Lists like this are arguments waiting to happen. We've tried to write one anyway, weighted for three things: the film's critical reputation (Sight & Sound, AFI, BFI, the Criterion Collection), its visible influence on other filmmakers, and how often we'd actually rewatch it.
Not every film here is one we'd recommend to a casual viewer as their next Friday night. They're the films we'd defend with the most argumentative confidence.
The top 25
- The Godfather (1972) — Coppola's gangster epic. The most-studied American film of the post-1960s era.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) — Kubrick. The film that demanded science fiction be taken seriously as art.
- Citizen Kane (1941) — Welles at twenty-five. The textbook example of what a single film can change.
- The Godfather Part II (1974) — The sequel that beat the original at the Oscars. Parallel-timeline structure later borrowed by Nolan.
- Seven Samurai (1954) — Kurosawa's three-and-a-half-hour epic. Almost every ensemble action film since has been quoting it.
- Vertigo (1958) — Hitchcock's most analysed film. The dolly-zoom. Kim Novak.
- Pulp Fiction (1994) — Tarantino's Palme d'Or winner. The film that reset what an American independent could be.
- Casablanca (1942) — The most-quoted screenplay in film history.
- Goodfellas (1990) — Scorsese's tightest film.
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — The most-rewatched film on TV of the last twenty-five years for a reason.
- Tokyo Story (1953) — Ozu. Quiet domestic drama whose influence on world cinema has only grown.
- Schindler's List (1993) — Spielberg's first Best Director Oscar.
- Taxi Driver (1976) — Scorsese, Schrader, De Niro. The New York film.
- Singin' in the Rain (1952) — The musical that's still the answer to 'what's the best Hollywood musical'.
- Psycho (1960) — Hitchcock. The shower scene was a thirty-year shift in what mainstream cinema could show.
- Parasite (2019) — Bong Joon-ho's class allegory. First non-English-language film to win Best Picture.
- Apocalypse Now (1979) — Coppola's Vietnam film. The production was the war.
- The Dark Knight (2008) — Nolan and Ledger. The film that re-set what a superhero film could be.
- Rear Window (1954) — Hitchcock's most formally controlled film.
- Bicycle Thieves (1948) — De Sica. Italian neorealism's defining text.
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962) — David Lean. The 70mm desert film against which all desert films are measured.
- Spirited Away (2001) — The Oscar-winning Miyazaki. The most-recommended Japanese animation.
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991) — The only horror film to win Best Picture.
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) — George Miller's two-hour chase. Practical-effects spectacle pushed to its limit.
- Persona (1966) — Bergman. The film about identity that doesn't resolve, and shouldn't.