10 Greatest Films of All Time

Every 10 years, Sight & Sound magazine names the 10 best films of all time. While the recent announcement of the latest Top 10 has led to much controversy - Vertigo dethroning Citizen Kane as #1 all time - I decided to make my own "best films" list. These lists - no matter who makes them - are always so subjective that it's wise to take them with a grain of salt. Not only is there no tangible criteria for deciding such a list, but also it's extremely hard to not be biased by including one's own personal favorites in it. Thus, my list below does not necessarily mean my 10 favorite movies, but rather the 10 that I consider to be the most well-made - films where the director, writers, actors, etc. just got everything right, films that have made a significant artistic and/or cultural impact. At first, the list consisted of over 50 films, but somehow I (painfully) narrowed it down to just 10, leaving out some films that I hold near and dear to my heart.

10. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)

9. Network (Sidney Lumet)

8. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)

7. The Searchers (John Ford)

6. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)

5. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)

4. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)

3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

2. The Godfather Part I & II (Francis Ford Coppola)

1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)

Keep in mind, this list is very incomplete because I'm still young and naive in terms of film diversity. I've only seen two Hitchcock movies, but fear not, I'm taking a class in the fall that's solely devoted to the guy. This is just a compilation of the films I've seen so far, so perhaps next year (and every year after that) my list will be completely different. It's funny how your opinion of a film can change as you get older. Maybe in 20 years something as odious as The King's Speech will be my new #1 (doubtful). You may notice that there's only one foreign film on the list - the reason is that I just haven't seen that many international films yet.

Tomorrow, along with Shot of the Week, I'll be posting commentaries on each of these films, plus Honorable Mentions that barely missed making the list.