Top 100 American Films

As today is the Fourth of July I thought it was a perfect time to post a list of my top 100 (or so) American films. The list is in alphabetical order and personal favourites are marked with an asterisk (*). Happy Birthday America! 

 All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955)
 Apache Drums (Hugo Fregonese, 1951)
*Apocalypto (Mel Gibson, 2006)
 Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
 Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992)
 Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992)

*The Bells of St. Mary's (Leo McCarey, 1945)

*The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)
 The Breaking Point (Michael Curtiz, 1950)

*Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1919)

 The 'Burbs (Joe Dante, 1989)

*Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946)

 Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma, 1993)
*Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962)
*Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
 The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928)
 Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
 City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
 Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh, 1949)
*Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)

*Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen, 1997)

 Escape from Alcatraz (Don Siegel, 1979)
 Fantasia (James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe, Norman Ferguson, David D. Hand, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield & Ben Sharpsteen, 1940)
 Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)
 The Fountainhead (King Vidor, 1949)
*Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
*Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)

 Fury at Showdown (Gerd Oswald, 1957)

 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947)
 Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008)
*The Gun Hawk (Edward Ludwig, 1963)
*The Hanging Tree (Delmer Daves, 1959)
*Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)
*He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sjöström, 1924)
 The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)
 Hell's Hinges (Charles Swickard, 1916)
 High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)
 Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth, 1987)
*I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
*In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
 The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)

*Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (D.W. Griffith, 1916)

*Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
 Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1932) 
*Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson, 1945)

 Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)
 Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)
 The Long Riders (Walter Hill, 1980)
 Louisiana Story (Robert J. Flaherty, 1948)
 The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
*Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)
*Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958)
 Metropolitan (Whit Stillman, 1990)
 Moonrise (Frank Borzage, 1948)
*Ms .45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)
*My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
 The Naked Dawn (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1955)
*Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922)
 A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)

*The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)

*The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
 Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)
 One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)
*Open Range (Kevin Costner, 2003)
*Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

*The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004)

 A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
 Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)
 Predator (John McTiernan, 1987)
 Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
 The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949)
*Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962)
*Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
*Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956)
 Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)
 The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg, 1941)
 Somewhere in Time (Jeannot Szwarc, 1980)
*The Song of Bernadette (Henry King, 1943)

 Southern Comfort (Walter Hill, 1981)
*Spontaneous Combustion (Tobe Hooper, 1989)
 Stranger at My Door (William Witney, 1956)

*Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)

*Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (F.W. Murnau, 1931)
 Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)
 Tennessee's Partner (Allan Dwan, 1955)
 That Cold Day in the Park (Robert Altman, 1969)
 The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby, 1951)
 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)
*True Heart Susie (D.W. Griffith, 1919)
*The Unchanging Sea (D.W. Griffith, 1910)
*The Uninvited (Lewis Allen, 1944)
*The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927)

*Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920)

 White Zombie (Victor Halperin, 1932)
*Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, 1955)
 Wild River (Elia Kazan, 1960)
*Wise Blood (Jhon Huston, 1979)
 The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir, 1947)
 The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (Stuart Gordon, 1998)
 X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman, 1963)
 You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, 1937)

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