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One Man’s Improved Top 100 Movies List

John P.

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AFI 100 Years 100 MoviesLists are funny things. Often they are interesting enough to catch your attention, but without any real meat in them they aren’t enough to hold it. Take for example, The American Film Institute’s Top 100 Movie list. They actually published it on the Web without so much as a single link to external reference material!

Well, I wanted to check out the movies, and searched everywhere for a modified version of the list, but came up empty. So, I sat down and built one myself. After about 20 hours of adding 300 links, I now present the list in an actually useful format. I hope someone other than me gets some enjoyment from it too. :-)

The title of each movie is now a direct link to the Internet Movie Database description of that film, followed by a direct link to the theatrical trailer so you can see the video. I attempted to link directly to video sharing sites for trailers whenever possible to avoid having to watch commercials. Finally, should you decide to add it to your collection there is a link to an Amazon.com search for that title. This way you can decide which format suits you best (DVD, HD-DVD, BlueRay, Special Edition, etc.)

If you find any bugs, or have suggested changes please drop me a comment to let me know for the good of all. Enjoy!

  1. Citizen Kane (1941) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  2. Casablanca (1942) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  3. The Godfather (1972) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  4. Gone with the Wind (1939) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  6. The Wizard of Oz (1939) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  7. The Graduate (1967) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  8. On the Waterfront (1954) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  9. Schindler’s List (1993) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  10. Singin’ in the Rain (1952) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  11. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  12. Sunset Boulevard (1950) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  13. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  14. Some Like It Hot (1959) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  15. Star Wars (1977) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  16. All About Eve (1950) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  17. The African Queen (1951) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  18. Psycho (1960) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  19. Chinatown (1974) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  23. The Maltese Falcon (1941) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  24. Raging Bull (1980) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  25. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  26. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  27. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  28. Apocalypse Now (1979) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  31. Annie Hall (1977) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  32. The Godfather Part II (1974) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  33. High Noon (1952) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  34. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  35. It Happened One Night (1934) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  36. Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  38. Double Indemnity (1944) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  39. Doctor Zhivago (1965) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  40. North by Northwest (1959) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  41. West Side Story (1961) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  42. Rear Window (1954) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  43. King Kong (1933) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  44. The Birth of a Nation (1915) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  46. A Clockwork Orange (1971) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  47. Taxi Driver (1976) – Trailer / Trailer / Amazon Link
  48. Jaws (1975) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  49. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  51. The Philadelphia Story (1940) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  52. From Here to Eternity (1953) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  53. Amadeus (1984) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  54. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  55. The Sound of Music (1965) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  56. M*A*S*H (1970) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  57. The Third Man (1949) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  58. Fantasia (1940) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  59. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  61. Vertigo (1958) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  62. Tootsie (1982) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  63. Stagecoach (1939) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  65. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  66. Network (1976) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  67. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  68. An American in Paris (1951) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  69. Shane (1953) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  70. The French Connection (1971) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  71. Forrest Gump (1994) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  72. Ben-Hur (1959) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  73. Wuthering Heights (1939) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  74. The Gold Rush (1925) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  75. Dances with Wolves (1990) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  76. City Lights (1931) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  77. American Graffiti (1973) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  78. Rocky (1976) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  79. The Deer Hunter (1978) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  80. The Wild Bunch (1969) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  81. Modern Times (1936) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  82. Giant (1956) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  83. Platoon (1986) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  84. Fargo (1996) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  85. Duck Soup (1933) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  86. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  87. Frankenstein (1931) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  88. Easy Rider (1969) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  89. Patton (1970) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  90. The Jazz Singer (1927) – No Trailer / Amazon Link
  91. My Fair Lady (1964) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  92. A Place in the Sun (1951) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  93. The Apartment (1960) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  94. Goodfellas (1990) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  95. Pulp Fiction (1994) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  96. The Searchers (1956) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  97. Bringing up Baby (1938) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  98. Unforgiven (1992) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  99. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) – Trailer / Amazon Link
  100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) – Trailer / Amazon Link

About John P.

John P. is a former CEO, former TV Show Host, and currently an unemployed bum. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Feel free to send shoutouts, insults, and praise. Or Money. Money is good.

Comments

  1. Chelebell says

    This is the old list. Lord of the Rings is on there as well as Sixth Sense. Go to Wikipedia and they have both lists side by side to see what kinds of changes there were as well as a complete list of new and replaced films. It is really quite interesting.

  2. Glen Barnhardt says

    Wow!! Great list. You might think this to be a little bit funny but I’m using your list to preview movies for my NetFlix choices.. Great Job!!

    Sincerely,
    Glen Barnhardt

  4. greg lewis says

    Those idiots couldn’t get that list right if they had 1000 years. Any list that excludes Office Space has no merit in my book.

    Samir: You know there’s nothing wrong with that name.
    Michael Bolton: There was nothing wrong with it… until I was about 12 years old and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.
    Samir: Hmm… well why don’t you just go by Mike instead of Michael?
    Michael Bolton: No way. Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks.

  5. The Man says

    Ok Mr. Smarty-pants. Now we’ve got to go and get someone who actually READS… ;-)

    Does this mean we’ll have to wait until 2096 to see the list updated?

  6. greg lewis says

    Reason why no movies from this century were included:

    The nominated films were all made in the first 100 years of American cinema (1896-1996). Movies produced after 1996 were not included

    Taken from the notes below the list…

  7. The Man says

    Doh! I wish I had known that. ;-)

    Well, I will say though, there was no way to build the list of links directly to the movie trailers and that is what took by far the longest time.

    I’ve noticed that when you watch them from the IMDB page there are often a lot of ads and other crap that you have to put up with. So I linked directly to as many trailers on YouTube, ITunes, etc. to avoid all that. There is only one movie that I wasn’t able to find a trailer to anywhere (even IMDB didn’t have one), but hopefully someone will find it and let me know! :-)

    John

  9. The Man says

    Interesting Jim. I had not noticed that until you pointed it out.

    I guess either they all suck, or the critics who judge these things aren’t willing to vote for anything until it’s stood the test of time a bit. It looks like 1994 was the most recent year to hit the chart.

    I’d think that eventually a few of the recent ones would make their way onto the list. For example:

    • The Matrix (1999) – Love it or hate it, it was revolutionary.
    • Saving Private Ryan (1998) – People love Tom Hanks.
    • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – Epic movie based on a legendary book.
    • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the
    • Black Pearl (2003) – Again, fairly revolutionary and widely loved.

  10. JimShoe says

    I noticed that there is not one movie from the 21st Century. Guess the last seven years really have sucked for movies.

  11. The Man says

    Incidentally, if you watch all of the trailers (which is an interesting and educational experience) you’ll notice repetition amongst many of the actors. Marlon Brando, Charles Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, John Carradine, Karl Malden, Jack Nickolson, Deborah Kerr, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Deniro, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne James Stewart, etc. Which begs the question… do the actors make the movie great? Or do great movies just attract top actors?