Here are the 100 greatest American movies (through 1996) as ranked by the American Film Institute. And here are our deliberately contentious, partly perverse, somewhat serious substitutions.
1. Citizen Kane, 1941 (The Magnificent Ambersons, 1942 (director’s cut))
2. Casablanca, 1942
3. The Godfather, 1972
4. Gone With the Wind, 1939 (Jezebel, 1948)
5. Lawrence of Arabia, 1962
6. The Wizard of Oz, 1939
7. The Graduate, 1967 (Sullivan’s Travels, 1941)
8. On the Waterfront, 1954
9. Schindler’s List, 1993
10. Singin’ in the Rain, 1952
11. It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946
12. Sunset Boulevard, 1950
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957 (Goldfinger,1964)
14. Some Like It Hot, 1959
15. Star Wars, 1977
16. All About Eve, 1950
17. The African Queen, 1951 (Pillow Talk,
1959)
18. Psycho, 1960
19. Chinatown, 1974
20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975 )Five Easy Pieces,1970)
21. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
23. The Maltese Falcon, 1941 (Out of the Past, 1947)
24. Raging Bull, 1980
25. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982 (Blade Runner, 1982)
26. Dr. Strangelove, 1964
27. Bonnie and Clyde, 1967
28. Apocalypse Now, 1979
More Top Picks Umpire Gears
29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939
30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948 (Greed, 1925)
31. Annie Hall, 1977
32. The Godfather, Part II, 1974
33. High Noon, 1952 (Rio Bravo, 1959)
34. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962
35. It Happened One Night, 1934
36. Midnight Cowboy, 1969
37. The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946
38. Double Indemnity, 1944
39. Doctor Zhivago, 1965
40. North by Northwest, 1959 (Strangers on a Train, 1951)
41. West Side Story, 1961
42. Rear Window, 1954
43. King Kong, 1933
44. The Birth of a Nation, 1915 (Intolerance, 1916)
45. A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951 (Long Day’s
Journey into Night, 1962)
46. A Clockwork Orange, 1971 (A Woman Under the Influence, 1974)
47. Taxi Driver, 1976
48. Jaws, 1975
49. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937 (Beauty and the Beast, 1991)
50. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, 1969
51. The Philadelphia Story, 1940
52. From Here to Eternity, 1953 (Lilith, 1964)
53. Amadeus, 1984
54. All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930
55. The Sound of Music, 1965 (Swing Time, 1936)
56. MASH, 1970 (Nashville, 1975)
57. The Third Man, 1949
58. Fantasia, 1940
59. Rebel Without a Cause, 1955
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981 (Terminator 2, 1991)
61. Vertigo, 1958
62. Tootsie, 1982 (The Shop Around the Corner, 1940)
63. Stagecoach, 1939
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977 (The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951)
65. The Silence of the Lambs, 1991
66. Network, 1976
67.The Manchurian Candidate, 1962
68. An American in Paris, 1951
69. Shane, 1953
70. The French Connection, 1971 (The Conversation, 1974)
71. Forrest Gump, 1994 (Being There, 1979)
72. Ben-Hur, 1959
73. Wuthering Heights, 1939
74.The Gold Rush, 1925
75. Dances With Wolves, 1990 (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 1971)
More Top Picks Best Dining Benches
76. City Lights, 1931 (The General, 1926)
77. American Graffiti, 1973
78. Rocky, 1976 (Body and Soul, 1947)
79. The Deer Hunter, 1978 (Deliverance, 1972)
80. The Wild Bunch, 1969
81. Modern Times, 1936
82. Giant, 1956
83. Platoon, 1986 (Full Metal Jacket, 1987)
84. Fargo, 1996
85. Duck Soup, 1933
86. Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935 (Night of the Hunter, 1955)
87. Frankenstein, 1931
88. Easy Rider, 1969
89. Patton, 1970 (The Longest Day, 1962)
90. The Jazz Singer, 1927 (All That Jazz, 1979)
91. My Fair Lady, 1964
92. A Place in the Sun, 1951
93. The Apartment, 1960
94. GoodFellas, 1990
95. Pulp Fiction, 1994
96. The Searchers, 1956
97. Bringing Up Baby, 1938 (His Girl Friday 1940)
98. Unforgiven, 1992
99. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 1967 (Do The Right Thing, 1989)
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942 (White Heat, 1949)