Click here for the Honorable Mentions.
And #100-91.
And #90-81.
And #80-71.
And #70-61.
And #60-51.
And #50-41.
And #40-31.
And #30-21.
And #20-11.
Any top list ranking is subjective, and don’t let any other critic or movie watcher tell you differently. Movies are a personal experience, so know what you like, and rank using your criteria.
We’re finally HERE!! The Top 10. My subjective 10 greatest movies of all time. While there’s something universally great about these 10 films, for me, these 10 possess that “it” factor, that “special” something, that “wow” factor that the films above it are missing in some way. You all know yours when you see it. Below are mine.
| 10 | Saving Private Ryan (1998) |
| Yes there had been World War II movies before this Steven Spielberg masterpiece. But the minute Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) sets foot on Normandy Beach, all those movies were erased by what might be the single greatest scene in movie history. Employing guerrilla filmmaking, Spielberg plants the audience right there with Miller and his men as they try to take back France from the Nazi’s. You feel every splash of water, explosion, bullet, spray of blood, every scared kid screaming for their mom, exposed organs or heat from a flame thrower the amazing director wants you to feel, completely capturing your shock, awe, and attention as he gets into the meat of his story. And while that story isn’t 24 minutes of absolute movie perfection, it’s still an amazing tale about humanity and what fighting wars does to that humanity, with wonderful performances turned in by Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Ed Burns, Giovanni Ribisi, Barry Pepper, and Matt Damon, among many, amazing others. High schoolers will forever be affected by this film for years to come, and if they’re like me, will be so enthralled by what they witness they will find a way to pilgrimage to that spot to pay their respects to those brave souls fighting for the freedom of the free world. |
| 9 | Schindler’s List (1993) |
| Until this amazing movie came out, Steven Spielberg was the shark/dinosaur/alien guy in Hollywood, capable of delivering on the wow special effects, but incapable of telling a real, human story. Spielberg himself thought so too, waiting over a decade to make the movie. But that time emotionally preparing himself to deliver on the amazing story of Oskar Schindler was well spent, because Spielberg up & delivered the greatest movie about one of the darkest points in human history. In a Polish ghetto during WWII, Schindler (Liam Neeson) sees his opportunity to become a successful German businessman, employing the Jewish ghetto residents in his war profiteering. But as he witnesses the cruelty and terror of the Nazis, including the vile Amon Goth (Ralph Fiennes), Schindler turns his munitions manufacturing into a front to actually save as many Jews as possible from ending up in concentration camps. With this movie, Spielberg pulls off the near impossible: he takes what should be a horrible, unwatchable story about the Holocaust, and somehow finds a small glimmer of hope inside of it to play the movie more like a thriller with something to legitimately root for, while still showing how truly evil this attempted genocide was. It’s a balancing act Spielberg matured into, figured out, and delivered to the masses and submitted as his college student film to get his degree. Yikes for whomever had to follow that one up! |
| 8 | Minority Report (2002) |
| The run on all the all time Spielberg movies ends with this one, his best film. You heard me. Minority Report is a perfect science fiction film. The opening of the movie is a wonderfully entertaining entry into this new world, showing detective John Anderton (Tom Cruise) stopping a murderer…before they commit the actual act because of a group of precogs…special people who can predict the future. From there the amazing director puts all of his amazing entertainment directorial skills on display: futuristic car chases, a wickedly brilliant “escape” in a mall, amazing world building, unleashing a host of amazing character actors (Colin Farrell in his breakout, Max Von Sydow, Lois Smith, Samantha Morton among many others) who craft 1st ballot hall of fame characters on their resumes, and all of these amazing pieces serving a potent, well thought out science fiction story that has at least one twist that will make you gasp like I did when I first saw this. When I started ranking science fiction movies I had seen, I only had glowing, wonderful praise for this one, and it only grows with every rewatch. |
| 7 | Before Sunrise (1995) |
| A 20something guy and girl meet on a European train. After chatting, they get off a train in Vienna, and spend the night getting to know each other better. What unfolds is cinema’s greatest romance between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy). The two actors plus Richard Linklater/Kim Kazan’s script blur the line between fiction and reality, as all the conversations feel honest and normal for a young full of life adult on their own for the first time. All the amazing little moments: long unbroken bus rides, sharing a song in a record booth, a gorgeous Prater sunset, or a surprise restaurant phone conversation are those little moments that show the sparks flying between Jesse and Celine, emotionally sweeping me up in their connection. Watching the pair reach the depths of their emotional union is as riveting as any light saber battle, shootout, or spy thriller, because of how grounded and honest every moment feels. |
| 6 | The Godfather (1972) |
| The defining movie of the American film Renaissance of the 1970s. For all the movies about gangsters and mafia men, nothing approached the level of sophistication and brilliance as Francis Ford Coppola’s piece de resistance. The story is about the New York Based Corleone family, one of 5 families vying for power in 1940s NYC. Coppola’s tale is a shining example of all sorts of universal thematic tales: business affairs vs. personal affairs, absolute power corrupts absolutely, the power of family, Machiavellian thirst for power, etc. Coppola weaves all these themes, as well as many others, into a complex, exciting tale about Italian gangsters and the world they inhabit. Helping Coppola out is maybe the best cast of actors ever assembled: Talia Shire, Diane Keaton, John Cazale, Sterling Hayden, James Caan, Robert Duvall…would be amazing cast already, and I left out the stars! Marlon Brando created maybe the most imitated movie character ever, with his “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” Vito Corleone speaking in all his raspy wonder. And then there’s Al Pacino, who bears the entire emotional journey of the movie on his shoulders with class and talent beyond his young years. You fully believe the diametrically opposed Michael Corleone at the beginning of the movie is the same, terrifying one at the end, all thanks to Pacino’s wonderful performance. At this point, this film is an institution: a shining example of what happens when the perfect mixture of art and entertainment cohere seamlessly. |
| 5 | Psycho (1960) |
| Alfred Hitchcock showed up on my Subjective 100 many times. He’s on my Mount Rushmore of Directors with Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa, and Stanley Kubrick. Psycho is his masterpiece, a late career capper that trades his spectacle for bold, brilliant storytelling. Vivian Leigh plays Marion, a woman who commits an act of love…and crime, forced to go on the run. After terribly, narrowly escaping, she rests for the night at the Bates Motel, where she runs into the hotel manager, Norman Bates. What follows is a Master Class from the Master of Suspense. After giving us interesting glimpses into Marion and Norman’s inner life, the movie feels like it’s at peace, ready for a shower then bed. And then it happens…a scene so famous a whole movie is devoted to how it was constructed and executed, screeching violins and all. Hitchcock shows extreme confidence completely unmooring his movie at the halfway point, transitioning it into something else as our point of view shifts. More twists, and a magnificent chilling Anthony Perkins performance and you’ve got yourself a perfect thriller, and a template horror movies would copy but never surpass 18 years later. |
| 4 | Pulp Fiction (1994) |
| The 1990s movie renaissance reached its apex with this Quentin Tarantino tour de force. The movie seemingly follows many disparate, unrelated stories: hitmen (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta) retrieving a briefcase for their boss. a boxer (Bruce Willis) asked to throw a fight by a powerful gangster (Ving Rhames), and a couple (Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer) goes full vigilante and robs a diner. There’s also a heroin dealer (Eric Stoltz), a former TV actor (Uma Thurman), and the Wolf (Harvey Keitel) plus 10-20 more amazingly conceived and written characters by the brilliant Tarantino. Using an out of order structure, the movie sucks you in with its amazing characters you just want to hear talk, a twisty story that goes all sorts of directions, and a glue scene that ties the whole movie together like a warped gift. Tarantino boldly combined remixed movie ideas (a magical item) with more modern sensibilities (violence as a punch line to a joke) to craft the defining independent film of the decade, that would be imitated and emulated forever after. When you combine endlessly quotable, easygoing rewatchability, artistic creativity, bold storytelling, and amazing characters, you hit movie nirvana like Tarantino did here. |
| 3 | Toy Story 3 (2010) |
| The crowning achievement of Pixar’s animated storytelling. Even though Toy Story started it all, the third film takes us on an emotional journey only the greatest of stories can achieve. In this third installment, Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), and the rest of Andy’s toys are stuck in the toy chest: Andy’s grown up, and off to college. After a mishap at home, the toys end up at a daycare center, a seemingly ideal locale as no kid ever grows up. However, everyone soon finds that Lotso (Ned Beatty) the stuffed bear overseeing the toys, has turned the daycare into a prison, where Andy’s toys have to escape to get back in time for him to go to college. The joy of Toy Story 3 is how it finds the absolute perfect balance for entertainment between adults and kids. For kids, the prison escape stuff and interplay between the characters we love is totally enjoyable: Spanish Buzz Lightyear for the win! For adults, the minute the intro ends, the tone is set for basically the story of the complicated nature of what growing up is like. The movie builds beautifully to the final 30 minutes, which makes you feel all kinds of emotions: despair, nostalgia, euphoria, empathy, longing, a testament to the beautiful animation and screenplay. By the end, you feel you’ve grown up with Woody, Buzz, and experienced all the loving feelings that result from that ubiquitous experience. So long, partners indeed. |
| 2 | Requiem for a Dream (2000) |
| Despite the harrowing subject material, this should be mandatory viewing for any teenager on the precipice of trying drugs. Darren Aronofsky’s cautionary tale is about 4 drug users: heroin addicts Marion (Jennifer Connelly), Harry (Jared Leto), and Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and Harry’s Mother Sara (Ellen Burstyn), addicted to TV and weight loss medication. The miracle Aronofsky pulls off is making material this bleak pretty watchable. He uses very interesting cutting techniques to simulate the drug use first off. Then during the downtimes, Aronofsky uses various directorial flourishes to keep you from shutting off your movie: turning Burstyn’s experience into a horror movie, throwing in little thriller elements with Tyrone/Harry’s drug sales, and using this close up face cam for Marion after she’s forced into terrible, humiliating means to get her fix. The amazing but horrifying final 30 minutes of the movie hammer home the depths that become of a person who can’t escape that addiction spiral. Throw in “Lux Aeterna,” perhaps the most haunting song used on a movie soundtrack, and 4 amazing performances from our leads, and you have the movie version of a parable: drug abuse destroys everything and everyone in its path. |
| 1 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) |
| I saw this film at midnight, and sat until 4AM in the theatre, giddy from minute 1 to the end. The conclusion of Peter Jackson’s trilogy is the ultimate culmination of an amazing tale of heroes, evil, and bravery. At this point in the fantasy epic, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) are being escorted by Gollum (Andy Serkis) to Mordor to destroy the ring of power. However, Sauron is unleashing his full forces to stop Frodo at all costs. Coming to Frodo’s aid are a host of his supporters in the Fellowship, including Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and a host of men, elves, dwarves, ghosts, and whatever good creatures on Middle Earth are left. The Return of the King provides the emotional payoffs that the first 2 films were lacking, while also delivering on the action and epic storytelling at the same time. The battle of Pelennor Fields is a sight to see, featuring elephants, aerial attacks, and all sorts of enjoyable combat. Each character gets some sort of big moment, with the highlights being Sean Astin’s Sam and Andy Serkis’s Gollum, a marvel of a CGI creation that will win him a lifetime achievement award someday. The hero’s journey is a tale as old as time, and The Return of the King is as perfect an entry into that tale as you could ever make. Movies like the LOTR films are the reason I love writing reviews, and the reason I’m excited to go to the movies and share experiences like these with the people I love. |
Below I’ve included a little mini recognition section to honor some of the films above!
| Will Probably Drop Out | None of these are likely to leave the top 10 anytime soon. |
| The Newbie | The newest one was Before Sunrise, after a few iterations. The love story just makes me swoon with its brilliant writing and gorgeous locale. |
| Growing in Esteem | Toy Story 3 gets better every rewatch. It’s just a perfect film, great for everyone. |
| Needs a Rewatch | Haven’t seen (or needed to see) Requiem for a Dream in a bit, due to the heavy, heavy subject matter. But might be good to see if it holds up like I think it does, as a runner up to the greatest film of all time. |
| The Surprise | Most of these are pinnacles of their genres, but Minority Report isn’t. And I’m here to tell you to watch that movie again, and you’ll see why it deserves to be considered among the greatest sci-fi films ever made. |
How the Subjective 100 was made…
My process to get 100 films was as follows: go through each top 10 list from every movie year on my website, and pull the best movies of that year that might qualify for my all time list (number of films per year varies, depending on the quality of the year). I took that set of films, and put them into their respective genres (sci-fi, drama, horror, etc). From there the films in each genre got ranked against each other. Then I worked backwards, taking the worst film from each of the genres and ranking them based on my personal judgment. Once the worst film from a genre was used, it was discarded, and the next highest film was then ranked against the current set. This process was repeated until I exhausted the entire film list, creating the list you’ll see forthcoming.