The 10 Best Movies Ever Made

My list ranges from Musicals to Action, to Drama. This is just my view. I realize that movie critics usually select Citizen Kane as the best movie ever made. For me, Kane was no great shakes. I watch 350 different movies per year on Video, DVD, and Cable TV, and at least 100 first run movies in the theater. I have to wait 10 years between viewings to enjoy a movie a second time. Except for the movies listed below. I can watch these films over and over. These are my favorites with reviews taken from http://www.hollywood.com/ and http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

1. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)
2. North by Northwest (1959)
3. Unforgiven (1992)
4. The Sound of Music (1965)
5. Chicago (2002)
6. 55 Days at Peking (1963)
7. Zulu (1964)
8. L. A. Confidential (1997)
9. Topsy Turvey (1999)
10. How the West Was Won (1962)

1.The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948) Drifters Fred C Dobbs and Curtin share a cheap flophouse and meet Howard, a seemingly crazy old man who regales them with stories about prospecting for gold. Dobbs and Curtin cobble together what cash they can get a hold of, and along with Howard, plan a prospecting expedition. Dobbs promises that anything they dig up will be split three ways, but Howard doesn't believe them. As the gold is mined the men become increasingly distrustful, and soon turn against one other.

2. North by Northwest (1959) is a suspense thriller that finds Cary Grant in the role of Roger Thornhill, a Manhattan advertising executive mistaken for a spy. Considered by many to be the prototypical pure action movie (creating the template for later James Bond and Indiana Jones films), the film is a cross-country roller-coaster ride with Alfred Hitchcock at the helm. The film is duly famous for several classic and indelible scenes, including the desert biplane encounter and the Mt. Rushmore climax.

3. Unforgiven (1992) One of Eastwood's finest outings to date. Set in Wyoming in the 1880s, William Munny is a former murderer who, transformed by the love of a good woman, gave up a life of killing to raise a family and try his hand at pig farming. With his wife now dead and his farm a failure, Munny is lured back into his old ways by the "Schofield Kid" an aspiring young gunfighter who brings the older man word of a bounty being offered in the town of Big Whiskey. Munny refuses the young man's offer of partnership but later reconsiders, teaming up with his old sidekick Ned Logan and setting off to join Schofield. The journey will bring him up against the sheriff of Big Whiskey, "Little Bill" Daggett.

4. The Sound of Music (1965) Shot in Salzburg against the majestic Bavarian Alps, THE SOUND OF MUSIC is considered one of the greatest screen musicals ever made. Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, the film, based on a real family and their true events, tells the story of a young postulate, Maria, who, after proving too high-spirited for the Mother Abess and other nuns, is sent off to work as a governess to seven unruly children. The Von Trapp family is run, in military style, by the seemingly cold-hearted Captain Von Trapp, a lonely widowed naval officer. Seeing how badly he and his children need companionship, he proposes to the Baroness Schraeder a calculating, mutual friend of beloved family friend Max Detweiler It is the baroness who soon realizes that it's Maria--with her warmth and love for the children--the captain really loves. It is nearly bliss for the newly formed family who loves to sing together--except for the cloud looming over their beloved Austrian horizon: Hitler is ascending to power, forcing Von Trapp to decide whether to join the Nazi party--which he loathes--or force his family to leave their home forever.

5. Chicago (2002) In the 1920s, two women on Chicago's famed murderess row use scandal, lies, and a little singing and dancing to get what they want--a moment in the spotlight. One of the two best Musicals ever made!

6. 55 Days at Peking (1963) Major Matt Lewis is a tough-as-nails U.S. Marine in 1900 China. China is fragmented into feudal territories, controlled by warlords and concessions owned and operated by "foreign devils" the Chinese term for the great powers, such as Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and, oh yes, America, who are exploiting China for their gain. Major Lewis commands the garrison of the American legation in Peking. His handful of Marines must protect the legation when the Chinese revolt in what is now called the Boxer Rebellion. The Europeans band together, notably including, in a typically good performance, as the British ambassador. The Chinese number about 130,000, while the Europeans number in the hundreds or perhaps a thousand in all. Still, with modern weapons they continually repulse the waves of Boxers. When all is said and done, they have been embattled for 55 days before they defeated the Boxers, once and for all, thus the title.

7. Zulu (1964) A stirring, inspiring film about ordinary British soldiers, caught off-guard and forced to fight for their lives. On the January 22nd 1879 the British Army suffers one of it's worst defeats when Zulu forces massacre 1,500 of its troops. A short time after the main battle a Zulu force numbering in excess of 4000 warriors advances on a British supply dump guarded by 139 Welsh infantrymen. The film concentrates on this bloody 12-hour battle.

8. L. A. Confidential (1997) Combine some L.A. crime history with a good mystery, great characters, and some good solid acting, and what you have is L.A. Confidential. This is a moody, fast paced, film noir detective story that surpasses just about anything Raymond Chandler ever did! Not even one minute of your time is wasted! You get more bang for your movie buck than with any other movie I've seen in the last year!

Every element of this film was thought out and planned with one end in mind, and it works better than anyone could have expected. When a vacuum is created by the conviction of mobster Mickey Cohen, L.A. Confidential begins, introducing us first to a series of gangland murders, then to the three men who take completely separate paths to finding the answers. But even if you knew who done it, it wouldn't matter. Getting there is all of the fun!

9. Topsy Turvey (1999) William Schwenck Gilbert is the librettist, writing the words. Arthur Sullivan is the composer, writing the music. Gilbert is the very model of a 19th-century British gentleman, an overly proper married man certain that he knows best. For nearly a decade, Gilbert and Sullivan's collaborations have delighted the English people. Their popular comic operas have recouped handsomely for the successful Savoy Theatre... But, in 1884, as a London heat wave cuts into the theater trade, their latest work, "Princess Ida," receives lukewarm press. Sullivan rejects Gilbert's next idea as "topsy-turvy" and unbelievable, and although Gilbert tries to accommodate him, they cannot agree. Mired at a creative impasse, Gilbert and Sullivan can barely converse. Then, Gilbert's wife, Lucy "Kitty" Gilbert, drags him along to a Japanese exhibition--exposure to the very different culture begins inspiration to embark on the production of "The Mikado."

10. How the West Was Won (1962) Hollywood’s most celebrated luminaries--behind the camera as well as in front of it--combined talents to present this epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family. The film, divided into three chapters--"The Civil War" (directed by John Ford), "The Railroad" (directed by George Marshall), and "The River, the Plains, the Outlaws" (directed by Henry Hathaway)--tells the story of the Prescott’s, a spirited group of easterners who make a declaration to migrate west. When their parents are lost in a tragic river accident, Eve (Carroll Baker) and Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) go their separate ways. Eve remains on the land that took her parents, settling down with the well-intentioned Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), while Lilith becomes a singer who is courted by the conniving Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck) when he learns that she has inherited a fortune in California. As time passes and the Civil War takes the life of Linus, the newest generation of Prescott offspring struggles with even greater danger and loss, in the form of fierce Indians as well as family archrivals. Top-notch production values and an endless string of solid performances have earned HOW THE WEST WAS WON the well deserved label as one of Hollywood’s most revered classics.