1000 Movies
This is not a "top 1000 best movies ever made" list. There are plenty of those out there.
These are the top 1000 movies that have had some sort of lasting impact on me. That does not mean that every movie on this list is good. There are a few very bad movies on this list. There are also movies here that I will absolutely never watch again because they're so harsh/difficult/unforgiving.
There are definitely movies on this list I would never recommend to anyone. But if you're looking for something unique, impactful, or memorable, or potentially scarring, this is a solid list.
There are also some really happy movies on this list too. Less, but they're on there.
This is basically a list of all the movies that have helped make me, me. Or maybe more accurately, these are the movies to blame for making me, me.
It was actually really difficult to narrow it down to 1000. But powers of 10 are appealing.
Lastly, why did I do this? I don't totally know. But here it is.
Here's the link to the filterable Google docs sheet that includes the year, director, and genre:
If anyone's curious, here's the breakdown by genre:
Action - 62
Animation - 38
Comedy - 172
Documentary - 58
Drama - 398
Family - 9
Fantasy - 19
Horror - 182
Musical - 10
Sci-Fi - 41
Western - 11
1. 12 Angry Men
2. 13 Tzameti
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
4. 28 Days Later
5. 28 Weeks Later
6. 3 Women
7. 500 Days of Summer
8. 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
9. 8 1/2
10. A Bucket of Blood
11. A Christmas Story
12. A Clockwork Orange
13. A Decade Under the Influence
14. A Field in England
15. A Fistful of Dollars
16. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
17. A Hard Day's Night
18. A History of Violence
19. A Man and a Woman
20. A Mighty Wind
21. A Night at the Opera
22. A Nightmare on Elm Street
23. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3
24. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
25. A Serious Man
26. A Simple Plan
27. A Star Is Born
28. A Streetcar Named Desire
29. A Tale of Two Sisters
30. A Woman Is a Woman
31. A Zed & Two Noughts
32. ABCs of Death 2
33. Ace in the Hole
34. Addams Family Values
35. Aftermath
36. Aguirre: The Wrath of God
37. Airheads
38. Airplane!
39. Aladdin
40. Alice in Wonderland
41. Alien
42. All About Eve
43. All Quiet on the Western Front
44. All the President's Men
45. Almost Famous
46. Amadeus
47. Amateur
48. Amelie
49. American Beauty
50. American History X
51. American Movie
52. American Psycho
53. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
54. And Then There Were None
55. Andrei Rublev
56. Angst
57. Annie Hall
58. Anomalisa
59. Another Earth
60. Antarctica: A Year on Ice
61. Antichrist
62. Apocalypse Now / Apocalypse Now Redux
63. Arachnophobia
64. Argo
65. Army of Darkness
66. Arsenic and Old Lace
67. As Above, So Below
68. Atonement
69. Attack the Block
70. Au Hasard Balthazar
71. Audition
72. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
73. Autumn Sonata
74. Away We Go
75. Back to the Future
76. Back to the Future Part II
77. Bad Taste
78. Badlands
79. Ballad of a Soldier
80. Band of Outsiders
81. Baraka
82. Barry Lyndon
83. Barton Fink
84. BASEketball
85. Basket Case
86. Baskin
87. Batman
88. Batman Returns
89. Battle Royale
90. Beasts of No Nation
91. Beasts of the Southern Wild
92. Beauty and the Beast
93. Beetlejuice
94. Begotten
95. Being John Malkovich
96. Being There
97. Belle de Jour
98. Bellflower
99. Benny's Video
100. Berberian Sound Studio
101. Best in Show
102. Beyond the Black Rainbow
103. Bicycle Thieves
104. Big
105. Big Fish
106. Big Trouble in Little China
107. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
108. Billy Madison
109. Birdman
110. Black Death
111. Black Dynamite
112. Black Sunday
113. Black Swan
114. Blade Runner: Director's Cut
115. Blazing Saddles
116. Blind Beast
117. Blow-Up
118. Blue Is the Warmest Color
119. Blue Ruin
120. Blue Velvet
121. Bob Le Flambeur
122. Boiler Room
123. Bonnie and Clyde
124. Boogie Nights
125. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazahkstan
126. Bound
127. Branded to Kill
128. Braveheart
129. Brazil
130. Breaking the Waves
131. Breathless
132. Brick
133. Brokeback Mountain
134. Broken Blossoms
135. Bubba Ho-Tep
136. Bubble
137. Buena Vista Social Club
138. Buffalo '66
139. Bukowski: Born into This
140. Bullhead
141. Burden of Dreams
142. Burn After Reading
143. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
144. By Brakhage: An Anthology
145. Byzantium
146. Cake
147. Cannibal Holocaust
148. Cannibal! The Musical
149. Capturing the Friedmans
150. Carnal Knowledge
151. Carnival of Souls
152. Casablanca
153. Catch-22
154. Catfish
155. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
156. Cecil B. Demented
157. Cemetery Man
158. Charade
159. Chasing Amy
160. Cheap Thrills
161. Chicago
162. Children of Men
163. Children of Paradise
164. Chinatown
165. Choke
166. Chungking Express
167. Cinema Paradiso
168. Citizen Kane
169. City Lights
170. CKY2K
171. Clear and Present Danger
172. Clerks
173. Closely Watched Trains
174. Closer
175. Cloud Atlas
176. Clue
177. Coffee and Cigarettes
178. Coherence
179. Collateral
180. Computer Chess
181. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
182. Contempt
183. Control Room
184. Cool Hand Luke
185. Coraline
186. Cranes Are Flying
187. Cries and Whispers
188. Cure
189. Daisies
190. Dancer in the Dark
191. Dark City
192. Dark Victory
193. Dawn of the Dead
194. Day for Night
195. Days of Heaven
196. Dead Alive
197. Dead Man
198. Dead Poets Society
199. Dead Silence
200. Dead Snow
201. Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead
202. Deadpool
203. Dear Wendy
204. Dear Zachary : A Letter to His Son About a Father
205. Death by Hanging
206. Delicatessen
207. Deliverance
208. Diabolique
209. Diary of a Chambermaid
210. Die Hard
211. DiG!
212. Dirty Harry
213. District 9
214. Divorce, Italian Style
215. Doctor Zhivago
216. Dog Day Afternoon
217. Dogma
218. Dogtooth
219. Dogville
220. Donnie Brasco
221. Donnie Darko
222. Double Indemnity
223. Down by Law
224. Downfall
225. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
226. Dracula
227. Dream Home
228. Dreams with Sharp Teeth
229. Dredd
230. Drive
231. Drunken Angel
232. Duck Soup
233. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
234. Eagle vs. Shark
235. East of Eden
236. Eastern Promises
237. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
238. Ed Wood
239. Edward Scissorhands
240. El Topo
241. Elevator to the Gallows
242. Encounters at the End of the World
243. Enemy
244. Enter the Void
245. Entrance
246. Equilibrium
247. Eraserhead
248. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
249. Europa Report
250. Even Dwarfs Started Small
251. Event Horizon
252. Everything Is Illuminated
253. Evil Dead
254. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
255. Ex Machina
256. Exit Through the Gift Shop
257. Extraordinary Tales
258. Eyes Wide Shut
259. Eyes Without a Face
260. F for Fake
261. Fantasia
262. Fantastic Mr. Fox
263. Fargo
264. Faust
265. Felt
266. Fight Club
267. Filth
268. Finding Nemo
269. Fists in the Pocket
270. Fitzcarraldo
271. Following
272. For a Few Dollars More
273. Force Majeure
274. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
275. Forrest Gump
276. Four Lions
277. Frances Ha
278. Frank
279. Frankenstein
280. Freaks
281. Friday the 13th
282. From Here to Eternity
283. Full Metal Jacket
284. Funny Games
285. Galaxy Quest
286. Gangs of New York
287. Gattaca
288. Gerry
289. Ghost in the Shell
290. Ghost World
291. Ghostbusters
292. Ghostbusters 2
293. Ginger Snaps
294. Gladiator
295. Glengarry Glen Ross
296. Go West
297. Gods and Monsters
298. Gone Baby Gone
299. Gone Girl
300. Gone with the Wind
301. Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
302. Good Night, and Good Luck
303. Good Will Hunting
304. GoodFellas
305. Grand Hotel
306. Grand Illusion
307. Grave of the Fireflies
308. Gravity
309. Green Room
310. Greenberg
311. Gremlins
312. Grizzly Man
313. Grosse Pointe Blank
314. Groundhog Day
315. Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood
316. Guinea Pig: Mermaid in a Manhole
317. Gummo
318. Half Baked
319. Halloween
320. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
321. Hangmen Also Die
322. Happiness
323. Happy Gilmore
324. Hard to Be a God
325. Harold and Maude
326. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Pt 2
327. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Pt I
328. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
329. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
330. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
331. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
332. Harvey
333. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages
334. Headhunters
335. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
336. Heat
337. Heathers
338. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
339. Hellraiser
340. Henry Fool
341. Her
342. High and Low
343. High Fidelity
344. High Noon
345. High Tension
346. High-Rise
347. Hiroshima Mon Amour
348. Holy Motors
349. Holy Mountain
350. Hot Fuzz
351. Hour of the Wolf
352. House of Sand and Fog
353. Housu
354. How to Train Your Dragon
355. Hunger
356. I Am Cuba
357. I Am Curious: Blue
358. I Am Curious: Yellow
359. I Like Killing Flies
360. I Saw the Devil
361. I Spit on Your Grave
362. Ichi the Killer
363. Ida
364. Idiocracy
365. Idle Hands
366. If...
367. In a Year with 13 Moons
368. In Bruges
369. In Good Company
370. In the Company of Men
371. In the Loop
372. Independence Day
373. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
374. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
375. Inferno
376. Inglourious Basterds
377. Inherent Vice
378. Inherit the Wind
379. Inland Empire
380. Inside
381. Inside Out
382. Insidious
383. Into the Abyss
384. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
385. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
386. Ip Man
387. Irreversible
388. It Happened One Night
389. It's a Wonderful Life
390. It's Such a Beautiful Day
391. Ivan's Childhood
392. Jackass: The Movie
393. Jacob's Ladder
394. Jarhead
395. Jason and the Argonauts
396. Jaws
397. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
398. Jesus Camp
399. Jigoku
400. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
401. Johnny Got His Gun
402. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
403. Jules and Jim
404. Julien Donkey-Boy
405. Juliet of the Spirits
406. Jurassic Park
407. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
408. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
409. Kill List
410. Killer Klowns from Outer Space
411. King Kong
412. Kingsman: The Secret Service
413. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
414. Knife in the Water
415. Kung Fu Hustle
416. Kuroneko
417. Kwaidan
418. L.A. Confidential
419. L'Age D'Or
420. L'Atalante
421. L'Avventura
422. L'Eclisse
423. La Dolce Vita
424. La Haine
425. La Jetee
426. La Notte
427. La Strada
428. Labyrinth
429. Lake Mungo
430. Lantana
431. Late Autumn
432. Late Spring
433. Laura
434. Lawrence of Arabia
435. Le Samourai
436. Legend
437. Léon: The Professional
438. Lessons of Darkness
439. Let the Right One In
440. Lilya 4-Ever
441. Little Miss Sunshine
442. Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
443. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
444. Living in Oblivion
445. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
446. Lolita
447. Lolita
448. Looper
449. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
450. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
451. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
452. Los Angeles Plays Itself
453. Lost Highway
454. Lost in La Mancha
455. Lost in Translation
456. Lumière and Company
457. M
458. Macbeth
459. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
460. Mad Max: Fury Road
461. Made
462. Magnolia
463. Malcolm X
464. Mallrats
465. Man Bites Dog
466. Man on the Moon
467. Man on Wire
468. Man with a Movie Camera
469. Manhattan
470. Maniac
471. Manufactured Landscapes
472. Martyrs
473. Marwencol
474. Mary and Max
475. Masculin Feminin
476. May
477. Maya Deren: Experimental Films
478. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
479. Mean Girls
480. Mean Streets
481. Melancholia
482. Memento
483. Metropolis
484. Michael Clayton
485. Midnight Cowboy
486. Midnight Express
487. Midnight in Paris
488. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
489. Miller's Crossing
490. Misery
491. Mister Lonely
492. Modern Times
493. Monsters, Inc.
494. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
495. Monty Python's Life of Brian
496. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
497. Moon
498. Moulin Rouge
499. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
500. Mrs. Doubtfire
501. Mulholland Dr.
502. My Neighbor Totoro
503. Mysterious Skin
504. Naked
505. National Lampoon's Animal House
506. National Lampoon's Vacation