This Is a Blog: Explained List: My AFI Top 100


Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Explained List: My AFI Top 100

In May 2018, the podcast “Unspooled” suggested taking the AFI Top 100 and making your own list. I can’t resist making a list, so I started with the ones I had seen at the time. The original AFI list came out in 1997, and I made it the center of my film education. In 2007, the AFI updated the list, removing and replacing 23 films in the process. 

On October 3, 2024, six years after I originally posted this list, I finally watched all 100 of the 2007 list.

On August 27, 2025, roughly 28 years after the list came out, I watched the last of the films removed from the original 1997 list.

So here it is, my personal ranking of all 123 movies that have ever been included in the AFI Top 100. The ones left off the 2007 list are asterisked. I’m sure I’ll continue adjusting this list the more I think about it, but here it is.

1) THE GODFATHER PART II
2) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
3) CITIZEN KANE
4) THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
5) THE GODFATHER
6) 12 ANGRY MEN
7) MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
8) THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
9) DR. STRANGELOVE
10) The Third Man*
11) THE APARTMENT
12) Fargo*
13) THE GENERAL
14) STAR WARS
15) DUCK SOUP
16) NORTH BY NORTHWEST
17) DOUBLE INDEMNITY
18) LOTR: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
19) CHINATOWN
20) THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
---------------------------------------------------------------
21) THE WIZARD OF OZ
22) REAR WINDOW
23) A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
24) BRINGING UP BABY
25) CASABLANCA
26) GOODFELLAS
27) ON THE WATERFRONT
28) PSYCHO
29) THE SOUND OF MUSIC
30) IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
31) TAXI DRIVER
32) THE GRADUATE
33) DO THE RIGHT THING
34) PULP FICTION
35) MODERN TIMES
36) BONNIE AND CLYDE
37) SCHINDLER'S LIST
38) Rebel Without a Cause*
39) THE MALTESE FALCON
40) RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
---------------------------------------------------------------
41) BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID
42) Wuthering Heights*
43) SPARTACUS
44) The Manchurian Candidate*
45) HIGH NOON
46) CITY LIGHTS
47) ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
48) NETWORK
49) THE AFRICAN QUEEN
50) Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner*
51) JAWS
52) Stagecoach*
53) RAGING BULL
54) VERTIGO
55) 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
56) TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
57) WEST SIDE STORY
58) All Quiet on the Western Front*
59) ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
60) UNFORGIVEN
---------------------------------------------------------------
61) Doctor Zhivago*
62) SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
63) THE GRAPES OF WRATH
64) CABARET
65) SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
66) TOY STORY
67) Mutiny on the Bounty*
68) E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
69) THE GOLD RUSH
70) SUNSET BOULEVARD
71) Patton*
72) A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
73) M*A*S*H
74) SOME LIKE IT HOT
75) WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
76) TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
77) FORREST GUMP
78) Giant*
79) ANNIE HALL
80) ROCKY
---------------------------------------------------------------
81) Close Encounters of the Third Kind*
82) APOCALYPSE NOW
83) BEN-HUR
84) YANKEE DOODLE DANDY
85) SWING TIME
86) A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
87) THE FRENCH CONNECTION
88) My Fair Lady*
89) IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
90) Fantasia*
91) TOOTSIE
92) ALL ABOUT EVE
93) PLATOON
94) AMERICAN GRAFFITI
95) TITANIC
96) THE WILD BUNCH
97) KING KONG
98) THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
99) SUNRISE
100) Frankenstein*
---------------------------------------------------------------
101) EASY RIDER
102) THE SIXTH SENSE
103) Amadeus*
104) An American in Paris*
105) SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS
106) SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN DWARFS
107) A Place in the Sun*
108) THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
109) IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
110) BLADE RUNNER

111) SHANE
112) From Here to Eternity*
113) SOPHIE’S CHOICE
114) THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
115) NASHVILLE
116) GONE WITH THE WIND
117) THE SEARCHERS
118) MIDNIGHT COWBOY
119) THE DEER HUNTER
120) The Jazz Singer*

121) INTOLERANCE
122) Dances With Wolves*
123) The Birth of a Nation*

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