H O M E

Yeah, I know...lists of great films like the ones that the AFI gleefully churns our every year are meaningless.  Nevertheless, the lists are, to quote Inspector Clouseau, "part of the rich pageantry of life".  Wise words, indeed!

I guess I should lay out my own ground rules in terms of criteria that, for cryin' out loud, makes a film one of MY "greatest" of all time.  Its real simple:  Its an ostensibly subjective call on my part - these are films that I have responded to in a powerful and intimate way.  I am not making this list for someone else.  Rather, I am making this list for myself and these are films that I think transcend the art form and speak strongly for themselves.

I think all of my picks have strong, individual merits on their own.  Another thing that I have tried to do is to not overlook certain genres.  There is nothing more dull, bloated, and meaningless than a greatest film list that has nothing but fantasy films or nothing but dramas.  Thus, I have tried to be broad in my picks to spice it up and add that much needed element of variety.  My picks range from the classics of the 1940's to modern day, contemporary blockbusters.  Just because a film is one of the highest grossing of all-time does not preclude that it has no right to occupy a place on my list.  Hell, some of the BEST films of all-time have made huge bank!

Furthermore, I am not going to place films on my list purely because they are influential.  Some, yes, have proven themselves enormously influential in the history of cinema.  Films like BIRTH OF A NATION (a film that spawned modern filmmaking techniques and storytelling) and BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (which pioneered revolutionary editing) are no doubt great and influential films,  but they will not have a spot on my list just so I can sound scholarly and pompous.  They just did not have that same level of emotional attachment that the films on my list have.

In short, these are films that are not only great, but ones that I personally cherish.

So, without further adieu...LET THE OBLIGATORICAL DRUM ROLL GO...here we go...my list in RANDOM ORDER:

Okay, just kiddin'.  Hell, even if Jennifer Garner was in it...

My single favourite performance by an actor ever is the one by the late, great Jimmy Stewart in this 1946 Christmas fantasy.  Stewart's George Bailey is the ultimate everyman hero in this film: old-fashioned, warm-hearted, sensitive, sympathetic, and endearing.  Its especially heartbreaking to see his character plummet into the pits of despair in the film's final act, because nothing in the light-hearted first half of the film prepares you for how down-trodden Bailey becomes, tip-toeing on the brink of suicide.  Its a performance of impressive range and Stewart paints a portrait of a man that is as likeable of any of the silver screen's heroes.  IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is an American classic that is corny, inspirational and heartwarming.  I never grow tired of watching this perennial film, and the career defining work of Stewart here is its crowning achievement.

CrAiGeR's

Robert DeNiro's now famous transformation into legendary middleweight boxing champ Jake LaMotta is one of the greatest of all screen performances, and it occupies the best film of the 1980's, Martin Scorcese's masterpiece RAGING BULL.  In probably Scorcese's most confident and self-assured work,  DeNiro tackles the difficult and complex role with fierceness, determination, and animalistic power as he portrays the conflicted boxer throughout several decades of his life.  Beautifully shot in black &white, with some of the finest boxing footage ever captured, RAGING BULL emerges as a classic story of a man trying to grip with his own inner jealousies that nearly destroys not only his career, but life as well.

CrAiGeR's

Yes, director Steven Spielberg has made more important films, but RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK remains his most innocent and consistently watchable film.  Its one of those rare screen gems that is so pitch perfect in all ways.  What Spielberg, creator George Lucas, and star Harrison Ford have carved out with this action classic is a sly, droll, sophisticated, and whimsical homage to the B grade adventure serials of the 1930's, and every scene captures the aura of those shorts so effortlessly.  Its also made with impeccable taste and a good eye for suspense and action, and Ford stands atop it all by creating the greatest screen action hero of the last thirty years.  RAIDERS is one of the all-time great swashbuckler adventure films that only hopes to simply thrill and entertain and never fails in its quest.

Very few "first films" have ever shown such a command and expertise of the visual language of the cinema as much as Orson Welles did with CITIZEN KANE.  The film has made several "best of all time lists" for decades, and rightfully so.  KANE is a film widely ahead of its time, which incorporated both old and new, groundbreaking techniques to tell its ageless story of one young man's ascend to wealth and power and his eventual emotional downfall.  No film has ever used light, shadow, and beautiful black & white photography better to create mood and tension.  Its absolutely amazing to think that the film was made by a then first time director whose only experience existed on the radio and stage.  CITIZEN KANE is a masterpiece of  human drama that seems so effortless in its production, but always a stirring and complex watch even after multiple viewings.

CrAiGeR's

If there ever was a film that could be rightfully described as hypnotically enigmatic and ambiguous it would surly be Stanley Kubrick's 2001.  30 years later, and having seen it probably twenty times, I still cannot discern concretely what it is trying to say.  But that is precisely what the film's timeless and everlasting allure is all about.  The film was a landmark of special effects ten years before STAR WARS burst onto the scene and is still convincing even today (very few films have aged as well as this one).  But the real heart of this film's grandeur is in its NON-NARRATIVE, almost eerie and poetic style in which it tells the story not so much with great dialogue and characters, but with images, sound, and masterful editing.  The film's meaning is that it has no meaning and it challenges audiences in ways modern films don't dare to.

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 1 (tie)

There is no other film in the history of the medium that is a better piece of escapist entertainment then George Lucas' sci-fi space fantasy STAR WARS.   Lucas's love of the old science fiction adventure serials of the 1930's like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon is ever present in his own unique universe in Star Wars.  What's truly amazing about the film is what a real out-of-body experience it is - the world Lucas creates for us is rich and dense, where something always occupies even the tiniest corner of the screen, and its this broad scope that makes the audience feel like they are a part of the universe that Lucas has created, and it works on us in so many different ways.  Lucas' genius lies in the fact that his film feels completely fresh and original, yet strangely familiar at the same time.  He cleverly creates his own worlds, characters, and mythologies and amalgamates and appropriates real life historical and mythological archetypes with them.  That's why the film has never aged a day and is never is a boring watch.  I defy anyone to name a film that so encapsulates its audience and thrills and entertains them in the same ways Star Wars does.  Its simple and mindless like the old serials, with clearly defined notions of good and evil, but it also creates a universe and unique mythology that rivals the works of Tolkein before it.  Not only that, it has the best opening shot in film history.

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 2

Is this the best Vietnam War film ever made?  Probably not, but it is one of the most surreal, haunting, and strangely poetic of all the films about the war.  Loosely based of Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS,  what director Francis Ford Coppola has done is take that novel's premise and turn it into a weird and modern metaphor for the war itself (this is not a film about a trip up the jungle, but a trip into Vietnam itself).  There has been much criticism of the film over the years as being a misguided, unfocused, and undisciplined film where the eccentricities of its director outweigh the message the film is trying to say.  The film does not have any neatly defined messages and speeches that preach on the horrors of war itself,  The film is evocative and sparse at the same time, showing us  everything while saying nothing.  Its as close to an existentialist war film as I have ever seen, and its closing scenes with Marlon Brando are masterpieces of monosyllabic, yet tense and restrained acting.  The raid on the Vietnamese village still remains one the best sustained action scenes of all time.

CrAiGeR's

Forget THE GODFATHER, Brain DePalma's epic, foul,  and blood-drenched exploration into Cuban exiles turned criminals is the best gangster picture of all time.  It also feature Al Pacino's best and most broad performance of his career as Tony Montoya, a Cuban exile who starts with nothing and emerges as a drug kingpin of the Southern US.  His performance is one of the great balancing acts between mannered and hyperactive over-acting and restrained ferocity.  He may be over-the-top, flamboyant, and incredibly evil and violent, but Pacino achieves the impossible: he makes Montoya human and a mobster we can identify with, in some sort of crazy and horrific way.  SCARFACE remains an original, a film that's big, bold, stylish, exciting, tense, and wonderfully scripted and acted.  Its also capable of being as funny as hell at times too. 

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 3

I don't know why I relate to this film so much.  After all, it takes place in an era that I was not a part of (the early years of the sixties).   Yet, the film works splendidly as a wonderful coming of age film that is populated by real characters that the audience can relate to.  It also represents one of George Lucas' more personal works, largely inspired by his life as a teenager cruising the streets of his home town in Modesto, California.  Its shot largely low key and improvisational with a low budget and the feel of a documentary film (and it feels real).  It was one of the first films to utilize a soundtrack of hit songs (something that's in overuse today), but it also does a masterful job of interweaving multiple storylines decades before Quentin Tarrantino had a crack at it.  What emerges is a film that has a quiet and subtle power, a visual travel log into the past that may seem foreign to some, but resonates in important ways to others.  No other film has captured period youth so well.

THE WIZARD OF OZ is really the first big budget fantasy film and it remains one of the best family films of all time and a classic.  Its really an offbeat combination of small town characters, with the classic elements elements of fantasy (witches, far away kingdoms, etc) with musicals ( some of the most memorable numbers are found in this film) with a simple story of family and values.  Its truly amazing what a large canvas that the film is painted on, and its a bold achievement in filmmaking, even for its time.  Sure, some of the effects seem stiff today and the film is largely innocent and lighthearted, but its the type of film that Hollywood gave up decades ago.  Its a film that is a representation of a bygone time, a Golden Age period film done in glorious Technicolor and a picture that's told in that bold and spectacular way that we have forgotten.  Its a wonderful blend of comedy, music, special effects, and excitement, headed by the great Judy Garland, in her greatest role.  This is why the film has such universal appeal.

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 1 (tie)

Yet another film from the great Martin Scorcese makes my list, as RAGING BULL was the best film of the 1980's, Scorcese's masterpiece of loneliness and isolation is the best film of the 1970's, and solidified Robert DeNiro as the finest actor of his generation.  The film's anti-hero - Travis Bickle, is one of the most alienating and troublesome characters ever put on screen.  Despite the character being bottled up in his own depression, desperation, and inner pathos, viewers still can connect with him.  The difference is, we are (I think) capable of dealing with our own inadequacies better than Bickle.  TAXI DRIVER is about anger, resentment, jealousy, and how one man's own inadequacies and flaws cannot find peace in a world that he despises.  Its one of the best films about alienation ever made, and DeNiro is its cool, disconnected center.  His speech to himself in front of the mirror, as he prepares to assassinate a Presidential candidate, is one of cinema's great (and chilling) monologues.

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 5

This is (and still remains) the greatest of all screen comic book adaptations.  It was a careful balancing act of being faithful to the source material while making the character fresh for modern audiences.  The one thing that this film does (that most modern comic adaptations do not) is to invest heart and emotion into its characters.  SUPERMAN is clearly a godlike figure among men, but he is vulnerable because of his earthly emotions.  All the credit needs to be given to the then unknown Christopher Reeve, who handles the dual role perfectly.  As Superman he's the epitome of strength and resolve, and as Clark Kent he proves to be (amazingly) an effective, light comic foil to himself.  This adventure film never grows old.

CrAiGeR's

Elia Kazan's masterpiece of mob corruption still resonates today, largely because of its great screenplay, tense visual style, and, of course, that brilliantly mannered performance by Marlon Brando.  Along with A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Brando's performance here as Terry Malloy was a watershed, and it can be argued that there was no more influential screen performance than his work here.  With WATERFRONT (and STREETCAR) Brando cut through and dismantled decades of wooden, stiff, and lifeless acting and developed a mannered style that was fresh, loose, and real.  His performance in WATERFRONT ushered in a new era of screen acting, and its a small consolation prize that the film is also a masterpiece of style and mood, and who could ever forget Brando's virtuoso speech to his brother in the back seat of that Taxi (arguably, the most imitated speech of all time).

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 3

No matter where you stand on the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, there's no denying the power of Oliver Stone's 1991 career-high work.  Its an amazingly complex and dense film and that hurdles by in its three hour plus time frame.  What we are left with is a unique film that spares no time whatsoever in allowing its author to have his voice heard.  The film is also virtuoso in the way it mixes techniques: Stone uses everything at his disposal here, from 35mm to 8mm film stock, archival footage, recreation footage, black and white and color photography.  The end result is a beautiful mosaic and disturbing film about a dark period in America's past, and its Stone's most accomplished, complete, and flawless work.

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 1

Okay, another Scorsese film on the list.  Tedious, you say?  Hardly.  GOODFELLAS is Scorsese's mob epic and the best film of the nineties.  The film chronicles the rise and fall of real life mobster Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta, in the performance that he has still not topped) and just may be one of the best true stories and mafia films ever made.  The film is a benchmark to which all other similar-themed films should be judged against, and its Scorsese's complete command of the material that makes the film such a success.  Its as compelling and entertaining as any mob film that I have watched and is a masterpiece of editing and visual composition.  You wanna see direction at its best, look no further than the scene where Henry Hill takes his girlfriend to a rear exit to a nightclub.  Scorsese achieves the remarkable here:  he uses camera work to convey the power of his characters.   Its an amazing motion picture accomplishment.

If you think I am nuts to put this film on my list, then you've "picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!".  AIRPLANE! is not only the funniest film I have ever seen, it also helped spawn a genre that, unfortunately, has had mixed results.  Influences aside, the film's a complete original, and nothing really in American comedy before it came close to matching its absurd combination of over-the-top jokes, sightgags, sharp satire, and overall farcical silliness.  No other comedy has matched this film's consistent laugh rate, not to mention its pitch perfect madcap tone.  Its a film that does not serve to tell a story or have interesting characters. Rather, it exists  purely on a level to make the audience laugh, and its never been topped.   The film always is funny, even after twenty viewings.  Surly I can't be serious about this being on my list?  Of course I'm serious, and "don't call me Shirley!"

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 6

This is probably Stanley Kubrick's most violent and powerful work, and just may be his most important.  It takes a glimpse into an unforgettable Orwellian future of nightmarish hooligans and ultra-violence.  Even after over thirty years this masterpiece still maintains its freshness (and overall relevance) as a savage  social satire not only on street and youth violence, but on the political landscape that allows for this to happen.  Malcolm McDowell has never been more exuberant and pathological than in his performance as the cheerful sociopath droog Alex, who after being caught and convicted of murder is used as a guinea pig in a governmental experiment to brainwash criminals to be mindless and docile citizens.  What's more revolting: the actions of the murderous Alex or those of the seemingly uncaring government officials?  The film challenges this notion and asks the viewer to probe for their own answers.  And SINGIN' IN THE RAIN just was not the same after this film. 

CrAiGeR's

FIELD OF DREAMS, ironically, is the best sports film ever made, despite the fact that there's no big game at the end and none that involves characters overcoming the odds to be successful.  It is the best film about what sports means to people, though.  What it does in so many poetic and quietly nostalgic ways is to use the sport of baseball and its near mythic status in America as a subtle backdrop of a simple father/son story.  Its a weird combination of new age mysticism, sports, and warm and funny characters.  Costner does his best, most earnest and honest work here as an Iowa farmer who follows the most unlikely source on a journey that eventually leads to his own inner redemption.  Its whimsical, funny, poignant, and deeply touching at the same time, and James Earl Jones gives one of the all-time great monologues that achieves at encapsulating just how much a part of our cultural landscape the game of baseball has become.  Even after seeing it countless times, the final line of dialogue in the film still chokes me up, and just may be the only film ever that can make men cry.

Ridley Scott's daring and visually epic 1982 science fiction masterpiece may just be the finest and boldest portrayal of the future ever made.  From its opening shots of a decayed 2019 Los Angeles to its expansive shots of the cityscapes and the overpopulated world that lies below it, BLADE RUNNER creates one of the more unique worlds in modern cinema.  Its combination of brilliant special effects, film noir cinematography, and simple and straight-forward Phillip Marlowe-esque plot and characters makes this film a milestone work, one where every film about the future that followed it tried to emulate.  All this, and one of the best musical scores of the 1980's provided by Vangelis.

CrAiGeR's

Still, for my money, the best and most insidiously  funny political satires of all time, and it features the incomparable work of cinema's greatest comedic talent - Peter Sellers - playing three roles!  This is  cinema's finest  dark comedy and, aside from Sellers, George C. Scott delivers one of the funniest supporting performance ever as General Buck Turgidson, advisor to the President and overall nutjob.  Aside from its obvious and intended comedy, Kubrick essentially created the best satire of the century, which had the fortitude (at the heart of the Cold War) to say that, hey, what's the point of both the US and Russia having weapons that could destroy the entire planet.  The film proves that, with all great send-ups and satires, some sort of relevant social commentary needs to exist.  Scott has one of the funniest lines of understatement ever.  When the President accuses Scott of understating the losses that the US would have if nuclear war broke out, Scott deadpans, "Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

CrAiGeR's

RANK: # 2

This is the most recent film to make my list because, quite frankly, it was such a radical departure for modern cinema in its brilliant non-linear storytelling, well-realized characters, and that fantastic and fresh dialogue that makes director/writer Quentin Tarantino the heir of David Mamet.  No film before PULP FICTION was quite like it, and I love the way it humanized the criminals and crooks and made them real people that talked about real issues and things; they were not just one-dimensional cardboard cutouts.  Violent, funny, unpredictable and stylish, PULP FICTION is a modern underworld classic that even manages to find time to explore themes of redemption.  Is this film (along with GOODFELLAS) one of the best of the 1990's?  Answer: Correctomundo!

CrAiGeR's

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is a bold work of epic genius.  When one thinks of epic, this film inevitably always seems to come to mind.  David Lean's sprawling masterwork (the best of his career) not only is one of the best historical dramas ever, but represents a milestone work of an unforgettable screen character in T.E. Lawrence (played in Peter O' Toole's most famous performance).  Sweeping, epic, and literate, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is not just a biography of a determined soldier.   It shows how one man's passion and willingness can make him truly divine.  And no one films vistas the way Lean did.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY is the most stylish western ever made, and it cemented Clint Eastwood's status as an icon of the genre as the 'man with no name'.  Filmed with panache, energy and whimsicality by the great Sergio Leone, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY stands as a unique vision that only resonates better with repeated viewings.  Its really the only true quintessential western.  Most  others seem lifeless and stiff.  Eli Wallach plays one of the most unscrupulous characters ever, and his crazy and paranoid crook is an effective foil to the cool and underplayed charisma of Eastwood.  And Ennio Morricone's score is one of the best scores ever.

TOP SECRET! is the second funniest film I have ever seen and was made by the mad geniuses that gave us AIRPLANE!  Whereas AIRPLANE was a send up of disaster pictures, TOP SECRET! even goes deeper into the satirical closet, lampooning Elvis musicals, prisoner of war films, and even has time for THE BLUE LAGOON and The Beatles's first appearance on Ed Sullivan.  If AIRPLANE! did not exist, this would be the most consistently silly, goofy, and unrelentingly funny film ever.  Its just so moronic and stupid that its impossible not to laugh.  So many scenes inspire endless laughter, and Val Kilmer is the best sport of all in his first staring role.  It also has the most hilarious, self-aware lines in movie history when Kilmer (Nick Rivers) pleads with the female lead Hillary: Nick Rivers: Listen to me Hillary. I'm not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground.  Hillary: I know. It all sounds like some bad movie.  They both then look embarrassingly into the camera.

Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror film just may be one of the most atmospheric and scary thrill rides ever.  Sure, it spawned a series of mindless sequels (ALIENS excluded, of course), but this first film in the series remains its finest entry.  What it does so successfully that the subsequent films in the series (and most modern thrillers) don't is that it realizes that the most scary and nerve-wrenching things are what we don't see.  The film is all about the perception of the antagonist...we never really get a good look at it until the final ten minutes.  That's a wise choice, because the film that results is a textbook exercise in deeply rooted fear.  You'll never look at a man with chest pain at the dinner table the same way again without thinking of John Hurt.