10 years ago a friend suggested making a list, selecting a favorite movie from every calendar year. It's a fun idea, and one that produces a cool result, but it's not easy to do, as you need to have a way of tracking every one you've ever seen. This is when I started religiously using the IMDB Watchlist, first trying to remember everything up to that point in my life and then, to this day, adding each new film I see. Today my Watchlist is >1500 titles (1436 'feature films'), probably about twice the number I had back then. I recently did the exercise again, partially because I've seen lots more movies and was curious and partially because it seemed like a great blog post.
This was made the same way as last time. Go into the big, full Watchlist, sort by release date (which doesn't always align with the US release) and pick one for each year. I created a separate list for this on the site. Again, like my top 10 favorite movies list, this is what I like the most, not what I necessarily think is the best film of the year. The idea is not to overthink it and to be honest with yourself. Of course it can be hard to remember every movie, especially something you haven't seen in years or a decade+, but I went with my gut and kept moving. There were times where I wanted to rewatch something based on its reputation (e.g. 1947's Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which I didn't like but it's been forever) but this works best as a snapshot. Obviously recency bias will have an impact, when debating two movies from the same year the one fresher in mind will have an advantage. Very early on (like the 1920s and 30s) I frequently only had one or two choices and it was pretty easy. For the remainder of the 20th century it generally got more challenging the farther I got in. I'd say the mid 80s through the 90s was the hardest but there were some difficult years throughout. On the other hand many of the years, including most of them post-2000, even if I'd seen like 20 movies, were incredibly easy. Lord of the Rings? Indiana Jones and Star Wars, the original trilogies? Done, even if there were other tremendous options.
That's more than enough explaining. For comparison's sake here's the original from 2013. It included 79 titles/years. I think I did a Facebook post (is that what they were called?) but it doesn't appear to exist anymore. If you want it here's a link to the 2023 list on IMDB as well, but I'm including them all below. I'm not linking the films because it'd be a lot of work and then a mess to click on them anyway. With the name and year you should be able to find them if desired. My only notation is a star on the years where I've only seen the one, and the links I did add are if I've written about them before.
Here goes. A favorite for each year:
1902* - A Trip to the Moon
1921* - The Kid
1922* - Nosferatu
1923* - Safety Last
1924* - Sherlock Jr
1925 - The Gold Rush
1926* - The General -> 5 can't miss
1928* - The Passion of Joan of Arc
1930* - All Quiet on the Western Front
1931 - M -> 5 can't miss
1932 - The Mummy
1933 - Duck Soup
1934* - It Happened One Night
1935 - The Bride of Frankenstein
1936* - Modern Times
1937* - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1938* - The Adventures of Robin Hood
1939 - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1940 - The Philadelphia Story
1941 - The Maltese Falcon
1942 - Casablanca
1944* - Double Indemnity
1945* - Christmas in Connecticut
1946 - It's a Wonderful Life -> Top 10
1947 - It Happened on Fifth Avenue
1948 - The Three Musketeers
1949 - The Third Man -> 5 can't miss
1950 - All About Eve
1951 - Alice in Wonderland
1952 - Ikiru
1953 - Shane
1954 - Seven Samurai
1955 - The Ladykillers
1956 - The Searchers -> my post
1957 - 12 Angry Men
1958 - Vertigo
1959 - Ben-Hur
1960 - Psycho
1961 - Yojimbo -> my post
1962 - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
1963 - From Russia with Love
1964 - Goldfinger
1965 - For a Few Dollars More
1966 - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly -> my post
1967 - In the Heat of the Night
1968 - Once Upon a Time in the West -> Top 10
1969 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1970 - Patton
1971 - Dirty Harry
1972 - The Godfather
1973 - American Graffiti
1974 - Chinatown
1975 - Jaws
1976 - Rocky
1977 - Star Wars (aka 'Ep. IV - A New Hope')
1978 - Halloween
1979 - Alien
1980 - Star Wars: Ep. V - The Empire Strikes Back
1982 - The Thing
1983 - Star Wars: Ep. VI - Return of the Jedi
1984 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1985 - Witness
1986 - Aliens
1988 - My Neighbor Totoro -> Top 10 / Studio Ghibli
1989 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1990 - The Hunt for Red October
1991 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
1992 - Porco Rosso -> Studio Ghibli
1993 - Jurassic Park
1994 - The Legend of the Drunken Master
1995 - Braveheart
1996 - Mission: Impossible
1997 - L.A. Confidential
1998 - Rush Hour -> my post
1999 - The Matrix
2000 - Gladiator -> Ridley Scott
2001 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring -> Top 10
2002 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004 - Spider-Man 2
2005 - Batman Begins
2006 - The Prestige
2007 - Hot Fuzz
2008 - The Dark Knight -> Top 10
2010 - Inception
2011 - Hugo
2012 - Skyfall
2013 - Man of Steel
2014 - Interstellar
2015 - Mad Max: Fury Road -> my post
2016 - Captain America: Civil War
2017 - Dunkirk
2018 - Avengers: Infinity War
2019 - Avengers: Endgame
2020 - Hamilton -> my post (I'm counting it)
2021 - Dune -> my post
2022 - The Batman
2023 - Oppenheimer
Hopefully it's clear I'm not trying to be cute or clever or contrarian. So much here is/was incredibly popular with mass audiences and I'm not too good for that. There were certainly some extremely tough choices. Below I'm only including when I really went back and forth, it could've gone either way.
1931 - M vs City Lights
1952 - Ikiru vs Singin' in the Rain
1963 - From Russia with Love vs High and Low
1975 - Jaws vs Monty Python and the Holy Grail
1987 - Princess Bride vs Untouchables
1991 - Terminator 2 vs Silence of the Lambs
2002 - Two Towers vs Spider-Man
2012 - Skyfall vs Avengers
I couldn't resist breaking down this data a little bit. To me the most notable detail is the list includes 101 titles, that means I've seen films from 101 different years! Since 1920 I'm only missing 1927, 1929 and 1943, and I swear I haven't watched movies specifically to fill a hole. I might now, however, and there are some easy choices: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Metropolis (1927) and the Ox-Bow Incident (1943).
It's also interesting to see some longer term trends. Film as a concept basically came onto the scene with the beginning of the 20th century. The 1920s and 30s were all about slapstick, physical comedy by legends like Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd and the Marx Brothers, plus monster movies. The 1940s were the start of film noir and were impacted so much by the war. The 1950s and 60s were chock full of westerns and epics. The 1970s were tense and gritty. George Lucas was dominating the box office, with Harrison Ford, by and through the 1980s. The 1990s were straight fun. Since the turn of the century it's been all about superheroes and Christopher Nolan, for me at least.
Finally I looked at repeat directors and top billed stars.
Directors (by appearances):
7 - Christopher Nolan
5 - Steven Spielberg
3 - Charlie Chaplin, Frank Capra, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, Peter Jackson, Anthony/Joe Russo
2 - Buster Keaton, Michael Curtiz, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, George Lucas, John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Hayao Miyazaki
Top Billed Star (by appearances):
4 - James Stewart, Harrison Ford
3 - Chaplin, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Mark Hamill, Elijah Wood, Christian Bale
2 - Keaton, Boris Karloff, Humphrey Bogart, Toshirô Mifune, Henry Fonda, Sigourney Weaver, Jackie Chan, Robert Downey Jr.
What do you think? I had a lot of fun doing this and will probably want to do it again before another 10 years pass by. I'd love to see someone else's list too. In the meantime, back to the movies.
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