE - 1964
THE SOUND OF MUSIC - 1965
KING KONG - 1933
BONNIE AND CLYDE - 1967
MIDNIGHT COWBOY - 1969
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY - 1940
SHANE - 1953
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT - 1934
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - 1951
REAR WINDOW - 1954
INTOLERANCE - 1916
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - 2001
WEST SIDE STORY - 1961
TAXI DRIVER - 1976
THE DEER HUNTER - 1978
M*A*S*H - 1970
NORTH BY NORTHWEST - 1959
JAWS - 1975
ROCKY - 1976
THE GOLD RUSH - 1925
NASHVILLE - 1975
DUCK SOUP - 1933
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS - 1941
AMERICAN GRAFFITI - 1973
CABARET - 1972
NETWORK - 1976
THE AFRICAN QUEEN - 1951
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK - 1981
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? - 1966
UNFORGIVEN - 1992
TOOTSIE - 1982
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE - 1971
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN - 1998
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION - 1994
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID - 1969
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - 1991
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT - 1967
FORREST GUMP - 1994
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN - 1976
MODERN TIMES - 1936
THE WILD BUNCH - 1969
THE APARTMENT - 1960
SPARTACUS - 1960
SUNRISE - 1927
TITANIC - 1997
EASY RIDER - 1969
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA - 1935
PLATOON - 1986
12 ANGRY MEN - 1957
BRINGING UP BABY - 1938
THE SIXTH SENSE - 1999
SWING TIME - 1936
SOPHIE'S CHOICE - 1982
GOODFELLAS - 1990
THE FRENCH CONNECTION - 1971
PULP FICTION - 1994
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW - 1971
DO THE RIGHT THING - 1989
BLADE RUNNER - 1982
YANKEE DOODLE DANDY - 1942
TOY STORY - 1995
BEN-HUR - 1959
There’s so many good ones but a few of my favorites are Rear Window, All About Eve, & The Apartment. Grace Kelly in Rear Window and the set overlooking the apartment complex is fantastic. Bette Davis in All About Eve, whom I didn’t appreciate until a few years ago, is marvelous, and Jack Lemmon & Shirley McClaine in The Apartment is fun and sad at the same time.
The movies I’d like to see next are It Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert and Bonnie & Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. II’ll watch a good war movie with Marc since that’s more of his thing than mine, but not so much if I’m choosing, so I’ll probably pass on most of them on the list. And I’m probably the last person not to have read or watched To Kill a Mockingbird, so that’s on the list to watch also. I found that if you want to go down a fantastic rabbit hole of different genres of must watch movies, just google “best movies of all time lists”. Being a lover of lists, it’s a fun way to structure my movie watching rather than just randomly watching shows. What are you favorite movies?