Entertainment Weekly's 100 All-Time Greatest Movies

[hellboy76]

http://www.filmsite.org/ew100-2013.html

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
5. Psycho (1960)
6. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
7. Mean Streets (1973)
8. The Gold Rush (1925)
9. Nashville (1975)
10. Gone With The Wind (1939)
11. King Kong (1933)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Annie Hall (1977)
14. Bambi (1942)
15. Blue Velvet (1986)
16. Singin' In The Rain (1952)
17. Seven Samurai (1954, Jp.)
18. Jaws (1975)
19. Pulp Fiction (1994)
20. The Sorrow and the Pity (1969, Fr.)
21. Some Like It Hot (1959)
22. Toy Story (1995)
23. Notorious (1946)
24. The Sound of Music (1965)
25. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
26. Bicycle Thieves (1948, It.)
27. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
28. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
29. North By Northwest (1959)
30. Sunrise (1927)
31. Chinatown (1974)
32. Duck Soup (1933)
33. The Graduate (1967)
34. Adam's Rib (1949)
35. Apocalypse Now (1979)
36. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
37. Manhattan (1979)
38. Vertigo (1958)
39. The Rules of the Game (1939, Fr.)
40. Double Indemnity (1944)
41. The Road Warrior (1981, Australia) (aka Mad Max 2)
42. Taxi Driver (1976)
43. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
44. On The Waterfront (1954)
45. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
46. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
47. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
48. It Happened One Night (1934)
49. Goldfinger (1964)
50. Intolerance (1916)
51. A Hard Day's Night (1964)
52. Titanic (1997)
53. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
54. Breathless (1960, Fr.)
55. Frankenstein (1931)
56. Schindler's List (1993)
57. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
58. The Seventh Seal (1957, Swe.)
59. All the President's Men (1976)
60. Top Hat (1935)
61. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
62. E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
63. Network (1976)
64. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
65. Last Tango in Paris (1973)
66. The Shining (1980)
67. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
68. GoodFellas (1990)
69. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying... (1964)
70. L'Avventura (1960, It.)
71. American Graffiti (1973)
72. The 400 Blows (1959, Fr.)
73. Cabaret (1972)
74. The Hurt Locker (2009)
75. Touch Of Evil (1958)
76. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
77. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
78. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
79. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
80. Dazed and Confused (1993)
81. Blade Runner (1982)
82. Scenes From a Marriage (1973, Swe.)
83. The Wild Bunch (1969)
84. Olympia (1938, Ger.)
85. Dirty Harry (1971)
86. All About Eve (1950)
87. La Dolce Vita (1960, It.)
88. The Dark Knight (2008)
89. Woodstock (1970)
90. The French Connection (1971)
91. Do The Right Thing (1989)
92. The Piano (1993, NZ)
93. A Face in the Crowd (1957)
94. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
95. Rushmore (1998)
96. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
97. Diner (1982)
98. All About My Mother (1999, Sp.)
99. There Will Be Blood (2007)
100. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)


Thoughts? It is a pretty safe list, but these sorts of things always seem to glaringly omit something, or add nonsense. I was a little surprised Bambi was so high (here it is Average Tier 5.87 from 3085 Rankings)

[hellboy76]

No Raging Bull - Average Tier 8.01 from 4705 Rankings but The Piano is there - Average Tier 6.74 from 1786 Rankings.

[snallygaster]

Pretty much the same list as usual, innit.

Ok, I guess I'll play:
Besides Raging Bull, I would have expected to see (not necessarily my own picks for "greatest movies", just what I would expect to be chosen):
Tokyo Story, City Lights, Sunset Blvd, 8 1/2, To Kill a Mockingbird, Battleship Potemkin, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Passion of Joan of Arc, Rashomon, Snow White, Bridge on the River Kwai, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Philadelphia Story, Rear Window, Andrei Rublev, the General, Night of the Hunter, Persona, Modern Times, The Apartment, Rio Bravo, Greed, The Man who Shot LV, l'Atalante...
Some of these were probably omitted to reduce repetition of directors (Chaplin, Ford, Wilder...), which is understandable.


odd inclusions, besides Bambi:
Top Hat, Sorrow & the Pity, Adam's Rib, A Face in the Crowd -- er, OK.
The Dark Knight, Hurt Locker -- give me a fucking break.

[mattorama12]

There's no way to put together a list like this without glaring omissions, so I won't mention those.

But, some of the ones including that certainly should not have been:

Intolerance - This movie is terrible. Sure, the set designs and the scale were insane, but that doesn't make for a good movie. One of the most common critiques of shitty movies is heavy exposition...that's all Intolerance is. Just card after card of stupid, shitty exposition, covered by horrible music and uninteresting stories. I have no idea why this finds its way onto so many "best-of" lists.

The Searchers - Boring as sin. I don't much like Westerns, granted, but this was worse than most.

The Gold Rush - Not terrible, but having this at #8 and not including City Lights on the list is weird and wrong.

Bonnie and Clyde and Mean Streets - Both good movies, but #4 and #7 of all-time? That's pretty ridiculous.

[ShogunRua]

I was just having a conversation with a friend about this recently.

When I was young, I loved "Top X of Y" lists. One of my proudest teen memories was making a list of the 100 greatest boxers ever, pound-for-pound. I would carefully read and critique all sorts of lists that other people had come up with.

The older I became, the more I realized how idiotic, inane, and meaningless all these lists were. They're worthless. Names by a number.

For starters, none of these lists ever have a well-defined criteria. How does one define "greatest movie", for instance? Historical influence, consensus among modern "critics", consensus among directors, consensus among lay-people, personal artistic appraisal, personal enjoyment, or box-office success? All are equally valid, and would make for completely different lists, even within the subjective tastes of the same author.

Also, what is the significance of these numbers by these films? What is the reasoning behind each placement, since most times the lists are presented with limited or no commentary on that score?

Okay, they ranked "Bonnie and Clyde" as the fourth greatest film ever. I think it's a total piece of shit. So what?

My two favorite films ("Beat" and "Seven Beauties") are unknown to the list's author and not even listed. Again, so what? Does any of this matter? Does it lead to any enlightenment?

I would rather take a single well-written review of a film (whether the person liked it or not) over 100 random movies with numbers beside them with no explanation.

I find that meaningful, regardless of whether I agree with its arguments.

[Stewball]

This is just re-arranging the train wrecks on the Titanic. It's AMC for God's sake, they're bound to emphasize the old shit and, apparently, be ignorant of the new. It's a Wonderful Life #6, GAAAAAH. Gag we with a Dixie Chick's diaphragm. I could moan on, but.....wait I forgot My Beautiful Launderette, Oh my aching butthole!!!! Nepotiz to the max.

And and and, the top 10 comedies. Bwahahahahaha. Now that's hysterical.

[hellboy76]

I was just having a conversation with a friend about this recently.

When I was young, I loved "Top X of Y" lists. One of my proudest teen memories was making a list of the 100 greatest boxers ever, pound-for-pound. I would carefully read and critique all sorts of lists that other people had come up with.

The older I became, the more I realized how idiotic, inane, and meaningless all these lists were. They're worthless. Names by a number.

For starters, none of these lists ever have a well-defined criteria. How does one define "greatest movie", for instance? Historical influence, consensus among modern "critics", consensus among directors, consensus among lay-people, personal artistic appraisal, personal enjoyment, or box-office success? All are equally valid, and would make for completely different lists, even within the subjective tastes of the same author.

Also, what is the significance of these numbers by these films? What is the reasoning behind each placement, since most times the lists are presented with limited or no commentary on that score?

Okay, they ranked "Bonnie and Clyde" as the fourth greatest film ever. I think it's a total piece of shit. So what?

My two favorite films ("Beat" and "Seven Beauties") are unknown to the list's author and not even listed. Again, so what? Does any of this matter? Does it lead to any enlightenment?

I would rather take a single well-written review of a film (whether the person liked it or not) over 100 random movies with numbers beside them with no explanation.

I find that meaningful, regardless of whether I agree with its arguments.

Agreed. I am a masochist though and still love reading them and becoming enraged for no reason, even knowing no good will come of it.

Someone should make an actual list that isn't simply an unexplained patchwork list, or a poll, but does include all sorts of criteria (averages from actors, directors, historians, fan rating sites etc). It would still be argued and ripped apart though.

[Anomaly]

Someone should make an actual list that isn't simply an unexplained patchwork list, or a poll, but does include all sorts of criteria (averages from actors, directors, historians, fan rating sites etc). It would still be argued and ripped apart though.

They Shoot Picture's 1000 greatest films is pretty much this.

[ShogunRua]

Someone should make an actual list that isn't simply an unexplained patchwork list, or a poll, but does include all sorts of criteria (averages from actors, directors, historians, fan rating sites etc). It would still be argued and ripped apart though.

They Shoot Picture's 1000 greatest films is pretty much this.

And it also sucks, for the same reasons mentioned above. It's a list of 1,000 random critically acclaimed movies, presented sans commentary. They picked a random criteria from dozens of equally reasonable approaches. What's the point?

Even as a source of movies to watch, it's poor and doesn't take an individual's tastes into account.

I would rather just one of those critics write one good movie review. It would be worth far more than the all the "Top X movies" lists put together.

[Stewball]

Someone should make an actual list that isn't simply an unexplained patchwork list, or a poll, but does include all sorts of criteria (averages from actors, directors, historians, fan rating sites etc). It would still be argued and ripped apart though.

They Shoot Picture's 1000 greatest films is pretty much this.

And it also sucks, for the same reasons mentioned above. It's a list of 1,000 random critically acclaimed movies, presented sans commentary. They picked a random criteria from dozens of equally reasonable approaches. What's the point?

Even as a source of movies to watch, it's poor and doesn't take an individual's tastes into account.

I would rather just one of those critics write one good movie review. It would be worth far more than the all the "Top X movies" lists put together.

Is there one single movie that everyone just likes even??? Oh yeah, (500) Days of Summer.