Top 50 Favorite Movies

You need to watch all his movies in chronological order, starting from Horus (1968). The more you watch it the more you understand his style. Grave of the Fireflies is a rather unique film in his filmmography because it's much more aggressive than his other subtle slice of life films.

1/3 animation, 2/3 live action

While I like animation more, the fact is that live action is 10 times larger so there are more masterpieces. Still this is the top 50 fav. movies list with the higher number of animation ever made by someone who actually knows a fair bit of live action (usually fav. movie lists that have like half animation are written by kids who haven't watched much ).

Miss Vicky's lists have a fair bit of Animation on them. Still I see what you mean. Horus is one I've considered watching from him, I doubt i'll watch his full filmography though. Those Panda films look awful.

Just noticed TGTBATU. Excellent film, not my favourite Leone but I still love it. I'd actually say it has a pretty good chance of topping the 60's list, if the votes aren't too split between the trilogy.

Rep for The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. The soundtrack is among the best ever!

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly...finally one that I've seen and I've seen it many times. Excellent choice.

TGTBATU is one of my favorite film of all time. And I desperately want to see The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

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The Tale of Princess Kaguya looks really cool. I have to watch it. I actually didn't read your review though because I want to go into it knowing as little as possible since I already know that I want to see it.

It's funny, I have owned The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly for over a year, but I still haven't gotten around to watching it.

46. Schindler's List (1993) (Spielberg, US)



Don't tell me it's melodramatic! It's a masterpiece of mainstream Hollywood film. It's Spielberg's most touching film (sorry E.T. but that creature is just too ugly)

Aren't nazi uniforms cute?


Emotional manipulation or just plain honest sentimentalism? Is there a difference?


Spielberg is a very talented director who has profoundly influenced modern hollywood movies, Schindler's list is my favorite of his work because it's his darkest and most powerful movie. Notice the trend?



Also the cinematography is pretty great as well.

TGTBTU is my favorite Western and Leone film. Once Upon a Time in the West is probably better film from a cinematic point of view but I simply find the former to be way more fun and enjoyable.

Shindler's List is pretty good, but it's been nearly 8 years or so since I watched it the last time. Don't have an accurate memory about it.

I loved Grave of the Fireflies so maybe I should check out that animated one.

Schindler's List is probably one of the biggest movies I haven't seen yet.

@ Gatsby, Yep, Once Upon a Time in the West is more the type of film that movie critics would rate higher but TGTBTU is more the type of film film buffs would rather watched.

@ cricket, I also recommend for you Only Yesterday from Takahata.

45. Ghost in the Shell (1995) (Oshii, Japan)



In a fav. movies list I couldn't forget to list an Oshii movie. And what Oshii movie I choose? Well, his most famous film. Though it's perhaps his best (among those I have watched, there are still about 6 of his films I haven't watched among the 14-15 movies he directed) because it's so elegant and concise.

Based on Masamu Shirow's masterpiece manga, which was serialized in the highly regarded Weekly Young Magazine:


Shirow's manga has been of primarily two types: erotic manga and pornographic manga. GitS is of the first type, being a highly cerebral sci fi manga which has actually been the source material of both GitS movies. I also found the second film very good but it felt a bit forced and it tried too hard to overwhelm the viewer visually. The first film features the more conservative visuals of 1990's adult sci-fi anime, which I find extremely pleasing to the eye.



When I first watched it it didn't feel like a masterpiece but that's because at the time I was under the spell of Miyazaki and so I assumed everything that wasn't directed by Miyazaki was not masterpiece level material.



Anyway, GitS is perhaps the best science fiction film of the 1990's and among the greatest science fiction films of all time. It has a certain post-modern atmospheric feel that I find really pleasing. Like Blade Runner it's primary theme is the nature of being human in a civilization so advanced that everything can be manufactured, including the human body and the mind. The film main character is a cyborg who doesn't know if she is human or not:



I also was displeased to notice that in the animation list here GitS was the only Oshii film, other classics like the two Patlabor films, Sky Crawler's and Urusei Yatsura 2 were excluded (the latter is regarded by many as Oshii's true masterpiece and my second favorite Oshii film). Though my personal favorite of Oshii's works is also his most popular and accessible film.

But knowing Oshii is essential for any fan of animation. He is among the top 5 greatest Japanese animation directors of all time, alongside Miyazaki, Takahata, Anno and Yuasa.

Ghost in the Shell, one of my first true anime loves.

"Ridiculous, it's programmed for self preservation."

"It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information, and life when organised into species relies upon genes to be it's memory system. So man is an individual only because of his intangible memory, and if memory can not be defined, but it defines mankind, the advent of computers and the subsequent accumulation of incalculable data has given rise to a new system of memory and thought parallel to your own. Humanity has underestimated the consequences of computerisation."

"Nonsense, this babel offers no proof at all that you're a living thinking life form."

"And can you offer me proof of your existence? How can you when neither modern science nor philosophy can explain what life is."

I was really looking forward to Ghost in the Shell but it was just ok for me.

I looked up Only Yesterday-that looks like something I may like!

Interestingly, GitS has the least dialogue among all Oshii's films, except Sky Crawlers. Patlabor 2 dialogue and plot are 10 times denser than this one. in fact, it's this relatively sparse dialogue that makes it such a classic. There isn't much of a plot and much of the dialogue is philosophical in nature. The second film took these elements to certain extreme, which made it weaker in comparison.

44. The Human Condition trilogy (1959-1961) (Kobayashi, Japan)



And just after Schindler's List, another film dealing with the tragedy of the Second World War. This time from a Japanese perspective. Kobayashi was an idealist, a director who criticized historical and contemporary Japanese society. In this trilogy he heavily criticizes the Japanese approach to the second world war and shows the horror of conflict in a way that no other film can.



Some have criticized the movie for being simplistic, but that's actually Kobayashi's style. Running for nearly 10 hours, it's almost a TV miniseries rather than a film and I watched the whole thing in a day. A great day for film it was indeed, during my film buff phase when I had the time and the excitement of finding something awesome awaiting for me when I watched the TV.



The film portrays the wartime life of Kaji and his role changes from running a prisoner camp, to soldier to the situation of being a POW, after being captured by the Soviet forces when they destroyed the Japanese army in Manchuria in August 1945 (at the same time that the US was dropping the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in fact, some historians suggest that the decision to surrender was taken more in response to the Soviet declaration of war (due to the attack) than the bombs, though it probably was a consequence of both facts besides the wider strategic picture). It shows how horrid prisoners were treated by the Japanese and also how horrible it was to be a Japanese prisoner of war in Soviet Russia.



It's a tragic film but also it's a really powerful artistic manifestation of the changing attitudes pf post-war Japanese society regarding militarism.



And the scale of the cinematic effort to make such movie is really impressive in it's own right. Japanese film industry was peaking in terms of it's box office revenues in 1960 (converted by inflation and using 2012 exchange rates, Japanese box office revenues in 1960 were about 4.5 billion current dollars, twice as much as today) this allowed for the Japanese film industry to finance the enormous cost of producing such films.

43. Fanny and Alexander (1983) (Bergman, Sweden)



This is the first TV series to grace this list. Interestingly that Sweden's most famous film director's most popular work is not a movie but a TV series. Anyway, it's a great series.



As have been said before, the cinematography is really first class and this film features some very dense/rich visuals. It transmits to me a feel of what "classical Europe" was like, classical in the sense of being European civilization before the two world wars.



It's among Bergman's most personal work as he claims it is a depiction of his own childhood. Although being almost close to perfect the series is not without any problems, one minor quibble I have with it is the rather stoic way the children behave. Real children are not as tough as these little fellows. However that's a minor issue considering the overall situation.

Haven't seen the trilogy yet, it's in my watchlist...saw 2 other films of Kobayashi - Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion, liked both of them...
Fanny and Alexander is awesome...

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Still not watched any here, but I want to see them all. Particularly The Human Condition Trilogy, since Kobayashi is starting to become a favourite after Harakiri and Kwaidan.

42. Back to the Future (1985) (Zemekis, US)



Back to the Future is an uber masterpiece of the "modern Hollywood blockbuster" genre. While TGTBTU is a masterpiece of spaguetti western, being the coolest movie ever made (among those I watched at least), Back to the Future is perhaps the most purely enjoyable fun live action flick I have watched so far. It's very similar to other hollywood films but it is an exceptionally polished gem of a film.



The "cartoon" characters of the film are extremely memorable: including some of the best iterations of the iconic mad scientist archetype and the 80's teenager archetype. And the plot is very creative and extremely well executed. The soundtrack is also extremely good, one of the most enjoyable and inspiring movie soundtracks.



Due to it's massive commercial success the film created a franchise but it's sequels are sadly far inferior to the original product.