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15) Vertigo
Considered by many to be Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, routinely placed right alongside such landmark films as Citizen Kane and Casablanca on the short list of greatest American films ever made, Vertigo offers up Alfred Hitchcock's work at its most tortured, a swirling and hazy cinematic experience that features one of the most compelling Jimmy Stewart performances ever to grace the screen. Here, Hitchcock pulls the strings like he never had before, telling this story of obsession and transformation with some of his very best directorial flourishes. Building an ominous tone, heightening the drama with each scene, and ramping up the intensity by, of all things, revealing the core plot twist only halfway through the film, Vertigo easily earns a place among the great films ever made.
-- Eric San Juan
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14) Raiders Of The Lost Ark
I have only seen this movie once. I was a child. The only thing I remember from this film was faces melting. I probably cried. And then I forgot everything about it. In fact, I'm not quite sure I'm thinking of the right movie. I should probably see it again, right? Screw it - nobody gets their heart ripped out.
--John Felix
I remember the rolling ball of doom. I also remember Saddam Hussein (or whoever) going all postal with the Prince of Persia blade before Han Solo busts a cap in his ass straight gangsta like. Oh and Nazis. Oh yeah, and the Atari 2600 game was tits too, yo.
-- Shawn McLoughlin
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13) Seven Samurai
Take a look at any action movie of the last 50 years, and you’ll finds hints of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Seven Samurai, an epic slice of historical fiction that created the template with which action is presented. But the legendary director’s cinematic landmark isn’t hailed as one of the greatest movies ever made simply because the action is good. Not at all. It makes the list because as a whole, it’s better than almost anything else out there. The characters, their faces, the deliberate way the tale unfolds, Kurosawa’s masterful shot composition, Toshiro frickin’ Mifune– these are the things that make this one of the greatest films ever made.
-- Eric San Juan
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12) Rear Window
Rear Window is a remarkable thriller that doesn’t even need to leave the room it’s set in to keep you riveted from start to finish. It's that good. L. B. Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart) is a photographer stuck in a wheelchair after an accident. Aside from occasional visits by his girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), and his nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter), Jefferies is alone in his apartment. Alone and restless. Left to his own devices, he wastes away scorching hot summer days watching his apartment complex neighbors through his camera’s zoom lens, peering into their world – and by extension, offering the viewer a score of tiny little stories that breathe life into the small world created for film. And that's where Rear Window shines. Director Alfred Hitchcock (with one of an amazing three films to crack our top 20 list) piles on the suspense, building the tension piece by piece. That he manages to sustain the interest over two hours despite never leaving Stewart’s apartment is an astonishing cinematic accomplishment.
-- Eric San Juan
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11) Singin’ In The Rain
Is it the music? Yes. Is it the plot? Somewhat. Is it the dancing? Most definitely. But what really makes Singin' In The Rain stand out some 50 years since its debut is the characters. From the crazy-voiced Lina Lamar, to the crazy-eyed Cosmo, all the characters are understood. Each actor takes their cue from each other and escalates their own character beyond the performance they could reach individually. Truly the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts here. The titular song shows just how in love Gene Kelly's Don really is. Kelly's emotion flows through his body and right out his toes as he leans from that famous light-post, where by the end, Don's head really is high and dry out of the rain!
-- Jeremy Bloss
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10) Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
I don’t really consider myself a huge fan of the Star Wars saga (although I am a relatively big one), but there is no denying their appeal. If you are an outsider who wouldn’t know Boba Fett from Bib Fortuna, The Empire Strikes Back is your answer to why the series has staying power. Few things were more awe-inspiring as a child than watching the snow battle, when the massive AT-AT Walkers destroy the Rebellion’s station on the ice planet Hoth, or the introduction of the absurdly expressional and realistic Yoda. Even the cliffhanger ending, in which nothing good happens to any of the heroes, had this great sense of finality. Empire is a film that offers a different experience watching as a kid, a teen, and an adult, but at no time is it anything less than great.
-- Shawn McLoughlin
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9) GoodFellas
Without question, GoodFellas is director Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus in a career rich with spectacular filmmaking. Say what you will about The Godfather, GoodFellas is the finest mafia movie ever committed to celluloid. While The Godfather saga gave us a tapestry of slightly fictionalized tales from a mob family in its golden age, a family at the top of the food chain, GoodFellas takes a grittier, more street-level approach. And it’s a true story, to boot. We see the story of a common mob foot-soldier, a “wiseguy,” in its own epic and grand scale. This is a story of the mafia’s swan song, encapsulated in the main character of Henry Hill. Through Hill, Scorsese shows us all of the short-lived promise and short-sighted optimism of organized crime as it begins its rapid fall to self-destruction and irrelevance. Scorsese has never been better, and his assembled cast is more than up to the job of taking this story to marvelous heights. It should also be noted that Marty, always well known for his love for, and exquisite use of, pop and rock music, again hits the absolute perfect note in his choice and placement of songs, both in setting the tone as we glide through the decades and commenting on what we are seeing and feeling on screen.
-- Larry Phillips
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8) 2001: A Space Odyssey
In 1968, science fiction wasn’t taken very seriously. And there was no reason it should have been. Everything that came out was either based around fear of nuclear war or space aliens – often both. Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey changed a lot of what people thought about sci-fi by focusing more on the science than on the fiction. You don’t watch 2001, you experience it. In its well over two-hour running time there is roughly 40 minutes of dialogue; the rest of the time you hear classical music ... or silence. The music is actually more important than any of the actors, more prevalent than in any musical. It truly moves the film. Kubrick's masterpiece stood out by being intentionally ambiguous about its message. In a genre that too often smites the viewer with its point of view, it is rewarding to see that, at one time, there was respect for the audience's intelligence. I don’t think even Arthur C. Clarke, who penned the novel and co-wrote the film, had any clue what this film would mean to all of cinema.
-- Shawn McLoughlin
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7) North By Northwest
For action, adventure, humor, and some of the most charismatic leads Hollywood has ever seen, look no further than Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest, a film that only gets better with repeated viewings. Watch it even once and you’ll know why fans are fans for life. The ride that is North By Northwest never stops moving forward. The pace, while never so frantic as to leave you breathless, does not let up. Hitchcock throws Cary Grant into one bad situation after another, layering the action with just enough character moments and well-placed humor to keep things moving along briskly. He never, ever fails to entertain during the whole ride. It’s entirely mainstream, and perfect because of it. It’s a film of pure, unadulterated entertainment, fun, funny and full of adventure, all crafted with the kind of technical bravado only Hitch could pull off.
-- Eric San Juan
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6) Casablanca
Written, produced and shot as just another movie from Warner's factory of films, fate all but created the Casablanca we've come to know and love. With a budget as low as the studio’s expectations, it’s as though chaos created this gold standard of film. The film’s themes of impossible triangles are set up beautifully, with the constant struggles between love and duty, devotion and passion, morality and desire driving the whole thing forward. Be it Rick deciding whether he will betray Victor Lazlo or lie to Renault, Renault battling with his allegiance to either France or the Reich, and finally, the most important, Ilsa deciding between Rick and Victor, struggling with decisions rules the day. Each role is perfect. Only Bogart can bring the level of cynicism, toughness and vulnerability this role requires, while Bergman portrays the aloofness, melancholy, and mystique of her character without being in-your-face. The final moments feature betrayal, redemption, murder, love, and failure. A better ending has not been written. Bottom line: Casablanca is a legend because it earned it.
-- Hardcore Legend
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5) Lawrence Of Arabia
Lawrence Of Arabia is big. Really big. It defines epic in a way few other films do. Yet despite its size – sprawling desert vistas, massive battles, a story that spans miles and a four-hour running time are this film’s hallmarks – director David Lean manages to keep this cinematic experience grounded in people, telling a very personal and very human story about one man’s journey through the expansive world not of the desert, but of his mind. Lean is aided by the stunning performance of Peter O’Toole, who burns with ego, confusion, discovery, depression, and megalomania. Through their genius, not to mention great turns by Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, and Alec Guinness, Lawrence Of Arabia walks the line between epic and personal with spectacular results.
-- Eric San Juan
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4) The Godfather
Marlon Brando was a goddamn god. Al Pacino is (er, was) a goddamn god. The Godfather is one of the goddamn best gangster films ever. Hell, it's one of the best films ever, period, regardless of genre. You’ve probably seen it. Who hasn't? Like all of us, you remember the landmark moments; the awesome (and real) horse head and the tragedy of the exploding car. Pacino's shooting in the restaurant. So instead of dissecting it, here’s a list of just a few films we enjoy that could only exist because of The Godfather: Once Upon A Time In America, GoodFellas, Mean Streets (and damn near every other Scorsese film), The Godthumb (actually, fuck that), The Kid Stays In The Picture and most importantly, The Godfather Part II. This Thanksgiving, give thanks to the Corleones. Without them the face of modern cinema would be a lot different.
-- Shawn McLoughlin
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