My 100 Favorite Movies (2014 Edition)

Robert Mitchum in "The Night of the Hunter"

There was a time when I would make a list of my 100 favorite movies every year or so, because I was still in a state of perpetual discovery, during which my favorite movies really would change drastically from list to list (I still remember a day when Airplane and Sweeney Todd populated my top 5.). I am now at a point where my true favorites are more stable and permanent, and the need to update is less frequent. Between this year and last year, only three changes have been made: The Matrix, Salo: the 120 Days of Sodom, and The Triplets of Belleville have been replaced by Cache`, The Searchers, and
Sweet Smell of Success. The other 97 movies are exactly the same, even though the process by which I select the movies each year is completely from scratch and by memory.

The same movies I always strongly consider including still haven't made it. Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music have still cancelled each other out. My strange love for Doctor Zhivago still trumps Lawrence of Arabia. And, for some reason, I still can't shake Saturday Night Fever. Some may justifiably scoff more at my exclusions than what's actually here. Only one Scorsese, but four Spielbergs? No Godfather? Barton Fink?! But each inclusion has been very carefully considered and all are personal treasures (Perhaps someday I'll actually go through them one by one and give clear evidence of their significance and merit. Maybe someday.). The reason the list isn't changing much from year to year is because nothing missing from it seemed necessary to include at the expense of anything present. I may have finally settled on my favorites.

Here they are, in alphabetical order---

1. Amadeus (1984)
2. Annie Hall (1977)
3. Back to the Future (1985)
4. The Bank Dick (1940)
5. Barton Fink (1991)
6. Beauty and the Beast (1945)
7. Being There (1979)
8. The Birds (1963)
9. Blade Runner (1982)
10. Blazing Saddles (1974)
11. Brazil (1985)
12. The Breakfast Club (1985)
13. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
14. Cache` (2005)
15. Carrie (1976)
16. Casablanca (1942)
17. Chinatown (1974)
18. A Christmas Story (1983)
19. Citizen Kane (1941)
20. City Lights (1931)
21. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
22. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
23. La Dolce Vita (1960)
24. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
25. Dracula (1931)
26. Duck Soup (1933)
27. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
28. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
29. 8 ½ (1963)
30. The Exorcist (1973)
31. The Exterminating Angel (1962)
32. Fantasia (1940)
33. Fargo (1996)
34. Faust (1926)
35. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
36. Goldfinger (1964)
37. Gone with the Wind (1939)
38. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1966)
39. The Graduate (1967)
40. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
41. Great Expectations (1946)
42. Groundhog Day (1993)
43. Halloween (1978)
44. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
45. If… (1968)
46. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1962)
47. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
48. Kill Bill (2003)
49. King Kong (1933)
50. Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
51. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
52. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
53. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
54. Metropolis (1927)
55. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
56. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
57. Mulholland Dr. (2001)
58. My Fair Lady (1964)
59. Nashville (1976)
60. Network (1976)
61. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
62. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
63. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
64. Pandora’s Box (1929)
65. Persona (1966)
66. Pink Floyd-The Wall (1982)
67. Planet of the Apes (1968)
68. Playtime (1967)
69. Psycho (1960)
70. Pulp Fiction (1994)
71. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
72. Rashomon (1950)
73. Rear Window (1954)
74. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
75. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
76. Le Samourai (1967)
77. Saturday Night Fever (1977)
78. Schindler’s List (1993)
79. The Seventh Seal (1956)
80. The Shining (1980)
81. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
82. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
83. The Sixth Sense (1999)
84. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
85. Some Like It Hot (1959)
86. Star Wars (1977)
87. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
88. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
89. Taxi Driver (1976)
90. The Ten Commandments (1956)
91. The Third Man (1949)
92. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
93. Unforgiven (1992)
94. Vertigo (1958)
95. Vivre sa vie (1962)
96. West Side Story (1961)
97. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
98. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
99. The Wild Bunch (1969)
100. The Wizard of Oz (1939)