| Film Appreciation | AFI's Top 100 Films | last updated: 03.14.99 |
The American Film Institute polled 1,500 leaders in the film community to determine the top 100 films in the first 100 years of American film making (1896 - 1996). To find out if your favorites made it check this list.
|
Rank |
Film | Director | Year |
| 100 | Yankee Doodle Dandy | Michael Curtiz | 1942 |
| 99 | Guess Who's Coming To Dinner | Stanley Kramer | 1967 |
| 98 | Unforgiven | Clint Eastwood | 1992 |
| 97 | Bringing Up Baby | Howard Hawks | 1938 |
| 96 | The Searchers | John Ford | 1956 |
| 95 | Pulp Fiction | Quentin Tarantino | 1994 |
| 94 | Goodfellas | Martin Scorsese | 1990 |
| 93 | The Apartment | Billy Wilder | 1960 |
| 92 | A Place In the Sun | George Stevens | 1951 |
| 91 | My Fair Lady | George Cukor | 1964 |
| 90 | The Jazz Singer | Alan Crosland | 1927 |
| 89 | Patton | Franklin J. Schaffner | 1970 |
| 88 | Easy Rider | Dennis Hopper | 1969 |
| 87 | Frankenstein | James Whale | 1931 |
| 86 | Mutiny on the Bounty | Frank Lloyd | 1935 |
| 85 | Duck Soup | Leo McCarey | 1933 |
| 84 | Fargo | Ethan Cohen | 1996 |
| 83 | Platoon | Oliver Stone | 1986 |
| 82 | Giant | George Stevens | 1956 |
| 81 | Modern Times | Charles Chaplin | 1936 |
| 80 | The Wild Bunch | Sam Peckinpa | 1969 |
| 79 | The Deer Hunter | Michael Cimino | 1978 |
| 78 | Rocky | John G. Avildsen | 1976 |
| 77 | American Graffiti | George Lucas | 1973 |
| 76 | City Lights | Charles Chaplin | 1931 |
| 75 | Dances With Wolves | Kevin Costner | 1990 |
| 74 | The Gold Rush | Charles Chaplin | 1925 |
| 73 | Wuthering Heights | William Wyler | 1939 |
| 72 | Ben Hur | William Wyler | 1959 |
| 71 | Forrest Gump | Robert Zemeckis | 1994 |
| 70 | The French Connection | William Friedkin | 1971 |
| 69 | Shane | George Stevens | 1953 |
| 68 | An American In Paris | Vincente Minnelli | 1951 |
| 67 | The Manchurian Candidate | John Frankenheimer | 1962 |
| 66 | Network | Sidney Lumet | 1976 |
| 65 | The Silence of the Lambs | Jonathan Demme | 1991 |
| 64 | Close Encounters of The Third Kind | Steven Spielberg | 1977 |
| 63 | Stagecoach | John Ford | 1939 |
| 62 | Tootsie | Sydney Pollack | 1982 |
| 61 | Vertigo | Alfred Hitch | 1958 |
| 60 | Raiders of The Lost Ark | Steven Spielberg | 1981 |
| 59 | Rebel Without A Cause | Nicholas Ray | 1955 |
| 58 | Fantasia | 1940 | |
| 57 | The Third Man | Carol Reed | 1949 |
| 56 | M*A*S*H* | Robert Altman | 1970 |
| 55 | The Sound of Music | Robert Wise | 1965 |
| 54 | All Quiet On The Western Front | Lewis Milestone | 1930 |
| 53 | Amadeus | Milos Forman | 1984 |
| 52 | From Here To Eternity | Fred Zinnemann | 1953 |
| 51 | The Philadelphia Story | George Cukor | 1940 |
| 50 | Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid | George Roy Hill | 1969 |
| 49 | Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | |
| 48 | Jaws | Steven Spielberg | 1975 |
| 47 | Taxi Driver | Martin Scorsese | 1976 |
| 46 | A Clockwork Orange | Stanley Kubrick | 1971 |
| 45 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Elia Kazan | 1951 |
| 44 | Birth Of A Nation | D.W. Griffith | 1915 |
| 43 | King Kong | Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack | 1933 |
| 42 | Rear Window | Alfred Hitch | 1954 |
| 41 | West Side Story | Robert Wise | 1961 |
| 40 | North By Northwest | Alfred Hitch | 1959 |
| 39 | Doctor Zhivago | David Lean | 1965 |
| 38 | Double Indemnity | Billy Wilder | 1944 |
| 37 | Best Years of Our Lives | William Wyler | 1946 |
| 36 | Midnight Cowboy | John Schlesinger | 1969 |
| 35 | It Happened One Night | Frank Capra | 1934 |
| 34 | To Kill A Mockingbird | Robert Mulligan | 1962 |
| 33 | High Noon | Fred Zinnemann | 1952 |
| 32 | The Godfather Part II | Francis Coppola | 1974 |
| 31 | Annie Hall | Woody Allen | 1977 |
| 30 | Treasure of The Sierra Madre | John Huston | 1948 |
| 29 | Mr. Smith Goes To Washington | Frank Capra | 1939 |
| 28 | Apocalypse Now | Francis Coppola | 1979 |
| 27 | Bonnie and Clyde | Arthur Penn | 1967 |
| 26 | Dr. Strangelove | Stanley Kubrick | 1963 |
| 25 | ET the Extra Terrestrial | Steven Spielberg | 1982 |
| 24 | Raging Bull | Martin Scorsese | 1980 |
| 23 | The Maltese Falcon | John Huston | 1941 |
| 22 | 2001 A Space Odyssey | Stanley Kubrick | 1968 |
| 21 | Grapes of Wrath | John Ford | 1940 |
| 20 | One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest | Milos Forman | 1975 |
| 19 | Chinatown | Roman Polanski | 1974 |
| 18 | Psycho | Alfred Hitch | 1960 |
| 17 | The African Queen | John Huston | 1951 |
| 16 | All About Eve | Joseph L Mankiewicz | 1950 |
| 15 | Star Wars | George Lucas | 1977 |
| 14 | Some Like It Hot | Billy Wilder | 1959 |
| 13 | Bridge On The River Kwai | David Lean | 1957 |
| 12 | Sunset Boulevard | Billy Wilder | 1950 |
| 11 | It's A Wonderful Life | Frank Capra | 1946 |
| 10 | Singin In The Rain | Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly | 1952 |
| 9 | Schindler's List | Steven Spielberg | 1993 |
| 8 | On The Waterfront | Elia Kazan | 1954 |
| 7 | The Graduate | Mike Nichols | 1967 |
| 6 | The Wizard Of Oz | Victor Fleming | 1939 |
| 5 | Lawrence of Arabia | David Lean | 1962 |
| 4 | Gone With The Wind | Victor Fleming | 1939 |
| 3 | The Godfather | Francis Coppola | 1972 |
| 2 | Casablanca | Michael Curtiz | 1942 |
| 1 | Citizen Kane | Orson Welles | 1941 |
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