100 Great Movies?
You may remember long ago, when the American Film Institute released its list of the "100 Greatest American Movies of the 20th Century", which I believe placed fifth on the "100 Best '100 Best of the 20th Century Lists' of the 20th Century", right between the list of the 100 best 2-point conversion and the top 100 Noel Cowardesque bon mots. I don't have it handy.
I was mildly intrigued with this list, being a pseudo film buff. I'd like nothing better than to sit in a cafe all day discussing the merits of Polanski's use of mise-en-scene compared to Coppola's use of light or Fellini's subtext. But when push comes to shove, I always seem to wind up throwing Airplane! or Life of Brian into the VCR -- and wanting to weigh in on these Top 100.
So it's with that in mind that I'm embarking on an expedition. No more will my opinion of these cinematic classics be based on thirdhand reviews and cutaway scenes in The Simpsons. I'm going to watch them all, from 100 to 1. It gives me a chance to watch some old favorites (see #3, #28, #84), see some movies that I know I should have seen somewhere along the line but never did (see #8, #50, #80).
| 19. | 20. | 21. | 22. | |||
 |  |  |  |
|||
| Chinatown | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | The Grapes of Wrath | 2001: A Space Odyssey |
23. The
Maltese Falcon
24. Raging Bull
25. E.T. The Extra
Terrestrial
26. Dr.
Strangelove
27. Bonnie &
Clyde
28. Apocalypse
Now
29. Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington
30. The Treasure of
the Sierra Madre
31. Annie Hall
32. The
Godfather, Part II
33. High Noon
34. To
Kill A Mockingbird
35. It
Happened One Night
36. Midnight
Cowboy
37.
The Best Years Of Our Lives
38. Double
Indemnity
39. Doctor
Zhivago
40. North By
Northwest
41. West Side
Story
42.
Rear Window
43. King Kong
44. Birth Of
A Nation
45.
A Streetcar Named Desire
46. A Clockwork
Orange
47.
Taxi Driver
48.
Jaws
49.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
50. Butch Cassidy
& the Sundance Kid
51. The
Philadelphia Story
52. From Here
To Eternity
53. Amadeus
54.
All Quiet on the Western Front
55. The Sound of
Music
56.
M*A*SH
57.
The Third Man
58. Fantasia
59. Rebel
Without A Cause
60. Raiders
of the Lost Ark
61. Vertigo
62. Tootsie
63. Stagecoach
64. Close
Encounters of the Third Kind
65. The
Silence of the Lambs
66. Network
67. The
Manchurian Candidate
68. An American
In Paris
69.
Shane
70. The French
Connection
71. Forrest Gump
72. Ben-Hur
73.
Wuthering Heights
74. The Gold Rush
75. Dances
With Wolves
76. City Lights
77. American
Graffiti
78.
Rocky
79. The
Deer Hunter
80. The Wild Bunch
81. Modern Times
82. Giant
83. Platoon
84. Fargo
85. Duck Soup
86. Mutiny on the
Bounty
87.
Frankenstein
88. Easy Rider
89. Patton
90. The Jazz Singer
91. My Fair
Lady
92. A
Place In the Sun
93. The Apartment
94. Goodfellas
95. Pulp
Fiction
96.
The Searchers
97. Bringing Up Baby
98.
Unforgiven
99. Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner?
100.
Yankee Doodle Dandy
