Top 500 Sound Films

Top 500 Sound Films

By Carter B. Horsley

This is a personal list that mixes all genres. These are the classics that document the potential of the art of film. Some are masterpieces. Others are important for their innovation and vision. Some merely have brilliant, unforgettable performances. Others define their genre. A list of only the top 100, or even 250 movies, is too limited given how many different genres exist. Those films in hypertext link to my reviews, whose number will grow to include all of these movies eventually. The list will be updated as oversights are discovered, films are seen again, and convincing arguments are unearthed in my e-mail (CarterBH@thecityreview.com).

1. The Red Shoes

2. The Seventh Seal

3. Hero
4. Shoot The Piano Player
5. The Battle of Algiers

6. 2001

7. 8 1/2

8. Singin' In The Rain

9. Lawrence of Arabia

10. Rashomon

11. Swing Time

12. North by Northwest
13. The Man In The White Suit

14. Saving Private Ryan

15. The Wizard of Oz

16. Citizen Kane

17. Bladerunner

18. House of Flying Daggers

19. King Kong

20. Last Year at Marienbad

21. Casablanca

22. Sunset Boulevard

23. The Maltese Falcon

24. Casino Royale (Bond)

25. The Third Man

26. Frankenstein
27. The Manchurian Candidate

28. The Hustler

29. Fail-Safe

30. Lust for Life

31. Alien

32. Spartacus

33. Modern Times

34. Paths of Glory

35. From Russia With Love

36. Jaws
37. Koyaanisqati

38. Terminator 2

39. Great Expectations

40. La Dolce Vita

41. A Bridge Too Far

42. Gone With the Wind

43. King Solomon's Mines (1950 version)

44. Some Like It Hot
   45. Black Sunday

46. Dick Tracy

47. An American in Paris

48. Heat

49. My Man Godfrey

50. Saturday Night Fever

51. Red River

52. The Kite Runner

53. Reds

54. The Treasure of The Sierra Madre

55. Meet John Doe
56. Grand Hotel

57. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

58. Tom Jones

59. Double Indemnity

60. Gandhi

61. Bringing Up Baby

62. White Heat

63. Duck Soup

64.  Kind Hearts and Coronets

65. Jurassic Park (the series)

66. Star Wars (the series)

67. On The Town

68. Brazil

69. Rear Window

70. Purple Butterfly

71. Breathless

72. The Day of the Jackal

73. Gravity

74. Saboteur

75. The Misfits

76. Psycho

77. Cabaret

78. Rebel Without a Cause
79. A Hard Day's Night

80. Duel at Diablo

81. The King's Speech
   82. The Lady From Shanghai

83. Laura

84. Gigi

85. Darkest Hour

86. Two for the Road
   87. Advise and Consent

88. A Streetcar Named Desire

89. Persona

90. 2046

91. Angels & Demons

92. Gentleman's Agreement

93. The Deer Hunter

94. Ben Hur (Heston, Boyd)

95. The Best Years of Our Lives

96. San Andreas

97. 13 Days

98. The Shape of Things to Come
99. Avatar

100. The Band Wagon

101. Invisible Man

102. Fantasia

103. Gunga Din

104. Platoon    105. A Man And A Woman

106. The Philadelphia Story

107. M

108. Z

109. My Fair Lady

110. Blow-Up

111. Bhowani Junction

112. Witness

113. Bride of Frankenstein

114. Young Frankenstein

115. The Birds

116. Harvey

117. High Society

118. The Russian Ark 119. Three Colors (Blue, White, Red)
120. Network

121. Trouble in Paradise

122. The Lady Eve

123. O Lucky Man

124. The China Syndrome

125. Indiana Jones (the series)
126. Isadora

127. Midnight Cowboy

128. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
129. Godfather (the series)

130. Tunes of Glory

131. All About Eve
132. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

133. Dog Day Afternoon

134. The Hill

135. The Last Emperor

136. Richard III

137. Zorba

138. Pinocchio

139. Roman Holiday

140. Baby Doll

141. The Spy Who Loved Me

142. Robin Hood (Crowe and Blanchett)

143. The Wages of Fear

144. La Guerre Est Finie

145. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

146. Seven Days in May

147. 3 Women
148. Dr. No

149. The Andromeda Strain

150. Dead of Night

151. Death in Venice

152. Strangers on a Train

153. Forbidden Planet

154. Fantastic Voyage

155. Ran

156. Seven Samurai

157. Robots

158. The Avengers

159. All Quiet on the Western Front

160. Love in the Afternoon

161. Gangs of New York 162. Bridges At Toko-Ri

163. Arsenic and Old Lace

164. The 39 Steps

165. Hamlet (Olivier)

166. Foreign Correspondent

167. L. A. Confidential

168. Door to Door

169. Bicycle Thief

170. Shoeshine

171. Enter the Dragon

172.   Smell of Success

173. Schindler's List

174. The Searchers

175. The Mummy (2001 version with Brendon Fraser and Rachel Weisz)

176. Big Deal on Madonna Street

177. Picnic

178. Sabrina (Bogart)

179. The Great Dictator

180. Batman (the series)

181. Henry V

182. Quest For Fire
183. The Great Beauty

184. On The Waterfront
185. Christmas Carol (with Alaistair Sim)

185. Meet Me In St. Louis

186. Breaker Morant

187. Ronin

188. Hunger

189. Mutiny On The Bounty (Gable)

190. The Martian

191. Die Hard (the series)

192. Jeremiah Johnson

193. Seconds

194. Kill Bill vols. 1 & 2

195. The Man Who Would Be King

196. Grand Illusion

197. Notorious

198. Patton

199. The Killers (w. Lancaster)

200. Out of Africa

201. A Place in The Sun

202. Two or Three Things I Know About Her

203. Viva Zapata

204. Silkwood

205. The Sting

206. Crash

207. The Lost Weekend

208. Darling

209. Berlin Alexanderplatz

210. Western Stars (Springsteen) 211. Fahrenheit 451

212. Four Feathers

213. Touch of Evil

214. The Year Of Living Dangerously

215. Lethal Weapon (the series)

216. Morocco

217. The Public Enemy

218. East of Eden

219. Romeo and Juliet (Harvey)

220. Male Hunt

222. Death Watch

223. Gate of Hell

224. Clockwork Orange

225. Giant

226. Cries and Whispers

227. She Done Him Wrong

228. The Great Ziegfield

229. Autumn Sonata

230. Horse Feathers

231. La Strada

232. Funny Face

233. Casino Royale (Niven)

234. Gladiator

235. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

236. Shanghai Express

237. Oklahoma

238. Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II

239. The Horse's Mouth

240. Kingdom of Heaven

241. Deliverance
242. Rocky (the series)

243. The Lavender Hill Mob

244. Two Women

245. Juliet of the Spirits

246. JFK

247. King Kong (Jackson remake with Naomi Watts) & Skull Island

248. Scott of the Antartic
249. What's New, Pussycat?

250. E. T.

251. Days of Wine and Roses
252. The Fall of the Roman Empire

253. My Darling Clementine

254. The Conformist

255. Follow the Fleet

256. Divorce Italian Style

257. Hiroshima Mon Amour

258. The Big Sleep

259. Odd Man Out

260. Judgment at Nuremberg

261. Mad Max and the Thunderdome
262. Gervaise

263. The Big Easy

264. Libeled Lady

265. The Rock

266. Toy Story (The series)

267. Jules and Jim

268. The Guns of Navarone

269. Moby Dick

270. Look Back In Anger

271. Blood Diamond

272. The Easy Life

273. The Night of the Hunter

274. Treasure Island

275. The French Connection

276. Cleopatra (Taylor)
277. Love Me Tonight

278. Room at the Top

279. Robin & Marianne

280. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

281. East of Eden

282. Last Tango In Paris

283. All The President's Men

284. Billy Budd

285. Altered States

286. Solaris (original)

287. Gaslight

288. War Games

289. Tucker

290. The Last Voyage

291. Brute Force

292. Dead of Night

293. Exodus

294. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

295. Coming Home

296. Blood and Sand

297. Zulu
298. Bananas

299. Topkapi

300. Seven Days to Noon

301. The Leopard

302. In Which We Serve

303. The Postman Always Rings Twice

304. Dr. Zhivago

305. Black Narcissus

306. Nightmare Alley

307. The Producers
308. The Naked and the Dead

309. War of the Worlds (original)

310. Sundays and Cybele

311. The Wind and the Lion

312. Rocco and his Brothers

313. Out of the Past

314. Lonely are the Brave

315. No Way Out (Costner)

316. Munich

317. Irma La Douce

318. Carousel

319. Born Yesterday

320. She Dances Alone

321. Suddenly Last Summer

322. Annie Hall

323. Intruder In The Dust

324. Atlantic City

325. The Pink Panther (the series)

326. Bonnie And Clyde

327. Looking For Mr. Goodbar

328. Dr. Strangelove

329. McCabe and Mrs. Miller

330. Moulin Rouge (Ferrer)

331. Full Metal Jacket

332. D.O.A. (O'Brien)

333. Seconds

334. The Thin Red Line (Nolte, Penn)

335. The Parallax View

336. The Bank Dick

337. The Thing (remake)

338. The Private Lives of Henry VIII

339. Farewell My Lovely

340. A Matter of Life and Death
341. The Adventures of Robin Hood (Flynn)

342. Freud

343. Hannibal
344. Weekend

345. Shane

346. Beckett

347. Mephisto

348. The Return of the Man Called Horse

349. Charlie Varrick

350. 12 Angry Men

351. The Red Badge of Courage

352. Don't Look Now

353. Sayonara

354. King of Hearts

355. Bullitt

356. Heat and Dust

357. The Nun's Story

358. Orpheus

359. Anne of the Thousand Days

360. Howard's End

361. 1900

362. A View To A Kill

363. Dracula

364. The Eagle Has Landed

365. MASH

366. Bridge Over The River Kwai
367. Little Caesar

368. Smiles Of A Summer Night

369. The Nutty Professor

370. Stagecoach

371. Year of the Dragon

372. Mrs. Skeffington

373. The Detective Story

374. Marathon Man

375. The Snake Pit

376. Wall Street

377. A Star Is Born (Judy Garland)

378. The Silence Of The Lambs

379. Ship of Fools

380. Broadway Danny Rose

381. Dances with Wolves

382. The Sheep Has Five Legs

383. The Mouse That Roared
384. Blazing Saddles

385. Patterns

386. Fellini's Roma

387. Pierrot The Fool

388. Of Human Bondage

389. It's A Wonderful Life

390. Khartoum

391. Flight of the Phoenix (Stewart)

392. The Fifth Element

393. Flags of our Fathers

394. Executive Action

395. The Battle of Britain

396. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

397. Braveheart

398. Ryan's Daughter

399. The Ugly American

400. Gremlins

401. Life of Pi

402. The Patriot

403. Nothing But The Best

404. L'Avventura

405. Three Days of the Condor

406. The Great Race

407. Murder on the Orient Express (Finney)

408. Now Voyager

409. Teahouse of the August Moon
410. Born on the Fourth of July

411. Purple Noon

412. Boys of Brazil

413. The Story of G. I. Joe

414. One Summer of Happiness

415. The Crimson Pirate

416. Interstellar

417. Cesar & Rosalie

418. La Chinoise

419. Key Largo

420. Grapes of Wrath

421. Rembrandt

422. Little Shop of Horrors (Moranis)

423. A. I.

424. Executive Suite

425. Superman (the series)

426. True Lies

427. Coma

428. Day For Night

429. The Pawnbroker

430. Cat Ballou

431. It Happened One Night

432. All The King's Men (Crawford)

433. Oblivion

434. Dark Shadows

435. That Obscure Object of Desire
436. Under Fire

437. Broadway Melody of 1940

438. Avanti

439. Island of Lost Souls

440. Spectre

441. Last of the Mohicans

442. Queen Christina

443. The Red Tent

444. Belle de Jour

445. Night of the Iguana

446. Taxi Driver
447. High Noon

448. Apocalypse Now Redux

449. The Mask of Dimitrios

450. Tron

451. Algiers

452. The Unforgiven

453. The Hudsucker Proxy
454. We Were Soldiers
455. Boccaccio '70

456. Five Easy Pieces

457. The Magnificent Seven

458. Sands Of The Kalahari

459. A Room with a View
460. The Sand Pebbles

461. The Last Samurai

462. My Left Foot

463. The Entertainer

464. The Trial

465. Bandits

466. The China Syndrome

467. Syriana
468. Julius Caesar

469. You Can't Take It With You
470. Sands Of Iwo Jima

471. Lolita (Mason)

472. Saturday Night Sunday Morning

473. The Servant

474. Salvador

475. Stage Fright

476. Gold Diggers of 1933

477. Stalag 17

478. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

479. Fatal Attraction

480. Independence Day

481. Raging Bull

482. King Rat

483. Witness for the Prosecution

484. Beat The Devil

485. Ghostbusters

486. Prometheus
487. The Sundowners
488. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

489. Flying Down to Rio

490. Far From The Madding Crowd

491. 42nd Street

492. The Mummy (with Boris Karloff)

493. Nashville

494. A Man For All Seasons
495. Ball of Fire

496. 15 Minutes

497. Dreams

498. I Want to Live

499. Who Killed Roger Rabbit?

500. 55 Days in Peking

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