Nothing Like a “Best Of” List to Show You What You’ve Been Missing

A movie meme, coming by way of In Apprehension.... To keep it moving along, cut and paste from here (or copy the raw code if you want the links to remain intact) and add boldface to the titles you’ve seen (and if you like, write a comment with your total). The listing itself comes from the Internet Movie Database’s listing of the Top 250 Films (as voted by users). By no means a definitive “top films” list, but its nature allows it to include even newly released pictures (unlike, say, the American Film Institute’s better known — and not quite so skewed to the Ain’t it Cool crowd — 100 Years, 100 Films list).

Incidentally, the ranking has changed slightly since Joseph Finn’s original entry yesterday; I’ve updated the order to its current status. And for the sake of clarity, I’ve listed just the English (American release) titles. Just being thorough, you know.

1. The Godfather (1972)
   
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
   
3. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
   
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
   
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
   
6. Casablanca (1942)
   
7. Schindler’s List (1993)
   
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
   
9. Seven Samurai (1954)
   
10. Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
    
11. Citizen Kane (1941)
    
12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
    
13. Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
    
14. Rear Window (1954)
    
15. Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
    
16. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
    
17. Memento (2000)
    
18. The Usual Suspects (1995)
    
19. Pulp Fiction (1994)
    
20. North by Northwest (1959)
    
21. 12 Angry Men (1957)
    
22. Amélie (2001)
    
23. Psycho (1960)
    
24. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
    
25. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
    
26. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
    
27. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
    
28. Goodfellas (1990)
    
29. American Beauty (1999)
    
30. Vertigo (1958)
    
31. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
    
32. The Matrix (1999)
    
33. Apocalypse Now (1979)
    
34. The Pianist (2002)
    
35. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
    
36. Some Like It Hot (1959)
    
37. Taxi Driver (1976)
    
38. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
    
39. The Third Man (1949)
    
40. Paths of Glory (1957)
    
41. Fight Club (1999)
    
42. Spirited Away (2001)
    
43. Das Boot (1981)
    
44. Double Indemnity (1944)
    
45. L.A. Confidential (1997)
    
46. Chinatown (1974)
    
47. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
    
48. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
    
49. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
    
50. M (1931)
    
51. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
    
52. All About Eve (1950)
    
53. Se7en (1995)
    
54. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
    
55. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
    
56. Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2002)
    
57. Raging Bull (1980)
    
58. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
    
59. Rashômon (1950)
    
60. The Sting (1973)
    
61. Alien (1979)
    
62. American History X (1998)
    
63. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
    
64. Léon (The Professional) (1994)
    
65. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
    
66. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
    
67. Touch of Evil (1958)
    
68. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
    
69. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
    
70. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)
    
71. The Great Escape (1963)
    
72. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
    
73. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
    
74. Amadeus (1984)
    
75. Annie Hall (1977)
    
76. Ran (1985)
    
77. Jaws (1975)
    
78. Modern Times (1936)
    
79. On the Waterfront (1954)
    
80. Braveheart (1995)
    
81. High Noon (1952)
    
82. The Apartment (1960)
    
83. Fargo (1996)
    
84. The Sixth Sense (1999)
    
85. Aliens (1986)
    
86. The Shining (1980)
    
87. Strangers on a Train (1951)
    
88. Blade Runner (1982)
    
89. Metropolis (1927)
    
90. Duck Soup (1933)
    
91. Donnie Darko (2001)
    
92. Finding Nemo (2003)
    
93. The General (1927)
    
94. The Princess Bride (1987)
    
95. Toy Story 2 (1999)
    
96. City Lights (1931)
    
97. The Great Dictator (1940)
    
98. Run Lola Run (1998)
    
99. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
    
100. Notorious (1946)

So of those 100, I’ve seen 65. I’ve actually seen a few more, but so long ago that I don’t really remember them — I wouldn’t think it right to count them. I’d get credit for one more in Joseph’s original list, in that I’ve seen Full Metal Jacket (1987) (number 98 on the old list); I have not seen The Seventh Seal (1957), though (100 on the old list). Adding the remaining 150 pictures on the IMDB’s list (which I won’t write out here), I score far less respectably, having seen only an additional 67 (a mere 45 percent).

But after going through the exercise, I don’t really worry at not having seen more of them. Some I’ve not been interested in seeing (yet), and others I can just add to the list of movies to see in the future.

Not that I really had any shortage of those.

So what’s your count?