201 Greatest Movies Of All Time

The new issue of Empire has published the results of its 201 Greatest Movies Of All Time poll:

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
3. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
4. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
5. The Godfather
6. Pulp Fiction
7. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
8. Fight Club
9. GoodFellas
10. The Matrix
11. Jaws
12. The Usual Suspects
13. The Godfather II
14. Alien
15. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
16. Gladiator
17. Aliens
18. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
19. Casablanca
20. Back To The Future
21. Seven
22. Heat
23. LA Confidential
24. Apocalypse Now
25. The Big Lebowski
26. Citizen Kane
27. Reservoir Dogs
28. Die Hard
29. Raging Bull
30. Some Like It Hot
31. Lawrence Of Arabia
32. Blade Runner
33. 2001: A Space Odyssey
34. Jurassic Park
35. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
36. Batman Begins
37. Terminator II: Judgment Day
38. Lost In Translation
39. The Silence Of The Lambs
40. Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith
41. Donnie Darko
42. Amelie
43. Taxi Driver
44. Magnolia
45. Toy Story
46. Schindler's List
47. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
48. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
49. Memento
50. Almost Famous
51. American Beauty
52. Chinatown
53. Rear Window
54. True Romance
55. The Shining
56. Ghostbusters
57. The Exorcist
58. Titanic
59. Dr Strangelove
60. Grosse Pointe Blank
61. Moulin Rouge!
62. City Of God
63. Vertigo
64. The Princess Bride
65. Scarface
66. Sin City
67. Once Upon A Time In The West
68. Gone With The Wind
69. Annie Hall
70. Seven Samurai
71. Saving Private Ryan
72. Rocky
73. The Wizard Of Oz
74. Withnail & I
75. The Third Man
76. A Clockwork Orange
77. Cool Hand Luke
78. Toy Story II
79. Kill Bill I
80. Braveheart
81. It's A Wonderful Life
82. Stand By Me
83. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
84. Evil Dead II
85. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
86. Psycho
87. Garden State
88. Serenity
89. Double Indemnity
90. Clerks
91. Shaun Of The Dead
92. This Is Spinal Tap
93. The Searchers
94. Jerry Maguire
95. Edward Scissorhands
96. Leon
97. The Lion King
98. Superman
99. The Thing
100. The Terminator
101. The Blues Brothers
102. North by Northwest
103. Manhattan
104. King Kong
105. When Harry Met Sally
106. Speed
107. The Great Escape
108. Singin' In the Rain
109. 12 Angry Men
110. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
111. Unforgiven
112. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
113. The Graduate
114. Brazil
115. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
116. La Belle & La Bete
117. The Thin Red Line
118. Groundhog Day
119. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
120. Fargo
121. Top Gun
122. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
123. Grease
124. Once Upon A Time In America
125. Hero
126. Rushmore
127. Spider-Man II
128. Cinema Paradiso
129. The Last Of The Mohicans
130. Preadtor
131. Oldboy
132. Airplane!
133. The Breakfast Club
134. Dawn Of The Dead
135. Anchorman
136. Breathless
137. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
138. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
139. The Deer Hunter
140. Casino
141. Swingers
142. Field Of Dreams
143. Platoon
144. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
145. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
146. The Evil Dead
147. Good Will Hunting
148. Goldfinger
149. Trainspotting
150. Blue Velvet
151. Kill Bill I
152. Spirited Away
153. Halloween
154. The Truman Show
155. National Lampoon's Animal House
156. The Adventures Of Robin Hood
157. The Bourne Identity
158. The Royal Tenenbaums
159. JFK
160. Scream
161. The Philadelphia Story
162. The Wild Bunch
163. On the Waterfront
164. Blazing Saddles
165. Dirty Dancing
166. South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut
167. Badlands
168. The English Patient
169. King Kong
170. Sideways
171. The Italian Job
172. Full Metal Jacket
173. The Sting
174. X-Men II
175. The Elephant Man
176. Crash
177. The Sound Of Music
178. Mulholland Drive
179. There's Something About Mary
180. Dead Man's Shoes
181. La Haine
182. Do The Right Thing
183. The Ladykillers
184. Thelma & Louise
185. Dirty Harry
186. The Birds
187. Boogie Nights
188. Breakfast At Tiffany's
189. The Night Of The Hunter
190. Pretty Woman
191. The Producers
192. Romeo & Juliet
193. To Kill A Mockingbird
194. Mad Max
195. Glengarry Glen Ross
196. Sense & Sensibility
197. Enter The Dragon
198. Rebel Without A Cause
199. The Killer
200. The Descent
201. Eraserhead

As I've said before, 200 films is a reasonable list - not too long, not too short. Empire's list of 201 has enough space for many films ignored in traditional top-100 lists (La Haine, Casino, and Dawn Of The Dead, for instance). However, at only 5%, foreign-language films are still hugely under-represented.

There is also a strong bias in favour of recent releases, remakes, and sequels. Is it really necessary to have two Star Wars films and two Lord Of The Rings films so high up the list, and why include the Scarface remake yet exclude the original version? Some Like It Hot is the 1959 comic masterpiece, not the obscure 1939 comedy. Note also that Crash is the Paul Haggis Oscar-winner, not the scandalous David Cronenberg film; Psycho is the original version; and Titanic is the James Cameron version. There have been many adaptations of Romeo & Juliet; this one is the Baz Luhrmann version.

A handful of the highest-placed films in this poll have ranked in similar positions in other recent polls, and we can compare the new list with previous Empire polls (100 Favourite Films Of All Time, 1996; Your 100 Greatest Films Ever!, 1999; The 50 Best Films, 2001; 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time, 2004). For example: Pulp Fiction (1996: #1, 1999: #6, 2001: #10, 2004: #7, 2006: #6), Star Wars IV (1996: #2, 1999: #1, 2001: #1, 2004: #2, 2006: #4), The Lord Of The Rings I (2004: #1, 2006: #3), and The Shawshank Redemption (1996: #53, 1999: #4, 2001: #3, 2004: #5, 2006: #1). Thus, perhaps a new canon is forming.