Is it wrong to already declare this the No. 1 movie list of all time?
After all, there are other movie lists. Lots and lots of others. So many lists, you couldn’t list them all. But this is the first to ask the entertainment industry itself to pick its choices for the best pictures ever made. In May, THR sent an online ballot all over town — to every studio, agency, publicity firm and production house on either side of the 405. Not everybody was initially thrilled to participate.
“I reject the idea,” Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan told THR. “To me, it’s the equivalent of having a party-size bag of Nacho Doritos, then being told to eat only five.” In the end, though, he sent in his favorites (one of which is 1961’s Yojimbo), as did a total of 2,120 industry members, including Fox chief Jim Gianopulos, Disney’s Alan Horn, director Gary Ross, producer Frank Marshall, Warners’ Sue Kroll, agent Robert Newman, attorney John Burke, filmmaker John Singleton and many more. These are the results: the greatest movies ever made, according to Hollywood.
There are some surprises here. It’s a far more commercial list than the usual critics’ picks. Who knew, for instance, that Back to the Future would get more love than Lawrence of Arabia? There also are shocking omissions — The 400 Blows, La Dolce Vita, The Gold Rush and dozens of other undeniably great films. And there are interesting differences of opinion along professional divides: Directors, writers and agents all agreed on their choice for the greatest movie ever (hint: It rhymes with “Schmodfather”), while cinematographers chose 2001: A Space Odyssey and entertainment lawyers, the big softies, picked The Shawshank Redemption.
Whether you agree with their choices or not, there’s lots to enjoy on these pages, from the reunion photographs to the whereabouts of famous props to THR critic Todd McCarthy’s own assessment of Hollywood’s top pick. But keep in mind, movie lists aren’t forever. As Michael Bay points out, “Your favorite film could change every day.”
Read more Hollywood’s 100 Favorite TV Shows
Read more Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes
-
The Seven Samurai
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $367,500
Famous quote: “What’s the use of worrying about your beard when your head’s about to be taken?” — Gisaku
It’s the only Japanese film on the list and later was remade as The Magnificent Seven, a Western with Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson.
-
Bonnie and Clyde
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Arthur Penn
Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “This here’s Miss Bonnie Parker. I’m Clyde Barrow. We rob banks.” — Clyde Barrow
One of the films that buried the Hays Code, though today it looks about as risque as basic cable.
-
Reservoir Dogs
Image Credit: Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, SteveBuscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation 2014): $5,432,000
Famous quote: “I don’t wanna kill anybody. But if I gotta get out that door, and you’re standing in my way, one way or the other, you’re gettin‘ outta my way.” — Mr. Pink
It’s actually not Tarantino’s debut feature; the first film he directed was 1987’s My Best Friend’s Birthday, much of which was destroyed in a lab fire.
-
Airplane!
Image Credit: Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Cast: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation 2014): $246,948,000
Famous quote: “There’s no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you’ll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?” — Elaine Dickinson
The film that forever changed the way people think about Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Barbara Billingsley and especially Nielsen.
-
Pan’s Labyrinth
Image Credit: Picturehouse/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi Lopez
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $43,542,400
Famous quote: “Her father, the King, always knew that the Princess’ soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for her, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning…” — Pan
It’s the only Spanish-language movie to make the list.
-
Doctor Zhivago
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: David Lean
Cast: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $988,118,200
Famous quote: “Who are you to refuse my sugar? Who are you to refuse me anything?” — Komarovski
Peter O’Toole turned down the title role, so Lean settled on another Lawrence of Arabia star, which is how Sharif went from playing an Arab prince to a Russian physician.
-
The Deer Hunter
Image Credit: Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Michael Cimino
Cast: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $166,613,400
Famous quote: “You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it’s all about. A deer’s gotta be taken with one shot.” — Michael
When John Cazale got sick during filming, the studio wanted to recast, but Streep threatened to walk off the picture if it did.
-
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $395,943,500
Famous quote: “How come I know so much? What the hell is going on around here? Who the hell are you people?” — Roy Neary
John Williams experimented with hundreds of five-note melodies before hitting on just the right impossible-to-forget theme.
-
Up
Image Credit: Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Cast: Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $312,619,300
Famous quote: “Adventure is out there!” — Charles Mutz
Pixar has calculated it would take 26.5 million balloons to actually lift the house in the animated feature.
-
Rocky
Image Credit: United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: John G. Avildsen
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Burgess Meredith, Carl Weathers
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $438,118,200
Famous quote: “Yo, Adrian! It’s me, Rocky.” — Rocky
Stallone wrote the script’s first draft in just three days, then refused to sell it unless he was cast in the lead role.
-
Memento
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $35,925,300
Famous quote: “Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They’re just an interpretation, they’re not a record, and they’re irrelevant if you have the facts.” — Leonard Shelby
Nolan reportedly was going to cast Alec Baldwin in Pearce’s part, but he must have forgotten.
-
Braveheart
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $138,108,400
Famous quote: “Every man dies, not every man really lives.” — William Wallace
Gibson didn’t want to play the lead — he thought he was too old — but Paramount wouldn’t make the film without him.
-
Slumdog Millionaire
Image Credit: Fox Searchlight/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $156,672,200
Famous quote: “When somebody asks me a question, I tell them the answer.” — Jamal Malik
It nearly went straight to DVD but ended up sweeping the Oscars after Fox Searchlight gave it a theatrical release.
-
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Image Credit: New Line/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $489,843,600
Famous quote: “That still only counts as one.” — Gimli
Only one poll respondent claimed to be over 100 years old, and this was one of his top picks. Nice to know Gandalf likes online polls.
-
Beauty and the Beast
Image Credit: Walt Disney Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Cast: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $278,327,100
It was the first animated film ever nominated for best picture.
-
Seven
Image Credit: New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: David Fincher
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $182,770,700
Famous quote: “What’s in the box?” — David Mills
The studio wasn’t thrilled with the “head in a box” ending, but Pitt and Freeman refused to promote the film if it got changed.
-
Inception
Image Credit: Stephen Vaughan/Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $292,944,200
Famous quote: “You’re waiting for a train. A train that’ll take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you. But you can’t know for sure.” — Cobb
Nolan himself is a lucid dreamer, which he has said inspired much of the film.
-
Die Hard
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: John McTiernan
Cast: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $160,766,500
Famous quote: “Yippee Ki-Yay, motherf*cker!” — John McClane
The mini-mart on Olympic Boulevard where Reginald VelJohnson bought Twinkies is now a dry cleaners.
-
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $433,579,200
Famous quote: “You cannot pass! I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun! Go back to the shadow. You shall not pass!” — Gandalf
There were many failed attempts at a live-action adaptation of LOTR, dating back to the 1960s, when The Beatles asked Stanley Kubrick to direct a version for them to star in.
-
Amadeus
Image Credit: Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Milos Forman
Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $117,767,500
Famous quote: “Mediocrities everywhere… I absolve you… I absolve you… I absolve you… I absolve you… I absolve you all.” — Salieri
Hulce practiced piano four hours a day for the role, but the music ended up being dubbed in anyway.
-
On the Waterfront
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am…” — Terry Malloy
Contrary to popular belief, Brando’s most famous line — “I coulda been a contender” — was not improvised.
-
Wall-E
Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Andrew Stanton
Cast: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $248,121,600
Famous quote: “WALL-E!” — WALL-E
The most engaging silent movie since Chaplin left the screen: There’s no “human” dialogue for the first 40 minutes.
-
12 Angry Men
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “Bright? He’s a common, ignorant slob. He don’t even speak good English.” — Juror #10
The last surviving jurist, Jack Klugman, died in 2012.
-
Ghostbusters
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Ivan Reitman
Cast: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $541,962,900
Famous quote: “Don’t cross the streams!” — Dr. Egon Spengler
In the original script, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was just one of 50 monsters, but Reitman estimated it would have cost $300 million to produce them all.
-
Brokeback Mountain
Image Credit: Courtesy of Focus Films/Everett Collection Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $101,192,600
Famous quote: “I wish I knew how to quit you.” — Jack Twist
Lee won best director, but in one of the biggest Oscar upsets in recent memory, Brokeback lost best picture to … see if you can remember.
-
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: David Lean
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $433,024,000
Famous quote: “Do not speak to me of rules. This is war! This is not a game of cricket!” – Colonel Saito
Pierre Boulle, who wrote the 1952 French novel on which the movie is based, also wrote Planet of the Apes.
-
Blazing Saddles
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $503,291,000
Famous quote: “Gentlemen, please rest your sphincters.” — Hedley Lamarr
Brooks offered John Wayne a part in the film, but the Duke declined.
-
All the President’s Men
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $263,838,500
Famous quote: “Follow the money.” — Deep Throat
Pakula was so intent on re-creating the Washington Post newsroom, he had the paper’s trash shipped to Hollywood to clutter desks on the set.
-
Young Frankenstein
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $363,352,200
Famous quote: “My grandfather’s work was doodoo! I am not interested in death! The only thing that concerns me is the preservation of life! Class… is… dismissed.” — Dr. Frederick Frankenstein
Wilder suggested the idea for the movie to Brooks while they were filming Blazing Saddles, which is why Wilder’s name is first in the writing credits.
-
Almost Famous
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Billy Crudup, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kate Hudson
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $48,001,900
Famous quote: “I am a Golden God!” — Russell Hammond
One of Hoffman’s most beloved performances — and he delivered the whole thing while suffering from the flu.
-
Vertigo
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $17,046,200
Famous quote: “Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere.” — Madeleine
The No. 1 film in the most recent Sight & Sound critics’ poll (2012) has a ways to go on this list.
-
Gladiator
Image Credit: DreamWorks/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Oliver Reed
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $277,119,800
Famous quote: “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” — Maximus
It was Crowe’s big entrance as a Hollywood star (he won an Oscar) and Reed’s big exit (he suffered a fatal heart attack during filming).
-
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
Image Credit: Python Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “Oh, but you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you.” — Dennis
The original script was set half in the Middle Ages, half in the 20th century until Jones suggested doing the King Arthur story.
-
Avatar
Image Credit: 0th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $763,396,900
Famous quote: “Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream.” — Jake Sully
It’s the highest grosser of all time, which explains the three sequels that will start rolling out in December 2016.
-
The Lion King
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $594,010,000
Famous quote: “When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connnected in the great Circle of Life.” — Mufasa
It was the top-grossing animated film until Toy Story 3 passed it in 2010 and then Frozen topped them both.
-
Raging Bull
Image Credit: United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $69,050,600
Famous quote: “If you win, you win. If you lose, you still win.” — Joey La Motta
Scorsese used chocolate as blood in the boxing scenes because it showed up better in black and white. That explains how De Niro gained 70 pounds.
-
Mary Poppins
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Robert Stevenson
Cast: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $265,333,300
Famous quote: “Oh, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious, if you say it loud enough, you’ll always sound precocious! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” — Mary Poppins
Andrews did the film because she lost My Fair Lady to Audrey Hepburn. But Andrews got the last laugh: She won the Oscar.
-
Groundhog Day
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Harold Ramis
Cast: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $136,333,200
Famous quote: “This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.” — Phil
Murray reportedly was bitten by the groundhog twice during shooting. Why isn’t that on the DVD extras?
-
North by Northwest
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “Now you listen to me, I’m an advertising man, not a red herring. I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don’t intend to disappoint them all by getting myself “slightly” killed.” — Roger Thornhill
Martin Landau‘s character was secretly gay, at least according to Landau, who claimed it made more sense for the plot.
-
West Side Story
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
Cast: Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $445,523,500
Famous quote: “I feel pretty, oh so pretty! I feel pretty, and witty, and gay!” — Maria
“The beautiful thing about the evening was that we went together,” recalls Chakiris of the night he and Moreno picked up Oscars for their performances as Bernardo and Anita in West Side Story. “My category was called first, and I got lucky. And then Rita got lucky. What a perfect night.” Moreno recalls it slightly differently. “By the time my category came up, it was very late. I had to wait a long time. At that point, West Side Story had swept the awards, and I thought, ‘My Puerto Rican luck; I’ll be the only one who doesn’t get an award.’” When her name was called, she walked to the podium and delivered one of the briefest speeches ever for an Oscar. “I don’t believe it. Good Lord. I leave you with that.” Says Moreno: “I was not ready to win. I had nothing planned.”
-
Amelie
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast: Audrey Tautou
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $46,051,200
Famous quote: “At least you’ll never be a vegetable – even artichokes have hearts.” — Amélie Poulain
The only French film to make it into the top 100, thanks mostly to under-20s (it was that group’s sixth-favorite film).
-
Thelma & Louise
Image Credit: MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection. Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Brad Pitt
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $85,765,500
Famous quote: “In the future, when a woman is crying like that, she isn’t having any fun.” — Louise Sawyer
“I thought of it as a cowboy movie with women instead of guys,” says Sarandon of her role in Ridley Scott’s 1991 groundbreaking female-bonding road movie. “It was pretty shocking that people were so threatened by it. Like somehow we had backed into territory long held only by white heterosexual men of a certain age.” Davis doesn’t disagree — “I don’t think any of us knew it would strike a nerve the way it did,” she says — but savors different memories of making the movie, including getting paired with an unknown young actor during his tryout for a key role. “I read with Brad Pitt,” she recalls. “But I got a little distracted during the scene. I was forgetting my lines. I was like, ‘I’m totally screwing up this kid’s audition.’ ” It didn’t get any easier after Pitt, then 28, got the part. “Ridley is really into the look of things,” says Davis, “so he was spraying Evian on Brad’s stomach during the shots. I was like, ‘Hello!’ ” — Stacy Wilson
-
Sunset Blvd.
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: William Holden, Gloria Swanson
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” — Norma Desmond
Directors, editors and writers like it most. Everybody else taking the poll still can’t get over the fact that it’s narrated by a dead guy.
-
The Dark Knight
Image Credit: Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $591,181,400
Famous quote: “Some people just want to watch the world burn.” — Alfred Pennyworth
Ledger took the Joker very seriously, even applying his own face paint before each shot.
-
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Image Credit: Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $44,094,400
Famous quote: “Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?” – Joel Barish
The film helped revive Winslet’s career by proving she could do (quirky) comedy. “It took me right away from that English period-film thing and put me in the U.S. market,” she recently told THR.
-
Taxi Driver
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $102,022,500
Famous quote: “You talkin‘ to me? You talkin‘ to me? You talkin‘ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” — Travis Bickle
Screenwriter Paul Schrader was inspired by the diaries of Arthur Bremer, who shot George Wallace, and Scorsese turned to Psycho composer Bernard Herrmann, who initially turned down the job (“I don’t write music for car movies”).
-
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $561,640,500
Famous quote: “You know, when I was a kid, I always thought I’d grow up to be a hero.” — Butch Cassidy
In real life, Cassidy’s gang was called The Wild Bunch, but Hill changed it to “Hole in the Wall” to avoid confusion with the Sam Peckinpah film.
-
Good Will Hunting
Image Credit: Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $234,953,100
Famous quote: “It’s not your fault…” — Sean Maguire
Terrence Malick suggested the bittersweet ending (in the original version, Damon and Driver drive off into the sunset).
-
All About Eve
Image Credit: Copyright 20th Century-Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $626,466 (calculated)
Famous quote: “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!” — Margo Channing
It got 14 Oscar nominations, a record that stood until it was tied by Titanic 47 years later.
-
The Big Lebowski
Image Credit: Gramercy Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $29,619,800
Famous quote: “Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not “Mr. Lebowski“. You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.” — The Dude
The Dude was inspired by film promoter Jeff Dowd, who helped secure distribution for the Coen brothers’ first film, Blood Simple.
-
Jurassic Park
Image Credit: Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $686,198,500
Famous quote: “Hold on to your butts.” — Ray Arnold
There was a four-way bidding war for Michael Crichton‘s novel: Warner Bros. wanted it for Tim Burton, Fox liked it for Joe Dante, Columbia chased it for Richard Donner, but Universal won for Spielberg.
-
Rear Window
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $375,542,200
Famous quote: “When two people love each other, they come together – WHAM – like two taxis on Broadway.” — Stella
It’s the only movie in which you can watch Kelly smoke a cigarette — if you’re into that sort of thing.
-
The Usual Suspects
Image Credit: Gramercy Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $42,712,400
Famous quote: “After that my guess is that you will never hear from him again. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that… he is gone.” — Verbal
“Who is Keyser Soze?” was the question that drove the summer of 1995. Shot on a $6 million budget, Singer’s breakthrough crime thriller would win Oscars for Spacey and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie.
-
Some Like It Hot
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “I’m a boy. I’m a boy. I wish I were dead. I’m a boy. Boy, oh boy, am I a boy. Now, what am I gonna do about my engagement present?” — Jerry
“Everybody quotes me as saying kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler,” Curtis told a reporter a few years before his death. “I never said that. I said that kissing Marilyn was like f–ing her, the way she would grind against me.”
-
Saving Private Ryan
Image Credit: DreamWorks/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $364,146,700
Famous quote: “I just know that every man I kill the farther away from home I feel.” — Captain Miller
Spielberg used real amputees wearing prosthetics to simulate soldiers losing their limbs during the opening Omaha Beach battle scene.
-
Titanic
Image Credit: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: James Cameron
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $1,021,633,200
Famous quote: “I’ll never let go, Jack. I’ll never let go.” — Rose
Both were the biggest of their day (882 feet for the vessel; $200 million for the film). But the boat sank, while the film went on to become the second-largest grosser in history (after Avatar).
-
The Matrix
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Andy and Lana Wachowski
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $268,696,900
Famous quote: “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” — Morpheus
A virtual-reality prison. Sentient computer programs. Downloadable abilities. Bullet-time. Whoa. No wonder it was the first DVD to sell a million copies.
-
Toy Story
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: John Lasseter
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $349,191,900
Famous quote: “To infinity, and beyond!” — Buzz Lightyear
Each CGI frame took from four to 13 hours to render, nearly as long as the last iPhone update.
-
Alien
Image Credit: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, John Hurt
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $250,359,100
Famous quote: “You are my lucky star. You… Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.” — Ripley
When they shot the film’s most famous scene — the alien bursting through Hurt’s chest — the filmmakers didn’t tell the cast what would happen. The horror on their faces is real.
-
Psycho
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $339,626,800
Famous quote: “They’re probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I’m not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching… they’ll see. They’ll see and they’ll know, and they’ll say, ‘Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly…’” — Norman Bates
Hitch’s serial killer thriller was a shocker — but not just because of the shower scene. It was the first film to show a toilet.
-
Fight Club
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox / Everett Collection Director: David Fincher
Cast: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $57,957,800
Famous quote: “Welcome to Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!” — Tyler Durden
Bonham Carter’s line after her sex scene with Pitt — “That was the best f– I’ve had since grade school” — was a replacement. The original, more offensive line: “I want to have your abortion.”
-
The Shining
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $130,252,200
Famous quote: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” — Jack Torrance
Kubrick realized that the shot of Nicholson repeatedly typing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” would make no sense to European audiences, so he had the line typed in Italian, German and Spanish.
-
When Harry Met Sally
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $186,114,700
Famous quote: “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” — Harry Burns
Talk about great acting. According to sources on the set, Crystal and Ryan hated each other’s guts. (Although Crystal denies it, saying he and Ryan had a great working relationship.)
-
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $78,439,100
Famous quote: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.” — President Merkin Muffley
Sellers was the first actor to be nominated for a single Oscar for playing three characters (he lost on all three counts to Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady).
-
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Director: John Hughes
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Jennifer Grey, Alan Ruck
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $150,481,300
Famous quote: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller
Hughes paid homage to his earlier movies via the license plates on the characters’ cars: “VCATION” for National Lampoon’s Vacation, “MMOM” for Mr. Mom and “TBC” for The Breakfast Club.
-
A Clockwork Orange
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $124,500,700
Famous quote: “It’s funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.” — Alex
It’s the film that began the debate over violence in cinema. Kubrick was so horrified by a copycat murder in England that he pulled the movie from U.K. theaters.
-
American Beauty
Image Credit: DreamWorks/courtesy Everett / Everett Collection Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $198,483,000
Famous quote: “Remember those posters that said, ‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life?’ Well, that’s true of every day but one — the day you die.” — Lester Burnham
Chevy Chase, Kevin Costner, and John Travolta all reportedly were considered for the part of Lester Burnham (which, incidentally, is an anagram for “Humbert learns,” one of the film’s many hat tips to Lolita).
-
Fargo
Image Credit: Gramercy Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $43,930,100
Famous quote: “Just keep it still back there, lady, or we’re going to have to, you know, shoot you.” — Carl Showalter
This is one of four films on the list to have inspired hit TV shows that are current Emmy contenders. The other shows are Bonnie and Clyde, Hannibal and Bates Motel.
-
The Empire Strikes Back
Image Credit: Lucasfilms / Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Irvin Kershner
Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $627,743,400
Famous quote: “No. I am your father.” — Darth Vader
An almost Shakespearean tragedy. The hero loses a hand but gains a father. And his best friend is frozen solid. Try and imagine the second installment of another giant sci-fi franchise that ends on such a downer. Go ahead.
-
The Princess Bride
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $62,820,500
Famous quote: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” — Inigo Montoya
Hardly anyone saw Rob Reiner‘s adaptation of William Goldman‘s comic-fantasy novel in theaters. But this was back when video could create a cult hit — and that’s precisely what happened.
-
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Milos Forman
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $427,335,400
Famous quote: “What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin‘? Well you’re not! You’re not! You’re no crazier than the average asshole out walkin‘ around on the streets and that’s it.” — McMurphy
Kirk Douglas optioned Ken Kesey‘s book in the early ‘60s but decided he was too old to play McMurphy, so he gave the rights to his son, Michael, who produced it instead.
-
Blade Runner
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $74,672,700
Famous quote: "Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave." — Batty
Despite studio tinkering (adding a voiceover, slapping in aerial footage shot for Kubrick's The Shining to give the ending a sunny feel), it remains the ultimate noir, sci-fi detective movie.
-
The Graduate
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $680,698,700
Famous quote: “For god’s sake, Mrs. Robinson. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. You put on music. Now you start opening up your personal life to me and tell me your husband won’t be home for hours … Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me.” — Benjamin
Which of these actresses was not considered for Mrs. Robinson: Deborah Kerr, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Doris Day, Shelley Winters, Ava Gardner, Patricia Neal or Ingrid Bergman? Trick question: All supposedly were up for the part.
-
The Breakfast Club
Image Credit: Universal/courtesy Everett Collection Director: John Hughes
Cast: Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Paul Gleason, John Kapelos, Ally Sheedy
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $102,863,800
Famous quote: “We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all.” — Andrew
More proof that men and women are different: Hughes’ after-school detention drama was the ninth most-popular film for female respondents, but 75th for males.
-
Singin’ in the Rain
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $1,741,800
Famous quote: “Lina. She can’t act, she can’t sing, she can’t dance. A triple threat.” — Cosmo Brown
Reynolds once said that making this film and giving birth were the two hardest things she’d ever done. Kelly reportedly was a tyrant on the set.
-
The Sound of Music
Image Credit: 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Robert Wise
Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $1,133,626,400
Famous quote: “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.” — Maria
Such a cheery spirit-lifter, during the Cold War the BBC reportedly planned to air the film after a nuclear strike to improve the morale of survivors. “So Long, Farewell” being the perfect post-apocalyptic melody.
-
Jaws
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $1,019,507,400
Famous quote: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” — Brody
The original summer blockbuster. It cost only $9 million to make and grossed nearly as much its first weekend alone. And yet … the shark still looks fake.
-
Lawrence of Arabia
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: David Lean
Cast: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $426,376,100
Famous quote: “There may be honor among thieves, but there’s none in politicians.” — Lawrence
Steven Spielberg once estimated that remaking it today would cost close to $300 million. Also, these days, they’d probably need to add some estrogen; the 227-minute movie has not a single line spoken by a woman.
-
The Silence of the Lambs
Image Credit: Orion Pictures Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Jonathan Demme
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $247,200,400
Famous quote: “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.” — Hannibal Lecter
The only horror film ever to win best picture. It also won best director, adapted screenplay, actress and actor (for Hopkins’ 25-minute turn, the second-shortest performance to win that trophy behind Peter Finch‘s in Network).
-
Chinatown
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $124,295,200
Famous quote: ” ‘Course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.” — Noah Cross
This is the first of three Nicholson films to make the 100. But he’s beaten by Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro (both with four) and by Marlon Brando and Harrison Ford (with five apiece).
-
It’s a Wonderful Life
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Frank Capra
Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.” — Zuzu Bailey
It was Capra’s favorite, and Stewart’s, too, but it bombed when it first was released. Like George Bailey, though, it got a second chance, becoming a holiday classic thanks to endless Christmas TV showings.
-
Goodfellas
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $88,219,800
Famous quote: “For as long as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster. To me that was better than being president of the United States. To be a gangster was to own the world.” — Henry Hill
Scorsese’s first film on this list is remembered for many things (like Pesci’s “You think I’m funny?” riff), but it made the record books by dropping the F-bomb more than any other movie up till then (300 times). It was surpassed last year by The Wolf of Wall Street, which used the F-word 569 times.
-
Annie Hall
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $136,538,700
Famous quote: “A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.” — Alvy Singer
For years there have been rumors of a bootleg cut of an original, much longer version — titled Anhedonia — which supposedly was more of a surreal murder mystery than a love story. Please let THR know if you’ve got a copy.
-
Apocalypse Now
Image Credit: Courtesy of United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $249,848,900
Famous quote: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” — Kilgore
Harvey Keitel got fired. Brando showed up overweight and unprepared. Sheen had a heart attack and nearly died. And storms destroyed many of the sets. Has a better film ever been made from worse circumstances?
-
To Kill a Mockingbird
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Robert Mulligan
Cast: Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): No numbers available
Famous quote: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” — Atticus Finch
More than 50 years later, this is still a pitch-perfect portrait of race and rural America during the Great Depression. No wonder it’s Superman’s favorite movie (according to Clark Kent’s Wikipedia page, at any rate).
-
Gone With the Wind
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $1,592,000,000
Famous quote: “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.” — Scarlett
It’s still the longest film to win best picture (nearly four hours) and the first to have an African-American cast member win an Oscar (Hattie McDaniel). Ironically, its only surviving star is Olivia de Havilland, 97, whose character was the main one to die.
-
Forrest Gump
Image Credit: Courtesy of Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $625,223,100
Famous quote: “My momma always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’” — Forrest Gump
The mind-blowing CGI — from the floating feather to removing Sinise’s legs — helped put Gump over the top in one of the most competitive best picture races in memory. The Shawshank Redemption (No. 4) and Pulp Fiction (No. 5) also were nominated that year.
-
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Image Credit: Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation 2014): $614,823,400
Famous quote: “You want to talk to God? Let’s go see him together, I’ve got nothing better to do.” — Indiana Jones
Dreamed up while George Lucas and Spielberg were vacationing in Hawaii, Raiders indulged Lucas’ desire to make an old-fashioned serial and scratched Spielberg’s itch to make a globe-trotting James Bond film (incredibly, the 007 producers had turned down his services). When Jeff Bridges said no to the role of Indiana Jones (initially named Smith) and Tom Selleck couldn’t get out of his Magnum P.I. contract, Lucas turned to his Han Solo.
-
Back to the Future
Image Credit: MCA/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $470,043,200
Famous quote: “If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious shit.” — Dr. Emmett Brown
Fox was filming Family Ties when Zemeckis tapped the 24-year-old television star to play unwitting time traveler Marty McFly. (He was replacing Eric Stoltz, who had shot a few scenes but proved the wrong fit.) Fox worked nights and weekends, which explains why he looks so exasperated in most of the film.
-
Star Wars
Image Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd./Courtesy Everett / Everett Collection Director: George Lucas
Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation 2014): $1,136,162,800
Famous quote: “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” — Han Solo
Star Wars set the bar for lots of things: special effects, box-office receipts, the incorporation of mythological storytelling structure, the number of aliens that can fit comfortably into a bar. But its real legacy is The Deal: Lucas negotiated rights to both the merchandising and the sequels — deemed worthless by Fox in 1977, but today they are worth billions.
-
Schindler’s List
Image Credit: Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $183,022,100
Famous quote: “Stern, if this factory ever produces a shell that can actually be fired, I’ll be very unhappy.” — Oskar Schindler
The most shocking thing about this emotionally wrenching black-and-white drama isn’t that it’s about an act of heartbreaking kindness during the Holocaust; it’s that Spielberg released it only months after his other big hit of 1993, the one with the dinosaurs. Unlike Jurassic Park, this film took home seven Oscars, including best director and best picture (the first black-and-white movie to win that statuette since 1960’s The Apartment).
-
2001: A Space Odyssey
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $344,621,600
Famous quote: “Well, I don’t think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error.” — Hal
It was the first outer-space movie to take outer space — and special effects — seriously (so seriously Kubrick had the sets destroyed after production to make sure they didn’t turn up in subsequent inferior sci-fi films). Sure, it creaks beside its successors, including Close Encounters and Star Wars, but 2001 does have one of the most famous match-cuts in movie history (the bone turning into a spaceship). And even though the smooth-talking computer in the film has an operating system that’s 46 years old, people still want to own it: The HAL 9000 app on iTunes has been downloaded an estimated quarter-million times.
-
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Image Credit: Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Dee Wallace
Domestic lifetime gross: (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $989,737,100
Famous quote: “Be good.” — E.T.
It’s the first Spielberg film on the list but hardly the last (he has seven). And it totally makes sense that E.T. would be his most popular because it’s basically The Wizard of Oz in reverse. Think about it: A 3-foot-tall munchkin lands on Earth, where he’s befriended by a trio of locals (and their little dog) who help him phone to no-place-like-home until, at the end, where does E.T. go in his spaceship? That’s right — over the rainbow. “I never thought of that before,” said Spielberg a few years ago when the theory was presented to him. “Do you mind if I steal that?”
-
The Godfather: Part II
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $202,374,900
Famous quote: “There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” — Michael Corleone
Arguments over which Godfather is greater, the first or second, began as soon as the sequel was released. The first film has the edge among this poll’s respondents, but Part II has die-hard fans as well. “It’s one of those movies,” says producer Albert Berger, “that has every element of cinema working at the highest level. And it’s entertaining, and it says something about our country.”
-
Casablanca
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $4,452,100
Famous quote: “Here’s looking at you, kid.” — Rick
Not surprisingly, Rick and Ilsa’s war-torn romance was a big favorite among seasoned poll respondents. Among those in their 60s, it was the third-most-popular picture, while among those in their 20s, it was 37th. Also not a big shocker, men and women had different opinions: Casablanca was males’ third-favorite film and females’ 14th. But then, men always prefer their love stories with Nazis in them.
-
Pulp Fiction
Image Credit: Courtesy of Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $202,078,200
Famous quote: “If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions.” — Jules
“Quentin has always been a student of film, and after Reservoir Dogs he said to me: ‘The second movie from a filmmaker is almost more important than the first. We’ve got to get it right,'” recalls Lawrence Bender, Tarantino’s longtime producing partner. Tarantino got it right, all right. In fact, Miramax’s Pulp Fiction might be the most influential movie made during the 1990s, inspiring scads of imitators (nicknamed Tarantinies) and dozens of knockoffs. “We didn’t think we were taking a big risk,” says Bender. “We just though we were making something really cool.”
-
The Shawshank Redemption
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Director: Frank Darabont
Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $53,014,600
Famous quote: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” – Andy Dufresne [in letter to Red]
Of all the adaptations of Stephen King stories — and they are legion because he is the most-adapted living writer — this is only one of two (along with The Shining) to make the list.
All that Shawshank love apparently came after the film’s unexceptional theatrical release, when it began popping up on cable TV nearly as regularly as Geico commercials. In 2013, 151 hours of basic cable time was devoted to airing the 142-minute movie. That’s about six days of watching Robbins try to escape from prison.
-
Citizen Kane
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $2,998,000
Famous quote: “It isn’t enough to tell us what a man did. You’ve got to tell us who he was.” — Rawlson
Critics have hailed this for decades as “the greatest American movie ever made,” making it an all-too-easy pick for anyone’s greatest-movie list. But not all moviegoers, especially younger ones, are enthralled with the story of Charles Foster Kane and his long-lost sled. Among poll respondents in their 20s, for instance, it was only the 26th-favorite film. Among the under-20s, it was 53rd. Among those over 60, though, it was No. 1 or 2.
-
The Wizard of Oz
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $32,950,500
Famous quote: “Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!” — Dorothy
“If I was on a desert island, I’d bring The Wizard of Oz with me,” says Elizabeth Daley, dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. “It always makes me feel alive. I could watch it over and over.” And people have, generation after generation. In fact, it’s the most-watched film of all time, according to the Library of Congress, thanks to regular showings on broadcast television since the mid-1950s (and on cable since the ‘90s). That’s not including sequels and prequels, which Hollywood keeps releasing each decade like swarms of flying monkeys. The most recent, Oz the Great and Powerful, starring James Franco as a hunky young wizard, grossed more than $230 million domestically. That yellow brick road clearly is made of gold.
-
The Godfather
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire
Domestic lifetime gross (adjusted for inflation, 2014): $626,025,500
Famous quote: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” — Don Corleone
The Godfather came into this world, in the form of Mario Puzo‘s novel, as pulp. In a feat of creative alchemy arguably unsurpassed before or since, Coppola and his collaborators turned the Mafia melodrama into popular art that satisfies on every possible level — as a family drama, a crime saga, a visual and musical ravishment and an impeccable evocation of a historical period.
Godfather is 42 years old, meaning anyone who saw it when it came out in 1972 is pushing 60 or older. This suggests its narrative power, extraordinary performances and mythic values register as strongly for younger viewers as they did at the time. The film also happens to stand at the precise midpoint between the arrival of sound films and the present. It is both classical and modern, traditional in its storytelling and contemporary in its critical perspective. It’s a film that does it all. — Todd McCarthy
—
Watch Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Films in 4 Minutes
