10. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
45 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT Mel Brooks | 106 mins | Comedy Gene Wilder | Medeline Kahn | Marty Feldman | Peter Boyle
“Mel Brooks should be awarded the Greatest Improvement medal for “Young Frankenstein,” a very funny sendup of old horror movies starring Gene Wilder as the grandson of the original mad monster-maker. The music, the camera set-ups, the backgrounds, and the super-hammy acting all add up to at least a semi-classic of inspired nonsense. Maybe the script contributions of Wilder had something to do with the noticeable elevation in both taste and humor from the floundering of “Blazing Saddles.”” – Donia Mills, Washington Star News
9. THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ
44 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS Ted Kotcheff | 120 mins | Comedy/Drama Richard Dreyfuss | Micheline Lanctôt | Jack Warden | Randy Quaid
“The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, starring Richard Dreyfuss in the title role of a young Canadian Jew on the make, was the best comedy of the year, and a fine, firm-willed creation by any standards. Based on the novel by Mordecai Richler and directed by Ted Kotcheff with an energy level aptly approaching frenzy, this north-of-the-border “What Makes Sammy Run” is at once hilarious and trenchant. And it establishes young Dreyfuss as one of the most original talents of his generation.” – John Koch, Boston Herald
8. THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
48 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS Jack Haley Jr. | 135 mins | Documentary/Family/Musical Fred Astaire | Gene Kelly | Bing Crosby | Peter Lawford
“If it’s one thing this film doesn’t need, it’s more praise, but it’s too good to pass over. Hooray for Hollywood.” – Barbara Thomas, Atlanta Journal and Constitution
7. ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
54 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS Martin Scorsese | 112 mins | Drama/Romance Ellen Burstyn | Kris Kristofferson | Mia Bendixsen | Alfred Lutter III
“Young widow, weaned on films, leaves suburbia to seek fulfillment as the singer she was never meant to be. With indominable spirit and touching dignity, she manages to step from wonderland into reality. The heavenly Ellen Burstyn saviors every morsel of the plum pudding role of her career. A grandly comic and compassionate motion picture.” – Bill Morrison, News and Observer
6. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE
59 LISTS | 10 TOP SPOTS Ingmar Bergman | 169 mins | Drama Liv Ullmann | Erland Josephson | Bibi Andersson | Gunnel Lindblom
“Like “Phantom India,” this bone-honest examination of a marriage started as a six-hour serial for European television. The American version runs three hours, but Bergman himself did the cutting and he doesn’t seem to have done much damage. Indeed, “Scenes” is easily Bergman’s clearest and most accessible film.” – John Hartl, Seattle Times
5. HARRY AND TONTO
63 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS Paul Mazursky | 115 mins | Adventure/Comedy/Drama Art Carney | Ellen Burstyn | René Enríquez | Herbert Berghof
“Paul Mazursky’s marvelously sympathetic comedy about a lonely old man’s breakthrough to a happier life by discovering facets of the world previously unknown to him. Art Carney is supremely convincing as Harry, a 72-year-old widower who embarks on a cross-country odyssey with his orange tiger cat, Tonto.” – Stanley Eichelbaum, San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
4. THE CONVERSATION
67 LISTS | 4 TOP SPOTS Francis Ford Coppola | 113 mins | Drama/Mystery/Thriller Gene Hackman | John Cazale | Allen Garfield | Frederic Forrest
“Francis Ford Coppola’s story of a faceless, anonymous bugger, of what he did to his victims and what he did to himself, is a sensational film containing Gene Hackman’s best performance, an oblique comment on Watergate though Coppola wrote it years before, a marvelous entertainment few went to see, and the best American movie of the year.” – Bernard Drew, Gannett News Service
3. AMARCORD
69 LISTS | 11 TOP SPOTS Federico Fellini | 123 mins | Comedy/Drama Magali Noël | Bruno Zanin | Pupella Maggio | Armando Brancia
“Amacord, some believe, is Fellini’s best film, but does it really matter? Part fantasy and part memory, this is nostalgia Italian-style as Fellini takes us back to small-town Italy in the early 1930s, introducing us to a crazy, human collection of characters from his boyhood. As we watch the demented uncle crying for a woman from the tree tops, the prankish schoolboy urinating on the floor behind the teacher’s back, the disgusted grandfather flatulating during a screaming husband-wife battle, we realize that Fellini is the most free of all filmmakers, and one of the masters.” – John Huddy, Miami Herald
2. THE GODFATHER, PART II
77 LISTS | 8 TOP SPOTS Francis Ford Coppola | 202 mins | Crime/Drama Al Pacino | Robert De Niro | Robert Duvall | Diane Keaton
“Godfather II, while it seemed initially disappointing in comparison with the flawlessly-crafted original, still emerged as a work of considerable scope and power – two films in one, really. In the first, Coppola’s probes into organized crime and political corruption in America in the 1950s are reflected in the increasingly grim fortunes of Michael Corleone, ruthless heir to the criminal empire he once loudly scorned. But the real beauty of “Godfather II” lies in its exquisite recreation of New York’s “Little Italy” during the early years of this century – with Robert De Niro doing an admirable impersonation of Don Vito Coreleone as a young man first seizing power in the ghetto and becoming a “godfather” to his neighbors.
With a newly-hatched venture into the distribution side of the business added to his substantial creative contributions over the past few years, the 34-year-old Coppola just may be the most prominent and promising figure the American cinema can boast right now.” – Donia Mills, Washington Star-News
1. CHINATOWN
91 LISTS | 21 TOP SPOTS Roman Polanski | 130 mins | Drama/Mystery/Thriller Jack Nicholson | Faye Dunaway | John Huston | Perry Lopez
“Roman Polanski’s version of the 1930s private eye movies was also a commentary on greed and corruption, and an especially pointed parable in the year of Watergate. It gave us a masterful performance by Jack Nicholson, as J.J. Gittes, the cynical private detective with the unshakable personal code.
Faye Dunaway was the woman who came to him for help – how much help she could not reveal or understand – and then Polanski led us into a labyrinthine plot involving dishonesty in high places and a scheme to divert a city’s water supply.
The movie drifted toward obvious parody every so often, but Polanski saved himself by the seriousness of his characters, and the neurotic force of their performances; “Chinatown’s” dangers and excitements made it probably most entertaining movie”.– Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Full List:
| R | Film | L | #1 | AR | L% | #1% | TCL | TCL1 | TCL% | TCL1% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chinatown | 91 | 21 | 2.8 | 73% | 23% | 62 | 13 | 71% | 20% |
| 2 | The Godfather, Part II | 77 | 8 | 5.0 | 61% | 9% | 50 | 6 | 57% | 9% |
| 3 | Amarcord | 69 | 11 | 4.3 | 54% | 12% | 49 | 8 | 56% | 12% |
| 4 | The Conversation | 67 | 4 | 3.8 | 53% | 4% | 48 | 4 | 55% | 6% |
| 5 | Harry and Tonto | 63 | 3 | 5.6 | 50% | 3% | 41 | 3 | 47% | 5% |
| 6 | Scenes From a Marriage | 59 | 10 | 3.8 | 46% | 11% | 43 | 9 | 49% | 14% |
| 7 | Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore | 54 | 3 | 5.3 | 40% | 4% | 28 | 1 | 32% | 2% |
| 8 | That's Entertainment | 48 | 3 | 5.3 | 38% | 3% | 29 | 2 | 33% | 3% |
| 9 | The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz | 44 | 3 | 5.3 | 35% | 3% | 33 | 3 | 38% | 5% |
| 10 | Young Frankenstein | 45 | 1 | 5.5 | 34% | 1% | 27 | 0 | 31% | 0% |
| 11 | Lacombe, Lucien | 40 | 3 | 6.4 | 31% | 3% | 29 | 2 | 33% | 3% |
| 12 | The Three Musketeers | 36 | 2 | 5.8 | 29% | 2% | 24 | 0 | 28% | 0% |
| 13 | Badlands | 34 | 0 | 5.8 | 27% | 0% | 24 | 0 | 28% | 0% |
| 14 | Lenny | 33 | 0 | 6.8 | 26% | 0% | 21 | 0 | 24% | 0% |
| 15 | Murder on the Orient Express | 33 | 1 | 6.0 | 25% | 1% | 19 | 1 | 22% | 2% |
| 16 | A Woman Under the Influence | 31 | 0 | 5.7 | 24% | 0% | 18 | 0 | 21% | 0% |
| 17 | The Towering Inferno | 26 | 0 | 6.6 | 21% | 0% | 17 | 0 | 20% | 0% |
| 18 | Thieves Like Us | 25 | 0 | 6.6 | 20% | 0% | 18 | 0 | 21% | 0% |
| 19 | California Split | 23 | 0 | 5.8 | 18% | 0% | 19 | 0 | 22% | 0% |
| 20 | Juggernaut | 19 | 0 | 6.0 | 15% | 0% | 16 | 0 | 18% | 0% |
| 21 | Hearts and Minds | 20 | 0 | 5.6 | 15% | 0% | 14 | 0 | 16% | 0% |
| 22 | The Mother and the Whore | 18 | 0 | 5.9 | 14% | 0% | 16 | 0 | 18% | 0% |
| 23 | Blazing Saddles | 18 | 0 | 7.2 | 14% | 0% | 11 | 0 | 13% | 0% |
| 24 | The Phantom of Liberty | 18 | 1 | 5.1 | 14% | 1% | 16 | 0 | 18% | 0% |
| 24 | The Front Page | 18 | 1 | 5.9 | 14% | 1% | 10 | 1 | 11% | 2% |
| 26 | The Sugarland Express | 17 | 0 | 6.3 | 14% | 0% | 11 | 0 | 13% | 0% |
| 27 | Love and Anarchy | 16 | 1 | 5.2 | 13% | 1% | 13 | 1 | 15% | 2% |
| 28 | The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 | 14 | 0 | 7.6 | 11% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 8% | 0% |
| 29 | The Gambler | 14 | 1 | 6.1 | 11% | 1% | 8 | 1 | 9% | 2% |
| 30 | Claudine | 13 | 0 | 8.0 | 10% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 10% | 0% |
| 31 | Le Petit Theater de Jean Renoir | 12 | 2 | 3.8 | 10% | 2% | 11 | 2 | 13% | 3% |
| 32 | The Longest Yard | 12 | 0 | 6.5 | 10% | 0% | 4 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 33 | Wedding in Blood | 11 | 2 | 4.1 | 9% | 2% | 10 | 2 | 11% | 3% |
| 34 | The Parallax View | 11 | 2 | 5.1 | 9% | 2% | 6 | 1 | 7% | 2% |
| 35 | The Tamarind Seed | 10 | 1 | 4.1 | 8% | 1% | 9 | 1 | 10% | 2% |
| 36 | Butley | 10 | 0 | 7.0 | 8% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 8% | 0% |
| 37 | Stavisky | 10 | 1 | 6.1 | 8% | 1% | 9 | 1 | 10% | 2% |
Lists Included 125 | Top Critics’ Lists Included 87
R Rank
L Total number of lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
AR Average position on ranked top 10 lists
#1 Total number of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year
L% Percentage of total lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
#1% Percentage of mentions where the film was selected as the best film of the year
TCL Number of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1 Number of times that the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL% Percentage of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1% Percentage of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists
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