The best 50 US movies of substance
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1.
2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968)
Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest. (149 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
2.
The Tree of Life
(2011)
The story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents' conflicting teachings. (139 mins.)
Director: Terrence Malick
3.
Citizen Kane
(1941)
Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance. (119 mins.)
Director: Orson Welles
4.
The Thin Red Line
(1998)
Terrence Malick's adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War. (170 mins.)
Director: Terrence Malick
5.
Heat
(1995)
A group of professional bank robbers start to feel the heat from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist. (170 mins.)
Director: Michael Mann
6.
Runaway Train
(1985)
Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a train with no brakes and nobody driving. (111 mins.)
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
7.
The Conversation
(1974)
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered. (113 mins.)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
8.
Duel
(1971 TV Movie)
A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer. (90 mins.)
Director: Steven Spielberg
9.
Once Upon a Time in America
(1984)
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life. (229 mins.)
Director: Sergio Leone
10.
Days of Heaven
(1978)
A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune. (94 mins.)
Director: Terrence Malick
11.
Koyaanisqatsi
(1982 Documentary)
A collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on nature, humanity and the relationship between them. (86 mins.)
Director: Godfrey Reggio
Stars: Lou Dobbs, Ted Koppel
12.
Shy People
(1987)
New York journalist visits her distant cousin for the first time to write an article about her hard life in the bayous of Louisiana. Journalist's wild drug addicted daughter just adds to tensions between two families' cultures. (118 mins.)
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
13.
Limbo
(1999)
In an economically devastated Alaskan town, a fisherman with a troublesome past dates a woman whose young daughter does not approve of him. When he witnesses the murder of his shady brother, he, the woman and the kid run to the wilderness. (126 mins.)
Director: John Sayles
14.
The Kid
(1921)
The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy. (68 mins.)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
15.
Castle Keep
(1969)
During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his isolated castle hoping they will defend it against the advancing Germans. (105 mins.)
Director: Sydney Pollack
16.
F for Fake
(1973 Documentary)
A documentary about fraud and fakery. (89 mins.)
Director: Orson Welles
17.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
(1966)
A bitter, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use a young couple to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other. (131 mins.)
Director: Mike Nichols
18.
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here
(1969)
In 1909, when young Paiute Indian Willie Boy returns to his California reservation to be with Lola, whose father disapproves of him, a killing in self defense takes place, triggering a massive man hunt for Willie. (98 mins.)
Director: Abraham Polonsky
19.
The Petrified Forest
(1936)
A waitress, a hobo and a bank robber get mixed up at a lonely diner in the desert. (82 mins.)
Director: Archie L. Mayo
20.
The Night of the Iguana
(1964)
A defrocked Episcopal clergyman leads a bus-load of middle-aged Baptist women on a tour of the Mexican coast and comes to terms with the failure haunting his life. (125 mins.)
Director: John Huston
21.
Night Moves
(1975)
Los Angeles private detective Harry Moseby is hired by a client to find her runaway teenage daughter and he stumbles upon a case of murder and artifact smuggling. (100 mins.)
Director: Arthur Penn
22.
The Swimmer
(1968)
Neddy Merrill has been away for most of the Summer. He reappears at a friends pool. As they talk, someone... (95 mins.)
Director: Frank Perry
23.
Freaks
(1932)
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance. (64 mins.)
Director: Tod Browning
24.
Monte Walsh
(1970)
An aging cowboy realizes that the West he knew and loved will soon be no more--and that there will be no room for him, either. (106 mins.)
Director: William A. Fraker
25.
Titus
(1999)
Titus returns victorious from war, only to plant the seeds of future turmoil for himself and his family. (162 mins.)
Director: Julie Taymor
26.
The Godfather: Part II
(1974)
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate. (202 mins.)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
27.
As Good as It Gets
(1997)
A single mother/waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is assaulted in a robbery. (139 mins.)
Director: James L. Brooks
28.
Nine Lives
(2005)
Captives of the very relationships that define and sustain them, nine women resiliently meet the travails and disappointments of life. (115 mins.)
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
29.
Scarecrow
(1973)
Max, an ex-con drifter with a penchant for brawling is amused by Lion, a homeless ex-sailor, and they partner up as they head east together. (112 mins.)
Director: Jerry Schatzberg
30.
An Unmarried Woman
(1978)
A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman. (124 mins.)
Director: Paul Mazursky
31.
Giant
(1956)
Sprawling epic covering the life of a Texas cattle rancher and his family and associates. (201 mins.)
Director: George Stevens
32.
Harry and Tonto
(1974)
When his apartment building is torn down, a retired lifelong New Yorker goes on a cross country odyssey with his beloved cat Tonto. (115 mins.)
Director: Paul Mazursky
33.
Paris, Texas
(1984)
Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family. (147 mins.)
Director: Wim Wenders
34.
To Kill a Mockingbird
(1962)
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his children against prejudice. (129 mins.)
Director: Robert Mulligan
35.
The Reivers
(1969)
In turn-of-the-century Mississippi, an 11-year-old boy comes of age as two mischievous adult friends talk him into sneaking the family car out for a trip to Memphis and a series of adventures. (112 mins.)
Director: Mark Rydell
36.
Michael Clayton
(2007)
A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit. (119 mins.)
Director: Tony Gilroy
37.
The New World
(2005)
The story of the English exploration of Virginia, and of the changing world and loves of Pocahontas. (135 mins.)
Director: Terrence Malick
38.
To the Wonder
(2012)
After falling in love in Paris, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Their church's Spanish-born pastor struggles with his faith, while Neil encounters a woman from his childhood. (112 mins.)
Director: Terrence Malick
39.
Paper Moon
(1973)
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership. (102 mins.)
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
40.
How the West Was Won
(1962)
A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century - including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads. (164 mins.)
Director: John Ford, Henry Hathaway
41.
Point Blank
(1967)
After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker single-mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from him. (92 mins.)
Director: John Boorman
42.
Cheyenne Autumn
(1964)
When the government agency fails to deliver even the meager supplies due by treaty to the proud Cheyenne tribe in their barren desert reserve... (154 mins.)
Director: John Ford
43.
Cool Hand Luke
(1967)
A man refuses to conform to life in a rural prison. (126 mins.)
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
44.
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
(1993)
Two lonely, retired septuagenarians, an unkempt, hard-drinking Irish sea captain, and a fussy, well-mannered Cuban barber form an uneasy friendship. (123 mins.)
Director: Randa Haines
45.
The Usual Suspects
(1995)
A sole survivor tells of the twisty events leading up to a horrific gun battle on a boat, which begin when five criminals meet at a seemingly random police lineup. (106 mins.)
Director: Bryan Singer
46.
Fargo
(1996)
Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson. (98 mins.)
Director: Joel Coen
47.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(1975)
A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients. (133 mins.)
Director: Milos Forman
48.
Paths of Glory
(1957)
After refusing to attack an enemy position, a general accuses the soldiers of cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them. (88 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
49.
Edge of the City
(1957)
Two New York City longshoremen Axel Nordmann, an Army deserter and Tommy Tyler, an easy-going freight car loader whose growing friendship is threatened by Charles Malik, a notably repellent punk. (85 mins.)
Director: Martin Ritt
50.
Knight of Cups
(2015)
A writer indulging in all that Los Angeles and Las Vegas has to offer undertakes a search for love and self via a series of adventures with six different women. (118 mins.)
Director: Terrence Malick
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