Watching the IMDB Top 250

Growing up in India in the eighties, access to English movies on TV was limited. You could watch the latest releases in the theaters but the old classics were rarely screened. In the 90s, you could catch some old black-and-whites on TNT.

Until the time I first landed in the US in Feb 2000, many famous movies were just names that I had read in Readers Digest listicles (“Top 10 Hollywood Movies of all Time etc”). My must-watch movies were a bucket list within my broader to-do-list.

I arrived in the US in Feb 2000. On April 4th I printed out the IMDB top 250 list and set out to watch them all. I had already watched about 20 of them previously. I started with the top-50 and went through chunks of 50.

Compared to India, in the US access to movies was easy. Every town that I stayed in in the US had a library with a wide collection of DVDs. I also subscribed to NetFlix for almost my entire stay in the US. What was lacking was enough time to watch all of these movies. Over 6 years, to watch 250 movies is an average of one movie per week. Plus I watched about 200 new movies which were released in those 6 years. Plus the fact that in 2001 I watched exactly zero movies (but that is for a separate article)

In 2007 I moved back to India permanently. There were still a few movies to be watched. At one point, towards the end, I had simultaneous subscriptions to NetFlix, Blockbuster (both online as well as the neighborhood physical store) and Walmart’s online service in a desperate attempt to get through the list. But still a few that got away (see: The ones that got away). For unexplained reasons, these were unavailable at that time on NetFlix and Blockbuster.

While not a perfect list, the imdb Top 250 provided a roadmap to a broad education about movies, akin to reading through a Great Books list. would not pretend it was all smooth sailing – with some movies, I had to force myself to keep my eyes open a la Alex in the Clockwork Orange. But as a result, I watched many of the best-known movies as well as a few that I otherwise would not have considered watching. I learned to distinguish between Grace Kelly and Gene Kelly and to finally see what the fuss about the Staircase Scene in Battleship Potemkin was all about. Having a list helped focus attention on a short list from the sea of movies to be watched.

And now for the Criterion Collection !

The IMDB Top 250 in 2000 and 2017

2000 rankingMovie TitleMade In2017 Ranking
1The Godfather19722
2American Beauty199964
3The Shawshank Redemption19941
4Schindler's List19936
5Casablanca194233
6Citizen Kane194170
7Star Wars197720
8The Godfather: Part II19743
9One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest197516
10Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb196453
11Raiders of the Lost Ark198139
12Shichinin no samurai195419
13Rear Window195440
14Saving Private Ryan199829
15The Usual Suspects199525
16Psycho196034
17The Empire Strikes Back198012
18The Silence of the Lambs199123
19Pulp Fiction19947
20North by Northwest195973
21La Vita e Bella199726
22Toy Story 21999-
23The Sixth Sense1999168
24Being John Malkovich1999-
25It's a Wonderful Life194624
26Lawrence of Arabia196284
27Ben-hur1990201
2812 Angry Men19575
29Fight Club199910
30To Kill a Mockingbird196287
31The Matrix199918
32Vertigo195874
33L.A. Confidential1997103
34Taxi Driver197683
35The Maltese Falcon1941203
36Paths of Glory195759
37The Wizard of Oz1939231
38The Third Man1949122
39Apocalypse Now197949
40Magnolia1999-
41The Wrong Trousers1993-
42Raging Bull1980121
43Singin' in the Rain195294
44The Green Mile199936
45Das Boot198172
46The Bridge on the River Kwai1957137
47Chinatown1974127
482001: A Space Odyssey196893
49Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo19669
50Monty Python and the Holy Grail1975101
51M193177
52How the Grinch Stole Christmas1966-
53A Clockwork Orange197181
54Reservoir Dogs199276
55American History X199831
56Lola rennt1998-
57Some Like It Hot1959117
58All About Eve1950113
59Alien197952
60Double Indemnity194485
61The Manchurian Candidate1962-
62Amadeus198488
63Fargo1996165
64Sunset Blvd.195054
65Blade Runner1982138
66Braveheart199578
67The Sting197392
68Rashomon1950108
69Mr. Smith goes to washington1939140
70Jaws1975237
71The Treasure of the Sierra Madre1948118
72Touch of Evil1958217
73The Insider1999-
74Sling Blade1996-
75Ran1985132
76Aliens198667
77Modern Times193638
78The Iron Giant1999-
79Annie Hall1977218
80Léon199427
81On the Waterfront1954133
82Todo Sobre mi Madre1999-
83Duck Soup1933-
84The Princess Bride1987209
85The Graduate1967-
86The African Queen1951-
87Ladri di Biciclette194897
88Glory1989-
89The Great Escape1963126
90Dogme 1 – Festen1998-
91Se7en199522
92The General1926151
93City Lights193135
94Full Metal Jacket198791
95C'era Una Volta il West196930
96The Deer Hunter1978163
97The Straight Story1999-
98Shakespeare in Love1998-
99Strangers on a Train1951245
100The Shining198061
101Ben-Hur1959201
102Return of the Jedi198375
103Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels1998142
104High Noon1952-
105The Philadelphia Story1940-
106Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid1969198
107Bringing up Baby1938-
108Rebecca1940172
109The Great Dictator194055
110Good Will Hunting1997109
111Det Sjunde inseglet1957141
112Gone with the wind1939164
113Yojimbo1961114
114The Grapes of Wrath1940216
115A Close Shave1995-
116The Searchers1956-
117Manhattan1979-
118It Happened One Night1934182
119The Big Sleep1946-
120Notorious1946-
121The Best Years of Our Lives1946239
122Mononoke Hime199766
123Patton1970-
124A Christmas Story1983-
125Arsenic and Old Lace1944-
126Die Hard1988123
127Unforgiven1992119
128Young Frankenstein1974-
129Toy Story199595
130Nuovo Cinema Paradiso198856
131The Truman Show1998214
132Trois Couleurs: Rouge1994-
133The Night of the Hunter1955-
134Metropolis1927112
135Cool Hand Luke1967171
136The Gold Rush1925135
137Brazil1985-
138The Wild Bunch1969-
139Terminator 2: Judgment Day199143
140All Quiet on the Western Front1930-
141A Streetcar Named Desire1951-
142Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?1966-
143Les Quatre Cent Coups1959196
144The Apartment1960107
145Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade1989111
146Boys Don't Cry1999-
147His Girl Friday1940-
148Rain Man1988-
149Fantasia1940-
150Go1939-
151Platoon1986186
152Three Kings1999-
153A Simple Plan1998-
154A Night At the Opera1935-
155The Hustler1961-
156The Fugitive1993-
157Smultronstallet1957149
158The Terminator1984229
159The Elephant Man1980148
160October Sky1999-
161Central do Brasil1998-
162As Good as it gets1997-
163Forrest Gump199413
164The Right Stuff1983-
165Spartacus1960-
166Henry V1989-
167La Grande Illusion1937-
168Back to the Future198544
169Bronenosets Potyomkin1925-
170Trainspotting1996158
171South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut1999-
172Once Upon a Time in America198469
173The Conversation1974-
174The Killing1956-
175Stand By Me1986193
176The Untouchables1987-
177The Exorcist1973-
178The Sweet Hereafter1997-
179God and Monsters1998-
180Gandhi1982221
181Close Encounters of the Third Kind1977-
182Stalag 171953-
183Life of Brian1979181
184E. T The Extra Terrestrial1982-
185Eyes Wide Shut1999-
186Beauty and the Beast1991-
187MASH1970-
188Midnight Cowboy1969-
189Twelve Monkeys1995234
190The Killing Fields1984-
191Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens 1922-
192Clerks1994-
193Scrooge1951-
194The Player1992-
195A Fish Called Wanda1988-
196The Adventures of Robin Hood1938-
197The Birds1963-
198La Strada1954-
199Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs1937-
200The Man who shot Liberty Valance1962-
201All the President's Men1976-
202Die Xue Shuang Xiong1989-
203Dead Man Walking1995-
204Dog Day Afternoon1975243
205The Cider House Rules1999-
2061963228
207A Bug's Life1998-
208This is Spinal Tap1984-
209The Man Who Would be King1975-
210Le Violin Rouge1998-
211Dead Poets Society1989-
212Stagecoach1939-
213Deliverance1972-
214Witness for the Prosecution195771
215The Remains of the Day1993-
216The 39 Steps1935-
217Da Hong Deng Long Gao Gao Gua1991-
218Elizabeth1998-
219Roman Holiday1953-
220The Day the Earth Stood Still1951-
221Secrets & Lies1996-
222Bonnie and Clyde1967-
223Being There1979-
224Les Enfants du Paradis1945-
225Ed Wood1994-
226The Quiet Man1952-
227Jean De Florette1986-
228Harvey1950-
229My Fair Lady1964-
230Rio Bravo1959-
231Crimes and Misdemeanours1989-
232Hamlet1996-
233Groundhog Day1993232
234King Kong1933-
235Election1999-
236Goldfinger1964-
237Fucking Amal1998-
238In the Name of the Father1993194
239Miller's Crossing1990-
240Rebel Without a Cause1955-
241West Side Story1961-
242When Harry Met Sally1989-
243Network1976189
244Field of Dreams1976-
245Dogma1999-
246Fanny Och Alexander1982-
247Heavenly Creatures1994-
248Witness1985-
249Amarcord1974-
250The Lion in Winter1968-