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AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
The first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies....
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Frankenstein
Frankenstein is a 1931 horror film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley as well as the play adapted from it by Peggy Webling. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke,...
Ranking:
- 87
A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1951 film adaptation of the play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. It was directed by Elia Kazan, who had also directed the original stage production, and stars Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl...
Ranking:
- 45
It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night is an 1934 American comedy with elements of screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter ...
Ranking:
- 35
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942...
Ranking:
- 13
The French Connection
The French Connection is a 1971 American crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore. It tells the story of New York Police Department detectives named ...
Ranking:
- 70
The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald and Brooke Smith. It is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Harris, his...
Ranking:
- 65
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American drama film based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola, and Robert Towne (uncredited). It stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan,...
Ranking:
- 3
The Graduate
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols, based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay is by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, who...
Ranking:
- 7
Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British epic film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Austrian Sam Spiegel (through his British company, Horizon Pictures), from a script by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. ...
Ranking:
- 5
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 American drama film starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, and featuring Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton. It was produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, and written by William Rose....
Ranking:
- 99
Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography. It offers a comic depiction of Hollywood, and its...
Ranking:
- 10
Jaws
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. The police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant great white shark by...
Ranking:
- 48
The Searchers
The Searchers is a 1956 epic Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May. It is the story of Ethan Edwards, a middle-aged Civil War veteran portrayed by John Wayne, who spends years looking for his abducted niece with...
Ranking:
- 96
West Side Story
West Side Story is a 1961 American film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, which itself was adapted from Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard...
Ranking:
- 41
The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver. It was directed by...
Ranking:
- 67
From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months...
Ranking:
- 52
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and stars Mary Badham in the role of Scout and Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch.
In 1995, the film was...
Ranking:
- 34
The Apartment
The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and was an equal...
Ranking:
- 93
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released simply as Star Wars, is a 1977 American space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the...
Ranking:
- 15
The Gold Rush
The Gold Rush is a 1925 silent film comedy written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin in his Little Tramp role. The film also stars Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite. Chaplin declared several times...
Ranking:
- 74
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film set during the Vietnam War. The plot revolves around two US Army special operations officers, one of whom, Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen) of MACV-SOG, is sent into the jungle to assassinate...
Ranking:
- 28
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman. The film is an adaptation of the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The movie was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best...
Ranking:
- 20
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The movie is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris, Peter Boyle,...
Ranking:
- 47
MASH
MASH is a 1970 American Academy Award-winning satirical dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on the novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker. It is the only feature film in the M*A...
Ranking:
- 56
Patton
Patton (UK: Patton: Lust for Glory) is a 1970 biographical war film about U.S. General George S. Patton during World War II. It stars George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates, and Karl Michael Vogler. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner from...
Ranking:
- 89
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age comedy-drama film co-written/directed by George Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford. Set in...
Ranking:
- 77
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II (also known as Mario Puzo's The Godfather Part II) is a 1974 American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script co-written with Mario Puzo. The film is both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, chronicling...
Ranking:
- 32
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Dee Wallace. It tells the story of...
Ranking:
- 25
Easy Rider
Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and...
Ranking:
- 88
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and then-newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller...
Ranking:
- 36
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is an American 1939 comedy/drama film starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur, about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra – his last film for Columbia Pictures, the studio where he made...
Ranking:
- 29
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film that tells the story of bank robbers Butch Cassidy (played by Paul Newman) and his partner The Sundance Kid (played by Robert Redford), based loosely on historical fact.
The film was...
Ranking:
- 50
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot is a 1959 American comedy film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. The supporting cast includes George Raft, Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien and Nehemiah Persoff. The film was adapted by...
Ranking:
- 14
City Lights
City Lights is a 1931 American silent romantic comedy film starring, written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. It also stars Virginia Cherrill and Harry Myers. Despite the fact that the production of silent films had dwindled with the rise of ...
Ranking:
- 76
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (commonly known as Dr. Strangelove) is a 1964 black comedy film directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and featuring Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn...
Ranking:
- 26
A Place in the Sun
A Place in the Sun is a 1951 American drama film based on the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the play of the same name adapted from it by Patrick Kearney. It tells the story of a working class young man who is entangled with two...
Ranking:
- 92
Network
Network is a 1976 American satirical film about a fictional television network, Union Broadcasting System (UBS), and its struggle with poor ratings. It was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, and stars Faye Dunaway, William...
Ranking:
- 66
High Noon
High Noon is an American 1952 western film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The film tells in real time the story of a town marshal forced to face a gang of killers by himself. The screenplay was written by Carl...
Ranking:
- 33
Fargo
Fargo is a 1996 American dark comedy crime film produced, directed and written by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.
The film tells a story about a car salesman who hires two men to kidnap his wife for $40,000 and a car, to divide between themselves. The...
Ranking:
- 84
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow White. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in...
Ranking:
- 49
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 American/British dark satirical science fiction film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. At the Stanley Kubrick Archive amongst the call sheets for the film a single page with the following...
Ranking:
- 46
Unforgiven
Unforgiven is a 1992 Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging and retired gunslinger who takes on one more job years after he had hung...
Ranking:
- 98
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a 1939 black and white film, directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the celebrated novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film only depicts sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters,...
Ranking:
- 73
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) is a war film based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel of the same name. It was directed by Lewis Milestone, and stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.
All Quiet on the Western...
Ranking:
- 54
The Third Man
The Third Man is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. The screenplay was written by novelist Graham Greene based on Greene's novella of the same name, which was...
Ranking:
- 57
The Birth of a Nation
The Birth of a Nation (premiered with the title The Clansman) is a 1915 silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Set during and after the American Civil War, the film was based on Thomas Dixon's The Clansman, a novel and play. The Birth of a Nation...
Ranking:
- 44
Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago (Russian: До́ктор Жива́го) is a 1965 epic or drama-romance-war film directed by David Lean and loosely based on the famous novel of the same name by Boris Pasternak. It is also the eight highest grossing film of all time adjusted for...
Ranking:
- 39
All About Eve
All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the short story "The Wisdom of Eve," by Mary Orr.
The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star. Anne Baxter...
Ranking:
- 16
Double Indemnity
Double Indemnity (1944) is an American film noir directed by Billy Wilder. It starred Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson and was based on James M. Cain's 1935 novella of the same title, adapted for film by Wilder and Raymond...
Ranking:
- 38
Giant
Giant is a 1956 American drama film directed by George Stevens from a screenplay adapted by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat from the novel by Edna Ferber. The movie stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean and features Carroll Baker, Jane...
Ranking:
- 82
The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner...
Ranking:
- 90
Bringing up Baby
Bringing Up Baby is a 1938 screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. The movie tells the story of a scientist winding up in various predicaments involving a woman with a unique sense of logic and a...
Ranking:
- 97
Stagecoach
Stagecoach is a 1939 Western film directed by John Ford, starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne in his breakthrough role. The screenplay, written by Dudley Nichols and Ben Hecht, is an adaptation of "The Stage to Lordsburg", a 1937 short story by...
Ranking:
- 63
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and loosely based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern.
The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man whose imminent...
Ranking:
- 11
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film, directed by Robert Zemeckis, stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright Penn, and Gary Sinise. The story is of Forrest Gump, a simple man who...
Ranking:
- 71
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical/fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank...
Ranking:
- 6
Rear Window
Rear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". It stars James Stewart as photographer L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies, who spies on...
Ranking:
- 42
Amadeus
Peter Shaffer's Amadeus is a 1984 musical film directed by Miloš Forman and written by Peter Shaffer. Adapted from Shaffer's stage play Amadeus, the story is based loosely on the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, two composers...
Ranking:
- 53
King Kong
King Kong is a 1933 landmark black-and-white monster film about a gigantic gorilla named "Kong" and how he is captured from a remote lost prehistoric island and brought to civilization against his will. The film was made by RKO and was originally...
Ranking:
- 43
Mutiny on the Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 film starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, and directed by Frank Lloyd based on the Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall novel Mutiny on the Bounty.
The film was one of the biggest hits of its time and remains a...
Ranking:
- 86
