1.The Silence of the Lambs
2.Casablanca
3.High Noon
4.To Kill A Mockingbird
5.One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest
6.The Exorcist
7.JFK
8.American Beauty
9.The Godfather Part 2
10.Apocalyse Now
11.The Usual Suspects
12.Shine
13.Rosemary's Baby
14.The Manchurian Candidate
15.The Empire Strikes Back
16.A Few Good Men

I would really like to hear some opinions..

1. 12 ANGRY MEN
2. 2001
3. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
4. AMERICAN BEAUTY
5. STAR WARS
6. SCHINDLERS LIST
7. UNFORGIVEN
8. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
9. BATTLESHIP POTEMPKIN
10. CHINATOWN
11. FARGO
12. THE EXORCIST
13. THE CONVERSATION
14. THE GODFATHER
15. BRAVEHEART
16. HIGH NOON
17. THE ABYSS
18. THE EVIL DEAD
19. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
20. PLATOON

One of these day's, I think I'll attempt to list all my favorite movies in order.

For now . . .

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. The Postman
3. Star Wars
4. Jaws
5. Halloween

The Shawshank Redemption
West Side Story

EXCALIBUR (John Boorman, 1981; screenplay by John Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg, based on "Morte D'Arthur" by Thomas Malory)

GOJIRA (i.e. GODZILLA, the original: directed by Ishiro Honda, 1954; screenplay by Ishiro Honda and Takeo Murata, based on an original story by Shigeru Kayama)

WITHNAIL & I (written and directed by Bruce Robinson, 1987)

THE NINTH CONFIGURATION (written and directed by William Peter Blatty, 1980; originally based on his 1960s novel "Twinkle Twinkle 'Killer' Kane"; novel rewritten, based on his subsequent screenplay, and reissued as "The Ninth Configuration")

SEVEN SAMURAI (directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1954; screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni and Shinobu Hashimoto)

FACE/OFF (directed by John Woo, 1997; screenplay credited to Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, with alleged additions by Wesley Strick, and, no doubt, Woo himself)

MILLER'S CROSSING (written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, 1990)

THE BURMESE HARP (directed by Kon Ichikawa, 1956; screenplay by Natto Wada, aka Mrs. Ichikawa)

THE WARRIORS (directed by Walter Hill, 1979; screenplay by Walter Hill and David Shaber, based on the novel by Sol Yurick)

NOTE: I included TV-movies and direct-to-video releases.

Alien
Amadeus
An American Tail
Animal Farm (1999)
Apollo 13
Babe: Pig in the City
Back to the Future
The Black Cauldron
Bringing Up Baby
A Clockwork Orange
Contact
Corrina, Corrina
The Crucible
Dangerous Beauty
Dead Poets Society
The Devil and Daniel Webster
The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca
Duck Soup
The Empire Strikes Back
Europa Europa
Ever After: A Cinderella Story
Fantasia
Faraway, So Close!
Fly Away Home
Forces of Nature
Gattaca
Glory
The Great Mouse Detective
Harvey
High Anxiety
House of Cards
In Pursuit of Honor
Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Jurassic Park
Kingdom of the Spiders
The Land Before Time
Lawrence of Arabia
A Little Princess (1995)
The Lost World (1915)
M
A Man For All Seasons
The Man Who Would Be King
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
North by Northwest
The Pit and the Pendulum (1991)
Planet of the Apes
Pleasantville
Psycho
Rear Window
Safehouse
The Searchers
The Secret Garden (1993)
The Secret of NIMH
Shakespeare in Love
The Shawshank Redemption
Silence of the Lambs
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Star Trek II
Star Trek VI
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Wars
Start the Revolution Without Me
The Straight Story
Titanic (you heard me!)
To Kill a Mockingbird
2001: A Space Odyssey
Unforgiven (1992)
Vertigo
White Fang
Wings of Desire
With Honors
Young Frankenstein

I refuse to limit this list, too! And I'm sure there are plenty I've forgotten.

James

The Sound of Music
The Birds
The Sixth Sense
Exorcist 3
Dressed To Kill
Village of the Damned (original)
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Carrie
Halloween
Gone With The Wind
Strangers On A Train
The Mummy
The Miracle Worker
The Producers
The Music Man

1. "Braveheart"
2. "The Ice Storm"
3. "American Beauty"
4. "The Truman Show"
5. "Pleasantville"

Okay, and my other favorites, in no particular order...

"Shawshank Redemption"
"Scarface"
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
"The Usual Suspects"
"Apollo 13"
"Dead Poet's Society"
Back to the Future trilogy
The Godfather trilogy
Indiana Jones trilogy
The Star Wars films

...there's got to be others, I just can't think of 'em right now...

--Jason S.

This supports something I have long suspected. Namely that Citizen Kane is widely respected but not anyone's favorite.

I asked a very good friend of mine for a top ten list of movies.

His list was---

Annie Hall
The Godfather 1 & 2
Shop Around the Corner
Duck Soup
Star Wars
Dr. Strangelove
The General
The Gold Rush
Bringing Up Baby

And I asked him, why mostly comedies? Where's Hitchcock or Kubrick or Altman (who he loves) and where's Citzen Kane?

He felt Hollywood's best stuff was comedy, that it did other things well but its comedies were its finest acheivement. He felt that none of these directors had made really major films in comparison to those on his list.

When it came to Kane, he said, "It's not that I don't like it or even love it. It's just that when I first heard about it, I was told, 'this is the best film ever made', and so I've never been able to think objectively about it." He said the same went for Ambersons which he said he was told that next to Kane was the best film ever made.

As for myself, I've had an odd love-hate relationship with Kane all my life. I was lucky to see Kane for the first time in 35mm in a theater at a young age when it could really work its visual magic on me--if I was too young to pick up on all the deeper layers, I knew right off that it looked great and looked unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

Where people first encountering Kane are usually given introductions about it that equate it to some precious museum piece, I found it to be a living breathing movie, quite funny in places, really enjoyable to watch. I think my friend really hit on something: if anything has hurt this film more, it's critics calling it such a classic or masterpiece that people forget it's also just a movie with lots of movie pleasures.

And, at least for a while, I found I could really see it over and over and have the story and other details grip me every time.

Then, sometime after I turned 30, a few years past the age that Welles made Kane, I began to see that it was in certain ways similar to student films I'd seen, that it really was a film by a 25 year old. Sometimes, it struck me as arty and self-conscious, always calling attention to itself as a movie in a way that could distract you from the tale. It didn't lose its power for me, but I had to integrate new feelings about it into my overall take on the film.

Now that I've seen a great number of films (though I'm sure the number is less than some on the board), I've simply found films I love more than Kane to include it in a top 10 list of my own favorites if I were to make one. Still, Kane and all of Welles, remain some of the most important viewing experiences of my life. I admire Kane, but I admire it less now than I've enjoyed it. However, I'm more likely to agree that both MWR and Rocco are right in their overall observations, that it isn't on favorite lists because people find other movies to love more.

For a while, I've wanted to resurrect this topic to see how everybody's list of favorite films has changed (as well as how their taste in cinema has changed or developed) and I also want to know the favorite films of other members here (Brian, Phillip, Graham, John, and the many other members). I like this topic. After a few responses, I'd like to post my own list (and MWRuger, Citizen Kane is in my top five...I enjoy the film immensely, I relish it and connect with it deeply...though I imagine an immense amount of people don't love it in the way I do, I do know that there are others that feel the same way...of course, you said this nearly three years ago). Okay, lets post our favorite films.

Best Regards,
Dylan

Wild Strawberries (dir. Ingmar Bergman)
The Conversation (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
L'avventura (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer)
L'atalante (dir. Jean Vigo)

I'd like to see some other people's new list...

Then:

Signs
Unbreakable
Final Destination
Ghostbusters
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Duel
Spaceballs
Star Trek: Generations
Groundhog Day
Pitch Black
Man On The Moon
Truman Show
Office Space
Nothing To Lost
The Fifth Element
Indiana Jones and the last cursade
JAWS
Austin Powers 1
Benny & Joon
Ghost
Sgt. Bilko (as you can tell i love comedy)
Titanic - I can stnad Jack and Rose to a extent. But look around them and realize the rest of the movie.
Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Pirates Of Silicon Valley (TNT movie)
That TNT movie with the guy who sells products door to door.
TNT makes some damn good movies. I loved POSV, which i wonder if is on DVD. I know it was on VHS. Saw it in a Wal-Mart.
Men In Black

Second place:
The Lost Boys
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Terminator 2
a sci-fi channel movie from years ago: Lazurus.
Bill & Ted's Excellant Adventure. Okay, so it's silly, but in a good way.
Wild Wild West (Will Smith)
Enemy Of The State
I guess Sayving Private Ryan and The Fugitive.
Mission: Impossible (inspite of the jokes (Like Leno) i got the plot.)

and sooooo maaaaaannnyyyy mooorreee.....

Philipp

Get Carter

Alfie

The Man Who Would Be King

The Godfather I & II

Stand By Me

Ice Cold In Alex

Spartacus

Goodfellas

Alien

Man Bites Dog

On Her Majestys Secret Service

The Birds

The Italian Job

King Kong (1933)

Zulu

Kes

The Unforgiven

Hook
Star Wars: Empire Strikes back
Life is Beautiful
Full Metal Jacket (actually anything by Stanley Kubrick is a goodie)
Billy Elliot
Stealing Beauty
The Fifth Element
Memento
Forrest Gump
Reality Bites
While you were sleeping
Trainspotting
In and Out
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
Dog Day Afternoon
The Virgin Suicides

In any case, here are the few from my earlier list that I would still retain on a new one:

Amadeus
Bringing Up Baby
A Clockwork Orange
Contact
Fantasia
Jurassic Park
The Land Before Time
A Little Princess (1995 version)
The Lost World (1925 version)
M
The Man Who Would Be King
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
North By Northwest
The Shawshank Redemption
Star Trek VI
The Straight Story
Vertigo
White Fang

It's astonishing to me that at the time of the original writing I still hadn't seen a single Terry Gilliam film. Anyway, here's what I have to add anew:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Balance
Brazil
Citizen Kane
Detour
Donnie Darko
Double Indemnity
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Koyaanisqatsi
The Maltese Falcon
More
Mumford
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Sleuth
Twelve Monkeys

I'm certain there are some I'm plum forgetting. I'll be sure to post anything that comes to mind.

I still get great "enjoyment" out of many films, and I can probably "appreciate" the really good ones more than ever (I watched ROSEMARY'S BABY again for the tenth time recently and thought it was still brilliant), but the gee-whiz factor is gone, and I don't think I'll ever be bowled over again by anything. Maybe I should stop hanging on to nostalgia and forge forward into new territories. For example, maybe I ought to try out some foreign schidt which I've always avoided.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Graham Watt:
-- Thanks, HP, but I've just grown happily grumpy. However, that means that I do see things from a different perspective now --

---

Exactly. Tastes change the older we get. If I had seen movies like THE MUMMY RETURNS and the remake of THE HAUNTING, let's say, 14 years ago, I would probably have loved both of them. It's sort of pity that the older one gets, the more insight one hopes to find in a movie. And when the movies have been around for some hundred years now, the storytellers have begun to run out of stories and ideas of telling them - so what can one do except to reunite with the nostalgia of old movies at their innocent best.

My most favorite movie of all time is (and will always be)

Disney's SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS.
I can't get enough of it. As a child I loved every snippet of the movie. As an adult I've grown to love the movie even more because of the incredible amount of the animated spectacular effects (created in good ol' handiwork), for example how a single candle's light fills a small room -- ahh, to think of all the incredible animation that Walt and his animators achieved over 65 years ago - it can only be described as pure magic. True, the movie's storyline may be a bit too simple, but in this very first animated classic Walt yet managed to create a perfectly functional wholeness - and that is what a good movie is all about: entertainment. And if that piece of entertainment manages to TOUCH one's heart, then the movie becomes a classic. SNOW WHITE is a Classic.

Other favorites of mine include (not in any specific order):

FINAL DESTINATION
ANASTASIA (1997 animated version)
SHALLOW GRAVE
DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (The best one of Hammer's series, IMHO)
TITANIC (1997)
TRAINSPOTTING
MOULIN ROUGE (2001)
Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY
THE OTHERS
Disney's HERCULES
EVER AFTER
THE ROCKETEER
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET
THE MUMMY (The original Universal horror classic)
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (The best of Roger Corman Poe movies)

...and so on.

- And by the way, THE KINGDOM OF SPIDERS reminded me of a particular television movie...

PETER BENCHLEY'S THE BEAST (...So, sue me - I LUVVVE squids !!)

KEN

2001
Schindlers List
Quest For Fire
The Bounty
The Ice Storm
AI
What About Bob
Man In The Wilderness
A River Runs Through It
Kundun
The Thin Red Line
Spirited Away
The Man Who Would Be King