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Top 20 films

post #1 of 33
1/11/07 at 4:29pm
Thread Starter 
YMDB was eaten by imdb so I figured HTF ought to have a thread for lists of top 20 films.


1 Empire of the Sun Steven Spielberg

2 Lawrence of Arabia David Lean

3 How Green Was My Valley
 John Ford

4 The Apartment Billy Wilder

5 Casablanca Michael Curtiz

6 A Matter of Life and Death
 M. Powell and E. Pressburger

7 Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa

8 The Empire Strikes Back Irvin Kershner

9 The Godfather Francis Ford Coppola

10 Almost Famous Cameron Crowe

11 Shawshank Redemption Frank Darabont

12 To Kill A Mockingbird Robert Mulligan

13 A.I. Artificial Intelligence Steven Spielberg

14 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence John Ford

15 The Princess Bride Rob Reiner

16 Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki

17 Jaws
 Steven Spielberg

18 The Searchers John Ford

19 A Christmas Story Bob Clark

20 In America
 Jim Sheridan

















at any given moment these films could sneak in or out: Grand Illusion, Battle Royale, Now Voyager, Jaws, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Tin Drum, ET, Sunrise as they've all been in the top twenty before.


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post #2 of 33
1/11/07 at 5:59pm

Re: Top 20 films

I'll play.

1THE APARTMENT Billy Wilder
2REAR WINDOW Alfred Hitchcock
3THE GODFATHER Francis Ford Coppola
4CASABLANCA Michael Curtiz
5CITIZEN KANE Orson Welles
6STAR WARS George Lucas
7RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK Steven Spielberg
8DR. STRANGELOVE Stanley Kubrick
9NORTH BY NORTHWEST Alfred Hitchcock
10SOME LIKE IT HOT Billy Wilder
11THE GODFATHER, PART 2 Francis Ford Coppola
12CHINATOWN Roman Polanski
13VERTIGO Alfred Hitchcock
142001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Stanley Kubrick
15THE GOLD RUSH Charlie Chaplin
16TOY STORY John Lasseter
17PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILESJohn Hughes
18JAWS Steven Spielberg
19PSYCHO Alfred Hitchcock
20YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Mel Brooks


I can't seem to get mine to format like Adam's
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post #3 of 33
1/11/07 at 7:28pm

Re: Top 20 films

God, this is hard. I can't even narrow my favorites down to a top 100. If I tried to do a top 20, I'd just end up changing it every day. Well, here's what it is today, I guess... (in no particular order)

1. A Woman Under the Influence (Cassavetes)
2. Eraserhead (Lynch)
3. Scenes from a Marriage (Bergman)
4. An Actor's Revenge (Ichikawa)
5. Time of the Gypsies (Kusturica)
6. El Norte (Nava)
7. Rear Window (Hitchcock)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
9. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa)
10. Jules and Jim (Truffaut)
11. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson)
12. Casablanca (Curtiz)
13. The Exterminating Angel (Bunuel)
14. Aguirre, Wrath of God (Herzog)
15. The Hole (Tsai)
16. Love and Death (Allen)
17. Taxi Driver (Scorsese)
18. The Scent of Green Papaya (Tran)
19. Mahanagar (Ray)
20. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg)

Limiting myself to one film per director made it a little easier.
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post #4 of 33
1/11/07 at 8:24pm

Re: Top 20 films

Ever changing, but as I sit now:

1. Goodfellas
2. Return of the King EE
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. The Godfather
5. Casablanca
6. Crimes and Misdemeanors
7. Full Metal Jacket
8. Patton
9. Fellowship of the Ring EE
10. Vertigo
11. It's a Wonderful Life
12. Citizen Kane
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai
14. Singin' in the Rain
15. Sunset Boulevard
16. American Beauty
17. Pulp Fiction
18. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
19. Rear Window
20. Night at the Museum (all right, not really, but I did enjoy this one a bunch and thought the critics were all wet).
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post #5 of 33
1/11/07 at 8:48pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Top 20 films

Quote:
I can't seem to get mine to format like Adam's
I just copied it out of the excel sheet I used to arrange it.
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post #6 of 33
1/11/07 at 9:10pm

Re: Top 20 films

Yeah, what Martin said...Only a point in time rough guesstimate.


1 12 Angry Men Sidney Lumet
2 Network Sidney Lumet
3 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Michel Gondry
4 Magnolia Paul Thomas Anderson
5 Goodfellas Martin Scorsese
6 Raising Arizona Joel Coen
7 Almost Famous Cameron Crowe
8 To Kill A Mockingbird Robert Mulligan
9 The Third Man Carol Reed
10 The Night Of The Hunter Charles Laughton
11 Out Of The Past Jacques Tourneur
12 Raiders Of The Lost Ark Steven Spielberg
13 The Sting George Roy Hill
14 Playtime Jacques Tati
15 Amelie Jean-Pierre Jeunet
16 The Royal Tenenbaums Wes Anderson
17 Lady Vengeance Chan-wook Park
18 Touch Of Evil Orson Welles
19 Man With A Movie Camera Dziga Vertov
20 8 1/2 Federico Fellini
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post #7 of 33
1/11/07 at 11:58pm

Re: Top 20 films

I usually don't do these lists, but since I did it for YMDB I guess I'll try to get the list back together for this. Might take a while for me to get it narrowed down, so it's a work in progress.

1. Miller's Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen)
2. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone)
3. Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
4. The Man in the Moon (Robert Mulligan)
5. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
6. Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
7. Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison)
8. Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
9. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
10. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
11. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone)
12. Dark City (Alex Proyas)
13. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
14...
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post #8 of 33
1/12/07 at 12:48am

Re: Top 20 films

Sure, why not, I do every other list. :-) I'll number them but I don't know about order...

1. The Lord of the Rings (it's sort of all one movie, but if I had to pick one it would be Fellowship EE) (Jackson)


2. The Big Lebowski (Coen Bros)


3. The Empire Strikes Back (Kasdan)


4. The Godfather: Part II (Coppola)


5. Kicking and Screaming (Baumbach)


6. Star Wars (Lucas)


7. Sideways (Payne)


8. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg)


9. Adaptation (Jonze)


10. Braveheart (Gibson)


11. Oldboy (Chan-wook)


12. Mean Streets (Scorsese)


13. The Third Man (Reed)


14. Harakiri (Seppuku) (Kobayashi)


15. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)


16. North by Northwest (Hitchcock)


17. Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley)


18. The Usual Suspects (Singer)


19. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Leone)


20. Three Kings (Russell)

(...or maybe The Godfather...or Rushmore...or Full Metal Jacket...or Annie Hall...or Reservoir Dogs...etc etc)
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post #9 of 33
1/12/07 at 1:09pm

Re: Top 20 films

Mine changes a little everytime I do one. Like Martin I limit myself to 1 per director. Maybe it isn't a true top 20 list that way, but I like seeing more variety.

1. Ikiru Kurosawa
2. Taxi Driver Scorsese
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick
4. It's A Wonderful Life Capra
5. Tokyo Story Ozu
6. The Seventh Seal Bergman
7. The Maltese Falcon Huston
8. In A Year With 13 Moons Fassbinder
9. Sullivan's Travels Sturges
10. Ugestu Mizoguchi
11. Singin' in the Rain Donan/Kelly
12. Tabu Murnau
13. Love in the Afternoon Rohmer
14. Ordet Dreyer
15. Aguirre, The Wrath of God Herzog
16. A Woman Under the Influence Cassavetes
17. Psycho Hitchcock
18. A.I. Artificial Intelligence Spielberg
19. That Obscure Ob-ject of Desire Bunuel
20. M Lang
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post #10 of 33
1/12/07 at 3:36pm

Re: Top 20 films

Interesting thread.

Brook I see you've included a few English-language titles in your top 20.

Mark great list except no.20 which doesn't fit in well with the others. I saw Night at the Museum and by the time we got home I had almost completely erased it from memory, to be fair my memory isn't what it used to be, I can't remember what I ate an hour ago.
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post #11 of 33
1/13/07 at 9:00pm

Re: Top 20 films

[quote=Steve Christou]Interesting thread.

Mark great list except no.20 which doesn't fit in well with the others. I saw Night at the Museum and by the time we got home I had almost completely erased it from memory, to be fair my memory isn't what it used to be, I can't remember what I ate an hour ago.

Well, I was just kidding, but did enjoy it.

How about:

20. Dr. Strangelove

instead?
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post #12 of 33
1/14/07 at 5:47am

Re: Top 20 films

Top 20 Films
One film per director:

1. Children of Paradise Carné



2. Fanny & Alexander Bergman



3. The Long Goodbye Altman



4. Chinatown Polanski



5. Naked Leigh



6. The Philadelphia Story Cukor



7. Andrei Rublev Tarkovsky



8. Five Easy Pieces Rafelson



9. Husbands and Wives Allen



10. Touch of Evil Welles



11. Flirting with Disaster Russell



12. Dr. Strangelove Kubrick



13. Mean Streets Scorsese



14. Sunrise Murnau



15. Vertigo Hitchcock



16. Fat City Huston



17. Double Indemnity Wilder



18. Hoop Dreams James



19. All About Eve Mankiewicz



20. Metropolitan Stillman

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post #13 of 33
1/14/07 at 9:35am

Re: Top 20 films

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Klaus
How about:

20. Dr. Strangelove

instead?

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post #14 of 33
1/19/07 at 12:22pm

Re: Top 20 films

1. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
2. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
4. Double Indemnity (1944)
5. Citizen Kane (1941)
6. Dances with Wolves (1990)
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
8. The Razor’s Edge (1946)
9. Caddyshack (1980)
10. Apocalypse Now (1979)
11. The Seven Samurai (1954)
12. Star Wars (1977)
13. The Godfather (1972)
14. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
15. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
16. Watership Down (1978)
17. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
18. The Godfather Part II (1974)
19. Tron (1982)
20. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

My full top 100: http://www.streetersedge.com/?p=19
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post #15 of 33
2/11/07 at 4:52pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Top 20 films

updated my top twenty with Now, Voyager, pushing out Battle Royale.
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post #16 of 33
8/16/07 at 6:15pm

Re: Top 20 films

My top 20 list which is ever changing.

1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
2. The Abyss
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. Now, Voyager
5. Braveheart
6. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
7. Love Actually
8. Bringing up Baby
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey
10. Dear Frankie
11. Raiders of the Lost Ark
12. The Empire Strikes Back
13. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
14. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
15. The Joy Luck Club
16. The Road Warrior
17. Shop Around the Corner
18. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
19. Pride and Prejudice
20. The Green Mile
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post #17 of 33
8/16/07 at 11:38pm

Re: Top 20 films

I'm doing these in alphabetical order, because even trying to put them in numerical is impossible.

BTW, I have only 1 requirement. It has to have been at least 4 years since the first time I saw the film.

EDIT: I had forgotten that after much thought, I had decided to include The Claim in my list, but I can't come up with a title to remove. So, my Top 20 now officially includes 21 titles.

American History X
 Tony Kaye
Brazil Terry Gilliam
Blade Runner
 Ridley Scott
Cinema Paradiso
The Claim
 Guiseppe Tornatore
Michael Winterbottom
The Deer Hunter
 Michael Cimino
Doctor Zhivago
 David Lean
Fiddler on the Roof
 Norman Jewison
Gone with the Wind
 Victor Fleming
In the Bedroom
 Todd Field
Leaving Las Vegas
 Mike Figgis
The Man in the Moon
 Robert Mulligan
Miller's Crossing
 Coen Brothers
Once Upon a Time in America
 Sergio Leone
Once Upon a Time in the West
 Sergio Leone
Ordinary People
 Robert Redford
The Passion of Joan of Arc
 Carl Theodor Dreyer
Persona Ingmar Bergman
The Rapture
 Michael Tolkin
To Kill a Mockingbird
 Robert Mulligan
Wild Strawberries
 Ingmar Bergman
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post #18 of 33
8/17/07 at 9:05am

Re: Top 20 films

This was one of the hardest things that I've done in a long time. I had to limit myself to one per director or I would have about 7 Wilder films.

  • The ApartmentBilly Wilder
  • Rear WindowAlfred Hitchcock
  • The Wizard of OzVictor Fleming
  • Once Upon a Time in the WestSergio Leone
  • The Big LebowskiJoel Coen
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindMichel Gondry
  • Night of the HunterCharles Laughton
  • Touch of EvilOrson Welles
  • The Shop Around the CornerErnst Lubitsch
  • You Can't Take It With YouFrank Capra
  • Ball of FireHoward Hawks
  • Young FrankensteinMel Brooks
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56Don Siegel
  • The Day the Earth Stood StillRobert Wise
  • The Shawshank RedemptionFrank Darabont
  • Short CutsRobert Altman
  • MagnoliaP.T. Anderson
  • American BeautySam Mendes
  • 12 Angry MenSidney Lumet
  • The SearchersJohn Ford
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post #19 of 33
8/19/07 at 5:17am

Re: Top 20 films

I've only just seen this...I think I'll have a go at it:


1.BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (James Whale, 1935)
2.THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Luis Bunuel, 1972)
3.NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
4.HIS GIRL FRIDAY (Howard Hawks, 1940)
5.CITIZEN KANE (Orson Welles, 1941)
6.M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
7.THE THIRD MAN (Carol Reed, 1949)
8.DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Billy Wilder, 1944)
9.THE RULES OF THE GAME (Jean Renoir, 1939)
10. THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
11. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
12.TO BE OR NOT TO BE (Ernst Lubitch, 1942)
13.DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)
14.NOSFERATU (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
15.SHERLOCK JR. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
16.NIGHT OF THE DEMON (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)
17.EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Georges Franju, 1959)
18.A MAN ESCAPED (Robert Bresson, 1956)
19.SANSHO THE BAILIFF (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
20.THE SCARLET EMPRESS (Josef Von Sternberg, 1934)


So, keeping it to just one title per director, it works out to 5 horror movies, 8 foreign films and 3 silents - horror being my favorite genre and the others, two types of movies I'm very partial to.
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post #20 of 33
8/19/07 at 5:53am

Re: Top 20 films

I'll have a go, but the problem is always that "best" and "favorite*" don't always necessarily go hand in hand, and these types of lists are often fairly predictable as a result of sticking with "the best". I'll also be repeating a couple of directors, unless this is a strict requirement not to.

In no order:

Ben-Hur (1959)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Sting (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Jaws (1975)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Kill Bill (complete) (2003)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
American Graffiti (1973)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
*Westworld (1973)
*The Omega Man (1971)
Deliverance (1972)
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post #21 of 33
8/19/07 at 6:44am

Re: Top 20 films

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi
I'll have a go, but the problem is always that "best" and "favorite*" don't always necessarily go hand in hand, and these types of lists are often fairly predictable as a result of sticking with "the best". I'll also be repeating a couple of directors, unless this is a strict requirement not to.

In no order:

Ben-Hur (1959)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Sting (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Jaws (1975)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Kill Bill (complete) (2003)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
American Graffiti (1973)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
*Westworld (1973)
*The Omega Man (1971)
Deliverance (1972)

SONS OF THE DESERT (1933) and THE BODY SNATCHER (1945) almost made it into my own list - and there is no real need to excuse THE OMEGA MAN (1971) and WESTWORLD (1973) with an asterisk!
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post #22 of 33
8/19/07 at 7:18am

Re: Top 20 films

Quote:
8 foreign films

Waitaminute, you're from Malta, aren't all the movies on your list foreign films?
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post #23 of 33
8/19/07 at 8:01am

Re: Top 20 films

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mario Gauci
there is no real need to excuse THE OMEGA MAN (1971) and WESTWORLD (1973) with an asterisk!

I wouldn't consider either one of those the "best" films ever made, which is why I used the asterisk. All the others qualify IMO. It's tricky when it comes to lists like this. I'm thinking of starting a new thread: "YOUR 100 FAVORITE FILMS", which may be more extensive.
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post #24 of 33
8/19/07 at 8:24am

Re: Top 20 films

Here's my 20 in NO particular order:

1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
2. Once Upon A Time in the West (1968)
3. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
4. Alien (1979) & Aliens (1986) (I'm cheating here)
5. The Matrix (1999)
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
7. Fight Club (1999)
8. Braveheart (1995)
9. The Terminator (1984)
10. Heat (1995)
11. The Bourne Trilogy (one complete movie for me)
12. Titanic (1997)
13. Predator (1987)
14. L.A. Confidential (1997)
15. Batman Begins (2005)
16. The Incredibles (2004)
17. Toy Story 2 (1999)
18. Pulp Fiction (1994)
19. Taxi Driver (1976)
20. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
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post #25 of 33
8/19/07 at 8:51am

Re: Top 20 films

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brook K
Waitaminute, you're from Malta, aren't all the movies on your list foreign films?

Hey, cut us some slack, pal!

We may be a tiny dot on the world's map - practically an afterthought God had on the Seventh day - but, apart from our own language, everybody speaks English here (given that we were a British colony from 1800 to 1979 and, in fact, English is our official second language) and, what's more, a healthy number of the population is fluent in Italian, too (a direct result of our proximity to the Italian peninsula, perhaps, but also because we were all reared on Italian TV)!
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post #26 of 33
8/19/07 at 9:11am

Re: Top 20 films

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brook K
Mine changes a little everytime I do one. Like Martin I limit myself to 1 per director. Maybe it isn't a true top 20 list that way, but I like seeing more variety.

1. Ikiru Kurosawa
2. Taxi Driver Scorsese
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick
4. It's A Wonderful Life Capra
5. Tokyo Story Ozu
6. The Seventh Seal Bergman
7. The Maltese Falcon Huston
8. In A Year With 13 Moons Fassbinder
9. Sullivan's Travels Sturges
10. Ugestu Mizoguchi
11. Singin' in the Rain Donan/Kelly
12. Tabu Murnau
13. Love in the Afternoon Rohmer
14. Ordet Dreyer
15. Aguirre, The Wrath of God Herzog
16. A Woman Under the Influence Cassavetes
17. Psycho Hitchcock
18. A.I. Artificial Intelligence Spielberg
19. That Obscure Ob-ject of Desire Bunuel
20. M Lang


By the way, Brook - I generally like your list. And what do you know - No. 7 is THE MALTESE FALCON!

Out of your 20, I'm only unfamiliar with two of these - the Rohmer and the Fassbinder - and, since I can rent the former and already own the latter, I guess there's no excuse, right?

I'm glad you've put a Bunuel in there, too..but, man, it sure takes some guts to count titles No. 1, 5 and 16 among your all-time favorites...
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post #27 of 33
8/19/07 at 2:36pm

Re: Top 20 films

The longer I spend on a list like this, the more confused I get, so here's a ten-minute list that is probably more accurate, anyway:

1. Lawrence of Arabia - Sir David Lean
2. The Thin Red Line - Terrence Malick
3. Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick
4. Eraserhead - David Lynch
5. The Conversation - Francis Coppola
6. A Woman Under the Influence - John Cassavetes
7. Ran - Akira Kurosawa
8. Eyes Wide Shut - Stanley Kubrick
9. Days of Heaven - Terrence Malick
10.The Rules of the Game - Jean Renoir
11.In the Mood for Love - Wong Kar-wai
12.Apocalypse Now - Francis Coppola
13.Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Werner Herzog
14.Doctor Zhivago - Sir David Lean
15.Blade Runner - Ridley Scott
16.Diary of a Country Priest - Robert Bresson
17.Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa
18.Blue Velvet - David Lynch
19.Videodrome - David Cronenberg
20.Dune - David Lynch
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post #28 of 33
8/21/07 at 8:03am

Re: Top 20 films

For the record, I slightly reshuffled the bottom half of my Top 20...
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post #29 of 33
8/21/07 at 9:24am
Thread Starter 

Re: Top 20 films

I'm seriously considering Sweet Land for my top twenty, but I'll need a second viewing first.
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post #30 of 33
8/21/07 at 9:51am

Re: Top 20 films

Lists! Lists! Lists! I love lists, I think it's time I revised my top 20 (slightly).

Good to see guilty faves Dune and The Omega Man mentioned here along with the usual 'greats'. Let's see... Night of the Demon... yeah! Day the Earth Stood Still, The Abyss, Tron. And fewer foreign flicks than I'd expected to see in the snooty Polls area, nice.
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