200 Greatest Films - By Decade

200 Greatest Films
(of the 20th Century)

By Decade


This compiled list below combines Filmsite's 100 Greatest Films list and Another 100 Greatest Films. [Note: There's another similar list for the 300 Greatest Films.] The films are ordered chronologically and alphabetically by decade. Selection Criteria for these films is described fully.

Each review or write-up is a highly-comprehensive and detailed examination of the themes, dialogue, plot, characters, and historical background. These unique reviews of 20th century classic films form the centerpiece for Filmsite's creation in 1996.

Each of the 8 Parts shown as links in the boxes below (for each set of 100 films) includes a short synopsis of each film selection.

[Note: For purposes of comparison, see Other Greatest Films Lists including AFI's 100 Greatest American Films.]





200 Greatest Films - By Decade
200 Greatest Films
(of the 20th Century)
by Decade

(chronologically ordered)

The films marked with an asterik (*) are from the 100 Greatest Films list

The Pre-20's:

* The Birth Of A Nation (1915)
* Intolerance (1916)
Broken Blossoms (1919)

The 1920's:

* Greed (1924)
The Big Parade (1925)
* The Gold Rush (1925)
* The General (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Metropolis (1927)
* Sunrise (1927)
* The Crowd (1928)

The 1930's:

* All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
Little Caesar (1930)
* City Lights (1931)
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Public Enemy (1931)
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)
Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932)
* Trouble in Paradise (1932)
* Duck Soup (1933)
* 42nd Street (1933)
* King Kong (1933)
Queen Christina (1933)
She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
* It Happened One Night (1934)
It's a Gift (1934) (tie)
The Thin Man (1934)
* Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
* A Night At The Opera (1935)
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935)
* Top Hat (1935)
Camille (1936)
Dodsworth (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
* Modern Times (1936)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Swing Time (1936)
The Awful Truth (1937)
* Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
* The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
* Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Jezebel (1938)
* Gone With The Wind (1939)
* Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
* Ninotchka (1939)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
* Stagecoach (1939)
* The Wizard of Oz (1939)
* Wuthering Heights (1939)

The 1940's:

The Bank Dick (1940) (tie)
* Fantasia (1940)
* The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
* His Girl Friday (1940)
* The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Pinocchio (1940)
* Rebecca (1940)
* Citizen Kane (1941)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
* The Lady Eve (1941)
* The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
* Casablanca (1942)
Cat People (1942)
* The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Now, Voyager (1942)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
* Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
* Double Indemnity (1944)
Laura (1944)
* Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
* The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
* The Big Sleep (1946)
Brief Encounter (1946)
* It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
The Killers (1946)
* My Darling Clementine (1946)
* Notorious (1946)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
* Out Of The Past (1947)
* Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
* Red River (1948)
The Red Shoes (1948)
* The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Adam's Rib (1949)
The Heiress (1949)
* The Third Man (1949)
White Heat (1949)

 

The 1950's:

* All About Eve (1950)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Gun Crazy (1950)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
* Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Winchester '73 (1950)
* The African Queen (1951)
* An American In Paris (1951)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
* A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
* High Noon (1952)
* The Quiet Man (1952)
* Singin' In The Rain (1952)
The Big Heat (1953)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
* Roman Holiday (1953)
* Shane (1953)
* On The Waterfront (1954)
* Rear Window (1954)
* A Star Is Born (1954)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
* The Night of the Hunter (1955)
* Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
* The Searchers (1956)
Written on the Wind (1956)
* The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
* Paths of Glory (1957)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
12 Angry Men (1957)
* Touch Of Evil (1958)
* Vertigo (1958)
* Ben-Hur (1959)
* North By Northwest (1959)
* Some Like It Hot (1959)

The 1960's:

The Apartment (1960)
* Psycho (1960)
The Hustler (1961)
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
* West Side Story (1961)
* Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
* To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
* Dr. Strangelove or: (1964)
My Fair Lady (1964)
The Sound of Music (1965)
* Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
* Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
* The Graduate (1967)
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
* 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
* Easy Rider (1969)
* Midnight Cowboy (1969)
* The Wild Bunch (1969)

The 1970's:

Five Easy Pieces (1970)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Cabaret (1972)
* The Godfather (1972) (tie)
American Graffiti (1973)
Badlands (1973)
Don't Look Now (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Mean Streets (1973)
* Chinatown (1974)
The Conversation (1974)
* The Godfather Part II (1974) (tie)
* Jaws (1975)
* Nashville (1975)
* One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Network (1976)
* Taxi Driver (1976)
* Annie Hall (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
* Star Wars (1977) (tie)
Days of Heaven (1978)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Alien (1979)
* Apocalypse Now (1979)
Manhattan (1979)

The 1980's:

* The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (tie)
* Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
* Blade Runner (1982)
* E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Tootsie (1982)
The Terminator (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Platoon (1986)

The 1990's:

GoodFellas (1990)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Unforgiven (1992)
* Schindler's List (1993)
* Pulp Fiction (1994)
* The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Fargo (1996)


100 Greatest Films
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

Another 100 Greatest Films
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

Third 100 Greatest Films
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

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