THE TOP 100 MOVIES OF ALL TIME BASED ON CRITICS' POLLS

This list is pretty comprehensive.  It is compiled from Sight and Sound's 2002 and 1992 polls of 253 and 233 critics, scholars, and filmmakers, respectively, Positif's 2002 poll, the Village Voice's 1999 poll of 50 critics, Time Out's 1995 poll of 63 critics, a list compiled from the online group Cinemasters, and a ranking based on how many times a movie made the top 10 lists of all 500+ people polled.  Each film's final ranking is based on a formula taking each poll into account, each poll getting greater weight as the number of voters increase and less weight the older a poll is. Here are the results listing ranking, title, year of release, director, and how each film performed in the respective polls.  Note that ties appear frequently among individual polls.

Title

Year

 Director Cinemasters '03 Sight & Sound '02 Positif '02 (top 40 only) Village Voice '99 Time Out '95 Sight & Sound '92 All Individuals' Lists Combined
1 Citizen Kane 1941 Welles 3 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 The Rules of the Game 1939 Renoir 5 3 1 2 3 2 2
3 Vertigo 1958 Hitchcock 2 2 2 3 4 4 3
4 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Kubrick 1 6 1 11 37 10 4
5 8 1/2 1963 Fellini 9 4 3   15 5 5
6 The Seven Samurai 1954 Kurosawa 23 9 27 23 5 12 7
7 The Searchers 1956 Ford 30 14 13 4 20 9 8
8 Tokyo Story 1953 Ozu 64 8   36 9 3 8
9 Singin' in the Rain 1952 Kelly; Donen 20 12 40 73 57 14 10
10 Sunrise 1927 Murnau 8 13   6 80 20 11
11 Touch of Evil 1958 Welles 11 19 13 55 8 28 13
12 The Godfather, Part II 1974 Coppola 36 5 20 31 2 16 16
13 The Godfather 1972 Coppola 29 7   12 2 20 15
14 Battleship Potemkin 1925 Eisenstein   11   79 28 10 6
15 L'Atalante 1934 Vigo   25   7 10 5 12
16 The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 Dreyer 42 16   8 66 7 13
17 The General 1927 Keaton 83 28   32 31 20 20
18 Rashomon 1951 Kurosawa   10   10 66 25 18
19 La Dolce Vita 1960 Fellini   17 10   20 25 32
20 Raging Bull 1980 Scorsese 47 23     7 7 16
21 Children of Paradise 1945 Carne   32     13 20 21
22 City Lights 1931 Chaplin 45 35   38 80 16 18
23 L'Avventura 1960 Antonioni   21 13   88 33 22
24 Jules and Jim 1961 Truffaut 13 22       33 22
25 Bicycle Thieves 1948 De Sica   18   37   14 27
26 Grand Illusion 1937 Renoir 21 33     49 33 22
27 The Third Man 1949 Reed 57 44   30 49 28 22
28 Pather Panchali 1955 Ray   37   13 60 12 27
29 Ugetsu Monogatari 1953 Mizoguchi 65 43 20 29 88 41 35
30 Contempt 1963 Godard 40 42 4 49   41 31
31 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 Lean   15     6 41 42
32 Wild Strawberries 1957 Bergman   50 13     25 29
33 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 Welles 43 64   25 15 50 26
34 Some Like It Hot 1959 Wilder   29 27   23 50 51
35 Andrei Rublev 1966 Tarkovsky   33       20 34
36 A bout de souffle 1959 Godard   19     32 28 51
37 Apocalypse Now 1979 Coppola 90 40 10   17 33 47
38 Taxi Driver 1976 Scorsese 6 38   34 23   33
39 Modern Times 1936 Chaplin   56   67   16 30
40 The Night of the Hunter 1955 Laughton 26 89 6 35 11 50 35
41 Fanny and Alexander 1983 Bergman   30 10   88 33 64
42 Psycho 1960 Hitchcock   26   20   61 47
43 Ordet 1955 Dreyer 74 52   17 85 50 40
44 Intolerance 1916 Griffith   52   18 72 28 45
45 Persona 1966 Bergman 91 58 4   66 61 35
46 Casablanca 1942 Curtiz 22 46     80   35
47 The Conformist 1970 Bertolucci 45 58   58 12 41 54
48 Ivan the Terrible 1944 Eisenstein   47       50 47
49 Sunset Blvd. 1950 Wilder 31 27   45     51
50 North by Northwest 1959 Hitchcock 44 57   51 17 73 45
51 Chinatown 1974 Polanski 14 45   21 19   59
52 Mirror 1974 Tarkovsky   31 13   88 33 87
53 M 1931 Lang 81 49   22     42
54 Rio Bravo 1959 Hawks 51 65 27   32 61 62
55 Greed 1924 Stroheim 80 65   28 66 73 40
56 Barry Lyndon 1975 Kubrick 50 55 7 46 88   59
57 Pierrot le Fou 1965 Godard 69 95 27 81 40 33 35
58 The Gold Rush 1925 Chaplin   72   50 49 61 42
59 The Seventh Seal 1956 Bergman   38   33 88 61 73
60 Rear Window 1954 Hitchcock 56 68     26 41 54
61 Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964 Kubrick 86 24     57 93 68
62 Au Hasard, Balthazar 1966 Bresson   36   9     54
63 The Man with a Movie Camera 1928 Vertov 97 63   5   61 59
64 The 400 Blows 1959 Truffaut   51   47 42   54
65 Sansho the Bailiff 1954 Mizoguchi 54 81 7   88   54
66 La Strada 1954 Fellini   62       16 79
67 The Wizard of Oz 1939 Fleming   77   15   50 64
68 My Darling Clementine 1946 Ford         37 41 47
69 Amarcord 1973 Fellini   60 40   66 73 94
70 The Earrings of Madame de... 1953 Ophuls   99 40 24   61 64
71 The Wild Bunch 1969 Peckinpah 61 72 40   22   73
72 Ikiru 1952 Kurosawa   84       41 68
73 Last Year at Marienbad 1962 Resnais   72 27   42   79
74 Nashville 1975 Altman   68       50 79
75 It's a Wonderful Life 1946 Capra 33 99   16 28   62
76 Blade Runner 1982 Scott 38 65     60   79
77 Pickpocket 1959 Bresson   77   61 49 50 91
78 Letter from an Unknown Woman 1948 Ophuls   95     42 33 73
79 Metropolis 1926 Lang   47   40     94
80 Viridiana 1961 Buñuel   89       61 68
81 Voyage in Italy 1953 Rossellini   84       50 73
82 The Apartment 1960 Wilder 15 41         118
83 L'Age d'Or 1930 Buñuel   68       73 87
84 Paisan 1946 Rossellini       70   28 79
85 Bringing Up Baby 1938 Hawks 10       42 93 73
86 Stagecoach 1939 Ford   99       50 73
87 The World of Apu 1959 Ray       54   73 68
88 Sherlock, Jr. 1924 Keaton 34 99   42     68
89 Blue Velvet 1986 Lynch 25       60   64
90 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 Buñuel 59         73 79
91 Napoleon 1927 Gance   68     26   105
92 Notorious 1946 Hitchcock 59 99   80 72   79
93 The Lady Eve 1941 Sturges 28     57 42   94
94 Gertrud 1964 Dreyer           41 91
95 All About Eve 1950 Mankiewicz 84     77 37   79
96 Hiroshima, Mon Amour 1959 Resnais     7     93 87
97 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 Ford   81 20 60     105
98 The Decalogue 1988 Kieslowski 27 84         100
99 Stalker 1979 Tarkovsky           41 94
100 The Traveling Players 1975 Angelopoulos   81       43 100

And the 20 that did not quite make it...

Title

Year

 Director Cinemasters '03 Sight & Sound '02 Positif '02 (top 40 only) Village Voice '99 Time Out '95 Sight & Sound '92 All Individuals' Lists Combined
101 Aguirre: The Wrath of God 1972 Herzog       43   61 100
102 Aparajito 1956 Ray       54   73 100
103 The Band Wagon 1953 Minnelli     27       100
104 To Be or Not to Be 1942 Lubitsch           61 105
105 The Birth of a Nation 1915 Griffith       14   93 94
106 A Man Escaped 1956 Bresson 48     26     105
107 Nosferatu 1922 Murnau   99         94
108 Manhattan 1979 Allen 52           100
109 The Music Room 1958 Ray           61 105
110 The Exterminating Angel 1962 Buñuel     13     50 128
111 The Maltese Falcon 1941 Huston             91
112 Days of Heaven 1978 Malick 17           105
113 Monsieur Verdoux 1947 Chaplin           73 105
114 Chimes at Midnight 1966 Welles     40     93 105
115 Weekend 1967 Godard 39           105
116 Gone With the Wind 1939 Fleming         42 93 118
117 Vivre sa vie 1962 Godard   99   41     105
118 King Kong 1933 Cooper     39     105
119 Earth 1930 Dovzhenko         88   105
120 Los Olvidados 1951 Buñuel       69     105


Citizen Kane
Having seen all of the films in the top 100 (and 120), I find it difficult to make generalized statements about the list as a whole.  It is comprised after all of 100 very diverse films.  I'd be extremely surprised if someone thought the films on the list were mostly bad or all good.  Some I find pretty lame (Gertrud, Letter from an Unknown Woman) and some pretentious (Ordet, Stalker), but the vast majority are neither.  I would not quite call the list elitist, which I'm sure many rumaging through it are tempted to do.  The makers of the list are international in nature, meaning that a great deal of the films are going to be foreign films to a great number of people.  That already makes many of the films difficult to see (i.e., obscure), but that in itself does not make these films elitist.  Furthermore, those polled are in their positions probably because they tend to be more educated than the general public in cinema.  This makes the films less likely to appeal to the lowest common denominator or be based on mass popularity.  Would we, after all, really want Home Alone on a list of all time great movies?  The people polled also tend to be older, so the list would stress relatively older films which have influenced them.  This is probably also a good thing as by the very nature of defining greatness, a film should have to stand the test of time.  My point is that the list is biased toward older, educated, and foreign (at least to most people) films, all of which I'd argue are positive qualities.  Because over 500 people were polled and even the lowest ranking film had to have made the top 10 lists of at least 10 people, the list is actually biased against really great, more obscure films such as Edward Yang's Taipei Story or Bela Tarr's Satantango.

The reason I post this list is because I think it's interesting to look at a canon of films decided upon by those most involved in cinema -- the critics, scholars, directors, etc.  I'm not saying one should see a movie because it is on the list.  Not every film is for everyone, and neither should that disqualify it from being a great film.  I am saying that one should keep an open mind, and look at each film individually and decide whether it has merit.  Many of you might uncover some heretofore undiscovered gems, and that is what makes the list worthwhile.

Directors with 5 movies in the top 100:
Alfred Hitchcok

Directors with 4 movies in the top 100:
Ingmar Bergman
Federico Fellini
John Ford

Directors with 3 movies in the top 100:
Luis Buñuel
Charles Chaplin
Francis Ford Coppola
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Jean-Luc Godard
Stanley Kubrick
Akira Kurosawa
Andre Tarkovsky
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder


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