51. WEST SIDE STORY (1997 Rank: 41)
United Artists, 1961
PRINCIPAL CAST
Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris
DIRECTORS Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
PRODUCER Robert Wise
SCREENWRITER Ernest Lehman The Romeo and Juliet tale gets resurfaced on the streets of New York with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, based on their breakthrough Broadway hit. The Sharks and the Jets mix it up for some of the most memorable dance sequences in film history.
52. THE TAXI DRIVER (1997 Rank: 47)
Columbia, 1976
PRINCIPAL CAST
Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster
DIRECTOR Martin Scorsese
PRODUCERS Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips
SCREENWRITER Paul Schrader De Niro is Travis Bickle, a New York City cab driver whose rage builds in a lonely, dark world, until his attempt to befriend and free Foster’s 12-year-old prostitute from her pimp culminates in a violent shootout. “You talkin’ to me?”
53. THE DEER HUNTER (1997 Rank: 79)
Universal, 1978
PRINCIPAL CAST
Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep
DIRECTOR Michael Cimino
PRODUCERS Michael Cimino, Michael Deeley, John Peverall, Barry Spikings
SCREENWRITERS Michael Cimino, Louis Garfinkle, Quinn K. Redeker, Deric Washburn The effects of the Vietnam war on a tightly knit community challenge the bonds of friendship and love. A game of Russian Roulette, first played in a POW camp, temporarily reunites De Niro with his estranged friend Walken in a back alley of Saigon.
54. M*A*S*H (1997 Rank: 56)
Twentieth Century-Fox, 1970
PRINCIPAL CAST
Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman
DIRECTOR Robert Altman
PRODUCER Ingo Preminger
SCREENWRITER Ring Lardner, Jr. Altman’s episodic antiwar film about a mobile medical unit during the Korean War gave American audiences a reason to laugh at the height of Vietnam. The overlapping dialogue and irreverent story thumbed its nose at all things political and pushed the boundaries of filmmaking.
55. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1997 Rank: 40)
MGM, 1959
PRINCIPAL CAST
Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
DIRECTOR Alfred Hitchcock
PRODUCER Alfred Hitchcock
SCREENWRITER Ernest Lehman Grant is the Hitchcockian everyman caught up in something he doesn’t understand as he travels from New York to Mount Rushmore in this mire of spies, counterspies and romance.
56. JAWS (1997 Rank: 48)
Universal, 1975
PRINCIPAL CAST
Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg
PRODUCERS Richard D. Zanuck, David Brown
SCREENWRITERS Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb A great white shark terrorizes the resort town of Amity. Spielberg shot some scenes at water level, making the audience feel as though they were treading water. John Williams’ pulsating score still haunts swimmers around the world.
57. ROCKY (1997 Rank: 78)
United Artists, 1976
PRINCIPAL CAST
Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Burgess Meredith, Carl Weathers
DIRECTOR John G. Avildsen
PRODUCERS Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff
SCREENWRITER Sylvester Stallone No one believes a loser like Rocky Balboa can go the distance. When world heavyweight champ Apollo Creed wants to fight an “unknown,” Rocky gets his shot in the ring and at love. “Yo, Adrian!”
58. THE GOLD RUSH (1997 Rank: 74)
United Artists, 1925
PRINCIPAL CAST Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain
DIRECTOR Charles Chaplin
PRODUCER Charles Chaplin
SCREENWRITER Charles Chaplin
In one of his most famous films, lone Alaskan prospector Chaplin attempts to stave off hunger by dining on his shoe, much to the consternation of cabin mate Swain, who imagines that Charlie is a giant chicken.
59. NASHVILLE (1997 Rank: NEW)
Paramount, 1975
PRINCIPAL CAST
Keith Carradine, Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Lily Tomlin
DIRECTOR Robert Altman
PRODUCER Robert Altman
SCREENWRITER Joan Tewkesbury A grab bag of over twenty characters from politics and country-western music collide as the United States celebrates the Bicentennial in the capital of country music. Altman casts his director’s eye on the overlapping stories, from a populist candidate to a music songbird on the verge of collapse, which ultimately end in a dramatic climax.
60. DUCK SOUP (1997 Rank: 85)
Paramount, 1933
PRINCIPAL CAST
Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo Marx
DIRECTOR Leo McCarey
PRODUCER Herman J. Mankiewicz
SCREENWRITERS Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby The Brothers Marx defend Freedonia, with their own brand of anarchy and satire in this antiwar comedy that’s a combination of Gilbert and Sullivan and vaudeville. Groucho and Harpo had perfected their “mirror gag” on stage and brought it to Depression-era audiences sorely in need of a laugh.
