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 ranking	Movie Title	Made In	2017 Ranking
1	The Godfather	1972	2
2	American Beauty	1999	64
3	The Shawshank Redemption	1994	1
4	Schindler's List	1993	6
5	Casablanca	1942	33
6	Citizen Kane	1941	70
7	Star Wars	1977	20
8	The Godfather: Part II	1974	3
9	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	1975	16
10	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb	1964	53
11	Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981	39
12	Shichinin no samurai	1954	19
13	Rear Window	1954	40
14	Saving Private Ryan	1998	29
15	The Usual Suspects	1995	25
16	Psycho	1960	34
17	The Empire Strikes Back	1980	12
18	The Silence of the Lambs	1991	23
19	Pulp Fiction	1994	7
20	North by Northwest	1959	73
21	La Vita e Bella	1997	26
22	Toy Story 2	1999	-
23	The Sixth Sense	1999	168
24	Being John Malkovich	1999	-
25	It's a Wonderful Life	1946	24
26	Lawrence of Arabia	1962	84
27	Ben-hur	1990	201
28	12 Angry Men	1957	5
29	Fight Club	1999	10
30	To Kill a Mockingbird	1962	87
31	The Matrix	1999	18
32	Vertigo	1958	74
33	L.A. Confidential	1997	103
34	Taxi Driver	1976	83
35	The Maltese Falcon	1941	203
36	Paths of Glory	1957	59
37	The Wizard of Oz	1939	231
38	The Third Man	1949	122
39	Apocalypse Now	1979	49
40	Magnolia	1999	-
41	The Wrong Trousers	1993	-
42	Raging Bull	1980	121
43	Singin' in the Rain	1952	94
44	The Green Mile	1999	36
45	Das Boot	1981	72
46	The Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	137
47	Chinatown	1974	127
48	2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	93
49	Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo	1966	9
50	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	1975	101
51	M	1931	77
52	How the Grinch Stole Christmas	1966	-
53	A Clockwork Orange	1971	81
54	Reservoir Dogs	1992	76
55	American History X	1998	31
56	Lola rennt	1998	-
57	Some Like It Hot	1959	117
58	All About Eve	1950	113
59	Alien	1979	52
60	Double Indemnity	1944	85
61	The Manchurian Candidate	1962	-
62	Amadeus	1984	88
63	Fargo	1996	165
64	Sunset Blvd.	1950	54
65	Blade Runner	1982	138
66	Braveheart	1995	78
67	The Sting	1973	92
68	Rashomon	1950	108
69	Mr. Smith goes to washington	1939	140
70	Jaws	1975	237
71	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	1948	118
72	Touch of Evil	1958	217
73	The Insider	1999	-
74	Sling Blade	1996	-
75	Ran	1985	132
76	Aliens	1986	67
77	Modern Times	1936	38
78	The Iron Giant	1999	-
79	Annie Hall	1977	218
80	Léon	1994	27
81	On the Waterfront	1954	133
82	Todo Sobre mi Madre	1999	-
83	Duck Soup	1933	-
84	The Princess Bride	1987	209
85	The Graduate	1967	-
86	The African Queen	1951	-
87	Ladri di Biciclette	1948	97
88	Glory	1989	-
89	The Great Escape	1963	126
90	Dogme 1 – Festen	1998	-
91	Se7en	1995	22
92	The General	1926	151
93	City Lights	1931	35
94	Full Metal Jacket	1987	91
95	C'era Una Volta il West	1969	30
96	The Deer Hunter	1978	163
97	The Straight Story	1999	-
98	Shakespeare in Love	1998	-
99	Strangers on a Train	1951	245
100	The Shining	1980	61
101	Ben-Hur	1959	201
102	Return of the Jedi	1983	75
103	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels	1998	142
104	High Noon	1952	-
105	The Philadelphia Story	1940	-
106	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	1969	198
107	Bringing up Baby	1938	-
108	Rebecca	1940	172
109	The Great Dictator	1940	55
110	Good Will Hunting	1997	109
111	Det Sjunde inseglet	1957	141
112	Gone with the wind	1939	164
113	Yojimbo	1961	114
114	The Grapes of Wrath	1940	216
115	A Close Shave	1995	-
116	The Searchers	1956	-
117	Manhattan	1979	-
118	It Happened One Night	1934	182
119	The Big Sleep	1946	-
120	Notorious	1946	-
121	The Best Years of Our Lives	1946	239
122	Mononoke Hime	1997	66
123	Patton	1970	-
124	A Christmas Story	1983	-
125	Arsenic and Old Lace	1944	-
126	Die Hard	1988	123
127	Unforgiven	1992	119
128	Young Frankenstein	1974	-
129	Toy Story	1995	95
130	Nuovo Cinema Paradiso	1988	56
131	The Truman Show	1998	214
132	Trois Couleurs: Rouge	1994	-
133	The Night of the Hunter	1955	-
134	Metropolis	1927	112
135	Cool Hand Luke	1967	171
136	The Gold Rush	1925	135
137	Brazil	1985	-
138	The Wild Bunch	1969	-
139	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	1991	43
140	All Quiet on the Western Front	1930	-
141	A Streetcar Named Desire	1951	-
142	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?	1966	-
143	Les Quatre Cent Coups	1959	196
144	The Apartment	1960	107
145	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	1989	111
146	Boys Don't Cry	1999	-
147	His Girl Friday	1940	-
148	Rain Man	1988	-
149	Fantasia	1940	-
150	Go	1939	-
151	Platoon	1986	186
152	Three Kings	1999	-
153	A Simple Plan	1998	-
154	A Night At the Opera	1935	-
155	The Hustler	1961	-
156	The Fugitive	1993	-
157	Smultronstallet	1957	149
158	The Terminator	1984	229
159	The Elephant Man	1980	148
160	October Sky	1999	-
161	Central do Brasil	1998	-
162	As Good as it gets	1997	-
163	Forrest Gump	1994	13
164	The Right Stuff	1983	-
165	Spartacus	1960	-
166	Henry V	1989	-
167	La Grande Illusion	1937	-
168	Back to the Future	1985	44
169	Bronenosets Potyomkin	1925	-
170	Trainspotting	1996	158
171	South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut	1999	-
172	Once Upon a Time in America	1984	69
173	The Conversation	1974	-
174	The Killing	1956	-
175	Stand By Me	1986	193
176	The Untouchables	1987	-
177	The Exorcist	1973	-
178	The Sweet Hereafter	1997	-
179	God and Monsters	1998	-
180	Gandhi	1982	221
181	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	1977	-
182	Stalag 17	1953	-
183	Life of Brian	1979	181
184	E. T The Extra Terrestrial	1982	-
185	Eyes Wide Shut	1999	-
186	Beauty and the Beast	1991	-
187	MASH	1970	-
188	Midnight Cowboy	1969	-
189	Twelve Monkeys	1995	234
190	The Killing Fields	1984	-
191	Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens	1922	-
192	Clerks	1994	-
193	Scrooge	1951	-
194	The Player	1992	-
195	A Fish Called Wanda	1988	-
196	The Adventures of Robin Hood	1938	-
197	The Birds	1963	-
198	La Strada	1954	-
199	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	1937	-
200	The Man who shot Liberty Valance	1962	-
201	All the President's Men	1976	-
202	Die Xue Shuang Xiong	1989	-
203	Dead Man Walking	1995	-
204	Dog Day Afternoon	1975	243
205	The Cider House Rules	1999	-
206	8½	1963	228
207	A Bug's Life	1998	-
208	This is Spinal Tap	1984	-
209	The Man Who Would be King	1975	-
210	Le Violin Rouge	1998	-
211	Dead Poets Society	1989	-
212	Stagecoach	1939	-
213	Deliverance	1972	-
214	Witness for the Prosecution	1957	71
215	The Remains of the Day	1993	-
216	The 39 Steps	1935	-
217	Da Hong Deng Long Gao Gao Gua	1991	-
218	Elizabeth	1998	-
219	Roman Holiday	1953	-
220	The Day the Earth Stood Still	1951	-
221	Secrets & Lies	1996	-
222	Bonnie and Clyde	1967	-
223	Being There	1979	-
224	Les Enfants du Paradis	1945	-
225	Ed Wood	1994	-
226	The Quiet Man	1952	-
227	Jean De Florette	1986	-
228	Harvey	1950	-
229	My Fair Lady	1964	-
230	Rio Bravo	1959	-
231	Crimes and Misdemeanours	1989	-
232	Hamlet	1996	-
233	Groundhog Day	1993	232
234	King Kong	1933	-
235	Election	1999	-
236	Goldfinger	1964	-
237	Fucking Amal	1998	-
238	In the Name of the Father	1993	194
239	Miller's Crossing	1990	-
240	Rebel Without a Cause	1955	-
241	West Side Story	1961	-
242	When Harry Met Sally	1989	-
243	Network	1976	189
244	Field of Dreams	1976	-
245	Dogma	1999	-
246	Fanny Och Alexander	1982	-
247	Heavenly Creatures	1994	-
248	Witness	1985	-
249	Amarcord	1974	-
250	The Lion in Winter	1968	-