IMDB Top 250 Examination

That took longer than expected. As often happens on my working weekends, I had a lot of free time and lacked the resources to do anything interesting. To pass the time, I gave myself a little project.

The IMDB Top 250 list is the best list I've been able to find of the top movies out there. I don't know the exact rating rules for it (my guess is that it's based on having at least x ratings), but it does a great job of keeping outliers off (or not on long, but more on that in a bit). Part of what works so well with the list is that it isn't a poll in the traditional sense. Star Wars fanboys don't care to try and skew the votes because it's a fluid collection, not a final tally.

That said, the focus is on quantity of voters over quality of them and that keeps this from being another boring critical darling list. Citizen Kane may be influential, but not that many people LOVE it. City of God may be the best "work of art" over the past decade, but it's not the first movie I put on to top my personal list. That's really what it is, a collection of a lot of people's top 10 lists.

Faults
I want to come right out and admit it's faults. It is super modern-skewing. Every year, if you examine it, the average year of the movies goes up. I don't even need to examine it to know that. This is a list made by the internet age. That is why over 60 of the movies have been made since 2000 and each decade has fewer movies and director variation decreases.

The other major fault is that it is more of a "guy's list". You won't be seeing The Notebook on here. At the same time, should you see The Notebook on here? I'll let you decide that for yourself, but a sweeping and (I say this with great pain) timeless epic like Titanic should be on the list. There's no two ways about that. (Granted, this is only my opinion, therein lies the inarguable strength of the list).

Smaller issue like a lack of comedies and domination of American films (though not as much as you'd at first think) I can't hold against it. Comedies are generally too polarizing and .com is an American extension so there's an assumed level of home court advantage.

Strengths
In it's favor there is a lot though. Helping to legitimize it, there is a movie represented from every years going back till 1947. This includes several movies from the 20s. Also, 39 of 84 Oscar winners for best picture are included as well as dozens more nominated films. In the top 20 there are multiple foreign films too. So, the list is more diverse than most would expect for an internet list.

Thanks for keeping with me this far. Below, I've compiled a list of movies in the list based on year. Below that, I have a bit of a breakdown.

Top 250 as of 9/24/11 by release year.

Rank    Title (Year)                        Director

101. Drive (2011)                        Refn
133. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)        Yates
222. A Separation (2011)                    Farhadi

11. Inception (2010)                        Nolan
37. Toy Story 3 (2010)                        Unkrich
113. Black Swan (2010)                        Aronofsky
124. The King's Speech (2010)                    Hooper
182. How to Train Your Dragon (2010)                Sanders    Dublois
218. The Social Network (2010)                    Fincher
238. Shutter Island (2010)                    Scorsese

95. Inglourious Basterds (2009)                    Terantino
102. Up (2009)                            Doctor    Peterson
162. District 9 (2009)                        Blomkamp
161. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)                 Campanella
192. Avatar (2009)                        J. Cameron
196. Mary and Max (2009)                    Elliot
200. Star Trek (2009)                        Abrams

9. The Dark Knight (2008)                    Nolan
52. WALL·E (2008)                        Stanton
100. Gran Torino (2008)                        Eastwood
139. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)                Boyle
183. The Wrestler (2008)                        Aronofsky
217. In Bruges (2008)                        McDonagh
223. Let the Right One In (2008)                    Lindqvist
241. Ip Man (2008)                        Yip

129. No Country for Old Men (2007)                Coen
148. Into the Wild (2007)                        Penn
154. There Will Be Blood (2007)                    Anderson
178. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)                Greengrass
191. Ratatouille (2007)                        Bird
204. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)            Schnabel

55. The Lives of Others (2006)                    Donnersmarck
56. The Departed (2006)                    Scorsese
71. The Prestige (2006)                        Nolan
85. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)                    del Toro
180. V for Vendetta (2006)                    McTeigue
234. Children of Men (2006)                    Cuaron

114. Batman Begins (2005)                    Nolan
112. Sin City (2005)                        Miller    Rodriguez

62. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)            Gondry
94. Downfall (2004)                        Hirschbiegel
126. Hotel Rwanda (2004)                    George
152. Million Dollar Baby (2004)                    Eastwood
219. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)                    Miyazaki
214. The Incredibles (2004)                    Bird
236. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)                    Terantino

10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)    Jackson
93. Oldboy (2003)                        Chan-wook
142. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)                    Terantino
172. Finding Nemo (2003)                    Stanton        Unkirch
221. Mystic River (2003)                        Eastwood
233. Pirates of the Caribbean: ...Black Pearl (2003)        Verbinski
227. Big Fish (2003)                        Burton
246. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)        Ki-duk

18. City of God (2002)                        Meirelles    Lund
30. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)        Jackson
51. The Pianist (2002)                        Polanski
228. Infernal Affairs (2002)                    Lau    Mack

17. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)    Jackson
45. Spirited Away (2001)                        Miyazaki
47. Amélie (2001)                        Jenet
144. Donnie Darko (2001)                    Kelly
245. Monsters, Inc. (2001)                    Docter
242. A Beautiful Mind (2001)                    Howard

31. Memento (2000)                        Nolan
61. Requiem for a Dream (2000)                    Aronofsky
88. Gladiator (2000)                        Scott
125. Snatch. (2000)                        Ritchie
163. Amores Perros (2000)                    Inarritu

14. Fight Club (1999)                        Fincher
21. The Matrix (1999)                        Wachowski
40. American Beauty (1999)                    Mendes
74. The Green Mile (1999)                    Darabont
136. The Sixth Sense (1999)                    Shyamalan
225. Magnolia (1999)                         Anderson

36. American History X (1998)                    Kaye
43. Saving Private Ryan (1998)                    Speilberg
134. The Big Lebowski (1998)                    Coen
164. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)        Ritchie
215. The Truman Show (1998)                    Weir
232. The Celebration (1998)                    Vinterberg

65. Life Is Beautiful (1997)                    Benigni
69. L.A. Confidential (1997)                    Hanson
104. Princess Mononoke (1997)                    Miyazaki
187. Good Will Hunting (1997)                    Van Sant

118. Fargo (1996)                        Coen
149. Trainspotting (1996)                        Boyle

24. The Usual Suspects (1995)                    Singer
27. Se7en (1995)                        Fincher
90. Braveheart (1995)                        Gibson
117. Heat (1995)                        Mann
137. Toy Story (1995)                        Lasseter
169. Casino (1995)                        Scorsese
181. Twelve Monkeys (1995)                    Gillam
250. Before Sunrise (1995)                    Linklater

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)                Darabont
5. Pulp Fiction (1994)                        Terantino
29. Forrest Gump (1994)                    Zemeckis
33. Leon: The Professional (1994)                Besson
122. The Lion King (1994)                    Allers    Minkoff
229. Ed Wood (1994)                        Burton

7. Schindler's List (1993)                    Speilberg
165. Groundhog Day (1993)                    Ramis

66. Reservoir Dogs (1992)                    Terantino
96. Unforgiven (1992)                        Eastwood

25. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)                Demme
41. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)                J. Cameron

15. Goodfellas (1990)                        Scorsese

105. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)            Speilberg

73. Cinema Paradiso (1988)                    Tornatore
115. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)                    Takahata
109. Die Hard (1988)                        McTiernan
184. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)                    Miyazaki
244. Rain Man (1988)                        Levinson

83. Full Metal Jacket (1987)                    Kubrick
195. The Princess Bride (1987)                    Reiner

60. Aliens (1986)                        J. Cameron
145. Platoon (1986)                        Stone
176. Stand by Me (1986)                        Reiner

68. Back to the Future (1985)                    Zemeckis
128. Ran (1985)                            Kurosawa

79. Amadeus (1984)                        Forman
76. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)                Leone
171. The Terminator (1984)                    J. Cameron
248. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)            Miyazaki

99. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)        Marquand
147. Scarface (1983)                        De Palma

119. Blade Runner (1982)                    Scott
173. The Thing (1982)                        Carpentar
185. Gandhi (1982)                        Attenborough
209. Fanny and Alexander (1982)                Bergman

23. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)                Speilberg
63. Das Boot (1981)                        Petersen

77. Raging Bull (1980)                        Scorsese
98. The Elephant Man (1980)                    Lynch
12. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)    Kershner
48. The Shining (1980)                        Kubrick

44. Alien (1979)                            Scott
35. Apocalypse Now (1979)                    Coppola
167. Life of Brian (1979)                        Jones
230. Manhattan (1979)                        Allen
243. Stalker (1979)                        Tarkovsky

135. The Deer Hunter (1978)                    Cimino

16. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)            Lucas
140. Annie Hall (1977)                        Allen

42. Taxi Driver (1976)                        Scorsese
188. Network (1976)                        Lumet
213. Rocky (1976)                        Avilsen

8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)            Forman
75. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)            Gillam    Jones
127. Jaws (1975)                         Speilberg
179. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)                    Lumet
211. Barry Lyndon (1975)                    Kubrick

3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)                    Coppola
70. Chinatown (1974)                        Polanski

97. The Sting (1973)                        Hill
205. The Exorcist (1973)                        Friedkin

2. The Godfather (1972)                        Coppola
239. Sleuth (1972)                        Mankiewicz

57. A Clockwork Orange (1971)                    Kubrick

240. Patton (1970)                        Schaffner

153. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)            Hill
206. The Wild Bunch (1969)                    Peckinpah

20. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)            Leone
89. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)                Kubrick
224. Rosemary's Baby (1968)                    Polanski

138. Cool Hand Luke (1967)                    Rosenberg
168. The Graduate (1967)                    Nichols

4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)            Leone
194. The Battle of Algiers (1966)                    Pontecorvo
201. Persona (1966)                        Bergman
203. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)            Nichols

121. For a Few Dollars More (1965)                Leone

34. Dr. Strangelove ... (1964)                    Kubrick

110. The Great Escape (1963)                    Sturges
190. 8½ (1963)                            Fellini

58. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)                    Lean
59. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)                    Mulligan
174. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)                Frankenheimer
237. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)            Ford

116. Yojimbo (1961)                        Kurosawa
186. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)                Kramer
198. The Hustler (1961)                        Rossen

26. Psycho (1960)                        Hitchcock
91. The Apartment (1960)                    Wilder

39. North by Northwest (1959)                    Hitchcock
80. Some Like It Hot (1959)                    Wilder
166. Ben-Hur (1959)                        Wyler
193. The 400 Blows (1959)                    Truffaut
247. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)                    Preminger

46. Vertigo (1958)                        Hitchcock
131. Touch of Evil (1958)                        Wells

6. 12 Angry Men (1957)                        Lumet
50. Paths of Glory (1957)                    Kubrick
86. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)            Lean
111. The Seventh Seal (1957)                    Bergman
123. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)                Wilder
130. Wild Strawberries (1957)                    Bergman
226. Nights of Cabiria (1957)                    Fellini

197. The Killing (1956)                        Kubrick

177. Diabolique (1955)                        Clouzot
189. The Night of the Hunter (1955)                Laughton

13. Seven Samurai (1954)                    Kurosawa
22. Rear Window (1954)                        Hitchcock
107. On the Waterfront (1954)                    Kazan
199. Dial M for Murder (1954)                    Hitchcock
202. La Strada (1954)                        Fellini

159. The Wages of Fear (1953)                    Clouzot
207. Stalag 17 (1953)                        Wilder
231. Roman Holiday (1953)                    Wyler

81. Singin' in the Rain (1952)                    Kelly    Donen
150. Ikiru (1952)                            Kurosawa
146. High Noon (1952)                        Zinnemann

141. Strangers on a Train (1951)                    Hitchcock
208. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)                Kazan

32. Sunset Blvd. (1950)                        Wilder
78. Rashomon (1950)                        Kurosawa
84. All About Eve (1950)                    Mankiewicz

67. The Third Man (1949)                    Reed
210. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)                Hamer

72. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)            Huston
87. Bicycle Thieves (1948)                    De Sica
235. Rope (1948)                        Hitchcock

28. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)                    Capra
156. Notorious (1946)                        Hitchcock
170. The Big Sleep (1946)                    Hawks
175. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)                Wyler

54. Double Indemnity (1944)                    Wilder

19. Casablanca (1942)                        Curtiz

38. Citizen Kane (1941)                        Wells
106. The Maltese Falcon (1941)                    Huston

82. The Great Dictator (1940)                    Chaplin
108. Rebecca (1940)                        Hitchcock
157. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)                    Ford
249. His Girl Friday (1940)                    Hawks

103. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)            Capra
132. The Wizard of Oz (1939)                    Fleming
155. Gone with the Wind (1939)                    Fleming

64. Modern Times (1936)                    Chaplin

143. It Happened One Night (1934)                Capra

49. City Lights (1931)                        Chaplin
53. M (1931)                            Lang

216. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)            Milestone

212. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)                Dreyer

92. Metropolis (1927)                        Lang
160. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)            Murnau

120. The General (1926)                        Keaton

151. The Gold Rush (1925)                    Chaplin

220. Sherlock Jr. (1924)                        Keaton

158. The Kid (1921)                        Chaplin

And for those out there who like a good break down:

2000-11        69
1990-9        39
1980-9        29
1970-9        24
1960-9        24
1950-9        33
1940-9        17
1930-9        8
Before 1930    7

I'd say that is pretty balanced. This being said with the understanding that newer movies need time to balance and find their place. So far, the only people who have seen Drive saw it in theaters (i.e. people who were already favorable to it). In a month, Drive will be lucky to be on the list at all, let along the top half. There is also a very lopsided number of movies that had Oscar nominations from the past couple years. As time passes, those will disappear.

Another part of this balancing period is foreign films. Because they are foreign, they take more time to make it on the list. This is obvious. As I've already said, there is a rather remarkable number of foreign entries in the list, so the native bias is no impenetrable wall.

One year I would like to highlight: 1957. There are 7 films from 6 directors. You have to go to 1994 before another year even has 6. When you calculate in time, rankings, and number, this is by far the most dominate year on the list. And the one thing all the films have in common: All the directors have multiple entries on the list. In fact, the three most dominate directors on the list are all present.
This brings up another question of about the list. What is it really ranking?

Here's a list of directors with 3 entries or more:

Hitchcock    9    '40, '46, '48, '51, '54, '54, '58, '59, '60
Kubrick        8    '56, '57, '64, '68, '71, 75, '80, '87
Wilder        6    '44, '50, '53, '57, '59, '60
Scorsese    6    '76, '80, '90, '95, '06, '10
Nolan        5    '00, '05, '06, '08, '10
Speilberg    5    '75, '81, '89, '93, '98
Kurosawa    5    '50, '52, '54, '61, '85
Chaplin        5    '21, 25, '31, '36, '40
Terantino    5    '92, '94, '03, '04, '09
Miyazaki    5    '84, '88, '97, '01, '04
Leone        4    '65, '66, '68, '84
Cameron    4    '84, '86, '91, '09
Eastwood    4    '92, '03, '04, '08
Bergman    4    '57, '57, '66, '82
Coppola    3    '72, '74, '79
Jackson        3    '01, '02, '03
Scott        3    '79, '82, '00
Fincher        3    '95, '99, '10
Capra        3    '34, '39, '46
Polanski    3    '68, '74, '02
Lumet        3    '57, '75, '76
Aronofsky    3    '00, '08, '10
Coen        3    '96, '98, '07
Wyler        3    '46, '53, '59
Fellini        3    '54, '57, '63

That is almost half (47.2%) the movies on the list.  Then through in 24 directors with 2 entries and two cases of having two directors for three movies. That's more than 2/3s (68.8%) of the list favoring multiple showcases from a director.

That leaves 87 movies with a single entry director. And, as you move up the list, you see fewer and fewer of them. The highest single director movies are Star Wars and Empire, so those virtually count together. After that, City of God (also foreign) is at 18.

And, if you look at the trending on the list, there is greater director variance as it gets more recent.
What conclusions do I draw from this?

Mostly, I see that the list is very much reflective of the directors people see as great. "Paths of Glory" and "The Killing" are great movies, I'm sure, but would they be rated so highly without Kubrick's name? Perhaps. Hard to say, but you would have a hard time convincing me that, say, 9 of Hitchcock's movies are really in the top 250. I don't dislike Hitchcock, but that's steep, don't you think.

Then there's the curious case of Christopher Nolan. Great director with polarized appeal now that he has taken his talents to films with 100 million dollar budgets. He should be on this list, no question. There is an obvious fanboy pitfall in this list in that all 5 movies of his are in the top half of the list and dominantly so. Here's some scope for you. The Prestige is only 2 behind L.A. Confidential and 6 ahead of Raging Bull. Does it really belong there? No, but time will balance that. It more is of a show of Nolan support on the list than anything else.

In the end, the IMDB top 250 is a great list to go off to be a topical but well-rounded movie watcher. It has a greater quality than a list of highest grossing or dvd sales list would. And, it is more accessible (with a greater focus of entertainment over influence) than any AFI list. It is representative of the history of films without being to bogged down by equity for all time periods. Sure, there is heavy favoritism on modern movies. We live in modern times. That's forgivable.

I think it is safe to say I have seen a lot of movies (more than the average person my age without a doubt). Despite myself, I haven't even seen half the movies on this list (121/250). But, I've seen the top 12 (an expiration in Instant Queue away from the top 19) and 37 of the top 50. In other words, I'm doing a good job getting through these and I see the value in most of the movies I haven't yet seen. One of these days I'll hit the 90% mark on the list (one of my major movie goals). Until then, I'm enjoying the ride and trying to keep up.

What's the point of this examination? I figure if you are still reading this, you have a lot of free time or want to see where I am going with this. Sorry. This isn't a term paper, so no grand conclusion here. This is just my response to a story I saw a while back where someone broke down the Top 250, comparing how it evolved in a year's time. The determination struck me as "I't ok for now, but it is growing modern at an alarming rate". I wholeheartedly disagree. The list is never complete so one can never only look at where it is now. The specific ranks are not as important as what makes the list. No one can make a strong case for Life of Brian being 167 and The Graduate below it at 168. Sure, Harry Potter 8 at 133 can't last and Black Swan will take a dive from 113 eventually.

What one should pull from this is the feel for the movies. The list is representative of the evolution of film making. Starting with the early successes of Chaplin and Keaton in the silent age, the early epics from Gone with the Wind to Ben-Hur, the early experimentation of Bergman and Fellini, the great war films and Westerns of the 50s and 60s, the rise and decline of the New Hollywood and it's more into the age of blockbusters with films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Jaws in the same year representing each, the rebirth of the indie film in the 2000s, and evolutions within a genre ranging from Spartacus to Gladiator, The Bridge on the River Kwai to Saving Private Ryan, and even Star Wars to Star Trek.

...Wow. I need some better hobbies.