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What do you think are the greatest movies of all time?

Here is a list of the movies I believe to be cinema's greatest out of the movies I've seen (I feel the need to clarify this, because obviously I haven't seen every single movie in existence and it would seem rather arrogant if I didn't make the fact that I don't see this as the *definitive* list quite clear).

Only the top ten are in an order (obviously with one being the greatest and ten being the tenth greatest), with the rest in no particular order other than the order in which they popped into my head.

1. Brazil (1985)
2. Fargo (1996)
3. Fantasia (1940)
4. Psycho (1960)
5. Dumbo (1941)
6. Amadeus (1984)
7. North by Northwest (1959)
8. Citizen Kane (1941)
9. 12 Angry Men (1957)
10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
11. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
12. Pinocchio (1940)
13. The Exorcist (1973)
14. Taxi Driver (1976)
15. Pulp Fiction (1994)
16. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
17. Aladdin (1992)
18. Airplane! (1980)
19. Rebecca (1940)
20. Batman Begins (2005)
21. The Dark Knight (2008)
22. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
23. The Jungle Book (1967)
24. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
25. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
26. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
27. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
28. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

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Greatest (in terms of "the best") of I've seen:

The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
Psycho
Casablanca
Gone With the Wind
12 Angry Men
Gigi
Back to the Future
Rear Window
The Breakfast Club

It's a hard list to make becuase it's very easy to confuse "favorites" and "greatest".

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I think favorite and greatest should be interchangeable terms. If I can't watch a movie more than once because I didn't like it, I'm not going to call it one of "the greatest films ever made."

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Gone With the Wind's my pick. Love that film.

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Okay, let's try this by genre. If that's possible, since I've only ever spent time going over to myself which are the best Horror films ever made. (I swear I didn't copy off of anyone's lists. )



Comedy
Airplane! (1980)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Clueless (1995)
Election (1999)


Comedic Drama / Crime / Exploitation / Mystery
Ghost World (2001)
Fargo (1996)
Jackie Brown (1997)
The People vs Larry Flynt (1996)
Freeway (1996)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)
The Last Seduction (1994)
Serial Mom (1994)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Valley Girl (1983)
Polyester (1981)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Pink Flamingos (1972)


Drama / Action / Adventure / Science Fiction
Citizen Kane (1941)
All About Eve (1950)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Batman (1989)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
The Living End (1992)


Musicals / Documentary
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Hairspray (1988)
Without You I'm Nothing (1990)


Fantasy
Mary Poppins (1964)
Barbarella (1968)
The Never-Ending Story (1984)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Donnie Darko (2001)


Animation / Non Hand-drawn
The Secret of Nimh (1982)
Toy Story (1995)


Disney Hand-drawn
Fantasia (1940)
Dumbo (1941)
Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
The Rescuers (1977)
The Little Mermaid (1989)


Horror
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Repulsion (1965)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1969)
The Last House on the Left (1972)
Deathdream / Dead of Night (1973)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Deep Red (1975)
Carrie (1976)
Suspiria (1977)
Halloween (1978)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Evil Dead (1981)
Creepshow (1982)
Videodrome (1982)
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
Misery (1990)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Scream (1996)
Ginger Snaps (2001)





I'll have to add more to these later.

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In a way, this list HAS to be opinionated. I'm going to go off of what I think were my favorites, their sort of "classic" status, and how well made they are as a whole.

Gone With the Wind
The Wizard of Oz
Fantasia
Titanic
Beauty and the Beast
The Little Mermaid
Wall-e (I know this is fairly modern, but I really believe it is an amazing ilm)
The Sound of Music
Back to the Future
The Exorcist
Star Wars (original trilogy)
E.T.
Casablanca
Kill Bill (1 and 2)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Lord of the Rings (all 3)
Cinderella

I know there's a lot more that I would add to this list, but I'll come back and do that later!

Well, I believe I can do that. (But then again, I think my education in Film Studies helped me achieving that.) Here are the best movies, according to me, and my own favorites are marked with an asterisk:

The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Birth of a Nation (1915)
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Bronensets Potyomkin (Battleship Potemkin, 1925)
Metropolis (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Un Chien Andalou (1929)
M (1931)
Modern Times (1936) *
Stagecoach (1939)
The Philadelphia Story (1940) *
Citizen Kane (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Sunset Boulevard (1950) *
Rashomon (1950)
Rear Window (1954) *
The Searchers (1956)
12 Angry Men (1957) *
Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal, 1957)
North By Northwest (1959)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
A Bout de Souffle (1960)
Psycho (1960)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8 1/2 (1963)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)*
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)*
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Godfather (1972) *
The Godfather- Part II (1974) *
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) *
Jaws (1975)
Star Wars (1977)
Apocalyse Now (1979)
Life of Brian (1979) *
Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Die Hard (1988) *
JFK (1991) *
Reservoir Dogs (1992) *
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994) *
Se7en (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995) *
La Vita e Bella (1997)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Der Untergang (Downfall, 2004)

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^ Seven Samurai? Double Indemnity? Snow White and Fantasia? It Happened One Night? Nosferatu? La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc? City Lights? The General? El laberinto del fauno? The Apartment? The Graduate? The Exorcist? A Clockwork Orange? Dr. Strangelove? Back to the Future? Nuovo cinema Paradiso?

You pulled out a very good list, Goliath, but these were a couple of exclusions that I'd put in myself. Otherwise, I'd keep just about all of those in my own.

No offense Flanger-Hanger, but how is Gigi one of the best movies? I mean I love it and consider it a great movie musical, but some of the editing was off. An example that comes to mind is during the scene where Aunt Alicia and Gigi are discussing jewelry. Oh, and I'm surprised My Fair Lady wasn't on your list.

I wouldn't get so hung up over a minor continuinty error like the one in that scene (I'd sooner complain about the rear projection work during "It's a Bore"), the movie overall is excellent, not becuase it "challanges" the viewer, but becuase it comes across as effortlessly wonderful and charming, without any kind of drags in the plot and a superb, original song/score (espcially the score, it's really wonderful to listen to it in full on its own) by Lerner and Lowe, along with fine performances from the cast as a whole. In my mind it deservedly won its Best Picture Oscar.

My list is not really incomplete and I was debating My Fair Lady, but I didn't immediately put it down becuase of the criteria for "greatness" I was debating earlier.

And you're picking on my for choosing Gigi, but it's fine for Laz to have Killer Clowns From Outer Space?

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Hey, that film is a masterpiece! It's a perfect blend of horror and sci-fi, one of the most effective horror-comedies with viewers, the costumes and animatronic work is incredible (and on the budget they had to work with: groundbreaking), successfully taps into childhood fears, expertly changes tone between light and amusing to dark and nasty (showing that it has a serious side), has a first-rate (and ambitiously designed) music score, and could be viewed as a sharp satire of B-movies and themes of films ranging from The Blob to Alien. It's also the scariest movie I have ever seen. And here's the thing... I never had a fear of clowns as a kid (or mimes or people in those Disney character costumes, etc).

It has so much more depth than people give it credit for. It's really about something. It's about the way people are lulled into a false sense of security by people (since they're regarded as people in suits by all the characters until they discover they're aliens- I think it's applicable) until the moment when the manipulator is ready to drop their act / mask (which could be viewed as a kind of commentary on the malicious undercurrent of advertising or an allegory to child molestors or confidence criminals of several different varieties), visually it makes references to genocide, and the behavior of the klowns in groups has become something very memorable to me as a viewer. The way they're shown to have less and less recognizably human qualities, that cold-blooded looks in their eyes (which you really notice when they're hunting in groups) even though you see they have bodies so much like human beings. I mean... when have you ever seen another alien movie that tried to do something like this? That focused so much on the trust between humans and aliens, showed their behavior patterns in relationship to us given such a dark quality to it?

You know what, too- I almost put Gigi on my list (the only reason I didn't is because I haven't seen it since I was like 12; I always thought of it fondly).

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I am pretty sure I have posted this list several times already, but I guess I could repost it. Also, It is hard to decide on what movies I think are really the best without repeating everybody else. There are also some movies I have only seen once and therefore it would not be fair to deem it a great film. I am only going to pick films that I have seen several times (or at least three times). I would like to put Pulp Fiction(1994) on my list, but to be honest, I never actually saw the entire movie (maybe about 75% of it).

To borrow a cue from Lazario, I am going to sort my films by genre

Comedy
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) - It took me a few viewings to fully enjoy this. There are so many memorable scenes and quotes that I could go on forever. The ending is just so random (I won't spoil it).
Airplane!(1980)-The perfect example of how to do a spoof right. It sticks to one film (in this case Zero Hour, which I admit I still haven't seen) and one genre to parody and it doesn't rely on many pop culture references.
UHF(1989) - I am aware It's nothing more than a vehicle for Weird Al Yankovic, but it's also a very fun movie. The parodies are just amusing to watch (Conan the Librarian), no matter how ridiculous they may seem .

Silent
Nosferatu(1922)-Technically the first Dracula film (I could be wrong, though), this has a pretty creepy atmosphere for a silent horror film (such as the shadow of orlok seen from time to time) and I would watch it over some of today's horror films.
Metropolis(1927)-I know I said I am only putting movies I have seen more than once, but this is the only exception I am going to make. This is a really good sci-fi film for its amazing visuals (for its time) and its overall importance to the genre (since it inspired many other filmmakers to come). If you decide to watch this, I recommend checking out the complete version, which runs around 148 mins.

I will add more later.

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You needn't worry about your opinion Laz as this thread is all about person opinions on "greatest". I just called you out on that selection as it would seem more logical for someone citicizing opinons on "greatest" than a best picture winner.

Truth be told, I've never seen Killer Clowns... so I can't comment on your thoughts anyway.

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I considered a lot of those you listed. Back to the Future is one of my all-time favorites movies, but looking 'objectively' at it, I don't see what's important/ground-breaking/iconic about it, so I left it off the list. Same goes for It Happened One Night, which, when we admit it, is just another screwball comedy. A near-perfectly executed one, sure, but if I had to go for the finest example of the genre, it would be The Philadelphia Story, which I listed. The Exorcist and especially The Graduate both should've been on the list. I'm not entirely sold on the other titles, and I have not seen them all.

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I guess you're right, but I thought that since it was a near-perfect example of a modern blockbuster, as well as one of your personal favorites, that BTTF would have made it on your list. If I had to pull together one of my own, I'm not sure if I'd put it on myself, but I was wondering about your reason for excluding it on yours.


Well, from what I understand, It Happened One Night is one of the first screwball comedies made period, and easily made one of the biggest impacts on the industry. From how often the movie's plot has been stolen, to the downgrade of undershirt sales thanks to Clark Gable's shirtless scene, and not to mention that it was the first film to win all 5 major Oscars. The Philadelphia Story is great too, but I think both films deserve a slot here.


If I had to pick an "absolute best film ever", my vote might just go to Seven Samurai. It's a 3-1/2 action epic that balances humanity and despair perfectly well, and it doesn't drag on much at all. Aspects taken into the film's editing are still being copied today, and the film as a whole is considered by many to be Kurosawa's greatest statement.

Your mileage may vary on the rest of the films I mentioned, but I'd at least consider that one. I can write about any of my other choices if you want me to, though.

Some others I just thought of that I would consider myself-

Halloween, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Out of the Past, Paths of Glory, The Nightmare Before Christmas (okay, there's bias there, but I still think that it's the perfect animated film), Persona, Singin' in the Rain

Huh, I thought I had more, too.

My top ten are as follows:

1. Titanic
2. The Passion of the Christ
3. Terminator 2
4. Avatar
5. Fantasia
6. Beauty and the Beast
7. White Fang
8. The Lion King
9. The Sound of Music
10. Mamma Mia!

Rounding up my top 20 are:

11. Sleeping Beauty
12. Song of the South
13. Speed
14. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
15. Return to Me
16. August Rush
17. The Count of Monte Cristo
18. A Walk In The Clouds
19. The Climb
20. Pollyanna

Good lord. Titanic and Avatar are awful.

_________________
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^Good Doctor, we're not here to criticize people's opinions on what movies are great (I only add this preface to help brace you for a couple of stinkers that I've slipped into my list that should surely outdo those two).


I’m going to simplify my list. I won’t be listing what is considered the greatest movies ever made (or the most ‘well made’) that lack entertainment value (you know the type, known strictly for great acting or technical accomplishments) and I won’t be listing the most significant movies ever made like AFI does (a qualification that places a ton of crappy movies on their lists dubbed ‘greatest’). I’ll instead simply be listing the ones I consider the most enjoyable.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
The Big Parade (1925)
The General (1926)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
The Cameraman (1928)
City Lights (1931)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
King Kong (1933)
Footlight Parade (1933)
It Happened One Night (1934)
The Thin Man (1934)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Top Hat (1935)
Modern Times (1936)
Swing Time (1936)
The Awful Truth (1937)
Stagecoach (1939)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Rebecca (1940)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Laura (1944)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Killers (1946)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
On the Town (1949)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Harvey (1950)
Cinderella (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Limelight (1952)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
High Noon (1952)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Them! (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Searchers (1956)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Paths of Glory (1957)
North By Northwest (1959)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
Psycho (1960)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
The Godfather (1972)
Jaws (1975)
Star Wars (1977)
Halloween (1978)
Alien (1979)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
The Terminator (1984)
Back to the Future (1985)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Aliens (1986)
Die Hard (1988)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Aladdin (1992)
Porco Rosso (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Toy Story (1995)
Men in Black (1997)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Matrix (1999)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
The Iron Giant (1999)
Gladiator (2000)
Snatch. (2000)
Shrek (2001)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Lilo and Stitch (2002)
X2 (2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Shrek 2 (2004)
Sin City (2005)
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Cars (2006) - so sue me
Transformers (2007) -double jeopardy, ha
Superbad (2007)
Iron Man (2008)
Cloverfield (2008)
The Hangover (2009)
Kick-Ass (2010)

Note: Like many of you, I’ve seen too many movies to keep track of and have more then likely left off some great ones. There were movies that almost made the list - like Brute Force (1947), Out of the Past (1947), White Heat (1949), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Exorcist (1973), Rocky (1976), The Warriors (1979), Goodfellas (1990), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), I, Robot (2004) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) - but I feel they require re-watching before I include them. There are also whole collections of movies - like Preston Sturges’ and Akira Kurosawa’s work - that require re-watching.

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I am pretty sure I have posted this list several times already, but I guess I could repost it. Also, It is hard to decide on what movies I think are really the best without repeating everybody else. There are also some movies I have only seen once and therefore it would not be fair to deem it a great film. I am only going to pick films that I have seen several times (or at least three times). I would like to put Pulp Fiction(1994) on my list, but to be honest, I never actually saw the entire movie (maybe about 75% of it).

To borrow a cue from Lazario, I am going to sort my films by genre

Comedy
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) - It took me a few viewings to fully enjoy this. There are so many memorable scenes and quotes that I could go on forever. The ending is just so random (I won't spoil it).
Airplane!(1980)-The perfect example of how to do a spoof right. It sticks to one film (in this case Zero Hour, which I admit I still haven't seen) and one genre to parody and it doesn't rely on many pop culture references.
UHF(1989) - I am aware It's nothing more than a vehicle for Weird Al Yankovic, but it's also a very fun movie. The parodies are just amusing to watch (Conan the Librarian), no matter how ridiculous they may seem .

Silent
Nosferatu(1922)-Technically the first Dracula film (I could be wrong, though), this has a pretty creepy atmosphere for a silent horror film (such as the shadow of orlok seen from time to time) and I would watch it over some of today's horror films.
Metropolis(1927)-I know I said I am only putting movies I have seen more than once, but this is the only exception I am going to make. This is a really good sci-fi film for its amazing visuals (for its time) and its overall importance to the genre (since it inspired many other filmmakers to come). If you decide to watch this, I recommend checking out the complete version, which runs around 148 mins.

Science Fiction
Star Wars(1977) - The one that started it all. I am going by the original version since that was the one I first saw on VHS (I honestly do not mind the Special Editions that much despite some of the more controversial changes). The effects and sets, even to this day, are amazing. The score is great, too (I have the soundtrack on my MP3. I am such a dork )
Terminator 2: Judgement Day(1992) - One last exception for the rule of seeing the movie for than once because I wanted to do an example of how to improve upon the original movie correctly. The villain in this movie is a step up from the first Terminator
and seeing Arnold switch to the hero is an interesting twist.

I will add more later.

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Avatar courtesy of Jules

My Blu-Ray Collection

This is true. Otherwise, my head would have exploded from the terrifying occurence of anyone including Beauty and the Beast (1991).

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4 Disney Atmosphere Images