AFI 100 Years... 100 Movies
60 - Duck Soup
The Marx Brothers are at their sidesplitting best in this raucous political satire, which teems with razor-sharp humor. Thanks to the patronage of well-heeled widow Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont), Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) becomes dictator of the tiny country of Freedonia. When the ambassador of the bordering nation of Sylvania declares his love for Mrs. Teasdale, Firefly declares war. Chico, Harpo and Zeppo costar as spies and counterspies.
Comedy · Not Rated · 68 minutes · 1933 · Watched: 02/09/2010
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59 - Nashville
Director Robert Altman's sprawling masterpiece about politics and country music astonishes. A huge cast of characters (including Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, Ned Beatty and Karen Black) gets caught up in a political rally that takes over the home of country music. The many fine performances include Lily Tomlin's bored housewife and Henry Gibson's pompous, patriotic country singer. The actors wrote and performed their own songs.
Drama · R · 160 minutes · 1975 · Watched: 02/28/2010
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58 - The Gold Rush
Charlie Chaplin's comic masterpiece centers on the hardships of life on the Alaskan frontier. The Little Tramp plays a pathetic, lonely prospector who journeys to the Klondike hoping to discover gold and make his fortune. Instead, he gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia (Georgia Hale).
Comedy · Not Rated · 82 minutes · 1925 · Watched: 03/20/2010
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57 - Rocky
Gritty, grim and epic, Rocky is the real deal, a crowd pleaser with a less-than-storybook ending. When Muhammad Ali-esque boxing champ Carl Weathers wants to give a nobody a shot at the title as a publicity stunt, his handlers pick palooka Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Rocky won the 1976 Best Picture Oscar thanks to John Avildsen's solid direction and Stallone's root-for-the-underdog script.
Drama · PG · 119 minutes · 1976 · Watched: 04/25/2010
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56 - Jaws
When an insatiable great white shark terrorizes the townspeople of Amity Island, a police chief (Roy Scheider), a grizzled shark hunter (Robert Shaw) and an oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss) seek to destroy it. Director Steven Spielberg created the summer blockbuster boom with this white-knuckle adaptation of the Peter Benchley novel. John Williams's ominous musical score has become legendary.
Horror · PG · 125 minutes · 1975 · Watched: 05/09/2010
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55 - North by Northwest
What if everyone around you was suddenly convinced you were a spy? This classic from master director Alfred Hitchcock stars Cary Grant as an advertising executive who looks a little too much like someone else and is forced to go on the lam (helped along by Eva Marie Saint). Hitchcock's sure-handed comic drama pits Grant against a crop duster and lands him in a fight for his life on Mount Rushmore. That's a cliffhanger if ever there was one!
Suspense · Not Rated · 136 minutes · 1959 · Watched: 08/15/2010
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54 - MASH
Director Robert Altman's thinly veiled Vietnam War satire is indicative of when the spirit of the 1970s went mainstream, with Elliot Gould, Donald Sutherland and Tom Skerritt as Army doctors fighting military insanity and healing wounded soldiers during the Korean War. Featuring an Oscar-winning score and standout work from a huge ensemble cast (including Robert Duvall and Sally Kellerman), M*A*S*H is a masterpiece of '70s cinema.
Comedy · R · 116 minutes · 1970 · Watched: 03/05/2011
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53 - The Deer Hunter
A group of working-class pals decide to enlist in the army during the Vietnam War and find it to be hellish chaos -- not the noble venture they imagined. One of the survivors (Robert De Niro) must return to Saigon to save a shattered pal (Christopher Walken) from certain death in a Russian roulette club. An Oscar-winning epic, The Deer Hunter shows the heavy toll the conflict exacted on soldiers and civilians.
Drama · R · 181 minutes · 1978 · Watched: 06/17/2012
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52 - Taxi Driver
Mentally unstable Vietnam vet Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) drives a nocturnal cab through the sleaziest streets of pregentrified New York City and befriends a child hooker (Jodie Foster). Along the way, the morally righteous Bickle slowly loses his mind, turning into a well-armed, homicidal vigilante. De Niro, director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader create a violently prophetic, gripping vision of urban decay and insanity.
Drama · R · 114 minutes · 1976 · Watched: 07/14/2013
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51 - West Side Story
In retelling the Romeo and Juliet tragedy, West Side Story won 10 Oscars. But instead of Verona's warring Montagues and Capulets, it's the Sharks vs. the Jets, rival gangs battling for turf on the streets of 1950s New York City. When Jet Tony (Richard Beymer) falls for Shark Maria (Natalie Wood), the only way to solve their dilemma is through a rumble in the asphalt jungle.
Musical · Not Rated · 152 minutes · 1961 · Watched: 12/26/2017
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50 - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
From the idyllic shire of the Hobbits to the smoking chasms of Mordor, director Peter Jackson has created a world that surpasses the expectations of J.R.R. Tolkien purists as Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) embarks on his epic quest for the one true ring. The movie -- which nabbed 13 Oscar nominations -- is wonderfully cast with actors such as Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), and stays beautifully true to the book.
Action · PG-13 · 178 minutes · 2001
49 - Intolerance
Many film historians hail director D.W. Griffith's monumental epic as one of the greatest movies ever committed to celluloid. Griffith powerfully interlaces four parallel tales linked by a recurring shot of Lillian Gish symbolically rocking the cradle of civilization. The stories, which span two millennia, collectively illustrate how intolerance has played a pernicious role in such historic events as Christ's crucifixion and the fall of Babylon.
Drama · Not Rated · 178 minutes · 1916
48 - Rear Window
As his broken leg heals, wheelchair-bound L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) becomes absorbed with the parade of life across the courtyard: A dancer, a lonely woman, a composer and a bedridden woman and her husband become like creatures in Needham's voyeuristic zoo. But when one of them disappears, Needham suspects foul play -- and suddenly he finds himself in the center of the action with nowhere to run.
Suspense · PG · 115 minutes · 1954
47 - A Streetcar Named Desire
Marlon Brando spellbinds as the brutish Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's classic rumination on carnal attraction and faded gentility. After losing the family plantation to creditors, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) travels to New Orleans hoping to find comfort with her sister (Kim Hunter), Stanley's wife. But Blanche gets more than she bargained for. Oscars went to Leigh, Hunter and Karl Malden for their monumental performances.
Drama · PG · 125 minutes · 1951
46 - It Happened One Night
Runaway socialite Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) is en route to the Big Apple to elope with a fortune-hunting flyboy. Along the way she meets crusty newspaperman Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who's just been sacked and -- unbeknownst to Ellie -- plans to sell her story to get his job back. But a string of zany misadventures leads them to realize they're madly -- if reluctantly -- in love. It Happened One Night swept every major Academy Award.
Comedy · Not Rated · 105 minutes · 1934
45 - Shane
Amid stunning vistas, this Oscar-winning Western from director George Stevens follows reformed gunslinger Shane (Alan Ladd), whose determination to avoid a fight is tested when greedy cattle barons threaten the community of homesteaders he's joined. Jack Palance plays Shane's unabashedly evil nemesis, and the film's enigmatic ending -- after Shane realizes he's become a disruptive force in the family that's taken him in -- is a cinema classic.
Western · Not Rated · 117 minutes · 1953
44 - The Philadelphia Story
Socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) prepares to remarry, but her ex (Cary Grant) and a tabloid reporter (Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winner James Stewart) have other ideas as they converge on her home for a fateful visit. The three stars form an incomparable romantic triangle in one of the most tantalizing screwball romances ever. Ace Hollywood women's director George Cukor adapts this urbane Broadway comedy with precision and wit.
Comedy · Not Rated · 112 minutes · 1940
43 - Midnight Cowboy
Hayseed hustler Jon Voight comes to Manhattan to earn cash as a freelance sex stud. There, he meets seedy gimp Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), and an improbable friendship blossoms. Rated X in 1969, the movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Director (John Schlesinger) and Screenplay. Although Hoffman didn't win a Best Actor Oscar, his Ratso characterization - the vilified butt of everyone's jokes - is absolutely heartbreaking.
Action · R · 113 minutes · 1969
42 - Bonnie and Clyde
Serial bank robbers, sometime lovers and folkloric heroes, Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) and Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) barrel across Depression-ravaged America on a shooting spree that ended in a deathly rain of bullets -- for them. Sexy and stylish, the film, directed by Arthur Penn, shattered the crime film mold, layering comedy onto mayhem and youthful criminality. Gene Wilder makes his first film appearance here.
Drama · R · 111 minutes · 1967
41 - King Kong
Delivering action, adventure, chills and thrills, this precedent-setting monster movie tells a timeless tale of man vs. beast. While shooting in the jungle, filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) discovers an awe-inspiring marvel of nature: a 50-foot gorilla dubbed Kong. Subduing the mighty beast, the crew returns to New York with the primate, who promptly escapes, spreading mayhem and going ape for the production's leading lady (Fay Wray).
Action · Not Rated · 100 minutes · 1933