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The American Film Institute whittled down 400 nominations to a Top 100 of American movies. The aim was to compile a list of movies 'which set the standard and mark the excellence of the first century of American cinema'.
This was broadcast as a CBS TV special in 1998, making this the most prominent Top 100 list out there, though not the first. Here's a link to the official AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies site page, which also links to the further AFI lists, compiled one per year.
In 2007, for the tenth anniversary special, the AFI produced a revamped list, which kept Citizen Kane at the top but added in films like Titanic, The Sixth Sense and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I'm not sure if this was meant to be an improvement or not.
The main criticism of the original 100 Years... 100 Movies list was that it appeared to be a very safe list. Many people have offered criticism and a few have offered alternatives. I find Jonathan Rosenbaum's Alternate 100 a far more fascinating list to work through, even though my average ratings are currently still higher for this one.
Note: to see the complete lists you now need to register at the AFI's site.
Rating System | 1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic
Reviews | AL - Apocalypse Later | IP - The IMDb Project | CR - Capsule Reviews
# |
Title |
Year |
H |
D |
Director |
IMDb |
Review |
1 |
Citizen Kane |
1941 |
7 |
7 |
Orson Welles |
||
2 |
Casablanca |
1942 |
7 |
7 |
Michael Curtiz |
||
3 |
The Godfather |
1972 |
Francis Ford Coppola |
||||
4 |
Gone with the Wind |
1939 |
6 |
6 |
Victor Fleming |
||
5 |
Lawrence of Arabia |
1962 |
David Lean |
||||
6 |
The Wizard of Oz |
1939 |
7 |
7 |
Victor Fleming |
||
7 |
The Graduate |
1967 |
Mike Nichols |
||||
8 |
On the Waterfront |
1954 |
7 |
7 |
Elia Kazan |
||
9 |
Schindler's List |
1993 |
Steven Spielberg |
||||
10 |
Singin' in the Rain |
1952 |
7 |
7 |
Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen |
||
11 |
It's a Wonderful Life |
1946 |
7 |
7 |
Frank Capra |
||
12 |
Sunset Boulevard |
1950 |
7 |
7 |
Billy Wilder |
||
13 |
The Bridge on the River Kwai |
1957 |
7 |
7 |
David Lean |
||
14 |
Some Like It Hot |
1959 |
7 |
7 |
Billy Wilder |
||
15 |
Star Wars |
1977 |
7 |
7 |
George Lucas |
||
16 |
All About Eve |
1950 |
Joseph L Mankiewicz |
||||
17 |
The African Queen |
1951 |
7 |
7 |
John Huston |
||
18 |
Psycho |
1960 |
7 |
7 |
Alfred Hitchcock |
||
19 |
Chinatown |
1974 |
7 |
6 |
Roman Polanski |
||
20 |
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest |
1975 |
Elia Kazan |
||||
21 |
The Grapes of Wrath |
1940 |
7 |
7 |
John Ford |
||
22 |
2001: A Space Odyssey |
1968 |
7 |
7 |
Stanley Kubrick |
||
23 |
The Maltese Falcon |
1941 |
7 |
7 |
John Huston |
||
24 |
Raging Bull |
1980 |
7 |
6 |
Martin Scorsese |
||
25 |
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial |
1982 |
Steven Spielberg |
||||
26 |
Dr Strangelove |
1964 |
7 |
7 |
Stanley Kubrick |
||
27 |
Bonnie and Clyde |
1967 |
5 |
6 |
Arthur Penn |
||
28 |
Apocalypse Now |
1979 |
Francis Ford Coppola |
||||
29 |
Mr Smith Goes to Washington |
1939 |
7 |
7 |
Frank Capra |
||
30 |
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre |
1948 |
7 |
7 |
John Huston |
||
31 |
Annie Hall |
1977 |
7 |
6 |
Woody Allen |
||
32 |
The Godfather Part II |
1974 |
Francis Ford Coppola |
||||
33 |
High Noon |
1952 |
7 |
7 |
Fred Zinnemann |
||
34 |
To Kill a Mockingbird |
1962 |
7 |
7 |
Robert Mulligan |
||
35 |
It Happened One Night |
1934 |
7 |
7 |
Frank Capra |
||
36 |
Midnight Cowboy |
1969 |
6 |
6 |
John Schlesinger |
||
37 |
The Best Years of Our Lives |
1946 |
7 |
7 |
William Wyler |
||
38 |
Double Indemnity |
1944 |
7 |
7 |
Billy Wilder |
||
39 |
Doctor Zhivago |
1965 |
David Lean |
||||
40 |
North By Northwest |
1959 |
6 |
6 |
Alfred Hitchcock |
||
41 |
West Side Story |
1961 |
Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins |
||||
42 |
Rear Window |
1954 |
7 |
7 |
Alfred Hitchcock |
||
43 |
King Kong |
1933 |
7 |
7 |
Merian C Cooper & Ernest B Schoedsack |
||
44 |
The Birth of a Nation |
1915 |
D W Griffith |
||||
45 |
A Streetcar Named Desire |
1951 |
7 |
7 |
Elia Kazan |
||
46 |
A Clockwork Orange |
1971 |
7 |
7 |
Stanley Kubrick |
||
47 |
Taxi Driver |
1976 |
6 |
6 |
Martin Scorsese |
||
48 |
Jaws |
1975 |
7 |
7 |
Steven Spielberg |
||
49 |
Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs |
1937 |
David Hand et al |
||||
50 |
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid |
1969 |
George Roy Hill |
||||
51 |
The Philadelphia Story |
1940 |
7 |
7 |
George Cukor |
||
52 |
From Here to Eternity |
1953 |
7 |
Fred Zinnemann |
|||
53 |
Amadeus |
1984 |
Milos Forman |
||||
54 |
All Quiet on the Western Front |
1930 |
6 |
6 |
Lewis Milestone |
||
55 |
The Sound of Music |
1965 |
Robert Wise |
||||
56 |
M*A*S*H |
1970 |
Robert Altman |
||||
57 |
The Third Man |
1949 |
7 |
7 |
Carol Reed |
||
58 |
Fantasia |
1940 |
6 |
Samuel Armstrong et al |
|||
59 |
Rebel Without a Cause |
1955 |
Nicholas Ray |
||||
60 |
Raiders of the Lost Ark |
1981 |
7 |
7 |
Steven Spielberg |
||
61 |
Vertigo |
1958 |
7 |
7 |
Alfred Hitchcock |
||
62 |
Tootsie |
1982 |
7 |
7 |
Sydney Pollack |
||
63 |
Stagecoach |
1939 |
7 |
7 |
John Ford |
||
64 |
Close Encounters of the Third Kind |
1977 |
7 |
7 |
Steven Spielberg |
||
65 |
The Silence of the Lambs |
1991 |
6 |
6 |
Jonathan Demme |
||
66 |
Network |
1976 |
7 |
7 |
Sidney Lumet |
||
67 |
The Manchurian Candidate |
1962 |
6 | 6 | John Frankenheimer |
||
68 |
An American in Paris |
1951 |
4 |
Vincente Minnelli |
|||
69 |
Shane |
1953 |
7 |
George Stevens |
|||
70 |
The French Connection |
1971 |
6 |
6 |
William Friedkin |
||
71 |
Forrest Gump |
1994 |
Robert Zemeckis |
||||
72 |
Ben-Hur |
1959 |
William Wyler |
||||
73 |
Wuthering Heights |
1939 |
6 |
7 |
William Wyler |
||
74 |
The Gold Rush |
1925 |
7 |
7 |
Charles Chaplin |
||
75 |
Dances with Wolves |
1990 |
Kevin Costner |
||||
76 |
City Lights |
1931 |
7 |
6 |
Charles Chaplin |
||
77 |
American Graffiti |
1973 |
6 |
6 |
George Lucas |
||
78 |
Rocky |
1976 |
John G Avildsen |
||||
79 |
The Deer Hunter |
1978 |
Michael Cimino |
||||
80 |
The Wild Bunch |
1969 |
Sam Peckinpah |
||||
81 |
Modern Times |
1936 |
5 |
5 |
Charles Chaplin |
||
82 |
Giant |
1956 |
George Stevens |
||||
83 |
Platoon |
1986 |
Oliver Stone |
||||
84 |
Fargo |
1996 |
7 |
7 |
Joel Coen |
||
85 |
Duck Soup |
1933 |
6 |
6 |
Leo McCarey |
||
86 |
Mutiny on the Bounty |
1935 |
7 |
7 |
Frank Lloyd |
||
87 |
Frankenstein |
1931 |
7 |
7 |
James Whale |
||
88 |
Easy Rider |
1969 |
6 |
Dennis Hopper |
|||
89 |
Patton |
1970 |
Franklin J Schaffner |
||||
90 |
The Jazz Singer |
1927 |
6 |
7 |
Alan Crosland |
||
91 |
My Fair Lady |
1964 |
George Cukor |
||||
92 |
A Place in the Sun |
1951 |
5 |
George Stevens |
|||
93 |
The Apartment |
1960 |
7 |
6 |
Billy Wilder |
||
94 |
Goodfellas |
1990 |
7 |
6 |
Martin Scorsese |
||
95 |
Pulp Fiction |
1994 |
Quentin Tarantino |
||||
96 |
The Searchers |
1956 |
John Ford |
||||
97 |
Bringing up Baby |
1938 |
7 |
7 |
Howard Hawks |
||
98 |
Unforgiven |
1992 |
Clint Eastwood |
||||
99 |
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner |
1967 |
7 |
7 |
Stanley Kramer |
||
100 |
Yankee Doodle Dandy |
1942 |
7 |
7 |
Michael Curtiz |
Last updated: 28 Aug 2009
| Home - Writing - Hal and Dee at the Movies - Top 100 Film Lists | Mail Hal C F Astell - Site Map |