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Hal at the Movies

After realising that I'd only seen two out of every five films on the IMDb Top 250 list, I started schooling myself in the history of motion pictures, using that list as a key focus. I've also been writing these films up for my book on the Top 250. This is a work in progress, with over 100,000 words written as of October 2005.

To lay solid groundwork for my growing understanding of the movies as a whole, I've followed other lists too. I've especially been concentrating on certain key areas: the silent era, the pre-codes of 1929-1934, the golden age of Hollywood and the rich world of foreign language films. There are lists to work from here too: The SilentEra.com Top 100 Silent Movies, The Home Theater Forum 100 Great Films of the 1930s and Movieline's 100 Greatest Foreign Films. I'm discovering new favourite directors and actors and I'm eagerly devouring the schedules every month to explore their work further.

Here are a bunch of lists, some official and some my own, chronicling my ratings for stars and directors whose work I've begun to follow.

Top 100 Film Lists with Ratings

National Cinemas
AFI 100 Years... 100 Movies
Jonathan Rosenbaum's Alternate 100
AFI 100 Years... 100 Laughs
AFI 100 Years... 100 Thrills
AFI 100 Years... 100 Passions
British Film Institute 100
The Times Best 100 French Films
The 100 Most Significant German Films
HK Film Awards Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures

Foreign Films
ForeignFilms.com Top 100 Foreign Films
Movieline 100 Greatest Foreign Films

Genres
Channel 4 100 Greatest War Films
Channel 4 100 Greatest Musicals
OFCS Top 100 SciFi Films of the Past 100 Years
OFCS Top 100 Animated Features of All Time
DarkWeb Top 100 Horror Movies
Cowboys & Indians: The Best 100 Westerns Ever Made
GreenCine MVIs: The Top 100 American Indie Films
The New York Times 100 Children's Movies
Debased.com 100 Greatest Cult Movies
Premiere 100 Movies That Shook the World

DVD Box Sets with Ratings

The 10 Faces of Sonny Chiba
Action Arsenal
Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense
Ancient Evil
The Art of Fighting
Attack of the Monsters
Crime Wave
Curse of the Dead
Deadtime Stories
The Dead Walk
Fists of Fire, Swords of Death (I)
Fists of Fire, Swords of Death (II)
Fright Night
Legends of Kung Fu
The Law and the Lawless
Livin' Da Life
No One Lives... Forever!
Nowhere to Run
Scared Stiff
Space Odyssey
Tales of the Gun
Tales of Terror
Ten Nights of Terror
Toga Party
Vault of Horror
The Wild West
Women Who Kick Butt

Others
TV Classics: Laurel & Hardy

12 Action DVD Feature Films
12 American Heroes DVD Feature Films
12 Gangster DVD Feature Films
12 Horror DVD Feature Films
12 Martial Arts DVD Feature Films
12 Sci-Fi DVD Feature Films
12 Superstars DVD Feature Films

Treeline Films/Mill Creek Entertainment
Action Classics
All-Stars
Box Office Gold
Chilling Classics
Classic Musicals
Comedy Classics
Comedy Kings
Cowboy Legends
Crime Classics
Dark Crimes
Decrepit Crypt of Nightmares
Family Classics
Family Fun
Frontier Justice
Gunslinger Classics
Historic Classics
Hollywood Legends
Horror Classics
Martial Arts Classics
Mystery Classics
Nightmare Worlds
Night Screams
SciFi Classics
Suspense Classics
Tomb of Terrors
War Classics
Western Classics
Western Legends

Individual Lists with Ratings

Precode Legends
Richard Barthelmess, the conscience
Walter Huston, the reliable
Warren William, the king of the pre-codes

Classic Actors
The Barrymores: Lionel, Ethel and John
Wallace Beery: the brawler
Humphrey Bogart, the hardboiled dick
Marlon Brando, the method actor
James Cagney, the dancing gangster
Joseph Cotten, versatile gentleman
Henry Fonda, ole blue eyes
Clark Gable, the king of the movies
Cary Grant, who everyone wanted to be
Sydney Greenstreet, the big man
Peter Lorre, the bug eyed monster
The Marx Brothers, masters of anarchy
Paul Muni, the epitome of thirties versatility
David Niven, the gent
Sidney Poitier, the race card
William Powell, the gentleman scoundrel
Claude Rains, the invisible man
Basil Rathbone, the fencing sleuth
Edward G Robinson, the tough guy, see
George Sanders, the gentleman scoundrel
James Stewart, ah shucks
Lewis Stone, the face of respectability
Spencer Tracy, the tough padre
John Wayne, the king of the cowboys
Orson Welles, the boy genius

Horror Icons
Lionel Atwill: refined and menacing
Lon Chaney, the man with a thousand faces
Dwight Frye, the fly eater
Boris Karloff, the Uncanny
Bela Lugosi, that man with the cape
Vincent Price, the aristocratic voice of terror
George Zucco, the sinister doctor

Eastern Actors
Jet Li, the wushu champion
Toshiro Mifune, the definitive samurai

Producers/Directors
Woody Allen, the prince of neuroses
Frank Capra, purveyor of Capra-corn
John Carpenter, versatile genre director
The Coen Brothers, revivalists supreme
Roger Corman, the exploitation maestro
George Cukor, the women's director
Michael Curtiz, golden age director
John Ford, the father of the west
Howard Hawks, classic Hollywood director
Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense
John Huston, master American director
Stanley Kubrick, the icon
Fritz Lang, the expressionist
Val Lewton, producer of subtle terror
Orson Welles, the boy genius
Billy Wilder, classic Hollywood director
William Wyler, versatile golden age director

Characters
Godzilla, the king of the monsters
Zatoichi, the blind swordsman

Genres
Academy Awards for Best Picture, 1927-2004
Anime, animation Japanese style
Chambara, Japanese swordplay movies
Detective Film Series: recurring characters
Silent Movies, stories without voices