Empire's Top 500
Complete with the list's original descriptions.
DISCLAIMER: I do not claim that any of the descriptions are my own work, they belong to their original author(s).
DISCLAIMER: I do not claim that any of the descriptions are my own work, they belong to their original author(s).
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500 titles
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMarlon BrandoAl PacinoJames CaanThe aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.A wedding. A horse’s head. A gun in a restaurant toilet. Sicily. Another wedding. A car bomb. A toll-booth. Orange peel. A baptism. A closed door.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordKaren AllenPaul FreemanIn 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.Of the Spielbergs, Jaws and Schindler’s List traditionally score more highly, but it appears this year’s final jaunt for the man in the hat has re-whetted appetites for the pre-gopher Indy. Quite right, too; no adventure movie is quite so efficiently entertaining as Steve ’n’ George’s B-inspired blockbuster.
- DirectorIrvin KershnerStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherAfter the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.The modern movie cliché is that a sequel should be ‘darker’. Blame The Empire Strikes Back, a crowdpleaser that dared to end with a devastating double-whammy (“I am your father”; “I love you”/ “I know”). Yet don’t forget it’s also the funniest entry, basing its finest action sequences on a spaceship that keeps breaking down...
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonOver the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.A perennial readers’ fave, Shawshank has clearly maintained its resounding emotional throb. It’s a rare one, alright: a bloke’s weepie. And also the movie that spawned a thousand Morgan Freeman voiceovers.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsRoy ScheiderRobert ShawRichard DreyfussWhen a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.Ah, the big one. Jaws’ influence still bites deep (consider that ‘Jaws on a...’ pitch gag), its melding of populist shriek-baiting with finely nuanced, character-driven drama ensuring popularity with punter, filmmaker and critic alike.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroRay LiottaJoe PesciThe story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.Where The Godfather positioned itself in the dark corridors of Mafiosi management, GoodFellas rolls around in blood and sawdust on the shopfloor.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.A movie so lauded and debated it has a ‘making of’ story as well-known as the film itself. Brando and Coppola are surely cinema’s ultimate teaming.
- DirectorStanley DonenGene KellyStarsGene KellyDonald O'ConnorDebbie ReynoldsA silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.Appropriately, the highest scoring Hollywood musical is a musical about Hollywood — an admirably self-mocking one at that.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.Perfectly encapsulating the absolute-zero cool of the ‘Indiewood’ scene. QT has yet to better its excessive appeal.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsBrad PittEdward NortonMeat LoafAn insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.It could have just been pre-millennial angst, but Fincher’s grimly ironic epic of maladjusted masculinity shows no sign of fading.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroCathy MoriartyJoe PesciThe life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.Bruising, beautiful and a never-bettered showcase for De Niro’s once-legendary physical immersion into a role. We’re not just talking about the weight gain: look into those eyes and try telling us they’re anyone else’s but Jake LaMotta’s...
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsJack LemmonShirley MacLaineFred MacMurrayA Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.One of the fascinating quirks of the list is the higher placing for this darker-veined comedy than the bewigged flamboyance of so-called ‘funniest film of all time’ Some Like It Hot. To argue between them rather misses the point (both are excellent and must be seen) — what stands out is how The Apartment has grown in stature as one of the diminutive Hungarian émigré’s finest films. On the surface, it’s the straight downtrodden-boy-meets-indifferent-girl formula, but Wilder, who skipped Berlin as the Nazis took power, came possessed of a more savage view of the world’s workings. Jack Lemmon’s hypochondriac Baxter is a friendless corporate climber; the object of his affection, Shirley MacLaine, an unstable lift girl having an affair with the CEO. Their meandering path to romance twists between notions of prostitution (corporate and real) and even suicide. Meet-cute it is not. Yet, somehow, the film remains optimistic about their chances.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJack NicholsonFaye DunawayJohn HustonA private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.Fiendish, perplexing noir with a killer, bitter twist. Somehow both a product of the Movie Brat ’70s and also strangely timeless, feeling like it belongs in the genre’s heyday.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsHenry FondaCharles BronsonClaudia CardinaleA mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.The greatest Western of them all, according to this poll. And a worthy victor it is too, relocating Leone’s counter-cultural Spaghetti vision to the old-school grandeur of the West.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsChristian BaleHeath LedgerAaron EckhartWhen the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.Ledger’s performance is monumental. Best comic-book movie ever? Certainly the most talked-about...
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.Brilliant, befuddling: a sci-why movie as intelligent as it is pristine. Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick conjure an endlessly debatable epic. An effects landmark, too: no HAL, no Star Wars.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroJodie FosterCybill ShepherdA mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.Played — no, lived — by De Niro, Travis Bickle remains a frighteningly identifiable outsider icon stalking Scorsese’s slick, sick NYC.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsHumphrey BogartIngrid BergmanPaul HenreidA cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.Bogey and Bergman’s wartime dalliance somehow emerged as one of Hollywood’s most loved and misquoted movies — aided considerably by Claude Rains’ wonderfully cynical humour.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsAl PacinoRobert De NiroRobert DuvallThe early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.Even cash-ins were high quality during the ’70s. Coppola reluctantly returned, yet delivered a damning picture in which Pacino’s mobster gains the world but loses his soul.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.Drenched in neon and endless rain, Scott’s striking private-eye picture endures due to the script’s struggle with what makes us human. Can we stop arguing whether Deckard is a replicant now?
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenAlida ValliPulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.Unjustly overshadowed by Orson Welles’ showboating, Reed constructs a claustrophobic, thoughtful thriller from Graham Greene’s trawl through occupied territory and moral murk.
- DirectorGeorge LucasStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherLuke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.It’s a surprise to see the saga-starter that arguably birthed modern blockbusters outside the Top 10. Eclipsed by Empire, then — though we shouldn’t forget how Lucas bravely battled naysayers to create a galaxy far, far away.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.Unlike the poodle-perm or your dad, this ’80s classic has aged remarkably well. Weird science and teenage dreams combine in a wish-fulfilment sci-fi lent heart by the fantastic Mr. Michael J. Fox.
- DirectorPeter JacksonStarsElijah WoodIan McKellenOrlando BloomA meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.The fear was tangible at the premiere for Fellowship, as Rings-readers worried if Jackson was up to it. ’Course he was. And how. A dashing, hugely skilful adaptation.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsClint EastwoodEli WallachLee Van CleefA bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.The West is brutal, war is hell and Clint Eastwood is an icon. Laconic and perhaps plain irritated by clashes with his wild, genius director, the TV star came of age as The Man With No Name.