300 Greatest Films - By Decade
300 Greatest Films
(of the 20th Century)

By Decade


This compiled list below combines three lists from Filmsite: the 100 Greatest Films list, the Another 100 Greatest Films list, and The Third 100 Greatest Films list. The films are ordered chronologically and alphabetically by decade. Selection Criteria for these films is described fully.

[Note: For purposes of comparison, see Other Greatest Films Lists including AFI's 100 Greatest American Films.]




300 Greatest Films - By Decade

300 Greatest Films
(of the 20th Century)
by Decade

(chronologically ordered)


Asterisk (*) indicates Top 100 film
Regular Type indicates 101-200 film
Italics indicates 201-300 film


The Pre-20's:

* The Birth Of A Nation (1915)
* Intolerance (1916)
Broken Blossoms (1919)

The 1920's:

The Kid (1921)
* Greed (1924)
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

The Big Parade (1925)
The Freshman (1925)
* The Gold Rush (1925)
* The General (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Metropolis (1927)
* Sunrise (1927)
* The Crowd (1928)
The Wind (1928)

The 1930's:

* All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
Little Caesar (1930)
* City Lights (1931)
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Public Enemy (1931)
Freaks (1932)
Grand Hotel (1932)

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)
Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932)
* Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Dinner at Eight (1933)
* Duck Soup (1933)
Footlight Parade (1933)
* 42nd Street (1933)
* King Kong (1933)
Queen Christina (1933)
She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
* It Happened One Night (1934)
It's a Gift (1934) (tie)
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
The Thin Man (1934)
* Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
* A Night At The Opera (1935)
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935)
* Top Hat (1935)
Camille (1936)
Dodsworth (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
* Modern Times (1936)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Swing Time (1936)
The Awful Truth (1937)
* Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Way Out West (1937)
* The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
* Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Jezebel (1938)
Dark Victory (1939)
* Gone With The Wind (1939)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
* Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
* Ninotchka (1939)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
* Stagecoach (1939)
* The Wizard of Oz (1939)
* Wuthering Heights (1939)

The 1940's:

The Bank Dick (1940) (tie)
* Fantasia (1940)
* The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Great Dictator (1940)
* His Girl Friday (1940)
The Letter (1940)
* The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Pinocchio (1940)
* Rebecca (1940)
* Citizen Kane (1941)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
* The Lady Eve (1941)
* The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Bambi (1942)
* Casablanca (1942)
Cat People (1942)
Kings Row (1942)
* The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Now, Voyager (1942)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
* Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
* Double Indemnity (1944)
Gaslight (1944)
Laura (1944)
* Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
* The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
* The Big Sleep (1946)
Brief Encounter (1946)
* It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
The Killers (1946)
* My Darling Clementine (1946)
* Notorious (1946)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Black Narcissus (1947)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
* Out Of The Past (1947)
Key Largo (1948)
The Lady From Shanghai (1948)
* Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)
* Red River (1948)
The Red Shoes (1948)
* The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Adam's Rib (1949)
All the King's Men (1949)
The Heiress (1949)
* The Third Man (1949)
White Heat (1949)

The 1950's:

* All About Eve (1950)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Gun Crazy (1950)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
* Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Winchester '73 (1950)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
* The African Queen (1951)
* An American In Paris (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
* A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
The Thing (From Another World) (1951)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
* High Noon (1952)
* The Quiet Man (1952)
* Singin' In The Rain (1952)
The Band Wagon (1953)
The Big Heat (1953)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
* Roman Holiday (1953)
* Shane (1953)
Dial M For Murder (1954)
* On The Waterfront (1954)
* Rear Window (1954)
* A Star Is Born (1954)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
East of Eden (1955)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Marty (1955)
* The Night of the Hunter (1955)
* Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

The 1950's: (continued)

Baby Doll (1956)
Bus Stop (1956)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Giant (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Killing (1956)

* The Searchers (1956)
Written on the Wind (1956)
* The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Jailhouse Rock (1957)
* Paths of Glory (1957)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Witness For the Prosecution (1957)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
* Touch Of Evil (1958)
* Vertigo (1958)
* Ben-Hur (1959)
* North By Northwest (1959)
* Some Like It Hot (1959)

The 1960's:

The Apartment (1960)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
* Psycho (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
The Hustler (1961)
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
* West Side Story (1961)
* Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
* To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)
The Birds (1963)
* Dr. Strangelove or: (1964)
Goldfinger (1964)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Repulsion (1965)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Blow-Up (1966)
A Man For All Seasons (1966)
* Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
* Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
* The Graduate (1967)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
The Lion in Winter (1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
The Producers (1968)

Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
* 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
* Easy Rider (1969)
* Midnight Cowboy (1969)
* The Wild Bunch (1969)

The 1970's:

Five Easy Pieces (1970)
M*A*S*H (1970)
Patton (1970)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Cabaret (1972)
Deliverance (1972)
* The Godfather (1972) (tie)
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
American Graffiti (1973)
Badlands (1973)
Don't Look Now (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Mean Streets (1973)
Sleeper (1973)
* Chinatown (1974)
The Conversation (1974)
* The Godfather Part II (1974) (tie)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
* Jaws (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Nashville (1975)
* One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Network (1976)
Rocky (1976)
* Taxi Driver (1976)
* Annie Hall (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
* Star Wars (1977) (tie)
Days of Heaven (1978)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Halloween (1978)
Alien (1979)
* Apocalypse Now (1979)
Being There (1979)
Manhattan (1979)

The 1980's:

Airplane! (1980)

* The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (tie)
* Raging Bull (1980)
The Shining (1980)
Atlantic City (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
* Blade Runner (1982)
* E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
The King of Comedy (1982)
Poltergeist (1982)
The Road Warrior (1982) (aka Mad Max 2 (1981))
Tootsie (1982)
Amadeus (1984)
The Terminator (1984)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Platoon (1986)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Bull Durham (1988)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Field of Dreams (1989)
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

The 1990's:

GoodFellas (1990)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Thelma & Louise (1991)

Unforgiven (1992)
Groundhog Day (1993)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

* Schindler's List (1993)
* Pulp Fiction (1994)
* The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Babe (1995)
Toy Story (1995)
(tie) with Toy Story 2 (1999)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Fargo (1996)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Titanic (1997)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)

American Beauty (1999)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
The Matrix (1999)


Each of the 8 parts below includes a short synopsis of each film in the grouping, with links to longer reviews for each film.

100 Greatest Films
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

Another 100 Greatest Films
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

Third 100 Greatest Films
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

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