My 100 Favorite Films

As requested, I am posting my 100 favorite films. With each listing, I have added (where possible) a favorite line and a reason to see the movie.

100. The Adventures of Baron Munchasen (“Is there a doctor in the fish?”) Sailing to the moon
99. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (“A little bit of nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”) The performance by Gene Wilder
98. Not Time For Sergeants (“Why’d you do it?") The reactions by the Sergeant
97. Gone With the Wind (“I don't know nothin' about birthin' babies.”) The shot of war wounded lying out by the railroad depot
96. 12 Angry Men (“It's an open and shut case.”) The performance by Lee Cobb
95. Flying Deuces (“Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into.”) The look on Hardy’s face when Laurel plays bed springs like a harp.
94. African Screams (“Oh, my tents on fi-yur!”) The faucet
93. At the Circus (“I’m heels over head in love.”) The song Lydia
92. Stir Crazy The performance by Gene Wilder
91. Caddyshack (“So I got that going for me; which is nice.”) The performance by Bill Murray
90. Moonraker (“Here’s to us.”) Jaws going over the falls
89. Live and Let Die (“Secret Agent?! On whose side?!”) The title song by Paul McCartney
88. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (“Atta boy, Luther.”) The performance by Don Knotts
87. The Court Jester (“The vessel with the pestle has the pellet of poison; the flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true.”)
86. Mr. Roberts (“Yeah, we call it the same thing in Indiana.”) The performance by Jack Lemmon
85. A Day at the Races (“If I hold you any closer I’d be in back of you.”)
84. Bedknobs and Broomsticks The football match
83. 12 Monkeys The direction by Terry Gilliam
82. Touch of Evil (“Come on, read my future for me.” “You haven't got any.” “What do you mean?” “Your future is all used up.”) The final confrontation between Heston and Wells: matador and bull
81. On The Town (“New York, New York …”)
80. The Rules of the Game The hunt
79. The Producers (“That’s our Hitler!”) The performance of Springtime for Hitler
78. The Third Man (“In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly.”) The first appearance of Harry Lime
77. Vertigo (“Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you what to do and what to say?”) The last shot of Jimmy Stewart on the bell tower
76. The Godfather II (“I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart.”) Vito Corleone’s first kill
75. The Godfather (“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”) The speech by Michael where he explains how he plans to kill their enemies
74. The Great Dictator The dictator playing with his globe
73. Modern Times (“Held as a communist leader, our innocent victim languishes in jail.”) Where the Tramp loses it and is sucked into the machinery gears.
72. Arsenic and Old Lace (“Chaaaaarrgggeee!”) Where Cary Grant’s character learns his aunt’s secret
71. Apocalypse Now (“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”) The attack on the beach to the music of Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries
70. Shakespeare in Love (“How long has it been?”) The script written by Tom Stoppard
69. Dune (“The sleeper has awakened.”) Where Paul goes out to ride the worm
68. A Shot In the Dark (“A nudist colony!”)
67. Chinatown (“Of course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.”) Roman Polanski cutting Jack Nicholson’s nostril
66. The Truman Show (“How’s it gonna end?”) Truman on the beach losing his first love.
65. Contact (“They should have sent a poet.”)
64. Yellow Submarine (“I’m a born lever puller.”) The song Eleanor Rigby
63. It’s A Wonderful Life (“This is a very interesting situation.”) The scene where Donna Reed is trapped in the bush
62. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (“What I need is something so scary it'll clear three hundred square miles of every living Christian soul!”) The parts of the film by the mountain at night
61. The Shawshank Redemption (“Salvation lies within.”) The escape from Shawshank.
60. Harvey (“He’s a pookah.”) The performance by Jimmy Stewart
59. Start the Revolution Without Me (“…Then I suggest you show me your business.” “My pleasure.”) The business/pleasure scene.
58. Joe vs. the Volcano (“Brain cloud. What’s a brain cloud?”) Joe on the open sea.
57. This Is Spinal Tap (“He choked to death on vomit.” “Not his vomit.” “We don’t know whose vomit.” “You can’t really dust for vomit.”) The song Stonehenge
56. The Quiet Man (“I think you have more sense than I have me-self.”) The performance by Barry Fitzgerald
55. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (“Heads.”)
54. Being There (“Life is a state of mind.”) The end.
53. You Only Live Twice The title song sung by Nancy Sinatra
52. Sergeant York Anything but the song “Gimmee that ole time religin’”
51. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (“His what?”) The opera
50. Son of Paleface (“Kissed a girl when I was ten; darned if I’m not ready again.”) The song Button and Bows
49. Love and Death (“Run, don’t walk, through the valley of the shadow of death. Then you get out much quicker.”) Woody dancing with death
48. The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (“You remind me of a man.” “What man?” “The man with the power.” “What power?” “The power of hoodoo.” “Hoodoo?” “You do.” “Do what? “Remind me of a man.”) The restaurant scene.
47. Clue (“To make a long story short …” “Too late.”) The performance by Madeline Kahn
46. Clash of the Titans (“Release the Kraken!”) Medusa
45. Ground Hog Day The performance by Bill Murray
44. A Hard Day’s Night (“Are you a mod or a rocker?” “I'm a mocker.”) John Lennon dancing.
43. Dark City (“Shoot.”) The shot where the city is revealed
42. The Princess Bride [Guess which one.] The scene between Wesley and Vinzini
41. Singin’ In The Rain (“Of course we talk. Don’t everybody.”) The song Mak'em Laugh
40. Time Bandits (“I think it has something to do with free will.”) The giant’s hat.
39. Raiders of the Lost Ark (“Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?”) The chase scene with the truck
38. Bananas [I can’t quote my favorite line here. Sorry.] The woman who gets bitten by the snake.
37. Sleeper [Same here.] The conversations between Woody and Diane
36. Mary Poppins (“Supercalafr …”) [You know what I mean.] The Tea Part on the ceiling
35. Silent Movie (“No!) Marty Feldman introducing himself to a woman with whom he wished to dance
34. Bringing Up Baby (“But why are you wearing these clothes?” “Because I just went gay all of a sudden!”) The scene at the jail house
33. Annie Hall (“As Balzac said, ‘There goes another novel.’”)
32. Support Your Local Sheriff (“I was a horr holder and Madame Orses’, I mean, a horse holder at Madame Orr’s.”) The performance by James Garner
31. The Wizard of Oz (“Well, that’s you all over.”) The Cowardly Lion
30. Casino Royale (“Just how personal is a toupee?” “It can only be regarded as … a heirloom.”)
29. Blazing Saddles (“Are we awake?” “Are we … black?”) The Ballad of Rockridge
28. Young Frankenstein (“He’s gonna be very popular.”) The scenes from the train till they enter the castle
27. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (“Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of a silly person!”) The Killer Rabbit
26. The Longest Day (“Sometimes I wonder which side God is on.”) The shot of the Allied armada accompanied by the first notes of Beethoven’s Fifth symphony
25. City of Lost Children The cause and effect sequence
24. Metropolis The shots of the city
23. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (“Anything for the man who shot Liberty Valence.”) The shooting of Liberty Valence
22. Patton (“When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do.”) The opening monologue
21. Ben-Hur (“I tell you, the day Rome falls, there will be a shout of freedom such as the world has never heard before.”) The Chariot Race
20. Amadeus (“That was Mozart!”) Mozart’s laugh
19. Horse Feathers (“I wanted a flat bottom but the girl at the boat house didn’t have one.”) The football game
18. A Night At The Opera (“I don’t know. There’s something about me that brings out the business in every woman.”) The radio speech
17. Grand Illusion (“I didn't know a bullet in the stomach hurt so much.” “I aimed at your legs.”) Eric von Stroheim
16. Clockwork Orange (“I’m singin’ in the rain …”) The fight scenes set to Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie
15. The Seventh Seal (“The strict lord Death bids them dance.”) The macabre dance of death
14. The Chimes at Midnight (“I know thee not, old man.”) The scene where Henry V rejects Falstaff
13. Lawrence of Arabia (“Nothing is written.”) The first desert shots with musical accompaniment
12. Doctor Zhivago (“Beautiful things can do ugly things to people.”) The song Lara’s Theme
11. Manhattan (“I wrote a short story about my mother called ‘The Castrating Zionist’, and I’d like to turn it into a book.”) Woody and Diane sitting on a bench by the Brooklyn bridge
10. The Trial
9. Animal Crackers (“We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren’t developed.”) The African hunt monologue
8. Duck Soup (“Remind me to join a club and beat you over the head with it.”) The mirror routine
7. Dr. Strangelove ("Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops, uh, depending on the breaks.") Slim Pickens riding a nuclear bomb into the USSR
6. Casablanca (“What is your nationality?” “I'm a drunkard.” “That makes Rick a citizen of the world.”) The performance by Claude Rains
5. Children of Paradise (“I'd spill torrents of blood to give you rivers of diamonds.” “I'd settle for less.”) The end shots of Baptiste lost in the carnival
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (“Daisy, daisy …”) The initial space flight set to Strauss
3. Citizen Kane (“I don't think any word can explain a man's life.”) The campaign rally
2. 8 ½ (“Happiness consists of being able to tell the truth without hurting anyone.”) The farmhouse of women
1. Brazil (“Bloody paper work.”) Itself


Honorable mentions: Tron, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Armachord, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, The Lord of the Rings, Wild Strawberries, Gray's Anatomy, Peter Pan, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Thin Man, Philadelphia Story, Schindler's List, Zelig, Cocoanuts, Operation Petticoat, Rio Bravo, Amelia, Delicatessan, City Lights, The Gold Rush, The General, Steamboat Willy Jr., Sherlock Jr., Sunset Boulevard, The Princess and the Pirate, Road to Bali, Casanova's Big Night, Splash