What Are the Top Ten Movies of All Time?

Which movies are on any top ten list would depend on who made the list.  Some lists are the opinions of critics and some are put together from a group of ordinary people. We’ll look at three different lists and compare the films on them.  

The American Film Institute creates a top ten list by polling more than 1500 people. Some of the factors used are awards, box office, historical significance, and cultural impact. Their list at AFI.com was updated on June 20, 2007 and here is the list of the top ten movies of all time based on that list, along with the year of release and the director(s):

1. Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles
2. The Godfather (1972) - Francis Ford Coppola
3. Casablanca (1942) - Michael Curtis
4. Raging Bull (1980) - Martin Scorsese
5. Singing in the Rain (1952) - Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
6. Gone with the Wind (1939) - Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - David Lean
8. Schindler’s List (1993) - Steven Spielberg
9. Vertigo (1958) - Alfred Hitchcock
10. Wizard of Oz (1939) - Victor Fleming

Mr. Showbiz List

Of course, the AFI isn't the only one who has taken a step at answering the question of the top ten movies. Here is another list from Mr. Showbiz. This list is taken from critics and covers English language films made since the introduction of “talkies.”  Here is the list:

1. Casablanca (1942) - Michael Curtis
2. The Godfather II (1974) - Francis Ford Coppola
3. North by Northwest (1959) - Alfred Hitchcock
4. Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - David Lean
6. Manhattan (1979) - Woody Allen
7. Gone with the Wind (1939) - Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood
8. Chinatown (1974) - Roman Polanski
9. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - John Ford
10. City Lights - (1931) Charles Chaplin

Then Mr. Showbiz lets his readers pick.  Their top ten are:

• Star Wars (1977) - George Lucas
• The Godfather (1972) - Francis Ford Coppola
• Pulp Fiction (1994) - Quentin Tarantino
• Casablanca (1942) - Michael Curtis
• Gone with the Wind (1939) - Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Steven Spielberg
• Schindler’s List (1993) - Steven Spielberg
• Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - Irvin Kershner
• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) - Frank Capra 

Top Movies

You can see that when you start to ask about the top 10 movies of all time, you get a lot of different opinions.  However, you might also have noticed that there are six movies that made at least two lists.  They are Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List, and The Godfather.  So, what were these movies about?

• Casablanca starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and was set during World War II. The main character was torn between the woman he loved and helping her and her husband escape from Casablanca.
• Citizen Kane starred director Orson Welles and was based on the life of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon.  Many critics feel it was the best movie ever made.
• Gone with the Wind starred Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.  It was based in the South in the 1800s and chronicles the American Civil War and the years after it.
• Lawrence of Arabia had Peter O’Toole as the lead and was based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. The film covered his life in Arabia during World War I.
• Schindler’s List starred Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley.  It was about a German businessman who saved many lives of Jewish refugees from Poland during the Holocaust by hiring them to work for him. 
• The Godfather starred Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, and too many more to mention.  It was set between 1945 and 1955 and shows an Italian American crime family.

Now you know what the top ten movies are, based on a few different opinions, and you also know a bit more about some of those films.