The next 15 were:
The Seventh Seal - 68 points
Annie Hall - 67 points
Dredd - 66 points
The Karate Kid - 65 points
Wall-E - 65 points
Inception - 64 points
Elmer Gantry - 64 points
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 64 points
The Conversation - 64 points
Mad Max: Fury Road - 64 points
The Departed -63 points
Groundhog Day - 62 points
The Innocents - 61 points
Monty Python & The Holy Grail - 61 points
Inglorious Basterds - 61 points
In there, I see my number 17, The Conversation.
Gene Hackman is superb as Harry Caul, a man who keeps to himself while working his job as a surveillance expert. What follows on this assignment given to him by his client's aide (Harrison Ford) is a mixture of regret for a previous failed mission and obsession as he tries to figure out what a conversation he has recorded truly means. Features a good turn from John Cazale as Caul's assistant and a masterly directorial turn by Francis Ford Coppola as he ramps up the tension to the breaking point. I honestly jumped when I saw a floor buffer in one scene and I've used them before in the past.
Biggest surprise to me is seeing the Terminator 2 getting in. Good film, sure. But in the top 100 of all time? *shrugs* I would have guessed Inception or maybe Holy Grail would have snuck in instead.
And here's the rest of my list with quick thoughts:
5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance---Jimmy Stewart is perhaps at his best as Stoddard, a Senator who recounts how as a lawyer he stood up to Liberty (Lee Marvin) with the help of rancher Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). Not only does it dive into the differences between legend and fact, but it's also one of the best in the Western genre.
7. Double Indemnity---From the western, we now dive into one of the finest in the film noir genre. As an insurance salesman (Fred McMurray) gets roped into a scheme to help a frustrated housewife (Barbara Stanwyck) off her husband in exchange for the insurance money. The salesman decides to help her pull off the double indemnity clause involving him falling off the train to his death, but claims adjuster Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) suspects there's foul play at work. There's more at play here, but the first rate story and sizzling chemistry between the characters are definitely the highlights.
14. Boyhood---Perhaps one of the best films in the 2010s, this look at a critical period at the life of a young boy (Ellar Coltrane) as he grows up in front of our eyes into a young man taking the lessons he learned from his father (Ethan Hawke) and his mother (Patricia Arquette) is enthralling throughout its runtime. It's one of those films you hold your breath at times hoping that he'll end up OK at the end. Thanks to director Richard Linklater, it grows way beyond a stunt premise into a film that encapsulates life.
15. The Lion King---Using the lush animation, Disney tells the timeless tale of a boy lion's destiny to one day become king and the obstacles presented along the way that alters those plans. The film directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff is able to beautifully blend darker moments with more lighthearted ones involving Timon (Nathan Lane) and Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella). Jeremy Irons has perhaps his finest role as the villainous Scar while James Earl Jones and Robert Guillaume make the most of their roles as the Mufasa and Rafiki. For the most part, the songs sing particularly Circle of Life and Hakuna Matata hold up pretty well now.
16. M---The story of Berlin's chase of a man who murdered children as both the police and the underworld want him caught (but of course, for different reasons). Fritz Lang provides the basis for future crime and thriller films while Peter Lorre goes through the full wringer of emotions throughout the runtime. He manages to make Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King eerie through his whistling. And the climax is superb.
18. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)---A drifter finds himself falling for the younger wife of his boss which gets him caught up in a scheme involving his murder so they can get together. Naturally, fate draws some different cards for them. Lana Turner is beguiling as the scheming wife (nobody can blame poor John Garfield as the drifter, considering her good looks). The story draws you in much like the drifter getting drawn in and by the time you reach the climax, it's too late to escape.
19. Coco---The story of a kid named Miguel trying to convince his shoe-making family to let him perform, but they refuse because their great-great grandfather left them in the lurch so he can become a music star. Miguel defies his parents to perform at the Day of the Dead and ultimately is able to find out the truth about his great-great grandfather and what really happened. The film is able to use Mexico's Day of the Dead holiday as the backdrop of a fascinating story of dreams and setting the truth straight. It also features one of the ugliest cries that I've had involving a film.
20. Spotlight---The brilliance of this film is how it takes what we know now and manage to turn it into a thriller. A first rate cast including Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams sinks their teeth into a story about the power of the press and starting the arduous process of fixing wrongs decades in the making, even as it starts to cast its toll on the personal lives of the reporters. They managed to make a spreadsheet compelling which I think is due in part of the expert pacing by Tom McCarthy.
21. Memento---In this heady mix of two stories directed by Christopher Nolan, the past and present are blurred in the life of protagonist Leonard (Guy Pearce) who suffers from a form of amnesia where he forgets everything unless it's photographed or written down on his skin. Leonard becomes obsessed with finding out who was behind the fatal attack of his wife. The beauty of this one is that you're not entirely sure who you can trust or whether they're on the level.
22. The Artist---I'm not normally big on the Hollywood congratulating itself genre, but this is a very happy exception. In small part, because it proves to be both a love letter to the art of the silent film as well as a clear subversion of it. As the director and both leads are 100 percent French. But the technology of sound is on the horizon and the film manages to show how the lives of some actors were enhanced by it as well as demonstrating how others were ruined because of it. But this romantic drama also shows the importance of helping other people and its long term ramifications.
23. The Thin Blue Line---Hopefully, people will come back around to this 1988 Errol Morris film about the unjust conviction of an African American for the murder of a Texas cop. It bends the line between documentary and film noir in its use of reenactments and warns us of the dangers of glorifying cops as protectors of society. Ultimately, evidence provided by the film freed him. But its examination of the unfairness of the justice system for African Americans and the proper place for cops in our society are issues we still look at today.
24. 12 Years a Slave---Perhaps serving as a nice counterpoint to Gone with the Wind, this story about a free musician who gets tricked into slavery where he spends a number of years trying to survive and having his story heard by someone who may be able to get him out of his predicament. Chiwetel Ejiofor is able to express so much just using his eyes as you see him getting thrown into a world that he doesn't belong in. Michael Fassbender plays a villainous slaveholder named Epps who is cruel and abusive towards him and a fellow slave named Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o). Although there are brief respites such as Solomon playing a violin at a judge's neighbor's wedding and the scene with Mistress Shaw (Alfre Woodard), the film forces you first hand to learn of the atrocities of slavery and its human costs.
25. High Noon---We end here with another first class western...a story of a sheriff (Gary Cooper) who is recently married to Quaker wife Amy (Grace Kelly) but his attempts to head off to his honeymoon is thwarted by news of Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) and his gang are planning revenge. The sense of duty versus keeping the peace is something that surrounds the film from the townspeople who refuse to help to Amy who considers leaving him because he won't fulfill his duties as a husband. Perhaps there's also an influence from the Red Scare that was affecting Hollywood at the time...writer Carl Foreman who was listed as an uncooperative witness had to give up his dreams and move to Britain following the film. Lee Van Cleef makes his first, but hardly last, appearance in the genre as one of Miller's cohorts. The song High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling) makes for an enthralling soundtrack as the time ticks down closer to a showdown.
John Wayne was almost cast as the lead of this, but due to his political beliefs, turned it down ultimately making Rio Bravo his response to the film.