Top 100 Film Lists: Online Cinephiles

Cinema Fusion assembled a list of 100 top movies from the online film community. Yes, I voted. This is a younger, and more male, set of voters than the other two lists I voted on, the AFI and (obviously) the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. So a lot of my fave screwball comedies and epic romances did not make it, in favor of more recent crowd-pleasers such as Ghostbusters, Leon, Ed Wood, and Groundhog Day. At the end of the list, but still. Jeez. Is this a club I want to be a member of? Higher still are surprising entries American History X (which I confess I have never seen) and This is Spinal Tap. After that the list is okay, although the paucity of older films, foreign films, and films by the late great Bergman and Antonioni is depressing.

The Online Film Community’s Top 100 Movies

100. Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
99. Cinema Paradiso (Tornatore, 1988)
98. On the Waterfront (Kazan, 1954)
97. Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986)
96. Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992)
95. His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)
94. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Jackson, 2003)
93. Toy Story (Lasseter, 1995)
92. Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946)
91. The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959)

90. Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984)
89. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
88. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog, 1972)
87. Leon (Besson, 1994)
86. Touch of Evil (Welles, 1958)
85. Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936)
84. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra, 1939)
83. To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan, 1962)
82. The Manchurian Candidate (Frankenheimer, 1962)
81. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Cameron, 1992)

80. North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)
79. King Kong (Cooper/Shoedsack, 1933)
78. Manhattan (Allen, 1979)
77. Ed Wood (Burton, 1994)
76. American History X (Kaye, 1998)
75. The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941)
74. Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)
73. The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)
72. The Bicycle Thief (De Sica, 1948)
71. The Graduate (Nichols, 1967)

70. Network (Lumet, 1976)
69. Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)
68. The Rules of the Game (Renoir, 1939)
67. Do the Right Thing (S. Lee, 1989)
66. Heat (Mann, 1995)
65. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001)
64. Aliens (Cameron, 1986)
63. Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991)
62. The Incredibles (Bird, 2004)
61. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)

60. The Apartment (Wilder, 1960)
59. The General (Keaton/Bruckman, 1927)
58. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1928)
57. Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992)
56. L.A. Confidential (Hanson, 1997)
55. 12 Angry Men (Lumet, 1957)
54. The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
53. M (Lang, 1931)
52. Memento (Nolan, 2000)
51. The Bridge on River Kwai (Lean, 1957)

50. Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944)
49. The Big Lebowski (J. Coen, 1998)
48. Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, 1950)
47. This is Spinal Tap (Reiner, 1984)
46. Run Lola Run (Tykwer, 1998)
45. Goodfellas (Scorsese, 1990)
44. E.T. (Spielberg, 1982)
43. Singin’ in the Rain (Donen/Kelly, 1952)
42. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
41. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Leone, 1966)

40. Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980)
39. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1968)
38. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Forman, 1975)
37. The Princess Bride (Reiner, 1987)
36. The Usual Suspects (Singer, 1995)
35. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam/Jones, 1975)
34. Fight Club (Fincher, 1999)
33. Brazil (Gilliam, 1985)
32. Annie Hall (W. Allen, 1977)
31. Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 1985)

30. Die Hard (McTiernan, 1988)
29. The Third Man (Reed, 1949)
28. The Matrix (Wachowski/Wachowski, 1999)
27. The Wizard of Oz (Fleming, 1939)
26. Schindler’s List (Spielberg, 1993)
25. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)
24. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
23. Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1996)
22. It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946)
21. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)

20. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954)
19. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
18. Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
17. Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
16. The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont, 1994)
15. Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)
14. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
13. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Lucas, 1977)
12. Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
11. Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)

10. Alien (R. Scott, 1979)
9. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner, 1980)
8. The Godfather Part II (Coppola, 1974)
7. Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
6. Blade Runner (R. Scott, 1982)
5. Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981)
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick, 1964)
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
1. The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)

Participants are on the jump:

Participants
Adam Kempenaar - Film Spotting
Adam Bonin - Throwing Things
Adam Ross - DVD Panache
Alex Vo - Rotten Tomatoes
Andrew Dykstra - Movie Patron
Andrew James - Movie Patron
Anne Thompson - Variety | Thompson on Hollywood
Brendan Connelly - Film Ick
Collin Smith – That Movie Site
Damian Arlyn - Windmills of My Mind
Dan Eisenberg - Cinemathematics
Daniel Johnson - Film Babble
Dennis Cozzalio - Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule
Domenic Lanza - Cinema Fusion
Edward Copeland - Eddie on Film
Gareth Watkins - Film Rotation
Goran S - Y Kant Goran Rite?

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. - Salon
Jack Denault - That Movie Site
James Davie - That Movie Site
Jared Vega – Cinema Fusion
Jay Cheel - Film Junk | The Documentary Blog
Jeff Warner – That Movie Site

Jeffrey M. Anderson - Combustible Celluloid
Jennifer Yamato - Rotten Tomatoes
Jim - Talking Moviezz
John Allison - Film Grotto
John Campea - The Movie Blog
Jonathan Burdick - Cinema Fusion
Kevin Carr – Film School Rejects
Kurt Halfyard - Twitch
Marina - Mad About Movies
Martin - Film Ick
Matt Gamble - Cinema Fusion
Matt Holmes – Obsessed With Film
Mediamelt - Film Rotation
Misael Soto - Movie Patron
Nathaniel R - Film Experience
Neil Miller – Film School Rejects
Orrin Konheim - The Sophomore Critic
Pat Piper - Lazy Eye Theatre
Peter Nellhaus - Coffee Coffee and More Coffee
Peter Schiretta – Slashfilm
Roger McDorman - A Drinking Song
Ross Miller – Movie Patron
Sean Dwyer - Film Junk
Serena Whitney – JoBlo
Shane Thompson - That Movie Site
Sledge - Film Ick
Steve Bland – Cinema Fusion
Ted Pigeon - The Cinematic Art
Tim Bennett - That Movie Site
Tim Footman - Cultural Snow
Vic Holtreman - Screen Rant

Comments

[Jeremy Smith]

No Lubitsch, no Sturges and Hawks barely makes it. You've every right to be aghast.

[Jette Kernion]

I'm sorry to see that so few female critics were chosen to be part of the "online community" -- less than a half-dozen out of 50. I don't think that's representative at all, and that might explain in part why we're seeing such a fanboy-ish list.

[Karina]

I was asked to participate, but didn't, for reasons that I go into a little bit here:
http://blog.spout.com/2007/07/30/another-100-list-this-time-with-twice-the-star-wars/

The problem does seem to be in part that the participants were mostly young and male, but I think there's also the issue of this list representing the amateur alternative (and I use that word in the least pejorative way possible) to AFI's flawed professionalism. The fact is, a lot of the young men who are writing about films on the internet don't have an academic film education, and would only go out of their way to seek out the kinds of mid-century classics that make a list like AFIs if they fit their personal tastes. On that level, I think the online list is a fascinating document, a sort of populist corrective to academic lists that basically prescribe films that you "should" watch. Whether we like it or not (and mostly, I don't) the online list is comprised of the films that people actually *do* watch.

But rah rah populism aside, there are a lot of crap films on the list, and I've talked to a lot of people who did participate who are frustrated that their picks were pushed to the margins in favor of stuff like Star Wars and Fight Club.

[Dave K.]

Anne! You're killing me here! A CINEASTE is a filmmaker; a CINEPHILE is a film lover.

yours in online pedantry,

DK

[Anne Thompson]

clearly this list is more populist than academic, and very very male. I participated so that I might have SOME influence on the cineastes picked by the cinephiles. Correction duly made, Dave. :-)