Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Movies Of The Year: The Big List
I've decided to go ahead and post the rest of the Movies Of the Year lists, if only for organizational reasons. It'll be easier to keep track of things if I can slot them into the list as I watch them, instead of waiting until I get around to writing that particular year. I'm still going to keep up with the year by year countdowns, so this is just the rankings. All the lists, from 1915 through 2006 can always be found on the sidebar.
Here's how it works: A film's year is determined by what year IMDB says it is. Not because IMDB is especially accurate, but just because I need some easy to use way to figure out what movies I've seen and when they're from, and IMDB's the easiest and most comprehensive resource there is. So, I browse IMDB by year, pick out all the movies I've seen (and the ones I think I should see) and put them in some kind of order.
The order isn't definitive: ranking works of art is not meant to be a hierarchical activity, but rather an organizational one. It gives me a chance to write about some movies. It's interesting trivially and comparatively to see what movies came out at the same time, to see the progression of film history. And lists are just plain fun to argue over. They are meant to be conversation starters, not finishers. I don't have any particular criteria for what ranks above what, it's just my own subjective opinion, informed by a reasonable knowledge of film and film history (though not nearly what it should be, as you can see from the Unseen lists in the individual Movies Of The Year entries).
The rankings change over time: when I see a new movie from a year I've already posted, I add it to The Big List here. Sometimes I'll see a movie again and my opinion of it will change, or my feelings about a film will evolve over time, and so I'll move it up or down its list here as well. The Big List is, and always will be, a work in progress.
1915:
1. The Cheat
2. A Fool There Was
3. The Birth Of A Nation
1916:
1917:
1. The Immigrant
2. The Cure
1918:
1. A Dog's Life
1919:
1. Broken Blossoms
2. When The Clouds Roll By
1920:
1. One Week
2. Dr. Jeckyll And Mr. Hyde
3. The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
1921:
1. The Kid
2. The Play House
3. The 'High Sign'
4. The Sheik
1922:
1. Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror
2. Nanook Of The North
3. Cops
4. Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler
5. The Blacksmith
1923:
1. Our Hospitality
2. The Three Ages
3. The Balloonatic
1924:
1. Sherlock, Jr.
2. Greed
1925:
1. Battleship Potemkin
2. Seven Chances
3. The Gold Ryuh
4. The Phantom Of The Opera
1926:
1. Faust
1927:
1. Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans
2. The General
3. Metropolis
4. It
1928:
1. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
2. Steamboat Bill, Jr.
3. The Circus
4. Speedy
1929:
1. The Man With A Movie Camera
2. Blackmail
3. Pandora's Box
4. The Coconuts
1930:
1. The Dawn Patrol
2. Animal Crackers
3. All Quiet On The Western Front
4. Abraham Lincoln
1931:
1. City Lights
2. M
3. Monkey Business
4. Frankenstein
5. The Public Enemy
6. Night Nurse
7. Little Caesar
8. The Criminal Code
9. Arrowsmith
1932:
1. Scarface
2. Trouble In Paradise
3. Boudu Saved From Drowning
4. Vampyr
5. Horse Feathers
6. Blonde Venus
7. The Old Dark House
8. Bill Of Divorcement
9. Rain
10. Grand Hotel
11. Freaks
1933:
1. Duck Soup
2. King Kong
3. 42nd Street
4. Baby Face
5. Golddiggers Of 1933
6. Queen Christina
7. Little Women
8. She Done Him Wrong
1934:
1. L'Atalante
2. The Thin Man
3. Judge Priest
4. The Man Who Knew Too Much
5. Twentieth Century
6. It Happened One Night
7. A Lost Lady
8. The Lost Patrol
9. The Gay Divorcee
10. Death Takes A Holiday
1935:
1. Top Hat
2. The 39 Steps
3. The Devil Is A Woman
4. The Informer
5. Sylvia Scarlett
6. Mutiny On The Bounty
7. A Night At The Opera
8. Captain Blood
9. Mark Of The Vampire
1936:
1. Modern Times
2. Swing Time
3. Sisters Of Gion
4. Fury
5. Follow The Fleet
6. Last Of The Mohicans
7. My Man Godfrey
8. After The Thin Man
9. Mary Of Scotland
10. The Garden Of Allah
11. The Petrified Forest
1937:
1. The Awful Truth
2. The Grand Illusion
3. Snow White And The Seven Dwarves
4. The Hurricane
5. A Star Is Born
6. Shall We Dance
7. Pepe le Moko
8. A Day At The Races
9. Nothing Sacred
10. Stage Door
11. Lost Horizon
12. Stella Dallas
1938:
1. Bringing Up Baby
2. The Adventures Of Robin Hood
3. Alexander Nevsky
4. The Lady Vanishes
5. You Can't Take It With You
6. Angels With Dirty faces
7. Holiday
1939:
1. The Rules Of The Game
2. Young Mr. Lincoln
3. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
4. Stagecoach
5. Ninotchka
6. The Story Of The Late Chrysanthemums
7. Only Angels Have Wings
8. Love Affair
9. Destry Rides Again
10. Gunga Din
11. The Wizard Of Oz
12. Goodbye Mr. Chips
13. The Women
14. Jamaica Inn
15. The Roaring Twenties
16. The Four Feathers
17. Gone With The Wind
18. Wuthering Heights
19. Man In The Iron Mask
1940:
1. Fantasia
2. Rebecca
3. The Shop Around The Corner
4. The Philadelphia Story
5. His Girl Friday
6. The Bank Dick
7. Pinocchio
8. The Thief Of Baghdad
9. The Long Voyage Home
10. The Grapes Of Wrath
11. The Great Dictator
12. The Mark Of Zorro
13. The Mortal Storm
14. Foreign Correspondent
15. The Sea Hawk
16. Dark Command
17. Santa Fe Trail
1941:
1. Citizen Kane
2. The Loyal 47 Ronin
3. The Lady Eve
4. The Maltese Falcon
5. Suspicion
6. Sullivan's Travels
7. Ball Of Fire
8. The Shanghai Gesture
9. 49th Parallel
10. How Green Was My Valley
11. Meet John Doe
12. Dumbo
13. High Sierra
1942:
1. Casablanca
2. The Palm Beach Story
3. I Married A Witch
4. Cat People
5. This Gun For Hire
6. The Magnificent Ambersons
7. Woman Of The Year
8. Bambi
9. Yankee Doodle Dandy
10. For Me And My Gal
1943:
1. The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp
2. Day Of Wrath
3. I Walked With A Zombie
4. Shadow Of A Doubt
5. Sanshiro Sugata
6. Hangmen Also Die!
7. Cabin In The Sky
8. The 7th Victim
9. Meshes Of The Afternoon
10. The Leopard Man
11. Phantom Of The Opera
1944:
1. A Canterbury Tale
2. Ivan The Terrible Part 1
3. To Have And Have not
4. Laura
5. Double Indemnity
6. Lifeboat
7. Gaslight
8. Arsenic & Old Lace
9. Meet Me In St. Louis
10. Henry V
11. Murder, My Sweet
12. The Three Caballeros
1945:
1. Children Of Paradise
2. The Men Who Tread On The Tiger's Tail
3. I Know Where I'm Going!
4. Brief Encounter
5. Rome, Open City
6. They Were Expendable
7. Detour
8. The Clock
9. Spellbound
10. The Southerner
11. My Name Is Julia Ross
12. The Spiral Staircase
13. Mildred Pierce
14. Back To Bataan
15. Objective: Burma!
16. The Lost Weekend
1946:
1. The Big Sleep
2. It's A Wonderful Life
3. A Matter Of Life And Death
4. Notorious
5. Paisan
6. The Killers
7. Gilda
8. The Stranger
9. Beauty And The Beast
10. My Darling Clementine
11. Tomorrow Is Forever
12. Song Of The South
13. The Best Years Of Our Lives
14. The Postman Always Rings Twice
15. A Night In Casablanca
1947:
1. Black Narcissus
2. Out Of The Past
3. The Lady from Shanghai
4. Monsieur Verdoux
5. T-Men
6. Born To Kill
7. Dark Passage
8. Gentlemen's Agreement
9. Railroaded!
1948:
1. The Red Shoes
2. Red River
3. Rope
4. Fort Apache
5. Macbeth
6. Portrait Of Jennie
7. Force Of Evil
8. He Walked By Night
9. The Pirate
10. The Naked City
11. Bicycle Thieves
12. Hamlet
13. They Live By Night
14. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
15. 3 Godfathers
16. Key Largo
17. Berlin Express
18. A Foreign Affair
19. Easter Parade
20. The Three Musketeers
1949:
1. The Third Man
2. Late Spring
3. Stray Dog
4. The Set-Up
5. Jour de fĂȘte
6. Gun Crazy
7. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
8. Kind Hearts And Coronets
9. Adam's Rib
10. Battleground
11. The Fountainhead
12. White Heat
13. On The Town
14. Sands Of Iwo Jima
15. The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad
16. Knock On Any Door
17. Take Me Out To The Ballgame
1950:
1. Rashomon
2. All About Eve
3. Harvey
4. Winchester '73
5. Stromboli
6. In A Lonely Place
7. The Asphalt Jungle
8. Sunset Blvd.
9. Rio Grande
10. The Father Of The Bride
11. Cinderella
12. Born Yesterday
13. Where Danger Lives
14. DOA
1951:
1. The River
2. The Thing From Another World
3. Flying Leathernecks
4. Strangers On The Train
5. Diary Of A Country Priest
6. The Lavender Hill Mob
7. The Tales Of Hoffman
8. An American In Paris
9. The Day The Earth Stood Still
10. Alice In Wonderland
11. His Kind Of Woman
12. The Mating Season
13. The Tall Target
14. A Streetcar Named Desire
15. The African Queen
16. Miss Julie
17. Royal Wedding
18. A Place In The Sun
19. The Man From Planet X
1952:
1. Singin' In The Rain
2. Ikiru
3. The Quiet Man
4. Othello
5. Limelight
6. Bend Of The River
7. On Dangerous Ground
8. Europa '51
9. The Life Of Oharu
10. Rancho Notorious
11. The Big Sky
12. Monkey Business
13. The Narrow Margin
14. Angel Face
15. Clash By Night
16. The Bad And The Beautiful
17. High Noon
Here's how it works: A film's year is determined by what year IMDB says it is. Not because IMDB is especially accurate, but just because I need some easy to use way to figure out what movies I've seen and when they're from, and IMDB's the easiest and most comprehensive resource there is. So, I browse IMDB by year, pick out all the movies I've seen (and the ones I think I should see) and put them in some kind of order.
The order isn't definitive: ranking works of art is not meant to be a hierarchical activity, but rather an organizational one. It gives me a chance to write about some movies. It's interesting trivially and comparatively to see what movies came out at the same time, to see the progression of film history. And lists are just plain fun to argue over. They are meant to be conversation starters, not finishers. I don't have any particular criteria for what ranks above what, it's just my own subjective opinion, informed by a reasonable knowledge of film and film history (though not nearly what it should be, as you can see from the Unseen lists in the individual Movies Of The Year entries).
The rankings change over time: when I see a new movie from a year I've already posted, I add it to The Big List here. Sometimes I'll see a movie again and my opinion of it will change, or my feelings about a film will evolve over time, and so I'll move it up or down its list here as well. The Big List is, and always will be, a work in progress.
1915:
1. The Cheat
2. A Fool There Was
3. The Birth Of A Nation
1916:
1917:
1. The Immigrant
2. The Cure
1918:
1. A Dog's Life
1919:
1. Broken Blossoms
2. When The Clouds Roll By
1920:
1. One Week
2. Dr. Jeckyll And Mr. Hyde
3. The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
1921:
1. The Kid
2. The Play House
3. The 'High Sign'
4. The Sheik
1922:
1. Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror
2. Nanook Of The North
3. Cops
4. Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler
5. The Blacksmith
1923:
1. Our Hospitality
2. The Three Ages
3. The Balloonatic
1924:
1. Sherlock, Jr.
2. Greed
1925:
1. Battleship Potemkin
2. Seven Chances
3. The Gold Ryuh
4. The Phantom Of The Opera
1926:
1. Faust
1927:
1. Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans
2. The General
3. Metropolis
4. It
1928:
1. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
2. Steamboat Bill, Jr.
3. The Circus
4. Speedy
1929:
1. The Man With A Movie Camera
2. Blackmail
3. Pandora's Box
4. The Coconuts
1930:
1. The Dawn Patrol
2. Animal Crackers
3. All Quiet On The Western Front
4. Abraham Lincoln
1931:
1. City Lights
2. M
3. Monkey Business
4. Frankenstein
5. The Public Enemy
6. Night Nurse
7. Little Caesar
8. The Criminal Code
9. Arrowsmith
1932:
1. Scarface
2. Trouble In Paradise
3. Boudu Saved From Drowning
4. Vampyr
5. Horse Feathers
6. Blonde Venus
7. The Old Dark House
8. Bill Of Divorcement
9. Rain
10. Grand Hotel
11. Freaks
1933:
1. Duck Soup
2. King Kong
3. 42nd Street
4. Baby Face
5. Golddiggers Of 1933
6. Queen Christina
7. Little Women
8. She Done Him Wrong
1934:
1. L'Atalante
2. The Thin Man
3. Judge Priest
4. The Man Who Knew Too Much
5. Twentieth Century
6. It Happened One Night
7. A Lost Lady
8. The Lost Patrol
9. The Gay Divorcee
10. Death Takes A Holiday
1935:
1. Top Hat
2. The 39 Steps
3. The Devil Is A Woman
4. The Informer
5. Sylvia Scarlett
6. Mutiny On The Bounty
7. A Night At The Opera
8. Captain Blood
9. Mark Of The Vampire
1936:
1. Modern Times
2. Swing Time
3. Sisters Of Gion
4. Fury
5. Follow The Fleet
6. Last Of The Mohicans
7. My Man Godfrey
8. After The Thin Man
9. Mary Of Scotland
10. The Garden Of Allah
11. The Petrified Forest
1937:
1. The Awful Truth
2. The Grand Illusion
3. Snow White And The Seven Dwarves
4. The Hurricane
5. A Star Is Born
6. Shall We Dance
7. Pepe le Moko
8. A Day At The Races
9. Nothing Sacred
10. Stage Door
11. Lost Horizon
12. Stella Dallas
1938:
1. Bringing Up Baby
2. The Adventures Of Robin Hood
3. Alexander Nevsky
4. The Lady Vanishes
5. You Can't Take It With You
6. Angels With Dirty faces
7. Holiday
1939:
1. The Rules Of The Game
2. Young Mr. Lincoln
3. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
4. Stagecoach
5. Ninotchka
6. The Story Of The Late Chrysanthemums
7. Only Angels Have Wings
8. Love Affair
9. Destry Rides Again
10. Gunga Din
11. The Wizard Of Oz
12. Goodbye Mr. Chips
13. The Women
14. Jamaica Inn
15. The Roaring Twenties
16. The Four Feathers
17. Gone With The Wind
18. Wuthering Heights
19. Man In The Iron Mask
1940:
1. Fantasia
2. Rebecca
3. The Shop Around The Corner
4. The Philadelphia Story
5. His Girl Friday
6. The Bank Dick
7. Pinocchio
8. The Thief Of Baghdad
9. The Long Voyage Home
10. The Grapes Of Wrath
11. The Great Dictator
12. The Mark Of Zorro
13. The Mortal Storm
14. Foreign Correspondent
15. The Sea Hawk
16. Dark Command
17. Santa Fe Trail
1941:
1. Citizen Kane
2. The Loyal 47 Ronin
3. The Lady Eve
4. The Maltese Falcon
5. Suspicion
6. Sullivan's Travels
7. Ball Of Fire
8. The Shanghai Gesture
9. 49th Parallel
10. How Green Was My Valley
11. Meet John Doe
12. Dumbo
13. High Sierra
1942:
1. Casablanca
2. The Palm Beach Story
3. I Married A Witch
4. Cat People
5. This Gun For Hire
6. The Magnificent Ambersons
7. Woman Of The Year
8. Bambi
9. Yankee Doodle Dandy
10. For Me And My Gal
1943:
1. The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp
2. Day Of Wrath
3. I Walked With A Zombie
4. Shadow Of A Doubt
5. Sanshiro Sugata
6. Hangmen Also Die!
7. Cabin In The Sky
8. The 7th Victim
9. Meshes Of The Afternoon
10. The Leopard Man
11. Phantom Of The Opera
1944:
1. A Canterbury Tale
2. Ivan The Terrible Part 1
3. To Have And Have not
4. Laura
5. Double Indemnity
6. Lifeboat
7. Gaslight
8. Arsenic & Old Lace
9. Meet Me In St. Louis
10. Henry V
11. Murder, My Sweet
12. The Three Caballeros
1945:
1. Children Of Paradise
2. The Men Who Tread On The Tiger's Tail
3. I Know Where I'm Going!
4. Brief Encounter
5. Rome, Open City
6. They Were Expendable
7. Detour
8. The Clock
9. Spellbound
10. The Southerner
11. My Name Is Julia Ross
12. The Spiral Staircase
13. Mildred Pierce
14. Back To Bataan
15. Objective: Burma!
16. The Lost Weekend
1946:
1. The Big Sleep
2. It's A Wonderful Life
3. A Matter Of Life And Death
4. Notorious
5. Paisan
6. The Killers
7. Gilda
8. The Stranger
9. Beauty And The Beast
10. My Darling Clementine
11. Tomorrow Is Forever
12. Song Of The South
13. The Best Years Of Our Lives
14. The Postman Always Rings Twice
15. A Night In Casablanca
1947:
1. Black Narcissus
2. Out Of The Past
3. The Lady from Shanghai
4. Monsieur Verdoux
5. T-Men
6. Born To Kill
7. Dark Passage
8. Gentlemen's Agreement
9. Railroaded!
1948:
1. The Red Shoes
2. Red River
3. Rope
4. Fort Apache
5. Macbeth
6. Portrait Of Jennie
7. Force Of Evil
8. He Walked By Night
9. The Pirate
10. The Naked City
11. Bicycle Thieves
12. Hamlet
13. They Live By Night
14. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
15. 3 Godfathers
16. Key Largo
17. Berlin Express
18. A Foreign Affair
19. Easter Parade
20. The Three Musketeers
1949:
1. The Third Man
2. Late Spring
3. Stray Dog
4. The Set-Up
5. Jour de fĂȘte
6. Gun Crazy
7. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
8. Kind Hearts And Coronets
9. Adam's Rib
10. Battleground
11. The Fountainhead
12. White Heat
13. On The Town
14. Sands Of Iwo Jima
15. The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad
16. Knock On Any Door
17. Take Me Out To The Ballgame
1950:
1. Rashomon
2. All About Eve
3. Harvey
4. Winchester '73
5. Stromboli
6. In A Lonely Place
7. The Asphalt Jungle
8. Sunset Blvd.
9. Rio Grande
10. The Father Of The Bride
11. Cinderella
12. Born Yesterday
13. Where Danger Lives
14. DOA
1951:
1. The River
2. The Thing From Another World
3. Flying Leathernecks
4. Strangers On The Train
5. Diary Of A Country Priest
6. The Lavender Hill Mob
7. The Tales Of Hoffman
8. An American In Paris
9. The Day The Earth Stood Still
10. Alice In Wonderland
11. His Kind Of Woman
12. The Mating Season
13. The Tall Target
14. A Streetcar Named Desire
15. The African Queen
16. Miss Julie
17. Royal Wedding
18. A Place In The Sun
19. The Man From Planet X
1952:
1. Singin' In The Rain
2. Ikiru
3. The Quiet Man
4. Othello
5. Limelight
6. Bend Of The River
7. On Dangerous Ground
8. Europa '51
9. The Life Of Oharu
10. Rancho Notorious
11. The Big Sky
12. Monkey Business
13. The Narrow Margin
14. Angel Face
15. Clash By Night
16. The Bad And The Beautiful
17. High Noon