I love movies and spend a lot of time watching, thinking about, and analysing movies. I watch funny movies, boring movies, old movies and animated movies. There are esoteric movies have left a mark on me, and there are blockbusters that left me indifferent.
As I became older and more obsessive-compulsive, it was clear to me that I need to put my “movie history” in order. I had to be able to ask questions like “how many John Ford movies have I seen?”, “Did I watch more John Wayne movies or more Dustin Hoffman movies?”, “How many 1950s movies did I watch?” and more.
But most importantly- what are my top movies? That’s always a tricky one, and here my obsessive compulsion comes in handy… It took about 6 months, but I covered most of the relevant* movies I’ve seen, and catalogued them by year, director, actors and my rank. There’s no #1 Top Movie here, and the movies aren’t ordered one by one, but rather in buckets of Top 5, Top 20, Top 50, etc (each sorted by year of production).
I also have a wishlist I need to cover, and you’re welcome you suggest movies you think I missed, just drop me a note at roee@soluto.com.
Here are my top 100 movies, you’re welcome to browse the full list of 600 movies, as well as my analysis of decades, directors and soon Oscars, IMDB Top 250, and actors & actresses.
My Top 100 Movies
| Rank | Year | Movie Title | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 5 | 1942 | Casablanca | Michael Curtiz |
| Top 5 | 1968 | Once Upon a Time in the West | Sergio Leone |
| Top 5 | 1979 | Being There | Hal Ashby |
| Top 5 | 1994 | Leon (The Professional) | Luc Besson |
| Top 5 | 1994 | Pulp Fiction | Quentin Tarantino |
| Top 20 | 1950 | Sunset Boulevard | Billy Wilder |
| Top 20 | 1952 | High Noon | Fred Zinnemann |
| Top 20 | 1954 | On The Waterfront | Elia Kazan |
| Top 20 | 1962 | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | John Ford |
| Top 20 | 1967 | The Graduate | Mike Nichols |
| Top 20 | 1967 | In the Heat of the Night | Norman Jewison |
| Top 20 | 1972 | The Godfather | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Top 20 | 1979 | Life of Brian | Terry Jones |
| Top 20 | 1992 | Chaplin | Richard Attenborough |
| Top 20 | 1994 | The Shawshank Redemption | Frank Darabont |
| Top 20 | 1995 | Twelve Monkeys | Terry Gilliam |
| Top 20 | 1998 | The Big Lebowski | Ethan Cohen |
| Top 20 | 1999 | Fight Club | David Fincher |
| Top 20 | 1999 | Dogma | Kevin Smith |
| Top 20 | 2003 | Mystic River | Clint Eastwood |
| Top 50 | 1941 | Citizen Kane | Orson Welles |
| Top 50 | 1943 | The Ox Bow Incident | William A. Wellman |
| Top 50 | 1950 | All About Eve | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Top 50 | 1955 | The Night Of The Hunter | Charles Laughton |
| Top 50 | 1957 | Paths of Glory | Stanley Kubrick |
| Top 50 | 1958 | Vertigo | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Top 50 | 1959 | Some Like It Hot | Billy Wilder |
| Top 50 | 1964 | My Fair Lady | George Cukor |
| Top 50 | 1964 | Dr. Strangelove | Stanley Kubrick |
| Top 50 | 1966 | Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Mike Nichols |
| Top 50 | 1969 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | Howard Hawks |
| Top 50 | 1974 | The Godfather, Part II | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Top 50 | 1975 | Monty Python and the Holy Grail | Terry Gilliam |
| Top 50 | 1977 | Annie Hall | Woody Allen |
| Top 50 | 1977 | Star Wars: A New Hope | George Lucas |
| Top 50 | 1979 | Apocalypse Now | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Top 50 | 1982 | Poltergeist | Tobe Hopper |
| Top 50 | 1986 | Stand by Me | Zack Snyder |
| Top 50 | 1990 | Edward Scissorhands | Tim Burton |
| Top 50 | 1992 | Reservoir Dogs | Quentin Tarantino |
| Top 50 | 1992 | Unforgiven | Clint Eastwood |
| Top 50 | 1994 | Forrest Gump | Robert Zemeckis |
| Top 50 | 1995 | Se7en | David Fincher |
| Top 50 | 1996 | Sleepers | Barry Levinson |
| Top 50 | 1996 | Trainspotting | Danny Boyle |
| Top 50 | 1997 | Chasing Amy | Kevin Smith |
| Top 50 | 1998 | American History X | Tony Kaye |
| Top 50 | 1999 | The Matrix | Andy Wachowski |
| Top 50 | 2000 | Snatch | Guy Ritchie |
| Top 50 | 2003 | Return of the King | Peter Jackson |
| Top 100 | 1936 | Modern Times | Charles Chaplin |
| Top 100 | 1939 | Gone With The Wind | Victor Fleming |
| Top 100 | 1944 | Double Indemnity | Billy Wilder |
| Top 100 | 1946 | Gilda | Charles Vidor |
| Top 100 | 1948 | Red River | Howard Hawks |
| Top 100 | 1953 | From Here to Eternity | Fred Zinnemann |
| Top 100 | 1954 | Dial M for Murder | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Top 100 | 1955 | The Seven Year Itch | Billy Wilder |
| Top 100 | 1956 | The Searchers | John Ford |
| Top 100 | 1956 | Giant | George Stevens |
| Top 100 | 1957 | The Bridge on the River Kwai | David Lean |
| Top 100 | 1957 | Witness For The Prosecution | Billy Wilder |
| Top 100 | 1957 | 12 Angry Men | Sidney Lumet |
| Top 100 | 1958 | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Richard Brooks |
| Top 100 | 1962 | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | Robert Aldrich |
| Top 100 | 1962 | To Kill A Mockingbird | Robert Mulligan |
| Top 100 | 1963 | The Birds | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Top 100 | 1966 | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly | Sergio Leone |
| Top 100 | 1971 | The Last Picture Show | Peter Bogdanovich |
| Top 100 | 1972 | Deliverance | John Boorman |
| Top 100 | 1972 | Cabaret | Bob Fosse |
| Top 100 | 1974 | Chinatown | Roman Polanski |
| Top 100 | 1975 | Jaws | Steven Spielberg |
| Top 100 | 1979 | Alien | Ridley Scott |
| Top 100 | 1983 | Start Wars: Return of the Jedi | Richard Marquand |
| Top 100 | 1983 | Terms of Endearment | James L. Brooks |
| Top 100 | 1984 | Top Secret! | David Zucker |
| Top 100 | 1984 | Amadeus | Milos Forman |
| Top 100 | 1986 | Platoon | Oliver Stone |
| Top 100 | 1987 | The Princess Bride | Rob Reiner |
| Top 100 | 1987 | Full Metal Jacket | Stanley Kubrick |
| Top 100 | 1988 | Time of the Gypsies | Emir Kusturica |
| Top 100 | 1989 | Parenthood | Ron Howard |
| Top 100 | 1990 | Total Recall | Paul Verhoeven |
| Top 100 | 1991 | The Silence of the Lambs | Jonathan Demme |
| Top 100 | 1993 | A Perfect World | Clint Eastwood |
| Top 100 | 1994 | Clerks | Kevin Smith |
| Top 100 | 1995 | Mighty Aphrodite | Woody Allen |
| Top 100 | 1995 | The Usual Suspects | Bryan Singer |
| Top 100 | 1996 | Everyone Says I Love You | Woody Allen |
| Top 100 | 1996 | Mars Attacks! | Tim Burton |
| Top 100 | 1996 | Fargo | Ethan Cohen |
| Top 100 | 1996 | The Long Kiss Goodnight | Renny Harlin |
| Top 100 | 1997 | The Fifth Element | Luc Besson |
| Top 100 | 1997 | L.A. Confidential | Curtis Hanson |
| Top 100 | 1999 | Arlington Road | Mark Pellington |
| Top 100 | 2002 | Gangs of New York | Martin Scorsese |
| Top 100 | 2004 | Team America | Trey Parker |
| Top 100 | 2005 | Match Point | Woody Allen |
| Top 100 | 2006 | The Departed | Martin Scorsese |
* Needless to say that not every movie I see enters this listing. There are Rules for that…
