A TIME CAPSULE OF TASTE
Don�t for an instant think of this list as my definitive statement on what constitutes greatness. Think of it, rather, as a way of measuring where I am in my experience of the movies. And to maintain my sanity, I'm making 2002 the arbitrary cut-off date for this list, although I would really like to see animated French triplets frolicking in the tall grasses of Virginia while singing about the saddest music in the world on this list.
HONORABLE MENTION
Honorable Mention is hereby awarded to every movie to which I�ve ever given or ever will give 4 stars but does not appear on this, or any of the other �All-Time� lists (�Platoon,� �Topsy-Turvy,� �Texas Chain Saw Massacre,� �Scenes from a Marriage,� �Crimes and Misdemeanors,� �Blow Out,� �The Talented Mr. Ripley,� �Henry V� [1989], �In the Bedroom,� �Croupier,� �The General� [1998], �Dial M for Murder,� �The Man Who Would Be King,� �Cries and Whispers,� �Throne of Blood,� �The Exorcist,� �The Longest Day,� �The Trial,� �Yojimbo,� etc.).
THE PROBLEM WITH LISTS LIKE THIS
Filmmakers with solid bodies of work tend to get overlooked when they don�t have a single �greatest of the great� film. To wit, the average Brian De Palma movie is probably better than the average Tim Burton picture, but Burton�s �Ed Wood� gets a place on this list while De Palma�s magnificent �Blow Out� doesn�t quite cut it. Similarly, Curtis Hanson hasn�t ever (and probably never will) make another picture as great as �L.A. Confidential,� while David Mamet continually produces good work. So I�d like to include these four �bodies of work:�
The films of Brian De Palma (�Blow Out,� �Carrie,� �Phantom of the Paradise,� �The Untouchables,� etc.)
The films of David Lynch (�Mulholland Drive,� �The Elephant Man,� �Blue Velvet,� etc.)
The films of David Mamet (�Spartan,� �Glengarry Glen Ross,� �House of Games,�etc.)
The films of Zhang Yimou (�Raise the Red Lantern,� �Hero,� �Shanghai Triad,� etc.)
AND KEEP AN EYE ON�
The films of Kar-Wai Wong (�Chungking Express,� �2046,� �In the Mood for Love,� etc.)
The films of David Gordon Green (�George Washingon,� �All the Real Girls,� �Undertow�)
8 1/2 (Fellini, Federico; 1963; Italy)
Age of Innocence, The (Scorsese, Martin; 1993; US)
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Herzog, Werner; 1972; Germany)
Alien (Scott, Ridley; 1979; US)
Aliens (Cameron, James; 1986; US)
All About Eve (Mankiewicz, Joseph L.; 1950; US)
Amadeus (Forman, Milos; 1984; US)
Andrei Roublev (Tarkovsky, Andrei; 1966; Russia)
Annie Hall (Allen, Woody; 1977; US)
Apocalypse Now (Coppola, Francis; 1979; US)
Atanarjuat/The Fast Runner (Kunuk, Zacahrias; 2000; Canada)
Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, Stanley; 1975; UK)
Belle de Jour (Bunuel, Luis; 1967; France-Italy)
Blow-Up (Antonioni, Michelangelo; 1966; Italy-UK)
Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, Arthur; 1967; US)
Breathless/A Bout de Souffle (Godard, Jean-Luc; 1959; France)
Bridge on the River Kwai, The (Lean, David; 1957; UK)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Hill, George Roy; 1969; US)
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The (Wiene, Robert; 1919; Germany)
Charade (Donen, Stanley; 1963; US)
Chinatown (Polanski, Roman; 1974; US)
Citizen Kane (Welles, Orson; 1941; US)
City Lights (Chaplin, Charles; 1931; US)
Clockwork Orange, A (Kubrick, Stanley; 1971; UK)
Conversation, The (Coppola, Francis; 1974; US)
Cool Hand Luke (Rosenberg, Stuart; 1967; US)
Days of Heaven (Malick, Terrence; 1978; US)
Deer Hunter, The (Cimino, Michael; 1978; US)
Deliverance (Boorman, John; 1972; US)
Double Indemnity (Wilder, Billy; 1944; US)
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick, Stanley; 1964; UK)
Easy Rider (Hopper, Dennis; 1969; US) (come on, this movie rocks!)
Ed Wood (Burton, Tim; 1994; US)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick, Stanley; 1999; US-UK)
Fantasia (Sharpsteen, Ben; 1940; US)
Fargo (Coen, Joel; 1995; US)
General, The [1926] (Keaton, Buster/Clyde Bruckman; 1926; US)
Godfather Part II, The (Coppola, Francis; 1974; US)
Godfather, The (Coppola, Francis; 1972; US)
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The (Leone, Sergio; 1966; Italy-Spain)
GoodFellas (Scorsese, Martin; 1990; US)
Graduate, The (Nichols, Mike; 1967; US)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Allen, Woody; 1987; US)
Hard Day�s Night, A (Lester, Richard; 1964; UK)
Heart of the World, The (Maddin, Guy; 2000; Canada)
Heat (Mann, Michael; 1995; US)
His Girl Friday (Hawks, Howard; 1940; US)
Hustler, The (Rossen, Robert; 1961; US)
I, Claudius (1976; UK)
Ikiru/To Live/Doomed/Living (Kurosawa, Akira; 1952; Japan)
Jaws (Spielberg, Steven; 1975; US)
JFK (Stone, Oliver; 1991; US)
Jules et Jim (Truffaut, Francois; 1961; France)
King Kong [1933] (1933; US)
L.A. Confidential (Hanson, Curtis; 1997; US)
La Dolce Vita (Fellini, Federico; 1960; Italy)
Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, David; 1962; UK)
Les Enfants du Paradis/Children of Paradise (Carne, Marcel; 1945; France)
Maltese Falcon, The (Huston, John; 1941; US)
Manchurian Candidate, The (Frankenheimer, John; 1964; US)
Mean Streets (Scorsese, Martin; 1973; US)
Mirror, The/Zerkalo (Tarkovsky, Andrei; 1976; Russia)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam, Terry/Terry Jones; 1975; UK)
Much Ado About Nothing (Branagh, Kenneth; 1993; UK)
My Dinner with Andre (Malle, Louis; 1981; US)
Network (Lumet, Sidney; 1976; US)
Nibelungen Saga: Siegfried, The (Lang, Fritz; 1924; Germany)
Night of the Hunter, The (Laughton, Charles; 1955; US)
Night of the Living Dead (Romero, George A.; 1968; US)
North by Northwest (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1959; US)
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror (Murnau, F.W.; 1922; Germany)
Nosferatu: The Vampyre (Herzog, Werner; 1979; Germany)
On the Waterfront (Kazan, Elia; 1954; US)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, Sergio; 1968; Italy-US)
Out of the Past (Tourneur, Jacques; 1947; US)
Patton (Schaffner, Franklin; 1970; US)
Philadelphia Story, The (Cukor, George; 1940; US)
Playtime (Tati, Jacques; 1967; France)
Psycho [1960] (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1960; US)
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, Quentin; 1994; US)
Raging Bull (Scorsese, Martin; 1980; US)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, Steven; 1981; US)
Ran (Kurosawa, Akira; 1985; France-Japan)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1954; US)
Rules of the Game/La Regle du jeu (Renoir, Jean; 1939; France)
Russian Ark (Sokurov, Aleksandr; 2002; Russia-Germany-Japan-Canada-Finland-Denmark)
Sacrifice, The (Tarkovsky, Andrei; 1986; France-Sweden)
Schindler�s List (Spielberg, Steven; 1993; US)
Seven Samurai, The (Kurosawa, Akira; 1954; Japan)
Seventh Seal, The (Bergman, Ingmar; 1957; Sweden)
Shining, The (Kubrick, Stanley; 1980; US)
Silence of the Lambs, The (Demme, Jonathan; 1991; US)
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Lucas, George; 1977; US)
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner, Irvin; 1980; US)
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983; US)
Sting, The (Hill, George Roy; 1973; US)
Taxi Driver (Scorsese, Martin; 1976; US)
Thin Red Line, The (Malick, Terrence; 1998; US)
Third Man, The (Reed, Carol; 1949; UK)
Tokyo Story/Tokyo monogatari (Ozu, Yasujiro; 1953; Japan)
Touch of Evil (Welles, Orson; 1958; US)
Vertigo (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1958; US)
Walkabout (Roeg, Nicolas; 1971; Australia)
Wallace and Gromit Short Films: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave (Park, Nick; 1995, 1996; UK)
Wild Bunch, The (Peckinpah, Sam; 1969; US)
Wings of Desire (Wenders, Wim; 1987; France-West Germany)
Wizard of Oz, The (Fleming, Victor; 1939; US)