Watching the Top 100 Highest-Rated Movies: #61-70

This post is part of an ongoing series where my wife and I watch the top 100 highest-rated movies of all time. You can learn more about the challenge itself, and you can see all of the movies we've watched under the tag #top-100-highest-rated-movies. You can also check out the previous post in the series where we watched movies #71-80.

#70. Notorious (1946)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Ben Hecht
Starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin

Did we like it? 🤷‍♂️👍
Would we watch it again? 🤷‍♂️👎

Because of its initial streaming unavailability, we ended up watching Notorious, which is #70 on The List, after all four of the other Hitchcock movies which were higher-rated than it: #56: Strangers on a Train (1951), #50: North by Northwest (1959), #21: Psycho (1960), and #14: Vertigo (1958).

Compared to other movies of its time, I still really appreciated some of the novel filmmaking approaches Hitchcock used (especially in the camerawork used during the "Alice has a hangover" scene early in the film). These little touches blended in seamlessly with the movie, but compared to other movies made in the 1940s, it really stands out.

Overall, we liked it, but the story and delivery felt a bit bland, and we probably wouldn't watch this again in the future.

#69. Back to the Future (1985)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover

Did we like it? 👍
Would we watch it again? 👍

I haven't seen this since I was a kid. It was fantastic and a blast to watch, and lots of clever little Easter eggs.

Also, is it just me, or is this the basis for Rick and Morty? (Update: 🤔)

#68. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Directed by John Huston
Screenplay by John Huston
Based on The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven
Starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett

Did we like it? 🤷‍♂️👎
Would we watch it again? ‍👎

I think this was the first time I've seen a Humphrey Bogart film.

The quality of the streaming version on HBO Max was spectacular. It must have been a fairly recent remaster from good source material; it was by far one of the best looking old movies we've seen so far.

#67. Raging Bull (1980)

Directed by Martin Scorsese
Screenplay by Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin
Based on Raging Bull: My Story by Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter, Peter Savage
Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci

Did we like it? 🤷‍♂️👎
Would we watch it again? 👎

Scorsese, De Niro, Pesci. We watched The Irishman (2019) not too long ago, and it was cool seeing these same folks working together across 39 years.

#66. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Directed by Jonathan Demme
Screenplay by Ted Tally
Based on The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
Starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine

Did we like it? 👍
Would we watch it again? 👍

I've watched this a many times, and I think it gets a little better every time.

Key takeaways:

1. Anthony Hopkins is great.
2. Howard Shore is great.
3. I finally realized that Jack Donaghy's dramatic Kenneth Ellen Parcell from Stone Mountain, Georgia speech in 30 Rock is a direct parody of a speech that Hannibal Lecter gives in this movie. I don't know how I never connected those two things until just now.

#65. Amadeus (1984)

Directed by Miloš Forman
Screenplay by Peter Shaffer
Based on Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy Dotrice, Christine Ebersole, Jeffrey Jones, Charles Kay

Did we like it? Evan: 👍, Sarah: 🤷‍♂️👍
Would we watch it again? Evan: 👍, Sarah: 👎

I really enjoyed this one. It took us two nights to finish (because it's long, and we have a young baby), but I genuinely looked forward to finishing it on the second night. I'm now excited to go on a Wikipedia binge on Mozart.

Also, because everything relates back to 30 Rock, the best TV show ever made: I finally understand the parody they were doing in the season 2 episode 13 called Succession. "You go too fast!"

#64. The Hustler (1961)

Directed by Robert Rossen
Screenplay by Sidney Carroll, Robert Rossen
Based on The Hustler by Walter Tevis
Starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott

Did we like it? 👍
Would we watch it again? 🤷‍♂️👎

There's a character named "Minnesota Fats", and that's all you need to know.

#63. The Wild Bunch (1969)

Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Screenplay by Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah
Starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sánchez, Ben Johnson, Emilio Fernández, Strother Martin, L. Q. Jones

Did we like it? 🤷‍♂️👎
Would we watch it again? 👎

There was a lot of good filmmaking in here, but I think it could have been one hour shorter.

#62: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

#61. Paths of Glory (1957)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson
Based on Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb
Starring Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Wayne Morris, Richard Anderson

Did we like it? 👍
Would we watch it again? 🤷‍♂️👎

Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas. It was really well made and felt modern in its filmmaking and sound design.

This may be me projecting, but there were really great some (middle) management parables in here...

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If you liked this, you should check out the next post in the series where we watch movies #51-60.

Want to see more posts about our challenge to watch the top 100 highest-rated movies of all time? Check out the tag #top-100-highest-rated-movies, and you should also sign up for my newsletter (it's free!) to get automatically notified when I make new posts in the series.