Re-Ranking the AFI Top 100 Films

Re-ordering the 100 films selected by the American Film Institute in 2007

In 2007 I watched a special with my family that ranked the 100 greatest American movies of all time. I thought it would be cool to watch all of them so I could act like a true film connoisseur. So from the time I saw Toy Story in theater as my first movie in 1995 through to buying a digital copy of Nashville on Amazon last week, I managed to complete it. And what’s the point of all that if I can’t entertain the masses with a Medium article?

This list is full of movies that are deemed “culturally or historically significant” so you might correctly read that as not watcher-friendly. But for the most part, the movies were pretty enjoyable. I don’t remember a lot of them that well, and there’s no real criteria for the ranking, although rewatchability and initial reaction are the primary factors. And since I’ve paid to see every Transformers movie in theaters, I consider myself an expert.

Some movies don’t have any comments, because I couldn't think of anything to say and this took a lot longer than I thought.

Original rankings in parentheses

100. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) (#67)

Take two unhappily married couples, put them together late at night, and get them drunk. What happens? Nothing but arguments, yelling, and cheating. Each character is worse than the next, and you want nothing more for them to stop talking. And their talking? Barely understandable, fast-paced beyond standards of conventional conversation, and incredibly mean-spirited. But the story came the theater so it must be good! This movie is renowned for the simple fact that they make Elizabeth Taylor look rundown, and she won an Oscar for it. Stupid movie doesn’t have anything to do with Virginia Woolf either.

99. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) (#47)

Ah, another story from the stage about an unhappy relationship! I recently used this movie as a hint to get a trivia question right, because I knew the movie took place in New Orleans.

98. Sunset Blvd. (1950) (#16)

I just remember being uncomfortable with the old lady the whole time.

97. All About Eve (1950) (#28)

Female stars in old Hollywood must have been pretty cutthroat. Very predictable that Anne Baxter was going to become the star, somehow people in the movie didn’t see that coming.

96. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) (#42)

I think Roger Ebert called this something like the first modern movie because of its violence or style. Just didn’t do it for me.

95. The Graduate (1967) (#17)

It recently came to my attention that Mike Nichols directed this and Virginia Woolf! Remember- he’s a genius because there’s no real ending to this movie! By and large, late 60's and 70's movies on this list are very stylistic and not so heavy on the stories. Hate that. No offense to Simon and Garfunkel, it’s a good soundtrack.

94. A Clockwork Orange (1971) (#70)

This has to be the most disturbing watch on this list, and I really didn’t see the appeal. Maybe I was too young or something, but watching a sexual assault and torture is not what I look for in my movies. Also, I think it takes place in the future, and it has to be the least accurate/interesting future in movies. They just dress like mimes and beat up homeless people.

If they needed another Kubrick film, Paths of Glory would have been a better choice.

93. Midnight Cowboy (1969) (#43)

Most well known for “I’m Walking here” and being the movie rated ‘X. ’ For those of those you thinking it’s that type of movie, don’t get your hopes up. They got separate movie stores for those movies. At one point he casually hooks up with a New York socialite, then asks for money afterwards for his service. Didn’t work, but you gotta admire the hustle.

92. The Searchers (1956) (#12)

John Wayne is overrated.

91. Intolerance (1916) (#49)

It’s a 3 and half hour long silent movie that attempts to tie in four stories over history. Safe to say it is pretty difficult to keep up with.

90. Taxi Driver (1976) (#52)

When DeNiro finally does his vigilante move and kills all the bad guys working at the brothel, it’s not even remotely satisfying. Maybe the miserable feeling was the goal, but I found all the pointless driving around a waste of time.

And now for a little screwball comedy rapid fire:

89. The Philadelphia Story (1940) (#44)

Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant are in it and I don’t remember liking it, so that’s not a great sign.

88. Bringing Up Baby (1938) (#88)

Bringing Up Baby was a more recent watch, and man is it stupid. Cary Grant has devoted his life to an archaeological project, then continually gets duped by Katherine Hepburn. He literally does the opposite of what he wants the whole time, but that sure means plenty of hijinx! At one point the leopard (Spoiler: Baby is a leopard) follows him down the street. Of a city. And also spoiler: he falls madly in love with this woman who ruined his life and doesn’t even care when his project is ruined by her.

87. Sullivan’s Travels (1941) (#61)

The lesson of this movie is that there are people who live terrible lives, but entertainers make their lives better. The movie-making community has always been known for its humbleness.

86. Nashville (1975) (#59)

If anybody knows the point of this movie, please let me know. Lot of characters, lot of stories, and nothing really happens except a character gets shot for no apparent reason. Lily Tomlin won an Oscar and her character doesn’t do much except stare at Keith Carradine. The Nazi from Blues Brothers is in it.

85. Cabaret (1972) (#63)

Speaking of Nazis, this movie would have been better if they were more involved. Another movie where nothing really happens. Joel Grey won an Oscar over Pacino, Caan, and Duvall from the godfather.

I listened to Maybe This Time so much on Spotify after I watched it that I got worried it would be too high on my song list at the end of the year, so I listened to it on YouTube a few times.

84. M*A*S*H (1970) (#54)

My biggest takeaway from MASH is that it really does not age well. This movie is chock full of #MeToo moments.

83. The Last Picture Show (1971) (#95)

This movie is in black and white. West Texas seems like a miserable place to live.

82. Blade Runner (1982) (#97)

The new one looked cool, but I didn’t see it. Partially because i didnt like this one.

81. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) (#98)

We showed this at a park event before the 4th of the July, and it was not as bad as I remember. There is a scene where they all wear black face, so probably not the best pick for the park.

Didnt get any emails about it though.

80. King Kong (1933) (#41)

The running theme of this movie is the boisterous Director convincing people to do things based on his confidence that it will go well, and it literally never does.

Tells ship captain no information on their voyage: he loses part of his crew.

Convinces random stranger to star in his adventure movie: she gets kidnapped by a giant animal multiple times

Gets some theater director to put the beast on stage: he escapes with virtually no problem, terrorizes city.

And somehow at the end nobody is blaming him.

79. Swing Time (1936) (#90)

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers sure are fun to watch. The story? Generally nonsense.

78. Network (1976) (#64)

This movie does offer a pretty accurate picture of the decay of journalism in favor of loud opinions and hot takes.

77. Modern Times (1936) (#78)

Charlie Chaplin in a factory. Hijinx ensue.

76. The Gold Rush (1925) (#58)

Charlie Chaplin in a cabin. Hi jinx ensue.

75. Duck Soup (1933) (#60)

Marx Brothers running a country. Hi jinx ensue.

74. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) (#26)

Clips from this movie get shown every single time there is a person in Congress who does a filibuster. It’s a powerful idea, and this movie has some great indgredients. Jimmy Stewart, young idealist taking on special interests and complacent institutions is a great plot.

But at the end of the day, he’s mostly just fighting for a giant park. Stewart’s speech in front of the Bailey Building & Loan board of Trustees is much more inspiring than this.

73. Gone with the Wind (1939) (#6)

This is my grandma’s favorite movie, and she had a really cool movie poster over the steps down to her basement where me and my cousins would always hang out. My positive memories related to this movie end here.

First off its hard to be sympathetic with civil war southerners. And why did the little girl have to get killed by the horse? Seriously that was out of nowhere. And they go on a trip to Paris at one point and I remember that not developing the plot one bit.

72. The French Connection (1971) (#93)

I get this and the Conversation confused in my head. I watched them back to back. This one has almost no dialogue and is a pretty straight-forward police investigation featuring mostly foot chases.

Wherever in New York they filmed this is not a very appealing neighborhood.

71. The Maltese Falcon (1941) (#31)

This, along with the far superior Casablanca originally convinced me that Humphrey Bogart was very overrated. He basically speaks in monotone the whole time and shows little emotion.

But at one point in this movie he does say “When you’re slapped you’ll take it and you’ll like it” and that’s pretty funny.

70. Sunrise (1927) (#82)

Silent movies really lay the symbolism on a little thick. The plot of this movie is a man is having an affair with a scandalous woman from the big city and is convinced by her to kill his wholesome country wife.

He gets pretty close a few times, but is reminded of their love by watching a marriage ceremony in a glorious church.

See what I mean?

69. Forrest Gump (1994) (#76)

Movie has about 5 unnecessary plotlines/accomplishments for Forrest. Beating Shawshank and Pulp Fiction for best picture is appalling.

68. The African Queen (1951) (#65)

My feeling on Bogart began to change with this movie. He plays a kind, dumb, drunk and shows some range of emotion.

At the end of this movie their plan to blow up a ship surprisingly works and they celebrate in the middle of the river as if all their problems are solved. But…they dont have a boat and the army is still on the bank of the river, so i don’t see the ending going so great for them.

67. Spartacus (1960) (#81)

Spartacus is a good name, I think it should make a comeback.

66. In the Heat of the Night (1967) (#75)

Hard to make last name Tibbs intimidating, but Sidney Poitier pulls it off.

65. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (1969) (#73)

My mom is a big fan of this movie.

64. Vertigo (1958) (#9)

Recently caught the end of this movie, and man is Jimmy Stewart creepy.

63. The Wild Bunch (1969) (#79)

This movie is mostly a forgettable Western, until the end. And oh lord, this ending. There is so much killing and blood that its more like a Sherman brothers kung fu movie with guns than a western. It is violent to the point of laughing, much like Django. Good stuff.

62. Easy Rider (1969) (#84)

This movie doesn’t really have a point, similar to Nashville or MASH, but there’s a few things working in its favor. 1) iconic soundtrack with some of the best music of the era 2) a young Jack Nicholson stealing scenes and 3) there’s an ending and it doesn’t suck that much.

61. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (#7)

Soooooooo long.

60. Citizen Kane (1941) (#1)

The top dog on the official list. There’s certainly some impressive creative technical stuff in this movie (fade outs, repeating scenes from different angles) especially for Orson Welles’ directorial debut.

At the end of the day the story isn’t that great, and the Rosebud reveal is underwhelming. Sorry cinephiles.

59. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) (#34)

An understandable choice to represent animated Disney movies. This is where I introduce my controversial take that the Great Mouse Detective is my favorite Disney movie. My 43-minute Medium article to defend that opinion is coming soon.

58. Titanic (1997) (#83)

This movie takes up 2 VHS cassettes.

57. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (#50)

These movies are great, but so long that I cant bring myself to rewatch them especially when TNT shows about 2 hours of commercials for each one.

56. West Side Story (1961) (#51)

55. Singin’ in the Rain (1952) (#5)

54. Tootsie (1982) (#69)

Men dressing like women might not play any more, but there’s 2 movies on this list with that plot and they’re both pretty damn funny.

53. Rear Window (1954) (#48)

My dad once invited my cousins over for an event to watch theis movie after we rented it. As 12 year olds are wont to do we were too busy making stupid jokes to pay real attention. Im sure this is better than I remember.

Also it makes for an easy reference for whenever someone is looking out the window at neighbors.

52. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) (#38)

My appreciation for Humphrey Bogart finally came around after watching this movie. He plays an obsessive paranoid gold miner and he gradually loses his mind. Movie was fairly predictable (of course Bogart was gonna lose his mind for gold), but the bandits somehow add humor and fear in to the movie.

51. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (#66)

I don’t remember this movie as well as I should, which is probably more of an indictment on me than the movie.

50. Sophie’s Choice (1982) (#91)

A real uplifting flick here. Streep is great, Kevin Kline is terrifying and the gradual reveal of the Holocaust truth is a fantastic way to tell the story.

49. Double Indemnity (1944) (#29)

Like a lot of film noir the star is a real sucker and kind of deserves for things to go poorly. I had no faith that Fred McMurray was going to get away with it at all, although it was a pretty well-thought out plot. I do like that he has his secret meetings with his damsel in the middle of a supermarket.

48. A Night at the Opera (1935) (#85)

Marx brothers movies all tend to blend together, but the crowded cabin scene is as classic as any.

Upon review Duck Soup, ranked a lot lower, had an even funnier scene when Groucho and Harpo mirror each other. Just stick to these youtube videos and you’ll be covered.

47. Ben-Hur (1959) (#100)

I didn’t expect to like this movie. I had already watched enough super long epics to think they were all the same, and I have been subjected to Charlton Heston in Ten Commandments around Easter every year. But, against all odds I was in to it. The boat scene goes on for a long time, but remains intense. The sea battle has some cool effects for 1959, and the chariot race is still incredible.

They spent $1 million to build the set for the chariot scene, and it had to take weeks to film that much horse racing, but it still pays off 60 years later.

46. The Sixth Sense (1999) (#89)

I may have been subconsciously been told about the famous twist in this movie at some point before watching it, but I honestly feel like I saw it coming for a while. Even still, I think Haley Joel Osment has the greatest child actor performance in movie history and the home video reveal about the sick girl’s death rattled me more than enough to make up for seeing the twist coming.

45. Platoon (1986) (#86)

One of many great Vietnam movies falls short to Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. Was fun to watch Willem Dafoe as a good guy for once.

44. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (#15)

The end and beginning of this movie are nonsensical wastes of time, I will admit. And whenever its on I feel like things are moving unnecessarily slow. The iconic Hal storyline makes up for most of that, and the score and amazing 1968 special effects help.

I partially think I support this movie because it always reminds me of the Recess episode where computers are installed all over the school. Recess nostalgia is a powerful drug.

43. The Sound of Music (1965) (#40)

This past soccer season I made a Family Von Trapp joke in front of my soccer team. It didn’t get lot of love from the 3 and 4 year old players, but a couple parents laughed.

Climb Ev’ry Mountain is a banger.

42. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) (#25)

Argument could be made that Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch is the greatest performance in movie history. That’s for someone else to write about. Fun Fact: Robert Duvall plays Boo Radley.

41. Shane (1953) (#45)

The most important part of this movie is the storyline about how much the kid loves Shane. Don’t get me wrong Shane is a pretty great guy and his presence on their ranch ends up being pretty important, but his obsession gets to be a little much after a while. The boy’s father is pretty heroic in his own right as he stands up to the bad guys and attempts to rally his friends to help, but he gets almost no love from his son. To the point that his mother has to tell him to cool it with the Shane love because he won’t be around for long.

And sure enough, Shane does leave in the famous scene as the kid desperately pleas. If you ever catch the end of this movie take notice of how far the kid sprints, yelling Shane! the whole time. It has to be miles — all over rough terrain in the dark. One of the most impressive athletic feats in cinema.

40. American Graffiti (1973) (#62)

Living in the 50s and hanging out around drive-ins seems pretty cool.

39. Do The Right Thing (1989) (#96)

Every time I see a guy with a boombox (not that often) or am on a train with someone blasting music (pretty often) I think about good old Radio Raheem and Public Enemy. This movie does a pretty good job of capturing a neighborhood vibe and building tension even though it’s pretty much everyday events until the end.

38. Goodfellas (1990) (#92)

There is a wide sect of people that think Goodfellas is equal to or better than the Godfather movies. My usual rebuttal is pointing to the end when Ray Liotta starts losing his mind in paranoia. I get what Scorcese was trying to do, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed that part.

There’s definitely some great scenes and performances, and its probably worth a revisit. Too bad it’s never on TV.

37. Annie Hall (1977) (#35)

For no reason at all, I feel this is a good time to mention that these rankings are not endorsements or commendations of any activities that actors or directors have taken in their personal lives.

36. High Noon (1952) (#27)

The perfect Western. Bad guys coming to town (can’t remember what they wanted), an old Sheriff on his own (because of course), beautiful love interest (Grace Kelly), and imminent destruction coming to town. 85 minutes later everything is settled.

35. Unforgiven (1992) (#68)

Although I’ve only seen a few scenes of old Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, he just gives off the realistic vibe of being an aged, legendary killer.

34. All the President’s Men (1976) (#77)

The Washington Post must have been a pretty exciting place to work in the early 70s.

33. Psycho (1960) (#14)

This movie really had to do a number on the small roadside hotel/motel industry. Imagine the sessions at the industry conference that year.

#108: Scaring your guests? Turn that charm down a notch

32. North by Northwest (1959) (#55)

Barely beats out Richie Rich for climax scenes taking place on mountainside monuments of faces.

31. The Wizard of Oz (1939) (#10)

This movie may have been the hardest to rank. It’s a touchstone for family movies, and indisputably a classic, and it’s hard to judge against anything else. I will say that I’m glad they didn’t stick too closely to the book, because that version is really trippy. Who wants to watch a talking sawhorse?

30. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (#24)

I was struggling to write about this one, but I recently learned that Drew Barrymore was 7 when she hosted SNL for this movie, the youngest host ever. Speaks to how big this movie was.

Also, this is a beloved family movie but at one point Elliot gets drunk at school.

29. Dr. Strangelove (1964) (#39)

The tone and look of this film does everything it can to make it seem like a cold-war era war thriller. In reality its one of the greatest comedies of all time. Every scene in the War Room is hilarious and one of my favorite lines of all-time is “You’ll have to answer to the Coca Cola bottling company”

28. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) (#37)

An understandable winner of Best Picture Oscar over a top-5 movie on this list, I had no knowledge of this movie until a few months ago. In short its about 3 soldiers returning home together and their struggles. One is about employment, one about trying to help fellow soldiers, and the other lost both hands in the war.

The handless actor Harold Russell in fact lost his hands in the war and won an Oscar for his lone acting role. I’m writing this the weekend 15:17 to Paris is released in theaters and I’ll be shocked if those real-life heroes perform half as well as Russell did in this movie. Overall this is an incredible heartfelt portrayal of the post-war experience.

27. On the Waterfront (1954) (#19)

Whenever I see Karl Malden in a movie I point him out because I remember his name and he’s pretty obscure. The reason is probably because he’s great in this movie.

26. Jaws (1975) (#56)

Love the Mayor and Chamber of Commerce in this movie trying to keep the beaches open when kids are literally being eaten by a shark.

25. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (#36)

I knew that the Bridge was going to be blown up at the end of this movie, I had seen the clip before. Yet, I found myself sitting up in my bed as I watched Alec Guinness and General Saito follow the explosives down the bank of the river. It’s a slow build at the end, but it pays off perfectly.

Alec Guinness is somehow cooler than he was as Obi-Wan in the first third of this movie. I could have done without the middle third and the William Holden lady-killer story line.

24. The Deer Hunter (1978) (#53)

I doubt that there has been such a jarring scene change as the cut from the joyous blue-collar wedding to the war and terrifying prisoner camps in Vietnam. The prisoner scene is as tense as it gets, and Robert DeNiro is a tour de force as he challenges his captors and eventually gains freedom.

This movie is exhausting, and not necessarily in a bad way. It’s long, it’s intense, and ultimately very depressing.

23. Chinatown (1974) (#21)

40’s and 50’s L.A. makes a great setting for movies. Wish I could have gotten in on that water racket.

22. Some Like it Hot (1959) (#22)

At the beginning, it seems like this story is going to be a cheesy comedy about friends getting mixed up in a gangster crime. It ends up being one of the smartest comedies of all-time and sets the bar for men dressing as women for laughs. I think it even manages to hold up today. It also has Marilyn Monroe in it, so that’s something the other 99 movies on this list don’t have going for it.

Fun fact: this movie was originally planned to be in color, but people ere concerned that Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in makeup would be unappealing to audiences.

21. It Happened One Night (1934) (#46)

I bashed screwball comedies a lot earlier, but this one is truly funny even today. Clark Gable and Claudette Cobert are mush less annoying than the other couples, and have a genuine witty snarky chemistry.

20. Saving Private Ryan (1998) (#71)

Best opening scene in movie history? Probably.

19. Star Wars (1977) (#13)

Don’t get me wrong- I love this movie, and I get that this represents the series that is so dear to my heart. Yes, it introduces the greatest villain in movies Darth Vader. Also has arguably the greatest soundtrack of all time. But this is ranking one movie, and after many watches I want to point to one scene in specific.

So, the Empire’s stormtroopers have come to Tatooine in search of the droids. Obi-Wan and Luke are in Mos Eisley when they realize that Luke’s aunt and uncle might be in real danger. Luke rushes home to find a scene of skeletons, charred remains, and his childhood home in flames. The people that raised him have been murdered. And Luke barely cries, let alone looks sad. Instead, he looks dramatically in to the double sunset and returns to the old man he met within the last day or so to go on an adventure. Not exactly the empathy you want the savior of the galaxy to be showing. Guess it works out in the end.

18. The Apartment (1960) (#80)

Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder team up the year after Some Like it Hot for an even more creative smart story, this time with a lot more drama. Lemmon plays an immensely likable pushover who has a crush on the elevator girl Shirley McLaine. There are a number of twists and turns, and somehow Fred McMurray manages to be more despicable in this movie than he was when he killed someone in an insurance scam in Double Indemnity. Funny, sad, and romantic this movie covers the whole spectrum.

17. Apocalypse Now (1979) (#30)

At one point, when the boat is quietly going down the river a rocket is fired from the forest at the camera through the boat. I remember flinching it was so startling and realistic. What follows is a dramatic fire fight. Despite its bizarre ending, this movie gets the edge over Deer Hunter for not spending as much time on backstory and incredibly shot scenes like the river fight and the Duvall helicopter scene.

16. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) (#33)

A young Danny DeVito is in this movie, and it still manages to be in the conversation as most depressing on this list.

15. Pulp Fiction (1994) (#94)

There’s so many characters, scenes, and story lines in this movie that it’s easy to forget some. My personal favorite part is when Harvey Keitel shows up to help them clean the brains from the backseat.

14. Raging Bull (1980) (#4)

Joe Pesci gets a lot of love for his psycho role in Goodfellas, but for my money I’ll take him beating the guy up with the car door in Raging Bull.

13. Casablanca (1942) (#3)

I was still not a fan of Bogart when I saw this, but something about the story or the filming style makes it timeless.

12. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) (#74)

Anthony Hopkins spent less than 16 minutes on screen in this movie, and managed to be one of the best villains of all time and put in some of the most terrifying scenes in movies.

11. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) (#72)

This movie teaches a valuable lesson to not let your prisoners do your books.

10. The Godfather Part II (1974) (#32)

Talia Shire is in three movies in the top ten. Meryl Streep is in two movies on the list.

9. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) (#23)

Based on probably my favorite novel, this movie does a fantastic job of capturing the fear and helplessness poor people feel in the face of overwhelming and unsympathetic market and institutional forces. It also shows the willingness of people to help each other when they can, and the value of hope.

Henry Fonda and the whole cast put in powerful performances, and John Ford creates a convincing world of crowded work-camps and packed vehicles. It’s amazing that they put this movie together only a year after Steinbeck’s novel was released.

8. Rocky (1976) (#57)

The sequels and action movie career of Sylvester Stallone have in some ways taken away from how good this movie truly was. Stallone is Rocky Balboa, the lovable simpleminded loan shark enforcer. His neighborhood is the depressing working class area that is perfect fodder for an underdog story. And Apollo Creed is the perfect foil as a me-first unbeatable showman boxer. The boxing scenes are not as well done as Raging Bull, and Talia Shire is not a good actress, as is shown in three of the top-10 movies, but it’s as relateable as an unrealistic underdog story can be.

And, of course, the soundtrack. I’ve mentioned a lot of movies’ soundtracks on this list, but I will state plainly that at the very least this is the best non-John Williams soundtrack of all time. I’ve spent about 40 hours in Philadelphia, and in that trip I visited the Rocky steps twice and got in to an accidental argument with a stranger about Joe Frazier. I doubt any city has a connection as close as the one between Philly and Rocky.

7. The General (1927) (#18)

6. City Lights (1931) (#11)

When my sister and I were younger, we would go to the video store (RIP Circle Video) every week with our mom or dad to get a movie for friday night. My dad tended to pick a lot of old movies, when we would deviate from my personal favorite The Ketchup Vampires. As kids are wont to do, we complained about old movies, especially if they were in black-and-white. And silent? Why are you doing this to us???

Sure enough, kids don’t really know much about movies (exception below with #3), at least until they see them. Buster Keaton is a comedic master, and he uses a whole goddamn train as a prop the entire movie. I can’t imagine how hard this movie was to film, and the stakes couldn’t be higher with the biggest star in Hollywood doing every stunt. On a moving train. It’s one of the few movies on the list that I can’t imagine being redone. Kevin Hart jumping around a train yelling? That’s not getting a good rotten tomatoes score, I’ll tell you that.

I believe the first silent movie we watched was Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid. That movie debuts the iconic Tramp character to the world. He made a number of movies as the tramp, but this was the peak. The tramp falls in love with a blind woman. I haven’t seen this one in a long time, but I do remember crying a lot. And for a movie that has no words or color to elicit that emotion 70 years later earns this high spot on the list.

5. 12 Angry Men (1957) (#87)

I have been critical of the movies on this list based on plays. They tend to have actors eating up screentime with lot of dialogue and there’s often a fair share of overacting. 12 Angry Men shares some traits with play-based movies. The movie almost entirely takes place in one room, and there are only 13 people on the screen total. We never see defendant or hear from the victim’s family and friends.

The accomplishment of this movie is amount of backstory given from simple dialogue. We see each juror’s biases, tendencies, and we get a sense that the burden of a young man’s life weighs on each differently. These differing perspectives, albeit from 12 white men, capture racial tensions, cultural and economic conflict, and critique the criminal justice system that is often tilted unfairly against the accused.

I’ve never gotten past the call the phone number stage of jury summons, but I hope that I have a chance to channel Henry Fonda at some point.

4. Toy Story (1995) (#99)

Some time in 1995, at the La Grange theater, I saw my first movie Toy Story. I may have retroactively created this memory, but I have a vague memory of walking up to the marquee that day. The memories I definitely didnt create were my all encompassing obsession with this movie.

I ran out of the theater yelling infinity and beyond. I acted out the moving truck chase scene by hanging off the end of the couch dozens of not hundreds of times. After we saw the Disney on Ice version, Iinsisted that my parents read me the program book every night. I still have that program, and I was Woody for Halloween as recently as 3 years ago.

That all has to mean something right? This movie is a classic, and it helped kick off a new era of animated movies.

3. Schindler’s List (1993) (#8)

And now for something completely different.

Ranking these movies has been a difficult task, even though there aren’t any stakes and Ive made the criteria up as I go. But theres some films that cut through that and are truly close to perfect. Spielberg’s magnum opus is one of those movies. there have been plenty of movies about World War 2 and the Holocaust and many are very good. This movie delivers a terrifyingly sad and accurate picture of the struggles of the holocaust and avoids falling in to the trap of acting overexcited by the victories that Oskar Schindler and his factory helped create. In war victories have to be placed in that perspective.

Ralph Fiennes may have played Voldemort, but his worst character is in this movie.

2. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) (#20)

I’ve always thought that the goal of movies is to elicit emotion and to make the viewer feel as though he exists in the same world as the story. Only the greatest movies can truly to that. I sat on the edge of my bed at the end of River Kwai, I cried during City lights, I get goosebumps even thinking about Rocky sprinting past the boats in the harbor. Frank Capra’s story accomplishes that feat more than any movie.

Starting with George Bailey’s childhood, showing him grow up, face challenges, watch others succeed we get to know Bailey as intimately as any other character. And the backdrop of Bedford Falls is as real as any community in movies. We feel as though we understand the history of the town, its economics, its scandals, and its charms.

Yes, it can be corny as movies of that era often are. Yes, Mary’s eyesight likely would not have been negatively affected by George not being born. But those marginal shortfalls compared to the sadness story of Mr. Gower and his accidental poison? Compared to the inspirational speech by George in front of the board of trustees? Compared to the overwhelming joy as the parade of the familiar characters pour their savings on the table in front of the Baileys? No contest.

As a person who’s lived in the same town for his whole life I recognize that I have a certain bias toward this story, and that’s why I quote it at least twice a week.

1. The Godfather (1972) (#2)

One thing that always struck me about The Godfather is how it makes me feel as though I’m in the room for nearly every scene. I’m not sure if it’s the acting, the lighting, or the cinematography, or some combination of it all.

I truly do think this is the best movie of all-time (non-Dark Knight division), and I believe it will climb to the #1 spot if AFI ever does another list.