Master List #17: The 101 Best Films of the 1940s

Though the 101 movies mentioned here are some of the best ever made, the 1940s still stands as my least favorite decade for movies. The texture of cinema in that era feels boxed in to me--as if only a few directors made an attempt to get away from the confines of studio-approved packaging and the overwhelming influence of World War II. Those who did break out--like Welles, Sturges, and Capra, for instance--paid the price for their mavericking. Thus I've always maintained a distaste for the 1940s (and particularly for Casablanca, which is the most overrated movie of all time, and which I grudgingly include in the list only because of the sheer number of memorable lines it contributed to the world lexicon). Still, for the singular hat-wearing feel they have to offer, the titles on this list are must-sees, for sure. So here, evaluated by (1) overall quality, (2) historical importance, (3) influence, and (4) personal affection, are my choices (with one-line synopses to be added later):

1) It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 46)
2) The Treasure of Sierra Madre (John Huston, 48)
3) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 41)
4) Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 41)
5) The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 43)
6) Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincent Minnelli, 44)
7) Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 43)
8) Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 46)
9) Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 49)
10) Great Expectations (David Lean, 48)
11) The Set-Up (Robert Wise, 49)
12) The Third Man (Carol Reed, 49)
13) The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 40)
14) Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 41)
15) Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 45)
16) They Were Expendable (John Ford, 45)
17) The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 41)
18) The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 41)
19) Bambi (David Hand/Walt Disney, 42)
20) The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 48)
21) My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 46)
22) To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 42)
23) Brief Encounter (David Lean, 46)
24) The Red Shoes (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, 48)
25) Detour (Edgar Ulmer, 45)
26) She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 49)
27) The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 40)
28) On The Town (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 49)
29) Monsiuer Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 47)
30) Red River (Howard Hawks, 48)
31) Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock, 44)
32) The More The Merrier (George Stevens, 43)
33) Fantasia (Luske/Jackson/Algar/Disney et al., 40)
34) His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 40)
35) The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 46)
36) The Thief of Bagdad (Powell/Berger/Whelan et al., 40)
37) I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur/Val Lewton, 43)
38) White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 49)
39) The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 42)
40) Long-Haired Hare (Chuck Jones, 49)
41) Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 44) 42) Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 46)
43) Rome--Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 45)
44) Cat People (Jacques Tourneur/Val Lewton, 42)
45) The Heiress (William Wyler, 49)
46) Superman Vs. The Mechanical Monsters (Max Fleicher, 41)
47) Begone Dull Care (Evelyn Lambart/Norman McLaren, 49)
(An experimental masterpiece)
48) The Sullivans (Lloyd Bacon, 44)
49) King-Size Canary (Tex Avery, 47)
50) Yellow Sky (William Wellman, 48)
51) The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Preston Sturges, 44)
52) The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman, 43)
53) The Pride of the Yankees (Sam Wood, 42)
54) Battleground (William Wellman, 49)
55) Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 48)
56) Pinocchio (Luske/Sharpsteen/Disney, 40)
57) Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 44)
58) The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 46)
59) Laura (Otto Preminger, 44)
60) Murder My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 44)
61) The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 47)
62) Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz, 42)
63) Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 45)
64) The Cat That Hated People (Tex Avery, 48)
65) The Shop Around The Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 40)
66) Nightmare Alley (Edmond Goulding, 47)
67) Macbeth (Orson Welles, 48)
68) Letter From An Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls. 48)
69) Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 47)
70) Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen/Walt Disney, 46)
71) Shoeshine (Vittorio De Sica, 46)
72) Wilson (Henry King, 44)
73) The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise/Val Lewton, 47)
74) Champion (Mark Robson, 49)
75) Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 40)
76) A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Manckiewicz, 49)
77) Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 47)
78) Since You Went Away (John Cromwell/David O. Selznick, 44)
79) Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 49)
80) Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 41)
81) Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 47)
82) The Little Foxes (William Wyler, 41)
83) Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, 40)
84) The Why We Fight series (Capra, Stevens, Huston et.al, 43-45)
85) Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 41)
86) That Hamilton Woman (Alexander Korda, 41)
87) The Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder, 42)
88) Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 42)
89) The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed, 48)
90) Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 45)
91) Henry V (Lawrence Olivier, 44)
92) It Happens Every Spring (Lloyd Bacon, 49)
93) Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery, 47)
94) The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 45)
95) Mighty Joe Young (Ernest B. Schoedsack, 49)
96) Red Hot Riding Hood (Tex Avery, 43)
97) The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 46)
98) Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 45)
99) The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak, 45)
100) Der Fuehrer's Face (Jack Kinney/Walt Disney, 42)
101) The Picture of Dorian Gray (Albert Lewin, 45)

MASTER LIST #16: The 101 Best Films of the 1950s

Of course, a staggering array of masterworks hail from the 1950s--so much so that putting them in order of preference was like splitting an already split hair. One can really see that this was another monumental era for cinema, with Kurosawa, Bergman, Donen, Hitchcock, Huston, Ford, Kubrick, Welles, Fellini, Nicholas Ray, Anthony Mann, Max Ophuls, and Billy Wilder, among others, delivering many of their greatest works (it was a brilliant time for short films, too, with the Warner Brothers-based works of Chuck Jones garnering four spots among the eight short films mentioned). You can see the building blocks for the upcoming tumult of the '60s and '70s here, too (despite what some may think, it was not entirely a Leave It To Beaver decade; there are some seriously cynical movies on this list). It's also a decade of supreme sophistication and, at the same time, entertainment; here, The Seventh Seal and Sweet Smell of Success sits right beside 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Court Jester. And there's even room for George Pal and Ed Wood! So here, evaluated by (1) overall quality, (2) historical importance, (3) influence, and (4) personal affection, are my choices:

1) Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 58)
2) The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 59 (France))
3) Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 57)
4) Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 54)
5) Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 59)
6) The Searchers (John Ford, 56)
7) Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 52 (Japan))
8) The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 55)
9) Singin' In The Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 52)
10) Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica, 52 (Italy))
11) Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 58 (Sweden))
12) Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 50)
13) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 58)
14) La Ronde (Max Ophuls, 50 (France))
15) Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 57 (Italy))
16) Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 50)
17) Giant (George Stevens, 56)
18) Kiss Me, Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 55)
19) High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 52)
20) The Cranes Are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov, 57 (Russia))
21) What's Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones, 57)
22) The Seven Samarai (Akira Kurosawa, 54 (Japan))
23) Twelve Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 57)
24) The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 53)
25) North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 59)
26) Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 57 (Japan))
27) Mr. Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati, 53 (France))
28) Pork Chop Hill (Lewis Milestone, 59)
29) The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 55)
30) The Quiet Man (John Ford, 52 (USA/Ireland))
31) Neighbours (Norman McLaren, 52 (Canada))
32) In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 50)
33) Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 58 (Poland))
34) The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 57 (Sweden))
35) Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 53 (Japan))
36) Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 59)
37) The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 56)
38) Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 58 (France))
39) The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 56)
40) A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 51)
41) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 56)
42) Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 51)
43) Les Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 55 (France))
44) The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland, 53)
45) Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 56)
46) Shane (George Stevens, 53)
47) Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 50 (Japan))
48) A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 57)
49) East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 55)
50) Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 59)
51) Curse of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 57 (Britain))
52) Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, 53)
53) The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 51)
54) There's Always Tomorrow (Douglas Sirk, 56)
55) Lady and The Tramp (Geronimi/Jackso/Luske, 55)
56) Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 51)
57) Lola Montes (Max Ophuls, 55 (France))
58) The African Queen (John Huston, 51)
59) A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 51)
60) Limelight (Charles Chaplin, 52 (Britain))
61) Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 57)
62) All About Eve (Joseph L. Manckiewicz, 50)
63) Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 54)
64) The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli, 53)
65) The Man From Laramie (Anthony Mann, 55)
66) Othello (Orson Welles, 55 (USA/Finland/France)
67) Summertime (David Lean, 59 (Britain/Italy))
68) The Tell-Tale Heart (Ted Parmelee, 53)
69) Fixed Bayonets! (Samuel Fuller, 51)
70) Wagon Master (John Ford, 50)
71) The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse, 56 (France))
72) On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 54)
73) A Star is Born (George Cukor, 54)
74) Rebel Without A Cause (Nicholas Ray, 55)
75) Executive Suite (Robert Wise, 54)
76) The Girl Can't Help It (Frank Tashlin, 56)
77) The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 51 (Britain))
78) The Tall T (Budd Boetticher, 57)
79) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 54)
80) One Froggy Evening (Chuck Jones, 55)
81) Kanal (Andrzej Wajda, 57)
82) Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi, 59)
83) The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 50)
84) Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 57)
85) Day of the Outlaw (Andre De Toth, 59)
86) Mister Roberts (John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, 55)
87) 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (Richard Fleicher, 54)
88) Beat the Devil (John Huston, 53)
89) The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 59)
90) Plan 9 From Outer Space (Edward D. Wood, Jr., 59)
91) Feed The Kitty (Chuck Jones, 52)
92) Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 52)
93) The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk, 54)
94) Moonbird (John and Faith Hubley, 59)
95) Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 51)
96) The Court Jester (Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, 55)
97) Summer with Monika (Ingmar Bergman, 53 (Sweden))
98) Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 55)
99) Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Manckiewicz, 55)
100) Bus Stop (Joshua Logan, 56)
101) The War of the Worlds (George Pal, 53)

MASTER LIST #15: The 101 Best Films of the 1960s

Whoa! Easily the most challenging decade for films since the silent era, in my opinion. So many of the following 1960s films cited are not for everyone (popular filmmaking, spearheaded by the Americans, on the other hand, was at its lowest ebb, with dunderheaded musicals, epics, and comedies taking the forefront at the box office). Very nearly half of the entries on the list hail from the finest filmic artists of World Cinema--Bergman, Fellini, Antonioni, Lester, Germi, Leone, and so on--working outside the states, and then there are so many more filmmakers who transplanted themselves in less-familiar parts of the world to mount their creations (Kubrick did his great works in Britain, while, for instance, Britain's Alfred Hitchcock and John Schlesinger did their decade-defining works in America). There was a lot more give-and-take between commonwealths in this era; that, plus the massive social and political transformations occurring all over the globe during the decade (not to mention the great strides in literature, music, and movies themselves) contributed to the one-time-only richness of 1960s cinema. So, based on (1) overall quality, (2) influence, (3) historical importance, and (4) personal affection, here are my choices:

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 68)
2) The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 69)
3) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 60)
4) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 62 (Britain/USA))
5) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 66 (Italy))
6) Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 66 (Britain/Italy))
7) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 64 (Britain/USA))
8) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 62)
9) Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 66 (Sweden))
10) The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 61 (Britain))
11) Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 69)
12) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 64 (France))
13) Salesman (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerlin, 69)
14) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 66)
15) Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 68)
16) Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 65 (Britain))
17) Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 69 (Italy))
18) The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 62 (Spain))
19) Playtime (Jacques Tati, 67 (France))
20) The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 67)
21) Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 67)
22) I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov, 64 (Russia/Cuba))
23) Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 65 (France))
24) The Music Man (Morton Da Costa, 62)
25) Ride The High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 62)
26) Masculin-Feminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 66 (France))
27) West Side Story (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 61)
28) Point of Order! (Emile De Antonio, 64)
29) War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk, 68 (Russia))
30) A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 64 (Britain))
31) David and Lisa (Frank Perry, 62)
32) Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 68)
33) Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 60 (Britain))
34) Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 63)
35) 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 63 (Italy))
36) The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paulo Pasolini, 66 (Italy))
37) Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 61 (Japan))
38) if... (Lindsay Anderson, 69 (Britain))
39) Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 67 (France))
40) 7 Up (Michael Apted, 64 (Britain))
41) The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 68 (Russia))
42) Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler, 69)
43) Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 65 (Britain/USA))
44) La Jetee (Chris Marker, 62 (France))
45) Monterey Pop (D.A. Pennebaker, 69)
46) In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks, 67)
47) Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 66 (Russia))
48) Cul-de-Sac (Roman Polanski, 66 (Britain))
49) Primary (Robert Drew, 60)
50) Hud (Martin Ritt, 63)
51) The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 62)
52) Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 63)
53) Faces (John Cassevetes, 68)
54) To Kill A Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 62)
55) The Misfits (John Huston, 61)
56) Petulia (Richard Lester, 68 (Britain))
57) The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 61)
58) The War Game (Peter Watkins, 65 (Britain))
59) The Knack, And How to Get It (Richard Lester, 65 (Britain))
60) Stolen Kisses (Francois Truffaut, 68 (France))
61) Closely Watched Trains (Jiri Menzel, 66 (Czechoslovakia)
62) It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo, 66 (Britain))
63) The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 60 (Sweden))
64) Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 64 (Japan))
65) Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet, 64)
66) Jules and Jim (Francois Truffaut, 62 (France))
67) Culloden (Peter Watkin, 64 (Britain))
68) Don't Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 67)
69) Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa, 60 (Japan))
70) Point Blank (John Boorman, 67)
71) The Rain People (Francis Ford Coppola, 69)
72) Divorce, Italian Style (Pietro Germi, 61 (Italy))
73) Through a Glass, Darkly (Ingmar Bergman, 61 (Sweden))
74) The Dot and the Line (Chuck Jones, 65)
75) The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 64)
76) Oliver! (Carol Reed, 68 (Britain))
77) Belle De Jour (Luis Bunuel, 68 (Spain/France))
78) Nothing But A Man (Michael Roemer, 64)
79) Bullitt (Peter Yates, 68)
80) Mickey One (Arthur Penn, 65)
81) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 69)
82) One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 61)
83) Head (Bob Rafelson, 68)
84) Bedazzled (Stanley Donen, 67 (Britain))
85) 101 Dalmatians (Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske & Wolfgang Reitherman, 61)
86) The Hill (Sidney Lumet, 65)
87) A Man For All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 66 (Britain))
88) They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Sydney Pollack, 69)
89) The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 63)
90) Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 60 (Britain))
91) The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis, 60)
92) Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 67)
93) Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 68 (Britain))
94) Seven Days in May (John Frankenheimer, 64)
95) Zulu (Cy Endfield, 64 (Britain))
96) On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Peter Hunt, 69) (Britain))
97) Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 61)
98) A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 64 (Britain))
99) Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 62)
100) Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 61)
101) Two For The Road (Stanley Donen, 67 (Britain))

MASTER LIST #14: The 101 Best Films of the 1980s

Having followed the stellar 1970s, and heavily steeped with former movie star Ronald Reagan's culture-changing presidential agenda (at least in its latter half), the 1980s may seem at first glance as a nadir for cinema (especially since the decade itself was, in my opinion, the beginning of the end for serious movies). But I find absolutely nothing worthy of burial in this list. All titles cited that were released before 1983 are suitable for inclusion in the golden age of the previous decade, and those that came afterwards are only VERY slightly weaker. Among those doing some of their best work in this decade: Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Philip Kaufman, Terry Gilliam, Stanley Kubrick, John Huston, Sidney Lumet, Jonathan Demme, Albert Brooks, and Steven Spielberg. Plus we have the emergence of Alex Cox, Jim Jaramusch, Bill Forsyth, Steven Soderburgh, Joel and Ethan Coen, Ross McElwee, and Sam Raimi. Not a bad batch of filmmakers there. Anyway, according to (1) influence, (2) overall quality, and (3) personal affection, here's my lineup for the decade, with short commentary:

1) Fanny and Alexander (TV or film version) (Ingmar Bergman, 83 (Sweden))
2) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 80)
3) Local Hero (Bill Forsyth, 82 (Scotland))
4) Sherman's March (Ross McEllwee, 86)
5) Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 86)
6) Reds (Warren Beatty, 81)
7) Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 87)
8) Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee, 89)
9) The Killing Fields (Roland Joffe, 84)
10) Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring (Claude Berri, 87/88 (France))
11) Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 85 (Britain))
12) Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 89)
13) Das Boot (TV or film version) (Wolfgang Petersen, 83 (Germany))
14) Chilly Scenes of Winter (Joan Micklin Silver, 81)
15) The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman, 83)
16) Blade Runner (Director's Cut) (Ridley Scott, 82/92)
17) Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 89)
18) 'Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier, 86 (France/USA))
19) Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme and Talking Heads, 84)
20) Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 85 (Japan))
21) The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman, 88)
22) Entre Nous (Diane Kurys, 83 (France))
23) The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 86)
24) Matewan (John Sayles, 87)
25) E.T. The Extraterrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 82)
26) The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 86 (Russia))
27) This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 84)
28) Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, 82)
29) Le Rayon Vert / Summer (Eric Rohmer, 86 (France))
30) Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, 81)
31) Prince of the City (Sidney Lumet, 81)
32) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 83)
33) Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 85)
34) Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 82)
35) The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 88)
36) Tess (Roman Polanski, 80 (France/Britain))
37) The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 80)
38) Pennies From Heaven (Herbert Ross, 81)
39) Star 80 (Bob Fosse, 83)
40) Gallipoli (Peter Weir, 81 (Australia))
41) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Speilberg, 82)
42) High Hopes (Mike Leigh, 88 (Britain))
43) Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 80)
44) Shoot The Moon (Alan Parker, 82)
45) Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 89)
46) Wings of Desire (Wim Winders, 87 (Germany))
47) Last Night at the Alamo (Eagle Pennell, 83)
48) Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, 81 (Scotland))
49) ...sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderburgh, 89)
50) Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 81)
51) Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, 84)
52) Sophie's Choice (Alan J. Pakula, 82)
53) Once Upon A Time in America (long version) (Sergio Leone, 84)
54) Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis, 80)
55) The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, 82)
56) Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, 80)
57) After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 86)
58) The Long Riders (Walter Hill, 81)
59) Missing (Costa-Gavras, 82)
60) Diner (Barry Levinson, 82)
61) Thief (Michael Mann, 81)
62) Drowning by Numbers (Peter Greenaway, 88 (Britain))
63) Smash Palace (Roger Donaldson, 81 (Australia))
64) Blood Simple (Joel and Ethan Coen, 85)
65) Pixote (Hector Babenco, 81 (Brazil))
66) Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg, 87)
67) The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 80)
68) The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 85)
69) The Fourth Man (Paul Verhoeven, 83 (Germany))
70) Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, 83 (Britain))
71) Aliens (James Cameron, 88)
72) The Vanishing (George Sluzier, 88 (Denmark))
73) Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 80)
74) Threads (Mick Jackson, 84 (Britain))
75) Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Ford Coppola, 88)
76) The Dead (John Huston, 87 (Ireland/USA))
77) My Dinner With Andre (Louis Malle, 81)
78) A Passage to India (David Lean, 85 (Britain))
79) The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 80 (Britain/USA))
80) Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 85)
81) Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 87)
82) The Color of Money (Martin Scorsese, 86)
83) Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 81)
84) Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 85)
85) The Road Warrior (George Miller, 81)
86) Hope and Glory (John Boorman, 87 (Britain))
87) Zelig (Woody Allen, 83)
88) Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 86 (Britain))
89) Die Hard (John McTiernan, 88)
90) Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted, 80)
91) Altered States (Ken Russell, 80)
92) Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 88 (Canada))
93) Airplane! (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker, 80)
94) Something Wild (Jonathan Demme, 86)
95) Raising Arizona (Joel and Ethan Coen, 86)
96) One-Trick Pony (Robert M. Young, 80)
97) Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 86)
98) The Stunt Man (Richard Rush, 80)
99) They Live (John Carpenter, 88)
100) Old Enough (Marisa Silver, 84)
101) Marvin and Tige (Eric Weston, 83)

MASTER LIST #13: The 101 Best Films of the 1970s

In response to the current poll being held at the magnificent Wonders in the Dark, I decided to commit to posterity my 101 favorite films from the 1970s. I came of age in the 1970s, so I saw about 65% of these titles in first-run theaters (it was an unbelievable time to be a budding film lover--so much so that I haven't enough words to describe it here). So, in order, based on (1) influence, (2) personal affection, and (3) overall quality, here's my list, with short commentary:

1) The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 72/74)
2) Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 77)
3) A Little Romance (George Roy Hill, 79 (France/USA))
4) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 74)
5) Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 76)
6) All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 79)
7) Eraserhead (David Lynch, 77)
8) Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 78)
9) The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 71)
10) Nashville (Robert Altman, 75)
11) Manhattan (Woody Allen, 79)
12) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 79)
13) Aguirre The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 72 (Germany))
14) Deliverance (John Boorman, 72)
15) Network (Sidney Lumet, 76)
16) Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerlin, 71)
17) One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 75)
18) The Day of the Locust (John Schlesinger, 75)
19) O Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson, 73 (Britain))
20) Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmuller, 76 (Italy))
21) Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 79)
22) Best Boy (Ira Wohl, 79)
23) Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 75 (Britain))
24) M.A.S.H. (Robert Altman, 70)
25) Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, 71 (Britain))
26) Badlands (Terrence Malick, 73)
27) McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 71)
28) Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 76)
29) The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 78)
30) The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 76)
31) Oblomov (Nikita Mikhalov, 79 (Russia))
32) Small Change (Francois Truffaut, 76 (France))
33) American Graffiti (George Lucas, 73)
34) Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 73)
35) Claire’s Knee (Eric Rohmer, 71 (France))
36) The Tin Drum (Volker Schlondorff, 79 (Germany))
37) Alien (Ridley Scott, 79)
38) All The President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 76)
39) The Black Stallion (Carroll Ballard, 79)
40) Being There (Hal Ashby, 79)
41) The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 74)
42) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 77)
43) The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle, 70)
44) Straight Time (Ulu Grosbard, 78)
45) Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 74)
46) The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 73)
47) Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 74)
48) Special Delivery (John Weldon and Eunice MacCauley, 78)
49) A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 71 (Britain))
50) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 74)
51) Images (Robert Altman, 72)
52) Tommy (Ken Russell, 75 (Britain))
53) Interiors (Woody Allen, 78)
54) A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 74)
55) The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 78)
56) Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 71)
57) Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 71)
58) Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 71)
59) An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky, 78)
60) Grey Gardens (Maysles/Hovde/Maysles/Meyer, 75)
61) Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman, 76 (Sweden))
62) Halloween (John Carpenter, 78)
63) The Candidate (Michael Richie, 72)
64) Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 75 (Australia))
65) Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 79)
66) Husbands (John Cassavetes, 70)
67) The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula, 74)
68) Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 71)
70) Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 72 (Russia))
71) 3 Women (Robert Altman, 77)
72) Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris, 78)
73) Over The Edge (Jonathan Kaplan, 79)
74) F for Fake (Orson Welles, 74)
75) Frank Film (Frank Mouris, 73)
76) Kramer Vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 79)
77) Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio, 73)
78) THX-1138 (Director’s Cut) (George Lucas, 71/2001)
79) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 72 (Spain))
80) Harry and Tonto (Paul Mazursky, 74)
81) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Jones/Gilliam, 75 (Britain))
82) Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 71)
83) Who’ll Stop The Rain? (Karel Reitz, 78)
84) Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison, 71)
85) The Bad News Bears (Michael Richie, 76)
86) Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 75)
87) The Poseidon Adventure (Ronald Neame, 72)
88) What's Up Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich, 72)
89) The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston, 75)
90) Citizen’s Band / Handle With Care (Jonathan Demme, 77)
91) Ryan’s Daughter (David Lean, 70 (Britain))
92) Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 75)
93) The Silent Partner (Darryl Dukes, 79)
94) Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins, 74 (Britain/Norway))
95) The Front (Martin Ritt, 76)
96) Richard Pryor Live in Concert (Jeff Margolin, 79)
97) Bad Company (Robert Benton, 72)
98) Going in Style (Martin Brest, 79)
99) Wanda (Barbara Loden, 70)
100) Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 74)
101) Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 78)