In the ever growing prosperity, encompass and popularity of audio visual media movies still hold the charms that shatter the boundaries between art and commerce and this precisely gave films irrespective of their genres an unmistakable niche among all other audio visual media. In considering top 50 movies of all time we are faced with the enormous volume of contributions that made a whole industry prosper for close to hundred years in every dimension. The encompass of brilliance in technical standard, artistic gratification, popularity and finally historic significance in chronicling our life and time is huge and so our task is stupendous enough to choose just a handful of films and in doing so we cannot avoid the risk of running ourselves through strong arguments at every instance.
Finally in picking up our choices we could not stick to one parameter of consideration. From historical significance of films such as 'Citizen Kane' or 'Battleship Potemkin' to iconic acting and directorial brilliance in 'Godfather' or 'Shawshank Redemption' we tried to move around our eyes as penetratingly and as far as possible. Some of the most thought provoking movies of all time like 'Pierrot Le Fou' or 'Pan's Labyrinth' just cannot be sacrificed to make way for some popular blockbusters that became phenomenal in sales figure in spite of their poverty in cinematic imagination. Some of the less known directors of outstanding contribution in the progress of the medium have been honored with their most representative works while a few films with phenomenal commercial success have been left. Here is our pick of top 50 movies of all time.
Without this all time classic crime thriller that almost paved the way for a new story telling technique any list of top 50 movies of all time must be felt incomplete. The classy cinematic take centering mafia boss Vito Corleone that paved the way for the development of gangster genre of movies also immortalized Marlon Brando in the role of the protagonist.
This classy epic portrays the social contradiction and political rift in its most authentic oriental root. Seven Samurai is the story concerning the innocent peasants in the face of rural poverty, hunger and recurring fear for the bandits. In search of protection from the bandits few of them decided to go to the town to hire some Samurai and in the ensuing battle between bandits and Samurai led villagers among other things the clashes between the mean values of farmers and greatness of warrior become apparent. A great and subtle tale most brilliantly depicted by one of the greatest directors of all time, Akira Kurosawa.
It is not a film of great philosophical statement or of profound social or political significance, yet over the years it topped almost every list of great movies simply because of its charismatic rogue cinematography that managed to be heart rendering and poetic at times. The film opens up with a murder by a bank employee of his wife and her lover and then it goes on to tell how this man with the help of other inmates and jail authority ventures to break the shatters of prison the ending of which is darker than what happened in his life till then. It is a dark, rich, provokingly thrilling movie with great acting and fast paced screenplay that you cannot come across too often.
Alfred Hitchcock by far is considered to be the greatest figure of suspense thriller or psycho thriller genre of movies and if one movie represents Hitchcock at his best then that is Psycho and consequently it is our invariable choice in the list of top 50 movies of all time. This part horror part thriller part psychological drama tells story of a young serial killer who's motif behind the murders are peculiarly psychological and involve complex chain of events from his past and his recognition with them.
Just try to name one film in the world cinema that being too close to resemble a vivid documentary of tragic Nazi oppression can make you involved in its all too humanistic drama with heart rendering effect, you cannot recall any other but this impressive biopic of Mr. Oscar Schindler. Oscar Schindler at the time of Nazi occupation and oppression in Poland was a rich German businessman who in the pursuit of his business interest happen to confront the bloody socio political situation of the country and became the savior of thousands of Jews by employing them in the protection of his factory and later on spending all his fortune to save those lives from the imminent danger of sending them to concentration camp and death chambers.
Probably no Hollywood film made such permanent impact on the world film as Citizen Kane and this is reason enough to make it almost an invariable choice in list of top 50 movies of all time and any all time list of great movies. Orson Welles, the protagonist actor and director of the film portrayed the enterprising America and its obsession with wealth in charismatic cinematic detail that over the years had a lasting impression on people in all corners of the world.
By far this is considered to be one of the most glaring masterpieces of silent era of film and till date it continues to be a great material for students to learn cinematography and many technical aspects of film. This great Sergei Eisenstein masterpiece tells the story concerning a mutiny of the crew of a naval ship against their officers. The story is set in the 1905 Tsarist Russia which was shivering under the revolutionary uprising in various parts of the country. An epic timepiece and a great instance how far and deep a film can depict our life and struggle.
Andrei Tarkovsky is undoubtedly one of the hand counted few film prodigies with extraordinary vision and brilliance that the medium ever seen in its short history and this biopic film on one 16th century Russian Painter of Orthodox Christian icons and frescoes is considered as Tarkovsky's best. Like all Tarkovsky's films this one also bears the charismatic signs of poetics, philosophical enquiry into life and history and socio political stance that is part ambiguous and part pessimistic, but above all what makes this film different from all other creations of this director is its profound encounter with the historical events in the life of a great artist like Andrei Rublev.
The film opens on a close chase by a armed gang over a chicken that escapes from being prepared for meal and then suddenly the chase shifts into another reality where the gang is faced by policemen and then what ensues is a deadly encounter between warring gangs and police. So painstakingly involving and tragic it shows the life of petty down to earth people caught in the organized crime and drug racket that suddenly you begin to feel all splattered with blood. The film is a reality take of Brazil's underworld and drug trafficking but it becomes a poignant drama and a great documentary and both at the same time simply on the virtue of great cinematography, superb story telling technique and appealing visuals.
One just cannot venture to make a list of top 50 movies of all timewithout mentioning Charlie Chaplin, one of the few artistic geniuses of multiple talents that the world has ever seen. The Great Dictator is Charlie Chaplin's enigmatic portrayal of Nazi oppressor Hitler. In comic relief and vivid detail he gave a socio political commentary on power and political strife that is still unparalleled.
Science fiction or to be more particular science fiction action is a genre of film that for past few decades always enjoyed a hugely popular presence, but few films of this genre actually could make more stunning presence and impact like The Matrix. It is a science fiction action that goes on to tell us about the modern or rather postmodern man's helplessness amidst the simulated techno world that they inhabit. With eclectic dialogue that verge on the postmodern reality, popular culture and a feverish sense of existential crisis, this film is equally an intellectual gift besides being through and through thrilling and entertaining. Undoubtedly no list oftop 50 movies of all time or any list of great world movies cannot drop this dense thriller of its own kind.
There are so many great biopic films have been made over the years but almost nothing has ever succeeded to match this gigantic cinematic epic that tells the real story of a British Army Lieutenant who by the virtue of being a totally different personality than the common lot befriended Arab Bedwins and other middle eastern tribes and warlords that finally became the subject of clashes of larger political game plan and interest. Apart from the poignant tale of Lawrence's life and journey through different land and civilization the cinema explores the visual delight and cultural icons at different places that make your eyes remain glued to the screen. By far all over the world it is regarded as one of the most influential films of all time.
How can you shun your eyes from the intellectual brilliance and artistic freedom of French New Wave movement and some of its hauntingly brilliant masterpieces when compiling such a list on top 50 movies of all time? In the urban and cosmopolitan setting of Paris a free rolling young car thief who has an uncanny knack for freedom with his wishes rather than making money happens to befriend a young American girl who in spite of their strange affection would try to hand him over to police but in trying to flee from police as a drastic measure he would be shot from behind. The storyline is just a rough sketch of shadow compared to your viewing experience in encountering typical Godard effect in film.
Poverty and its socio political place in determining the destiny of life has never been illustrated with such heart rendering passion anywhere other than this fabulous all time cinematic masterpiece of Vittorio De Sica. In the post World War II Rome ravaged by hunger, poverty and unemployment an young man to get back his pawned bicycle further pawns his and his family's belongings only to get a chance in a job of posting advertising bills that requires bicycle as mandatory personal means of transportation. Now by the sheer turn of ill luck one day while working, his bicycle is theft and what ensues is his losing the job and search for his bicycle that in the course of events left him insulted, humiliated and ravaged. In the end our protagonist by the sheer temptation of making up his loss tried to steal another bicycle and get caught.
By many considerations this second installment of famous Coppola directed masterpiece even surpassed the first one in cinematic rigor of storytelling techniques and directorial mastery and obviously deserves to be named as one of the top 50 movies of all time. The film this time goes back to the old Sicily in the early years of Vittorio Corlean's life and moves forward to depict his matured son in a bigger role and responsibility in the family business. Besides the enigmatic charisma of Marlon Brando Al Pacino made a imposing presence at the son's role. Like its predecessor it set new standard of the genre of crime thriller that few could ever succeeded to encompass.
The Pianist directed by master director story teller Roman Polanski is one of the most impressive epics on the holocaust. This is a story concerning the survival of a Jewish Pianist in holocaust torn Poland amidst death and destruction that made him lose everything except his rare gift of playing Piano.
Alfred Hitchcock is probably the greatest director of crime thriller or mystery thriller genre of films with most impressing range of movies that spanned almost every aspect of common and uncommon in our life and Vertigo is considered as one of his finest masterpieces. It is about the mystery of a woman wanting recourse to her original life that has been shattered and as she repeatedly tries to suicide the young detective following her falls in love and tries to rescue her. Mystery, love and aesthetic taste all at one place in the gifted hand of Hitchcock that make a compelling mystery drama nobody should ever miss to view.
The horror of modern war and warfare and its psychological and social impact on individuals, society and life has never been depicted with such enriched and down to life detail as in this film. A Vietnam War veteran ravaged by the death and destruction of war once again sent to war torn Vietnam in a secret mission to assassinate one of the warlords who shivering the bondage with the American Army became a god among the local tribesman.
When understanding the children and young adolescents is still considered a mystery of daily family life that make many of us concerned day in and day out, this 1959 French masterpiece by Francois Truffaut holds many keys to our confusion and concerns. This is a heart rendering story of a young adolescent boy who being left unattended by his parents and ravaged by the lack of bondage in his family goes down into the labyrinthine desperate world of crime and becomes destitute.
You cannot come across too many films in the world cinema to have a profound existential philosophy as the basis of its cinematic exploration and Wild Strawberries is one such film. This great Bergman masterpiece centers around one special day in the life of a 78 years old retired Microbiology professor. On that day the professor unusually wakes up from a mysterious dream concerning life and death and then on his way to a university where he is supposed to receive his doctorate, goes through several experiences interspersed between daydreams, reveries, thought provoking dialogues and imaginations.
In its own right of being quintessentially a cinematic exploration of popular culture and fiction in life or life in fiction, this truly unique film of Quentin Tarantino deserves to be named as one of the top 50 movies of all time.Intelligent and eclectic dialogue, ironic interplay of violence, wide array of references to popular culture icons and significances and constant rendezvous with light and dark humor, the film got all to call it truly a postmodern production.
This epic historical timepiece set in Ancient Rome is by far held the record of highest number of Academy awards for the longest period and considering its mammoth popularity over many decades and great depiction of one of the most crucial period in the history of the west and the world, it is an obvious choice in our list of top 50 movies of all time.
This 1994 Robert Zemeckis classic starring Tom Hanks in the main role is a unique fictitious biopic based on the novel of same name. Forest Gump, a character immensely comic yet innocent, athletic sportsman and die hearted lover yet lacking the so called matured man's wits, is in every sense a unique character who had been present in many decisive moments of American history in the latter half of the century. A great fiction which is made incorporating into the historical incidences with a brilliant interplay of real life footage that made us believe in the story to have real life significance.
If you want to name a film where so called children specific fantasies step inside the serious business of war and freedom and eventually strikes a simple honest and earthen philosophical view of the world we inhabit, then there is not a single film of such rare brilliance as this film. Set in the time of Spanish civil war a young stepdaughter of a oppressive and sadistic army officer suddenly comes in touch with the ancient power of her roots and then amidst civilian battle loses her parents and herself but ensures a better afterlife in the kingdom of heaven. This captivating tale has too much to offer in relation to our values and beliefs of life besides being through and through thrilling and entertaining.
Wild American west and it's charismatic tales of power, greed and brutality has been subject of too many great cinematic epics and among them this one is just an infallible choice in our list of top 50 movies of all time. This Sergio Leone filmic tale of Wild West centers on the land battle between warring western gang lords. Dramatic action, savage brutality and unpredictable course of events that run over the rugged land of wild west has been depicted in great cinematic rigor and details and certainly is an unmistakable masterpiece of world film.
This enigmatic, mysterious, spiritual tale of a typically inspired personality who guides people to a mysterious place called 'the Zone' where no rule of physics applies, is one of Tarkovsky's most profound works and simultaneously a rare gem in the world film as well.
Akira Kurosawa in his entire creative life has produced many cinematic masterpieces that proved his genius and cinematic talent but this one is almost invariable in any listing of top 50 movies of all time simply because of all too new approach to the storyline with multiple perspectives to a single incident. The movie is about a heinous crime involving a Samurai and his wife, a priest, a notorious bandit and a woodcutter. After the incident everyone is giving contradictory account in regard to how it took place and who is responsible. The separate depiction of the incident according separate accounts forms a puzzle where everyone stands questionable.
This gritty masterpiece of Roman Polanski depicts a multi layered mystery that can equally be labeled as a captivating psychological drama at the centre stage of which a young detective stumbles upon mysteries that finally end up in opening a corporate scam concerning water.
Another Sergio Leone masterpiece set in the Wild West with headhunting cowboys and their rivals for a bigger and better share of opportune wealth. With rich humor, great performance by Clint Eastwood, smart, captivating action drama and brilliant cinematography this film has no parallel in Wild West genre and is truly a feast for the viewers.
This epic historical drama by Ridley Scot is truly a captivating and heart touching timepiece in every sense of the word. This enigmatic portrayal of a Roman general turned gladiator in ancient Rome only to seek revenge of his family's death is a spectacular historic marvel that world cinema has ever seen.
Truly besides so many worthy candidates from world cinema this great epic and poetic tale of a Greek refugee family that in the successive generation become victim under the growling war machine of World War II and civil war, has really been much lesser known. But the way it unfolds the suffering of people caught in the larger political game of war and the poetic appreciation of life's sublime values it offers, is enough to determine its place among the top 50 movies of all time.
This adventure film set deep in the river and jungle terrain of Amazon is about the historical journey of Spanish conquistadores in search of legendary El Dorado, the city of gold deep in the Amazon Rainforest. This typical Amazonian exploration is only one of its kind in vivid details and tough terrains of Amazon and it's natural inhabitants invaded by a group of greedy men raving with their weapons and treachery for a wealth that is yet not in their grasp.
All of master director Godard's idiosyncratic way of storytelling, poignant humor, most unpredictable cinematic turns, acting brilliance and intellectual rigor are in their best display in this romantic tragedy that ends up in murder of the beloved girl and the suicide of our own hero.
This 1960 comedy drama by one of the Italy's most critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini depicts a story of a passive journalist fallen in love while in Rome for the assignment concerning the arrival and staying of a famous Swedish American actress who eventually would become his short term love. More than just storyline what is important is the great encompass of the film in incorporating many cult cinematic techniques that for generations had been revered.
In general description it is film on a love triangle with impulsive woman and two blossom friends who always happen to be frank and in accord with one another regarding their love, regard and disregard for their common love. But that is too little and too brief to describe this complex interplay of emotional ruptures and historical events interspersed. Truffaut's great visuals follow the characters in their poetic blossoming until the girl take one of the men with her in a tragic suicide by a car galloping down from a halfway broken bridge. Once you see this movie your attitude towards love can never be the same and so it must deserve a place in our list of top 50 movies of all time.
Amelie Poulain is a girl in Paris who with the sorrow involved in her childhood concerning losing her mother at an early age grows with a different type of personality that is more direct, more sensitive, more drawn to life's little details and more optimistic in making other people around her happy with little yet sometimes invaluable touches of her benevolent attention.
Literally meaning Hiroshima My Love is Allain Renais' best picture and one of the most compelling cinematic expressions on the theme of love and war. Set in the city of Hiroshima, the place where world's first nuclear explosion occurred, the film explores the remains of that fatal time with the poetic dialogue of a Japanese French couple in the background. It is as well a compelling love story between a Japanese man and a French woman both of whom met accidentally on professional purpose and shares the memory of their past ravaged by war and destructive forces which are out of reach of an individual.
Turkish director Yilmaz Guney has been a political convict in several periods of his life, but that could not restrain him from making some of the most compelling contributions to the world cinema. In Yol several convicts from a coastal jail are granted holidays to meet their families and again return to jail in time, but different incidences in this short period in each one's life was awaiting as tragic destinies.
Sacrifice is Andrei Tarkovsky's most accomplished masterpiece in respect of cinematography. Profoundly philosophical and capable to take you to experience a truly tragic sense of life, Sacrifice tells the story of the disintegration of family, solitude and helplessness of a thinking man, life's earthen roots and law of nature and finally how all these get shattered in the face of imminent danger on which nobody can claim to have any control.
This Spanish Latin American movie, literally translating You Too Mother is a thoroughly youthful journey movie where with absolute frankness many crucial concerns of life like sexuality and freedom, friendship, social alienation and bohemian life in travel are explored.
Few films in Hollywood can demand to be thoroughly profound and philosophical in nature, but this widely acclaimed Terrence Mallick masterpiece is one of the sect few to be so. A serene, orderly family life in the green countryside with abundance of space and nature's gift all around, a sudden death, struggle with the materialistic forces of life and our simultaneously rooted and rootless life and severance of our bondage with nature, all these are just gross dots on the surface of this deep penetrating one of its kind cinematic tale that is hard to be left outside our list of top 50 movies of all time.
Martin Scorsese is the master story teller of Hollywood whose works span across variety of genres and cinematic explorations, but this greasy underworld tale is considered to represent his best of abilities as a director. In the all too familiar settings of drug trafficking, gang rivalry, gunpoint dealings, dark humor and casual nonchalant attitude towards death, Scorsese's cinema finds a different cinematic language that in a way blurs the good and bad notions.
One of the most imposing and everlasting cinematic romance that for more than half a century continued to survive as a landmark movie.
Jean Renoir's poignant work on France's bourgeois life at the time of World War II and this film portrays almost all the directorial skills that this renowned French filmmaker is famous for.
This later work of director Ingmar Bergman is his most impressive piece of cinematic expression that ventures to look into the heart of life and destiny through the hourglass of reality and fantasy world and innocence of children.
A vivid, close to details of life capture of the Algerian resistance against French occupation in superb thrilling sequence that broken the stereotype of historical films. Strong enigmatic characters and their passionate involvement and realistic cinematography that never misses a single detail of this adrenalin pushing battle truly made a unique celluloid story that overlapped the boundaries of fiction and documentary.
By many standards and parameters Cameron directed Terminator series set the new standard for the science fiction action genre of films with the conceptualization of Cyborg which is nothing but a machine that can imitate human figure, countenance, intelligence and action while being almost beyond death. The second installment of the series, Terminator II: Judgment Day is the most thrilling and dramatic and Arnold Schwarzenegger plays his best in the new avatar of savior.
The tale is a too simple detective story concerning a murder but obviously told in the typical dramatic thriller style peculiar to master director Alfred Hitchcock. A news photographer on leave for his broken leg continues to spy on his neighbors from the rear window sitting whole day on his wheel chair and suddenly from the dramatic turn of the events gets convinced of a murder at the adjacent apartment. How the story unlocks the mystery from one frame to another that makes Hitchcock so special.
In the broad canvas of world film there are few directors who cannot be mistaken by the virtue of their profoundness and grave enquiry into human existence. Undoubtedly Bergman is one of these rarely gifted filmmakers and The Seventh Seal is his most focused enquiry into human life, destiny and faith and consequently a must pick in our list of top 50 movies of all time.
Louis Bunuel along with some world famous painters of his era like Salvador Dali is credited to bring the intellectual rigor and imaginative freedom of surrealist movement in art to the arena of film. Bunuel's film with their grand religious motif and pessimistic approach to bourgeois society's customs and sublime call to come into terms with the original and primitive force of life are all best displayed in this fictional biopic of a Christian priest's life.
|
|
Comments:
