100 Greatest Films of All Time
in the English language [click for criteria]

Last updated February 2003. Click on the 'DVD' and 'VHS' links near each title to purchase these movies from Amazon.com.

It's often said that lists like this tell you more about the person making the list than they do about the subject, and I guess that's true of this particular list. Scroll down for one yahoo's opinion on the best movies ever made. Or, if you're interested in more current stuff, you can go straight to the top ten films of 2003.

  1. Citizen Kane      
    directed by Orson Welles (1941)

  2. Vertigo      
    directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1958)

  3. Casablanca      
    directed by Michael Curtiz (1943)

  4. Schindler’s List    
    directed by Steven Spielberg (1993)

  5. The Godfather      
    directed by Francis Ford Coppola (1972)

  6. It’s a Wonderful Life      
    directed by Frank Capra (1946)

  7. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre   
    directed by John Huston (1948)

  8. Sherlock, Jr.       
    directed by Buster Keaton (1924)

  9. Sunset Blvd.       
    directed by     Billy Wilder (1950)

  10. Bonnie and Clyde      
    directed by     Arthur Penn (1967)

  11. On the Waterfront     
    directed by Elia Kazan (1954)

  12. Some Like It Hot     
    directed by Billy Wilder (1959)

  13. JFK     
    directed by Oliver Stone (1991)

  14. The Searchers     
    directed by John Ford (1956)

  15. The Wild Bunch     
    directed by Sam Peckinpah (1969)

  16. The Gold Rush     
    directed by Charlie Chaplin (1925)

  17. The Godfather Part II     
    Francis Ford Coppola (1974)

  18. Seven     
    David Fincher     (1995)

  19. Psycho     
    Alfred Hitchcock     (1960)

  20. E.T. The Extraterrestrial     
    Steven Spielberg (1982)

  21. Great Expectations
    David Lean     (1946)  

  22. The Graduate
    Mike Nichols     (1967)

  23. Rear Window
    Alfred Hitchcock     (1954)  

  24. The Grapes of Wrath
    John Ford     (1940)

  25. Glory
    Ed Zwick     (1989)  

  26. Lawrence of Arabia
    David Lean     (1962)  

  27. The Maltese Falcon
    John Huston     (1941)  

  28. Gone With the Wind
    Victor Fleming     (1939)

  29. Raging Bull
    Martin Scorsese     (1980)  

  30. The Wizard of Oz
    Victor Fleming     (1939)

  31. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
    Frank Capra     (1939)

  32. Dances With Wolves
    Kevin Costner     (1990)

  33. Dr. Strangelove
    Stanley Kubrick     (1964)

  34. Star Wars
    George Lucas     (1977)

  35. Red River 
    Howard Hawks     (1948)

  36. Raiders of the Lost Ark 
    Steven Spielberg     (1981)

  37. North By Northwest
    Alfred Hitchcock     (1959)

  38. His Girl Friday
    Howard Hawks     (1940)

  39. The General
    Buster Keaton     (1927)

  40. Singin’ in the Rain 
    Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen     (1952)

  41. Double Indemnity
    Billy Wilder     (1944)

  42. Shakespeare In Love
    John Madden     (1998)

  43. Annie Hall
    Woody Allen     (1977)

  44. The Best Years of Our Lives
    William Wyler     (1946)

  45. The Big Sleep
    Howard Hawks     (1946)

  46. Wuthering Heights
    William Wyler     (1939)

  47. The Bridge on the River Kwai
    David Lean     (1957)

  48. High Noon
    Fred Zinnemann     (1952)

  49. 2001: A Space Odyssey
    Stanley Kubrick     (1968)

  50. Rebel Without a Cause
    Nicholas Ray     (1955)

  51. Pulp Fiction
    Quentin Tarantino     (1994)

  52. East of Eden
    Elia Kazan     (1955)

  53. Bringing Up Baby
    Howard Hawks     (1938)

  54. From Here to Eternity
    Fred Zinnemann     (1953)

  55. The African Queen
    John Huston     (1951)

  56. It Happened One Night
    Frank Capra     (1934)

  57. Shadow of a Doubt
    Alfred Hitchcock     (1943)

  58. Duck Soup
    Leo McCarey     (1933)

  59. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
    Milos Forman     (1975)  

  60. Lone Star
    John Sayles     (1996)

  61. Paths of Glory
    Stanley Kubrick     (1956)

  62. Midnight Cowboy
    John Schlesinger     (1969)

  63. Anatomy of a Murder
    Otto Preminger     (1959)

  64. Jaws
    Steven Spielberg     (1976)

  65. All the President’s Men
    Alan J. Pakula     (1976)

  66. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
    George Roy Hill     (1969)

  67. Out of the Past
    Jacques Tourneur     (1947)  

  68. Saving Private Ryan
    Steven Spielberg     (1998)

  69. City Lights
    Charlie Chaplin     (1931)

  70. Touch of Evil
    Orson Welles     (1958)

  71. Chinatown
    Roman Polanski     (1974)

  72. Kramer vs. Kramer
    Robert Benton     (1979)  

  73. L.A. Confidential
    Curtis Hanson (1998)

  74. The Deer Hunter
    Michael Cimino     (1978)

  75. The Empire Strikes Back
    Irvin Kirshner     (1980)  

  76. Traffic
    Steven Soderbergh (2000)  

  77. Field of Dreams
    Phil Alden Robinson     (1989)

  78. The Day the Earth Stood Still
    Robert Wise     (1951)

  79. Network
    Sidney Lumet     (1976)  

  80. Waking Life
    Richard Linklater (2001)

  81. Patton
    Franklin Schaffner     (1970) 

  82. King Kong
    Merian C. Cooper     (1933)

  83. The Quiet Man
    John Ford     (1952)  

  84. Twelve Angry Men
    Sidney Lumet     (1957)

  85. The Killing
    Stanley Kubrick     (1956)

  86. Strangers on a Train
    Alfred Hitchcock     (1951)  

  87. The Thin Man
    W    oody Van Dyke (1934)

  88. A Streetcar Named Desire
    Elia Kazan     (1951)

  89. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
    Steven Spielberg     (1977)

  90. The Silence of the Lambs
    Jonathan Demme     (1991)

  91. The Ox-Bow Incident
    William A. Wellman     (1943)

  92. Fargo
    Joel Coen     (1996)

  93. Modern Times
    Charlie Chaplin     (1936)

  94. In a Lonely Place
    Nicholas Ray     (1950)

  95. Do the Right Thing
    Spike Lee (1989)  

  96. Jackie Brown
    Quentin Tarantino (1997)  

  97. Before Sunrise
    Richard Linklater (1995)  

  98. I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang 
    Mervyn LeRoy     (1932)  

  99. The Lady Vanishes
    Alfred Hitchcock (1938)  

  100. This is Spinal Tap
    Rob Reiner (1984)  

Vertigo (#2)

 

It's a Wonderful Life (#5)

The Gold Rush (#16)

E.T. the Extraterrestrial (#20)

The Grapes of Wrath (#24)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (#36)

Pulp Fiction (#51)

Lone Star (#60)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (#78)

The Empire Strikes Back (#75)

Traffic (#76)

Waking Life (#80)

Hey, why aren’t there any foreign films or documentaries on this list?

View the Top 100 list in chronological order.

Read capsule reviews of selected films on the Top 100 list.

Yearly Top Ten lists:

Ten Best Films of 2002

Ten Best Films of 2001

Ten Best Films of 2000

Return to the main movie page

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