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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:

1000 Movies

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