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20 - THE WIZARD OF OZ (Victor Fleming, 1939)
The central scandal of The Wizard of Oz, the primal conceit, and the reason that it remains so resonant and so heart-breaking, is that the movie’s beloved mantra, “There’s no place like home”, is revealed to be a lie. For Judy Garland’s Dorothy leaves the grim grey drabness of Kansas for the musical multicoloured pleasure of Oz and there forges relationships, defeats her nemesis, and becomes a woman. Her return to Kansas in the film’s finale may have us weeping with delight, but in it lies the sad recognition that this return to childhood and to the myth of home is perhaps the greatest fantasy of all. Kevin Maher
19 - THE EXORCIST (William Friedkin, 1973)
Friedkin’s controversial masterpiece about the exorcism of a 13-year-old girl is the most toxic and disturbing horror movie yet made. Never mind the pea-soup vomit, Linda Blair’s revolving head, or the famous refrigerated bedroom set. It is the sickening feeling of invasion, and the ceding of psychological control to a malevolent other, that freaked out an entire generation. There were ambulances outside cinemas in Dublin when the film opened, and spiritually there still are. Paul Schrader, the director who filmed Dominion, the prequel to The Exorcist, put it thus: “The metaphor is extraordinary: God and the Devil in the same room arguing over the body of a 13-year-old girl. It doesn’t come much purer than that.” James Christopher
18 - DON'T LOOK NOW (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
It is impossible to pin down exactly why Roeg’s masterpiece is so effective. Every viewing of this seminal ghost story, adapted from a Daphne du Maurier novella, yields some new and troubling thought. After their daughter drowns, John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) take a working trip to Venice in an attempt to glue back their marriage. There’s an extraordinary conflation of contrary images and emotions: the drab beauty of a wintry Venice; the inexplicable sense of loss; the intense and lonely sex; and the dribble of blood across a cracked photographic slide. One of the most haunting and enigmatic riddles in the history of cinema. James Christopher
17 - ANNIE HALL (Woody Allen, 1977)
Seven movies in, and Woody Allen finally hits his stride in a witty, intellectual and hugely cinematic comedy of near perfection. The multiple Oscar-winning Annie Hall revealed the tragic romantic in Allen, detailing the demise of his fictional relationship with the titular kooky soul-mate, played by Diane Keaton (then Allen’s real-life partner). It also showed Allen the auteur at his most audacious, boldly intercutting the romantic action with direct addresses to camera, animated sequences, split screen, comedy subtitles and a game cameo from Marshall McLuhan, who helpfully silences a pontificating Fellini fan in a downtown cinema queue — Allen then turns to camera and shrugs, “Boy, if only life were like this!” If only indeed. Kevin Maher
16 - METROPOLIS (Fritz Lang, 1927)
For its scale and ambition alone, this silent film has earned its place on any list of classic movies. Lang’s dystopian science-fiction picture employed more than 37,000 extras, took two years to shoot and nearly bankrupted its production company. The tragedy is that, despite meticulous restoration, modern audiences will never get to see the film as Lang intended as a quarter of it is lost for ever. The design of the film is exceptional. The towering art deco skyscrapers — inspired, it is said, by Lang’s first view of Manhattan — became the blueprint for futuristic cityscapes for decades to come. Wendy Ide
15 - APOCALYPSE NOW (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
The making of this astonishing movie — recorded in the documentary Hearts of Darkness — was almost as insane as the war itself. The result is the greatest war movie yet made. Martin Sheen’s unlisted mission “to terminate with extreme prejudice” a mythic American colonel (Marlon Brando), who has turned psycho in Cambodia, owes as much to Dante and the Doors as it does to Joseph Conrad. The film is defined by its surreal set-pieces, most memorably the dawn helicopter attack on a Vietcong village so Robert Duvall’s nutty Texan can go surfing. The terrific power of the scene lies in its absurd contradictions, and the fact that Sheen can barely believe what’s happening in front of his eyes. James Christopher
14 - THE JUNGLE BOOK (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967)
Disney’s classic cartoon uses the character names, but otherwise bears little resemblance to the 1894 collection of Rudyard Kipling stories that inspired it. Kipling’s widow was reportedly aghast at the pronunciation of Mowgli used in the film; her late husband had always pronounced it as Mau-glee. The star is undoubtedly Baloo the bear, voiced by Phil Harris, a big-band leader turned comedian whose voice would appear in Disney’s later films The Aristocats and Robin Hood. The song The Bare Necessities was nominated for an Oscar, but lost out to Talk to the Animals from Doctor Dolittle. Nigel Kendall
13 - 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
The greatest piece of quasimystical Art House sci-fi pop philosophy, 2001 is Kubrick’s Promethean attempt to solve the riddle of man’s place in the cosmos. Naturally, given the ambitious remit, this involves an epic, oblique journey from pre-Neanderthal crazy apes to a modern moon-base to the outer orbit of Jupiter and beyond, to a trippy multicoloured wormhole sequence that ends in a space-bedroom at the end of the universe. And all along the movie asks such questions as: “What is the nature of the black slab? Is man primarily destructive? Will technology set us free?” That Kubrick avoids answering these questions explicitly is part of the movie’s provocative project and, ultimately, its genius. Kevin Maher
12 - ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979)
It’s impossible to exaggerate the influence Ridley Scott’s movie has had on the science fiction genre. Dan O’Bannon’s script, about an industrial mining ship that lands on a blasted planet, is the most spare and perfect tin-can horror ever written. The crew discover the ghostly skeletal shell of a spaceship, and a few weird pods, but think little of it until a screaming sausage erupts out of John Hurt’s chest during supper. The downbeat pleasure of the film is the palpable lack of love or sophistication among this blue-collar crew. Their view of space travel is just another grubby means of getting paid. James Christopher
11 - THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Robert Wise, 1965)
If it’s true that, according to legendary essayist Walter Pater, “All art aspires towards the condition of music” then it follows that all movies aspire towards the condition of The Sound of Music. All emotional movies, that is. For despite the hipster cynicism that sees the film as extreme kitsch, this transparent tale of a guileless governess (Julie Andrews) who melts the heart of a martinet widower (Christopher Plummer), still commands a guttural draw. Whether it’s Plummer’s withdrawn Captain Von Trapp unexpectedly serenading his seven children with the title track, or his moist-eyed performance of Edelweiss in the finale, this is a film of simple yet big ideas — chiefly the need for forgiveness and the transformative power of, well, love. Kevin Maher
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Best from this set are timeless classics "The Wizard of Oz" and the till now underrated "Don't Look Now".
People forget Fritz Lang made great Hollywood films too - You Only Live Once, Fury to name but two.
2001 and Annie Hall are over-pretentious - "Sparatacus" and "Love and Death" are far better.
Jim Coats, Renfrew, Scotland
I've always hated The Wizard of Oz, but that's my bias. Alien and The Exorcist are great, but don't deserve to be in the top twenty. The Jungle Book doesn't deserve to be here period. But I do adore the spectacular 2001: A Space Odyssey and Apocalypse Now.
Sam Bailey, Florida,
I would swop ET (1) with Chinatown (4), but otherwise there is not much to quibble with here.
Arnold Ward, Weybridge, Surrey, UK
One sign of a great movie is one's inability to turn the channel when it appears on the screen. By that standard, The Sound of Music meets the test even, when not in letterbox or HDTV, let alone the big screen.
ken, LA, USA
The Jungle book, are you kidding me? I think that's the worst classic Disney has ever filmed and certainly doesn't deserve #14
Anna, Parma, Italy
I was amazed and happy to see 2001 and especially Alien rated so high.
Someone knows something about movies.
hp, austin, usa
OMG! Somebody else besides me thinks Roeg's "Don't Look Now" is one of the best of the best! James Christopher-EXCELLENT choice! The haunting scenes of Venice, my favorite city, and the sheer scariness of the movie (LOVE the great supernatural thrillers!) truly does make it a masterpiece!
SR, Washington DC, USA
P.S. James Christopher, I agree with all your scary movie choices, but WHERE IS THE OMEN ON THIS LIST? The original first "Omen" that is, with G. Peck and Lee Remick and the scary Billy Whitelaw! Argubably one of the creepiest movies of all time, it surely belongs in the top 20!
SR, Washington DC, USA
the idea of a list called "top hundred films" is just absurd, the title shoul be something like '100 classics' . but what tops that in absurdity is the fact that they put 'the sound of music' in this list and ranked it as the 11th!! unbelievable.
villie zgenski, london,
Where's The Sixth Sense??!
Isaac Arias, New York, USA
Why The Jungle Book? I'm not saying its not a good film, but the summary doesn't really justify its inclusion in a top 100 list.
BT, Draper, USA
Alien better and more influential than 2001???!!! Should it not logically be the other way around? Alien wouldn't even have been made if Kubrick hadn't legitimised the sci-fi genre 11 years before.
And as for Dan O'Bannon's script - it was re-written and improvised over extensively by Scott.
TG, Christchurch , New Zealand