The Great 'Greatest Movie Ever' Debate

The latest 'Sight and Sound' critics' poll stirs the usual pot. Here are my picks, and a few movie tunes (from Beethoven to the Beatles and Byrds).

The much-awaited (by cineastes and a few other fools, such as yours truly) Sight and Sound poll of film critics to “determine” the 100 greatest movies ever was released yesterday—it arrives only once per decade—and folks can’t stop complaining about it.

Indeed, there is much to question and even ridicule. Hardly anyone in the world has even seen #1; several other picks are true headscratchers (Mulholland Drive? really?) and everyone has a long list of notable omissions. I mean, Kubrick’s two best films are missing (Paths of Glory and Dr. Strangelove) while The Shining and Barry Lyndon make it? Good to see plenty of Kurosawa but Portrait of a Lady on Fire shows up and Ran does not? I could go on.

They also offer their top 100 chosen by leading directors, which is a little better. But even there: Eraserhead and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

So, I am offering below, for your approval or confusion or condemnation, a quick list of my 50 or so “greatest” with caveats that 1) I've ruled out almost any from the past ten years—too soon 2) my taste tends to be more serious/political than the norm and 3) this was done spur of the moment so even as I type this I would question some of my own picks. Also, crucially, note: some classic films I have not seen in many, many years so I have lost the ability to confidently peg them as among the "greatest." Missing, for example, are Truffaut, Ozu, Bergman, Fellini etc.).

But first, a few eclectic songs from movies…and PLEASE in comments add your own picks for best films or disagree with mine. Also, subscribe, it’s still free….and as I have noted, my new film, The First Attack Ads, is still airing on PBS stations around the USA but you can watch it now and free online right here.

Glen Hansard, from Once

Jerry Lee Lewis from High School Confidential.

Beethoven’s Ninth, A Clockwork Orange.

“As Time Goes By,” from Casablanca.

The Beatles, from Help!

Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, New Orleans.

The Byrds doing Carole King’s “Wasn’t Born to Follow” in Easy Rider.

And Now the Envelope….

Here’s my tentative list, with the best of the best near the top but in no particular order.

Paths of Glory

Ikiru

Battle of Algiers

Schindler's List

Dr. Strangelove

Citizen Kane

Army of Shadows (Melville)

Ran

Bloody Sunday (Greengrass)

Ida

All the President's Men

Hud

Chinatown

The Lives of Others

On The Waterfront

Seven Samurai

A Streetcar Named Desire

A Separation (Farhadi)

Dog Day Afternoon

Napoleon (Gance)

Casablanca

The Godfather

Kes

Breathless

Badlands

The General

Hiroshima-Nagasaki 1945

The Life of Oharu

The Third Man

Harlan County USA

Night of the Hunter

Modern Times

Grapes of Wrath

Vengeance is Mine (Imamura)

North By Northwest

The Rules of the Game

Taxi Driver

Battleship Potemkin

Close-Up (Iran)

Cache

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Ansalem

From Here to Eternity

The Act of Killing

The Salesman (Farhadi)

Reds

Julius Caesar (Brando, Gielgud etc.)

Accident

The Hustler

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Stray Dog

Mystic River

The Killing Fields

Waltz With Bashir

Don’t Look Back

The Last Waltz

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Not on the list, but recognizing just a few comedies here: The Life of Brian, Wag the Dog, Groundhog Day, Duck Soup, The Player, The Producers, Women on the Verge, In the Loop, Bob Roberts, etc.