This is a list of the top 250 films as voted for by visitors to the IMDB, and it’s one of my sad ambitions in life to watch all of them, although since I stopped working night shifts I don’t really get to watch that many films any more.
My script pre-dates the IMDB’s own method of tracking which films in the Top 250 I have seen by several years, but hasn’t been developed in a while. I have a PHP script running daily which parses the top 250 page on IMDB and stores the details in a MySQL database. The top 250 changes all the time so I have to keep track of many films which are no longer listed, just in case they re-appear.
So far I have seen 121 of the top 250 films. The films that I have seen are displayed in bold text.
- The Shawshank Redemption
- The Godfather
- The Godfather: Part II
- Pulp Fiction
- Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il
- 12 Angry Men
- Schindler's List
- The Dark Knight
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
- Fight Club
- Inception
- Shichinin no samurai
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- Goodfellas
- Star Wars
- Cidade de Deus
- Casablanca
- The Matrix
- C'era una volta il West
- Rear Window
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- The Usual Suspects
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Se7en
- Psycho
- Forrest Gump
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- It's a Wonderful Life
- Léon
- Memento
- Sunset Blvd.
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Apocalypse Now
- American History X
- North by Northwest
- Citizen Kane
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day
- Saving Private Ryan
- American Beauty
- Toy Story 3
- Taxi Driver
- Alien
- City Lights
- Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
- Vertigo
- The Shining
- Paths of Glory
- M
- Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le
- The Pianist
- The Departed
- WALL·E
- Double Indemnity
- Leben der Anderen, Das
- Modern Times
- A Clockwork Orange
- Aliens
- Lawrence of Arabia
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Vita è bella, La
- Back to the Future
- Boot, Das
- Requiem for a Dream
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Reservoir Dogs
- The Third Man
- The Prestige
- A Separation
- L.A. Confidential
- Chinatown
- The Green Mile
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- Nuovo cinema Paradiso
- The Great Dictator
- Gladiator
- Once Upon a Time in America
- Rashômon
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Full Metal Jacket
- Amadeus
- Some Like It Hot
- Ladri di biciclette
- Raging Bull
- Singin' in the Rain
- All About Eve
- Braveheart
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Metropolis
- Oldboy
- Laberinto del Fauno, El
- The Apartment
- Unforgiven
- Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
- The Sting
- Untergang, Der
- Mononoke-hime
- Inglourious Basterds
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- The Elephant Man
- On the Waterfront
- Up
- The Lion King
- Die Hard
- Sjunde inseglet, Det
- Hotaru no haka
- The Maltese Falcon
- Gran Torino
- The Great Escape
- Rebecca
- Yojimbo
- Batman Begins
- Per qualche dollaro in più
- Witness for the Prosecution
- The General
- Heat
- Snatch.
- Fargo
- Sin City
- Blade Runner
- Ran
- Smultronstället
- The Artist
- Touch of Evil
- Toy Story
- Hotel Rwanda
- Black Swan
- Jaws
- No Country for Old Men
- The Big Lebowski
- The King's Speech
- The Deer Hunter
- Cool Hand Luke
- The Wizard of Oz
- The Sixth Sense
- It Happened One Night
- Ikiru
- Strangers on a Train
- Scarface
- Annie Hall
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1
- Warrior
- High Noon
- Platoon
- The Kid
- Salaire de la peur, Le
- The Gold Rush
- Trainspotting
- Into the Wild
- Donnie Darko
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Notorious
- The Grapes of Wrath
- El secreto de sus ojos
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
- Gone with the Wind
- Million Dollar Baby
- The Thing
- There Will Be Blood
- Casino
- Amores perros
- Life of Brian
- Groundhog Day
- Ben-Hur
- Diaboliques, Les
- Finding Nemo
- Tonari no Totoro
- The Big Sleep
- The Best Years of Our Lives
- The Terminator
- How to Train Your Dragon
- The Graduate
- V for Vendetta
- Stand by Me
- Twelve Monkeys
- Dog Day Afternoon
- The Bourne Ultimatum
- Good Will Hunting
- The Manchurian Candidate
- District 9
- Judgment at Nuremberg
- Network
- Gandhi
- The Night of the Hunter
- Quatre cents coups, Les
- Mary and Max
- Battaglia di Algeri, La
- 8½
- Persona
- Dial M for Murder
- The Princess Bride
- The Killing
- Hugo
- The Wrestler
- Ratatouille
- The Hustler
- Strada, La
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- The Passion of Joan of Arc
- Fanny och Alexander
- The Exorcist
- Hauru no ugoku shiro
- Scaphandre et le papillon, Le
- Seppuku
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- The Wild Bunch
- Sherlock Jr.
- Stalag 17
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Star Trek
- Barry Lyndon
- Rocky
- Kind Hearts and Coronets
- All Quiet on the Western Front
- Avatar
- Notti di Cabiria, Le
- The Truman Show
- Drive
- Mou gaan dou
- Festen
- A Beautiful Mind
- Roman Holiday
- Rosemary's Baby
- Låt den rätte komma in
- Mystic River
- Rope
- Ip Man
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- Elite Squad 2
- Tokyo Story
- Magnolia
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- Manhattan
- Big Fish
- The Incredibles
- In Bruges
- Stalker
- Beauty and the Beast
- Trois couleurs: Rouge
- Monsters, Inc.
- Ed Wood
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
- Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
- Shutter Island