Here’s a fun experiment: Think of your 75 favorite films. Now rank them from most-loved to… Well… Loved but-not-loved-enough to be #1.

The list below are my 75 favorites. I would’ve listed a hundred but that would’ve been too easy. I had to make some serious decisions here, cutting some films that I really loved to narrow the list down.

Over time I’ll be discussing each of these films in a linked article, so watch my regular blog for updates. By writing about them, my goal is to understand exactly what it is that I love about these films.

Also, this list is bound to change with new additions and deletions. Some of my selections are obvious, others pretty surprising, even to me.

(Updated 03/11/2010)

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
   
2. Annie Hall
   
3. The Shawshank Redemption
   
4. The Seven Samurai
   
5. Manhattan
   
6. The Shining
   
7. Rushmore
   
8. Spirited Away
   
9. Citizen Kane
   
10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
    
11. The Big Lebowski
    
12. The Godfather
    
13. Se7en
    
14. American Beauty
    
15. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
    
16. Heat
    
17. Being John Malkovich
    
18. Silence of the Lambs
    
19. Taxi Driver
    
20. Goodfellas
    
21. Drunken Master 2
    
22. Ghostbusters
    
23. Enter the Dragon
    
24. 12 Angry Men
    
25. Gandhi
    
26. Pulp Fiction
    
27. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
    
28. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
    
29. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
    
30. Star Wars: A New Hope
    
31. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
    
32. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
    
33. Raiders of the Lost Ark
    
34. UP (2009)
    
35. Dead Poets Society
    
36. The Dark Knight
    
37. Aliens
    
38. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
    
39. Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
    
40. Hard Boiled
    
41. The Matrix
    
42. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
    
43. Saving Private Ryan
    
44. Fight Club
    
45. Edward Scissorhands
    
46. Glory
    
47. Toy Story
    
48. Kiki’s Delivery Service
    
49. Good Will Hunting
    
50. A Streetcar Named Desire
    
51. Fargo
    
52. Reservoir Dogs
    
53. Boogie Nights
    
54. Election
    
55. Batman (1989)
    
56. Pleasantville
    
57. Raging Bull
    
58. Unforgiven
    
59. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
    
60. Departures (2009)
    
61. Donnie Darko
    
62. Invictus
    
63. King Kong (1933)
    
64. Lilo and Stitch
    
65. Schindler’s List
    
66. 2001: A Space Odyssey
    
67. The Goonies
    
68. Full Metal Jacket
    
69. Poltergeist
    
70. Blade Runner
    
71. Me and You and Everyone We Know
    
72. Manos, the Hands of Fate
    
73. Hotel Rwanda
    
74. The Royal Tennenbaums
    
75. A Serious Man (2009)