Treebeard's Movie List
Marc Kummel aka Treebeard
30 November 1998
Contact mkummel@rain.org, http://www.rain.org/~mkummel/

These are films I might watch again (and again) on TCM, SUNDANCE, IFC, 
AMC, etc.  If I were making my own top 10/100 list, these would be the 
candidates.  It's a mixed bag.  I avoid hard choices and include 
everything.  I rarely get to a theater, which must influence this list.

Some of these count as "guilty pleasures."  Not all the "bests" are 
"favorites," and vica-versa.  I last saw some of these when I was a kid,
but they still resonate.

It's really too soon for the 90s.  It takes *years* to discover which 
movies (and books and music) stay with you.  These are tentative.

Best decade?
------------
I think it's interesting that I honestly picked about the same number of 
films for each half decade.  But expectations change!  Overall, I'd have 
to pick the late 40s-50s as the best years. These films tell honest 
stories with few cheap thrills (that grow old), great comedy and humanity.
These are real classics. Recent 90s films really suck.

**************************************************************************

1995 - 1999
---------------------------------------
The Addiction (Abel Ferrara/1995)
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch/1995)
Lone Star (John Sayles/1995)

1990 - 1994
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Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (Akira Kurosawa/1990)
Awakenings (Penny Marshall/1990)
Beauty and the Beast (Disney, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise/1991)
City of Hope (John Sayles/1991)
Clerks (Kevin Smith/1994)
Crumb (Terry Zwigoff/1994)
Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet/1991)
El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez/1992)
The Fugitive (Andrew Davis/1993)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese/1990)
The Grifters (Stephen Frears/1990)
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis/1993)
Hard-Boiled (John Woo/1992)
Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson/1994)
The Killer (John Woo/1990)
The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann/1992)
A League of their Own (Penny Marshall/1992)
Night on Earth (Jim Jarmusch/1991)
Nobody's Fool (Robert Benton/1994)
Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori/1994)
Party Girl (Daisy von Scherler Mayer/1994)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino/1994)
The Rapture (Michael Tolkin/1991)
Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg/1993)
Searching For Bobby Fischer (Steven Zaillian/1993)
The Stars Fell on Henrietta (James Keach/1994)
Time of the Gypsies (Emir Kusturica/1990)

1985 - 1989
---------------------------------------
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Terry Gilliam/1989)
Akira (Katsuhiro, Sheldon Renan/1989)
Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle/1987)
Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis/1985)
Bagdad Cafe (Percy Adlon/1988)
Big (Penny Marshall/1988)
Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter/1986)
Blue Velvet (David Lynch/1986)
Brain Dead (Adam Simon/1989)
Brazil (Terry Gilliam/1985)
Breakfast Club (John Hughes/1985)
The Dead (John Huston/1987)
Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata/1988)
The Journey of Natty Gann (Jeremy Paul Kagen/1985)
Lonesome Dove (Simon Windsor/1989)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese/1988)
Matewan (John Sayles/1987)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker/1988)
Pee Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton/1985)
Radio Days (Woody Allen/1987)
Ran (Akira Kurosawa/1985)
Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon/1985)
The River's Edge (Tim Hunter/1987)
Runaway Train (Andrei Konchalovsky/1985)
Sammy & Rosie Get Laid (Stephen Frears/1987)
Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox/1986)
Stand By Me (Rob Reiner/1986)
Tampopo (Juzo Itami/1986)
They Live (John Carpenter/1988)
Tremors (Ron Underwood/1989)
Witness (Peter Weir/1985)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodovar/1988)
A World Apart (Chris Menges/1988)

1980 - 1984
---------------------------------------
Airplane! (Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker/1980)
Altered States (Ken Russell/1980)
Amadeus (Milos Forman/1984)
The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller/1980)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott/1982)
Blood Simple (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen/1984)
The Blues Brothers (John Landis/1980)
Coal Miner's Daughtor (Michael Apted/1980)
El Norte (Gregory Nava/1983)
The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner/1980)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling/1982)
Heartland (Richard Pearce/1981)
King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese/1982)
Mad Max (George Miller/1980)
Missing (Constantin Costa-Gravas/1982)
Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara/1981)
Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone/1984)
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders/1983)
Pennies From Heaven (Herbert Ross/1981)
Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese/1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg/1981)
Repo Man (Alex Cox/1983)
The Road Warrior (George Miller/1981)
Starman (John Carpenter/1984)
The Terminator (James Cameron/1984)
Tootsie (Sydney Pollack/1982)

1975 - 1979
---------------------------------------
Alien (Ridley Scott/1979)
Allegro Non Tropo (1976)
Annie Hall (Woody Allen/1977)
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola/1979)
A Boy and His Dog (L. Q. Jones/1975)
Breaking Away (Peter Yates/1979)
Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa/1975)
Eraserhead (David Lynch/1978)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman/1978)
A Little Romance (George Roy Hill/1979)
The Man Who Would be King (John Huston/1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones/1975)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones/1979)
National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis/1978)
Network (Sidney Lumet/1976)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman/1975)
Rocky (John D. Avildsen/1976)
Star Wars (George Lucas/1977)
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese/1976)

1970 - 1974
---------------------------------------
Aguirre: Wrath of God (1972)
American Graffiti (George Lucas/1973)
Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks/1974)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski/1974)
Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick/1971)
The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola/1974)
Duel (Steven Spielberg/1971)
Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse/1973)
The Exorcist (William Friedkin/1973)
Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison/1971)
Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola/1972)
Godfather 2 (Francis Ford Coppola/1974)
Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby/1971)
The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich/1971)
Macbeth (Roman Polanski/1971)
M*A*S*H (Robert Altman/1970)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman/1971)
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese/1973)
Performance (Donald Cammell, Nicholas Roeg/1970)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Billy Wilder/1970)
Sleeper (Woody Allen/1973)
That's Entertainment! (Jack Haley Jr./1974)
Walkabout (Nicholas Roeg/1971)
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy/1973)
Women in Love (Ken Russell/1970)
Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks/1974)

1965 - 1969
---------------------------------------
Blow-Up (Michelangleo Antonioni/1966)
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn/1967)
Charly (Ralph Nelson/1968)
Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg/1967)
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper/1969)
Five Million Miles to Earth (Roy Ward Baker/1968)
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Sergio Leone/1967)
If... (Lindsay Anderson/1969)
Marat/Sade (Peter Brook/1966)
Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler/1969)
Morgan! (Karel Reisz/1966)
The Naked Prey (Cornel Wilde/1966)
Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone/1968)
Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schnaffner/1968)
The Producers (Mel Brooks/1968)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski/1968)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer/1966)
The Sound of Music (Robert Wise/1965)
The Taming of the Shrew (Franco Zeffirelli/1967)
True Grit (Henry Hathaway/1969)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick/1968)
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah/1969)
Will Penny (Tom Gries/1967)

1960 - 1964
---------------------------------------
The Apartment (Billy Wilder/1960)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards/1961)
Dr. No (Terence Young/1962)
Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick/1964)
A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester/1964)
High and Low (Akira Kurosawa/1962)
Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffrey/1963)
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean/1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford/1962)
The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards/1964)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock/1960)
Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah/1962)
Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller/1963)
A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards/1964)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan/1962)
West Side Story (Robert Wise/1961)

1955 - 1959
---------------------------------------
Ben Hur (William Wyler/1959)
Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus/1958)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean/1957)
Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox/1956)
Friendly Persuasion (William Wyler/1956)
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (John Huston/1957)
The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa/1958)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais/1959)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Donald Siegel/1956)
The Killing (Stanley Kubrick/1956)
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton/1955)
Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini/1957)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock/1959)
No Time For Sergeants (Mervyn LeRoy/1958)
Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise/1959)
Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick/1957)
The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse/1956)
The Searchers (John Ford/1956)
The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder/1955)
Somebody up there Likes Me (Robert Wise/1956)
Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder/1959)
The Spirit of St. Louis (Billy Wilder/1957)
Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa/1957)
Touch of Evil (Orson Wells/1958)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock/1958)
Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot/1955)
Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder/1957)

1950 - 1954
---------------------------------------
African Queen (John Huston/1951)
An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli/1951)
A Christmas Carol (Brian Desmond Hurst/1951)
The Cruel Sea (Charles Frend/1953)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise/1951)
The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland/1953)
From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnermann/1953)
High Noon (Fred Zinnermann/1952)
Invaders From Mars (William Cameron/1953)
On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan/1954)
The Quiet Man (John Ford/1952)
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa/1951)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock/1954)
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray/1955)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa/1954)
Shane (George Stevens/1953)
Singin' In The Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen/1952)
Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder/1953)
Steel Helmet (Samuel Fuller/1951)
A Star Is Born (George Cukor/1954)
La Strada (Federico Fellini/1954)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock/1951)
A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan/1951)
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder/1950)
The Thing (Howard Hawks/1951)
War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin/1953)

1945 - 1949
---------------------------------------
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles T. Barton/1948)
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau/1946)
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks/1946)
Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger/1947)
The Blue Dahlia (George Marshall/1946)
The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise/1945)
Dead of Night (Robert Hamer, etc./1945)
Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky/1949)
The Fugitive (John Ford/1948)
I Know Where I'm Going (Michael Powell/1945)
Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson/1945)
Macbeth (Orson Wells/1948)
Mighty Joe Young (Ernest B. Schoedsack/1949)
Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz/1945)
On the Town (Gene Kelley, Stanley Donat/1949)
Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur/1947)
The Red Pony (Lewis Milestone/1949)
Red River (Howard Hawks/1948)
The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger/1948)
Rope (Alfred Hitchcock/1948)
They Were Expendable (John Ford/1945)
The Third Man (Carol Reed/1949)
Three Godfathers (John Ford/1948)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston/1948)
Unfaithfully Yours (Preston Sturgis/1948)
White Heat (Raoul Walsh/1949)

1940 - 1944
---------------------------------------
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (John Cromwell/1940)
Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra/1944)
The Bank Dick (Eddie Cline/1940)
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz/1942)
Citizen Kane (Orson Wells/1941)
The Cat People (Jacques Tourneur/1942)
Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise, Gunther von Fritsch/1944)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder/1944)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford/1940)
How Green Was My Valley (John Ford/1941)
Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturgis/1944)
Laura (Otto Preminger/1944)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger/1943)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston/1941)
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Wells/1942)
Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli/1944)
Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Preston Sturgis/1944)
Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk/1944)
National Velvet (Clarence Brown/1944)
The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturgis/1942)
Philadelphia Story (George Cukor/1940)
Pinocchio (Disney, Ben Sharpsteen/1940)
The Sea Hawk (Michael Curtiz/1940)
Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturgis/1941)
They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh/1940)
The Wolf Man (George Waggner/1941)

1935 - 1939
---------------------------------------
Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz/1938)
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey/1937)
Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale/1935)
Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks/1938)
Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz/1935)
Captains Courageous (Victor Fleming/1937)
The Four Feathers (Zoltan Korda/1939)
Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming/1939)
The Good Earth (Sidney Frankin/1937)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Sam Wood/1939)
Gunga Din (George Stevens/1939)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (William Dieterle/1939)
Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin/1936)
Mutiny on the Bounty (Frank Lloyd/1935)
A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood/1935)
Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch/1939)
Olympia (Leni Reifenstahl/1936)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney, David Hand/1937)
Stagecoach (John Ford/1939)
Stage Door (Gregory La Cava/1937)
The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock/1935)
They Won't Forget (Mervyn LeRoy/1937)
Top Hat (Mark Sandrich/1935)
Way Out West (James W. Horne/1937)
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming/1939)

1930 - 1934
---------------------------------------
Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman/1930)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestome/1930)
Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton/1933)
The Black Cat (Edger G. Ulmer/1934)
The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg/1930)
City Lights (Charlie Chaplin/1931)
Dinner at Eight (George Cukor/1933)
Dracula (Tod Browning/1931)
Duck Soup (Leo McCarey/1933)
42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon/1933)
Frankenstein (James Whale/1931)
Freaks (Tod Browning/1932)
Gabriel Over the White House (Gregory La Cava/1933)
It Happened One Night (Frak Capra/1934)
King Kong (Ernest B. Schoedsack/1933)
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo/1934)
Little Women (George Cukor/1933)
M (Fritz Lang/1931)
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (Robert Flaherty, F. W. Murnau/1931)
Tarzan and His Mate (Jack Conway/1934)
Tarzan, the Ape Man (Woodbridge S. Van Dyne/1932)
The Thin Man (Woodbridge S. Van Dyne/1934)
Zero For Conduct (Jean Vigo/1933)

1925 - 1929
---------------------------------------
Ben Hur (Fred Niblo/1926)
The Crowd (King Vidor/1928)
The Freshman (Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor/1925)
The General (Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman/1927)
The Gold Rush (Charle Chaplin/1925)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang/1926)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer/1928)
The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian/1925)
Sunrise (F. W. Murnau/1927)
The Wind (Victor Sjostrom/1928)

1920 - 1924
---------------------------------------
Greed (Erich von Stroheim/1924)
Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty/1922)
Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau/1922)

Culls and Maybes
---------------------------------------
The Four Corners of Nowhere (?)

Apollo 13 (Ron Howard/1995)
Clueless (Amy Heckerling/1995)
Contact (Robert Zemeckis/1997)
Fargo (Joel Coen/1996)
L.A. Confidential (1997)

The Abyss (James Cameron/1989)
Hairspray (John Waters/1988)
Max Headroom (1986)
Raising Arizona (Joel Coen/1987)
Roger and Me (Michael Moore/1989)

Stop Making Sense (Jonatham Demme/1984)

All That Jazz (Bob Fosse/1979)
Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke (Lou Adler/1979)
Jaws (Steven Spielberg/1975)

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Ted Kotcheff/1974)
Pink Flamingos (John Waters/1972)