Capsule Reviews of
The Top 100 Films of All Time

A greatest movies list isn’t much good if it doesn’t tell you why they’re the greatest movies. With that in mind, this page will eventually contain short reviews of all 100 films on my list. So far I’ve finished three full-length reviews and 12 short ones, which can be found below. Check back later for more.

1. Citizen Kane
Directed by Orson Welles (1941)  
I first watched Citizen Kane as a teenager and thought it was boring. A couple of years later I watched it again and was blown away. There isn’t much I can write about it that somebody else hasn’t already written, but for the uninitiated, it’s a barely fictionalized biopic of William Randolph Hearst, detailing his lost childhood, his rise to power and arrogance, and his wasting away in old age. Anyone well versed in film history will be astounded by the many cinematic techniques Welles pioneered, but other viewers will be awed by the incredible amount of detail, adding layers of richness to the story that few films can match. If at all possible, watch Citizen Kane in a theater, or at least on a very large TV screen. It makes a world of difference. “Rosebud,” revealed at the end of the film, is a perfect metaphor for Charles Foster Kane’s life, but my personal favorite scene is the one in Colorado when young Charlie is sent away to boarding school.

2. Vertigo
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1958)  
I have listed this as the second-best film, but there are times when I could be persuaded that it is the greatest film ever made. It’s the story of Jimmy Stewart, a detective, and his obsessive love for an alluring woman – even after she dies mysteriously. What makes Vertigo so profound is that it works perfectly on multiple levels. On one level, it’s a crackerjack detective thriller with equal parts suspense and romance. On another level, it’s a powerful portrait of sexual obsession and the ways in which men re-make women in their heads to fit unrealistic ideals of perfection. On a third, much more personal level, Vertigo is Hitchcock’s comment on the process of filmmaking itself. And so on. With each viewing, Vertigo reveals new levels of meaning that, taken all together, make it perhaps the most profound statement of the human condition ever captured on film.

4. Schindler’s List
Directed by Steven Spielberg (1993)  
(Click for full-length review)

8. Sherlock, Jr. 
Directed by Buster Keaton (1924)  
The best comedy ever made, period. The great Buster Keaton plays a projectionist who accidentally finds himself a participant in the drama unfolding onscreen. This side-splitting silent contains hilarious special effects that were revolutionary in 1924, and are still dazzling today. This film is greatly underrecognized, probably due in part to the fact that, at 45 minutes long, some don’t even consider it long enough to qualify as a genuine feature film. Regardless, there is no arguing that it is a monumental achievement. If you see one silent film in your lifetime, make it this one.

18. E.T. The Extraterrestrial 
Directed by Steven Spielberg (1982)  
The best kids’ movie ever made, and like all great kids’ movies, it contains plenty for adults too. No film has portrayed the wonder and innocence of childhood as effectively as Spielberg does here. The screenplay by Melissa Matheson is remarkable because it’s able to sustain plausibility while gleefully exploring the many unfamiliar situations E.T. finds himself in. By composing his shots from the children’s point of view, Spielberg emphasizes that the film takes place in a kid’s world, into which grown-ups are not allowed. It’s no accident that the alien in this film is intelligent, caring, and almost human-like, while the adults in their oxygen masks are the ones who look like invaders from outer space. E.T. also contains the best child acting performance I’ve ever seen, by Henry Thomas (and Drew Barrymore’s isn’t far behind). There’s a clever Christ parable at the end of the film, as E.T. dies at the hands of his persecutors, comes back to life, and ascends into the heavens, leaving the world behind him a better place.

20. Gone With the Wind
Directed by Victor Fleming (1939)  
Yes, it’s sappy. Yes, it’s really long. Yes, it portrays history with astounding inaccuracy. Yes, it deals in ridiculous racial stereotypes. All these flaws notwithstanding, Gone With the Wind remains one of the most compelling narratives ever filmed. The Technicolor is beautiful, and so are the stars – Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable – who have been perfectly cast in their roles. This is conventional studio Hollywood at its grandiose best.

24. Rear Window
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1954)  
Like the amazingly profound Vertigo, this Hitchcock masterpiece works on multiple levels. On one, it’s an expertly crafted thriller with a refreshingly unconventional hero (the incapacitated James Stewart, who never leaves his apartment). This static element gives Rear Window some of the most memorable moments of sheer suspense in the annals of cinema. On a higher plane, however, it’s a dissertation by Hitchcock on the nature of movies and the director’s relationship with the audience. Stewart’s character, like the director himself, spends his whole life delving into people’s private lives from behind a camera lens. And like a movie audience, Stewart and his friends sit in the dark trying to fill the empty spaces in their lives by imagining events taking place in the lives of others.

41. Shakespeare In Love
Directed by John Madden (1998)  
A refreshing film that takes a brilliant idea– the real Shakespeare falling in love as he writes Romeo and Juliet– and executes it perfectly. Bursting at the seams with subtle jokes, in-references, and sheer audacity, Shakespeare In Love reveals new meaning with each viewing. Anyone who loves the complexity of the English language, its cadences and variations, will be rewarded by this film, which features one of the funniest and most creative screenplays ever written. The performances are also wonderful, and the Elizabethan era and the Rose Theatre are recreated in convincing detail. Indeed, part of the pleasure of the film is simply seeing Shakespeare performed so expertly in its original setting.

44. The Big Sleep
Directed by Howard Hawks (1946)  
Combining the rapid-fire direction of Howard Hawks with the cool unflappability of Humphrey Bogart, The Big Sleep is film noir at its best. Written by two of America’s finest writers (William Faulkner penned the screenplay, based on Raymond Chandler’s novel), the film oozes witty, ironic dialogue. The actors are perfectly suited to their roles; who else but Bogey could get away with lines like “Such a lot of guns around town, and so few brains”? The sexual innuendo during Bogey and Bacall’s conversation about horse racing is so stunning that one wonders how it survived the Hollywood censors.

49. Rebel Without a Cause
Directed by Nicholas Ray (1955)
When originally released this was marketed as a “current event” movie, an examination of juvenile delinquency in the 1950s. What it actually turned out to be, though, was a timeless portrait of alienation. It is one of those rare films that applies to today’s generation every bit as much as previous ones. Still, it might have been just another run-of-the-mill drama if not for the performance of James Dean, who injects vitality into every frame of the film. He creates a character who is simultaneously deeply troubled and wholly sympathetic– no minor feat. Dean’s acting here is so convincing that it became his public persona, shoving his true personality to the back burner in public memory.

67. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Directed by George Roy Hill (1969)  
(Click for full-length essay)

69. Saving Private Ryan
Directed by Steven Spielberg (1998)  
Probably the best interpretation of war ever put on film. Almost every movie ever made about war either glamorizes it or condemns it; Saving Private Ryan simply shows war as it is. The story has a few distracting schmaltzy moments, but the battle scenes explore the most common emotion in combat – fear – like no film ever has. It brims with revelatory moments like the scene where a soldier has his arm blown off, searches frantically for the lost appendage, then carries it off as if he might somehow be able to use it later. The opening battle scene at Omaha Beach is overlong, confusing, and exhausting– which is perfect, because war is all of those things too.

75. The Deer Hunter
Directed by Michael Cimino (1978)  
This was Coppola wannabe Michael Cimino’s one moment in the sun. The Deer Hunter portrays the friendship of a group of Pennsylvania steel workers and the terror they shared in Vietnam. Though the Godfatheresque wedding at the beginning runs a little long, the narrative eventually picks up steam and becomes a gut-wrenching, emotionally overwhelming film experience. In between the torturous scenes in Vietnam, the film comment poignantly on the working men’s friendships, culture, and assimilation into American life. The climactic Russian Roulette scene is so unrelenting that it made me literally turn away from the screen.

83. Lone Star
Directed by John Sayles (1996)
(Click for full-length review)

85. The Killing
Directed by Stanley Kubrick (1956)  
Kubrick’s first great film. If it seems familiar, that’s because it served as an inspiration for dozens of later films– most notably Pulp Fiction, which lifted its narrative flashback style from The Killing; and Reservoir Dogs, which borrowed the plot and characters. Elisha Cook Jr. and Sterling Hayden create memorable roles, and the brilliant final scene is eerily reminiscent of Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

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