Alright, finally. After a year of work and many many MANY drafts of this list, I feel comfortable enough with my choices to release this. If I did this tomorrow, I’d change a few around. If I did it the next day, I’d change it some more. But as of tonight, this is the list that I am satisfied with.
It is important for you to understand how I came up with this list. I’ll explain that this is not a list of my favorite films or the most significant to film history. This list of mine lies somewhere in between. All of these films already have (or I expect to have) some historical significance in regards to film history and are also very enjoyable to watch from a perspective of a modern audience. We have movies from the silent era all the way up to movies from the 2000’s. I must admit, the most controversial ones are the most recent films because it is tough to gauge their historical significance so early. I thought I’d give it a shot.
Anyway, in my opinion, any of these films are a must for learners and lovers of film. This list is a celebration of the art and the various ways films can be entertaining, successful, and impactful. They sure are a huge part of my life and have shaped me to the way I am today. In this list, science fiction can stand next to comedy. Silent films can be with CGI. Epics can be with minimalist films. They all share the common link of being great and significant films. I hope you enjoy the list as much as I’ve enjoyed making it. I also hope you disagree! That’s the fun of this.
In addition, I plan on going through each film on the list and explaining why I chose it to be in the exclusive 100 club. Those posts will be starting shortly. Enjoy!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
The 400 Blows (1959, Francois Truffaut)
8 1/2 (1963, Federico Fellini)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938, Michael Curtiz)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972, Werner Herzog)
Alien and Aliens (1979, Ridley Scott; 1986, James Cameron)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, Lewis Milestone)
Annie Hall (1977, Woody Allen)
Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola)
The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)
The Bicycle Thieves (The Bicycle Thief) (1948, Vittorio De Sica)
Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott)
Blow-Up (1966, Michelangelo Antonioni)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, David Lean)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, George Roy Hill)
Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
City Lights (1931, Charlie Chaplin)
City of God (2002, Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund)
A Clockwork Orange (1971, Stanley Kubrick)
Les Diaboliques (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Don’t Look Now (1973, Nicolas Roeg)
Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, Stanley Kubrick)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982, Steven Spielberg)
The Exorcist (1973, William Friedkin)
The General (1927, Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton)
The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (1972; 1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
Gone with the Wind (1939, Victor Fleming)
Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
The Graduate (1967, Mike Nichols)
Grand Illusion (1937, Jean Renoir)
Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg)
Halloween (1978, John Carpenter)
In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar-wai)
It Happened One Night (1934, Frank Capra)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)
King Kong (1933, Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack)
La Dolce Vita (1960, Federico Fellini)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962, David Lean)
The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003, Peter Jackson)
M (1931, Fritz Lang)
M*A*S*H (1970, Robert Altman)
The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)
Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)
Modern Times (1936, Charlie Chaplin)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939, Frank Capra)
Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch)
Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)
The Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton)
No Country for Old Men (2007, Joel and Ethan Coen)
Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, Sergio Leone)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, Milos Forman)
On the Waterfront (1954, Elia Kazan)
Out of the Past (1947, Jacques Tourneur)
Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson)
Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Public Enemy (1931, William A. Wellman)
Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)
Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)
Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
The Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
Roman Holiday (1953, William Wyler)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, Wes Anderson)
The Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956, Hiroshi Inagaki)
The Scarlet Empress (1934, Josef Von Sternberg)
Schindler’s List (1993, Steven Spielberg)
The Searchers (1956, John Ford)
The Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
The Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937, David Hand)
The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)
Some Like it Hot (1959, Billy Wilder)
Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back (1977; 1980 George Lucas)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, Elia Kazan)
Sullivan’s Travels (1941, Preston Sturges)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927, F.W. Mornau)
Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder)
Talk to Her (2002, Pedro Almodovar)
Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)
There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Thin Red Line (1998, Terrence Malick)
The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)
Three Colours Trilogy (1993-1994, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan)
Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)
Toy Story Trilogy (1995, 1999, 2010, John Lasseter)
Unforgiven (1992, Clint Eastwood)
The Vanishing (1988, George Sluizer)
Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
West Side Story (1961, Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise)
Wings of Desire (1988, Wim Wenders)
The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)
