Watching the Top 100 Highest-Rated Movies: #71-80

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 #81-90.

#80. His Girl Friday (1940)

Directed by Howard Hawks
Screenplay by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht (uncredited)
Based on The Front Page (1928 play) by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur
Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell

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

This movie was all about fast-talkers being clever and conniving. I liked it!

#79. Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Screenplay by Donn Pearce, Frank R. Pierson
Based on Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce
Starring Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon, Robert Drivas, Lou Antonio, Strother Martin, Jo Van Fleet

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

"What we've got here is failure to communicate."
-The Captain, Cool Hand Luke

I think I enjoyed reminiscing about that Family Guy parody more than I enjoyed the movie.

#78. Persona (1966)

Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Written by Ingmar Bergman
Starring Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann

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

I have no idea what I just watched. Although, interestingly, I think that Persona has the longest Wikipedia page of all the movies that we've watched so far.

And now I know where David Lynch got his inspiration...

#77. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Directed by John Ford
Screenplay by Nunnally Johnson
Based on The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Shirley Mills, John Qualen, Eddie Quillan

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

This was a great movie, and despite being 80 years old, it still felt relevant in 2020. I've never read the book, but I've heard the movie made some dramatic changes to the ending to make it more positive, which I am 100% on board with. Every movie could end positively and I would never complain.

#76. Annie Hall (1977)

Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Janet Margolin, Shelley Duvall, Christopher Walken, Colleen Dewhurst

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

"... and I thought of that old joke. This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, 'Doc, my brother's crazy. He thinks he's a chicken.' The doctor says, 'Why don't you turn him in?' The guy says, 'I would, but I need the eggs.'

Well, I guess that's, now, how I feel about relationships. They're totally irrational, crazy and absurd. But I guess we keep going through it because most of us need the eggs."

-Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) in Anne Hall (1977)

I've seen this movie many times, and I like it a little more every time I watch it. I was introduced to it because I was a huge fan of 500 Days of Summer (2009) and was told Anne Hall was the quintessential movie of this type to check out. (That being said, I still prefer 500 Days...)

#75. It Happened One Night (1934)

Directed by Frank Capra
Screenplay by Robert Riskin
Based on Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams
Starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert

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

The first movie (and only one of three ever) to win all big five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing.

"I saw an island in the Pacific once. I've never been able to forget it. That's where I'd like to take her. She'd have to be the sort of a girl who'd jump in the surf with me and love it as much as I did. Nights when you and the moon and the water all become one. You feel you're part of something big and marvelous. That's the only place to live. The stars are so close over your head you feel you could reach up and stir them around."

- Peter Warne (Clark Gable) in It Happened One Night (1934)

#74. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Directed by Roman Polanski
Screenplay by Roman Polanski
Based on Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
Starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy

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

This movie was dark and surprisingly good. I appreciate that it was genuinely creepy without relying on superficial things like jump scares.

I now keep dropping casual mentions of tannis root (like "Oh, does this dish have tannis root in it? It's delicious." or "Hey, I'm running to the store to get some tannis root, need anything else?") but nobody seems to get it.

Oh, and a good example of what not to do: I suggested that we watch this movie literally a few days before my wife's due date. Way to go, me! 🏆

#73. The Battle of Algiers (Italian: La Battaglia di Algeria) (1966)

Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
Written by Gillo Pontecorvo, Franco Solinas
Starring Jean Martin, Saadi Yacef, Brahim Haggiag, Tommaso Neri

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

This was a tough one to sit through, but it did give me an opportunity to learn about the Algerian War between the FLN and the French government in North Africa in the 1950s-1960s, which I previously knew next to nothing about.

#72. Nashville (1975)

Directed by Robert Altman
Written by Joan Tewkesbury
Starring Ned Beatty, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Karen Black, Geraldine Chaplin, Henry Gibson, Michael Murphy, Lily Tomlin

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

I am mainly left with questions, like "What did we just watch?" and "Why is this critically acclaimed?". But Jeff Goldblum's non-speaking character really tied it all together, as shown in the photo above.

#71. Alien (1979)

Directed by Ridley Scott
Screenplay by Dan O'Bannon
Starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto

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

Pioneering science fiction, but Ridley could have taken a bit easier with the strobe lights. I really need to go back and watch Prometheus again because I think I under-appreciated how well it dovetailed with the original material.

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If you liked this, you should check out the next post in the series where we watch movies #61-70.

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.