#23 “Watch 50 of the Top 100 movies”

I love to watch movies…Nick and I have an extensive movie collection and probably watch three to four movies per week (on average).  Unfortunately, I have always felt that my repertoire of movies is somewhat lacking in quality, hence number 23 on my list, “Watch 50 of the Top 100 movies.”  I went to the American Film Institute to find out about their Top 100.  After reviewing the list, I then eliminated any movies I have seen more than once.  This meant that I nixed Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Godfather (Part I and II), The Wizard of Oz, It’s a Wonderful Life, Star Wars, The African Queen, E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial, West Side Story, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Sound of Music, M*A*S*H, Fantasia, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Silence of the Lambs, Forrest Gump, American Graffiti, Rocky, and My Fair Lady (I must say I was pretty surprised at how many I‘ve seen more than once…).  Then, I decided to eliminate any movies I’ve seen pretty recently and can remember really well, this cut out Fargo, The Deer Hunter, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  This meant that I needed to narrow down the 87movies left down to 50.  Here are the 50 I chose and the year they were released:


  1.  Citizen Kane (1941)
  2.  Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  3.  On the Waterfront (1954)
  4.  Schindler’s List (1993)*
  5.  Singin’ In the Rain (1952)
  6.  Sunset Boulevard (1950)
  7.  The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
  8.  Some Like it Hot (1959)
  9.  All About Eve (1950)
10.  Psycho (1960)*
11.  Chinatown (1974)
12.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
13.  The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
14.  2001:  Space Odyssey (1968)
15.  The Maltese Falcon (1941)
16.  Raging Bull (1980)
17.  Dr. Strangelove (1964)
18.  Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
19.  Apocalypse Now (1979)
20.  Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
21.  Annie Hall (1977)
22.  High Noon (1952)
23.  Midnight Cowboy (1969)
24.  The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
25.  Doctor Zhivago (1965)
26.  Double Indemnity (1944)
27.  North by Northwest (1959)
28.  Rear Window (1954)
29.  King Kong (1933)
30.  The Birth of a Nation (1915)
31.  A Street Car Named Desire (1951)
32.  A Clockwork Orange (1971)
33.  Taxi Driver (1976)
34.  Jaws (1975)
35.  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
36.  The Philadelphia Story (1940)
37.  From Here to Eternity (1953)
38.  Amadeus (1984)
39.  All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
40.  The Third Man (1949)
41.  Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
42.  Vertigo (1958)
43.  Tootsie (1982)*
44.  Stagecoach (1939)
45.  Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
46.  Network (1976)
47.  The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
48.  An American in Paris (1951)
49.  Shane (1953)*
50.  The French Connection (1971)
*These are movies I have seen, but don’t really remember them that well.

Now, I must admit that I’m not entirely thrilled that all of these movies are older than I am (by many years with the exception of Tootise).  We’ll see how this goes.  I’ll be sure to write my own review of each movie as I watch it.  The really cool thing is that after this, there will only be 37 movies left for me to watch of the Top 100.  Maybe that will be on my next list…:)

~Blevins - out!

3 comments:

Dave Greene said...
June 15, 2010 at 10:08 AM

Skip A Clockwork Orange. It is a disgustingly foul movie. trust me! I'm looking out for you. You could skip Midnight Cowboy, too.

Jennie said...
June 16, 2010 at 4:01 PM

Brenda, a bunch of other friends, and I tried to watch all 100 of these in high school. I thought I'd come away so enlightened. Turns out, I think critics are TERRIBLE at picking movies! ;)

We worked our way up from the bottom, got impatient, and ended up watching Citizen Kane. I won't ruin it for you!

Dave's right about A Clockwork Orange. Apocalypse Now is somewhat disturbing in a Lord of the Flies kind of way. (Or was that Platoon? Shoot...now I can't remember.)

I hope you enjoy it!

Anonymous said...
August 2, 2010 at 12:24 PM

We will have to compare notes, I have actually already seen a fair amount of the ones on your list (most recently Citizen Kane), but I have devoted myself to watching all of the list even if I have seen them before, the first one that I will be watching that I have seen multiple times though is Toy Story, I have a few of these movies if you would like to borrow as I won't be getting to them for a while...

Back to Home Back to Top Jennifer's Blog. Theme ligneous by pure-essence.net. Bloggerized by Chica Blogger.