10. NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE
36 LISTS | 2 TOP SPOTS John Landis | 109 mins | Comedy John Belushi | Karen Allen | Tom Hulce
“Outrageous, irreverent and wildly funny. As much a documentation as a spoof of campus life a decade and a half ago.” – Perry Stewart, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
9. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
36 LISTS | 4 TOP SPOTS Alan Parker | 121 mins | Biography/Crime/Drama Brad Davis | Irene Miracle | Bo Hopkins
“Based (with significant exceptions) on the factual story of a young American imprisoned in Turkey for drug smuggling, the Alan Parker-directed movie was violent and controversial, harrowing and instructive. It could be seen a horrifying indictment of Turkish justice and Turkish prisons, but it could also be seen as a cautionary tale against a foolhardy defiance of the drug laws anywhere. The plight of Billy Hayes was also understood not to be unique to him, or to Turkey. The film compromised itself with two or three of its inventions upon the facts, but the impact was undeniable. The performances by Brad Davis, John Hurt and Randy Quaid as prisoners were outstanding, and Paul Smith as the prison chieftain was sadistic villainy personified.” – Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times
8. SUPERMAN
41 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS Richard Donner | 143 mins | Action/Adventure/Drama Christopher Reeve | Margot Kidder | Gene Hackman
“’Superman,’ the delightful, lavishly made ($35 million) movie about the popular comic strip hero. Christopher Reeve is ideally cast as the flying Man of Steel, and Margot Kidder is engaging as lois Lane. They’re marvelous together, and the special effects are terrifically impressive. Great fun, and unexpectedly witty, though nothing is gained from Marlon Brando’s 15-minute appearance as Superman’s stodgy father. Richard Donner directed.” – Stanley Eichelbaum, San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
7. AUTUMN SONATA
42 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS Ingmar Bergman | 99 mins | Drama/Music Ingrid Bergman | Liv Ullmann | Lena Nyman
“The year’s most powerful film. A gut-wrenching dialogue between a mother and daughter who desperately want to love each other but are doomed to failure. Life’s script is written in childhood and it cannot be revised. Director Ingmar Bergman’s approach has been attached as too clinical, too naked, but why bother with embroidery when you have Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullman giving the performances of their lives. Just train your camera on these two astonishing actresses and let them turn your innards to jelly. “Autumn Sonata” makes any year’s Best list.” – David Rosenbaum, Boston Herald
6. DAYS OF HEAVEN
55 LISTS | 13 TOP SPOTS Terrence Malick | 94 mins | Drama/Romance Richard Gere | Brooke Adams | Sam Shepard
“An elegiac look at the Panhandle when this century was in its teens, with a farmland triangle right out of Eugene O’Neill. It’s a simple, lovely movie; and showering it with praise might make audiences anticipate too much. The film was held up over a year for release (the hilarious and poignant narration was added as an afterthought); and even now one suspects much of it has been edited. Despite fine individual moments from Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Linda Manz and superb construction by director Terrence Malick, the photography’s the star.” – Philip Wuntch, Dallas News
5. INTERIORS
55 LISTS | 7 TOP SPOTS Woody Allen | 92 mins | Drama Diane Keaton | Geraldine Page | Kristin Griffith
“The people and the point of view in Woody Allen’s first “serious” film aren’t all that far from the darker moments in “Annie Hall” or even “Play It Again, Sam.” Hardly the gloomy Bergman imitation that its detractors have called it, this study of an anguished, ascetic family is closer in spirit to Chekhov.” – John Hartl, Seattle Times
4. HEAVEN CAN WAIT
58 LISTS | 4 TOP SPOTS Warren Beatty and Buck Henry | 101 mins | Comedy/Fantasy/Romance Warren Beatty | James Mason | Julie Christie
“Hollywood glamor isn’t dead, it’s just wearing designer jeans. “Heaven Can Wait” glittered like the crystal at Ma Maison – expensively and certainly. Producer-director-writer-star Warren Beatty went for the best, with the amusing collaboration of Buck Henry and Elaine May, and his chic, whimsical comedy emerged with style and an unusual poignance. Jack Warden and Dyan Cannon deserve Oscars for their lovely performances. Buck Henry, James Mason and Charles Grodin weren’t bad, either. The film’s final scene, between Beatty and the gorgeous Julie Christie, had an oddly beautiful tension.” – David Foil, Baton Rouge State-Times
3. THE DEER HUNTER
67 LISTS | 7 TOP SPOTS Michael Cimino | 183 mins | Drama/War Robert De Niro | Christopher Walken | John Cazale
“Already named the best film of the year by the New York Film Critics’ Circle, “The Deer Hunter,” the second film to be directed by Michael Cimino, is about the quality of life in the America that fought the Vietnam war, and lost. The three protagonists, marvelously well played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage, are the children of first generation Russian-Americans. They work in a Pennsylvania steel mill and when the war comes along, they fight it without question. At its worst “The Deer Hunter” imposes unlikely poetic insights on characters. At its best the film reveals the strengths and weaknesses of a system that pays lip service to an individualism that it cannot easily accommodate. Among the strikingly effective supporting performers are Meryl Streep, George Dzundza and the late John Cazale. Vilmos Zsigmond was the cameraman.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times
2. COMING HOME
73 LISTS | 10 TOP SPOTS Hal Ashby | 127 mins | Drama/Romance/War Jane Fonda | Jon Voight | Bruce Dern
“Perhaps the most stirring movie of the current rash to be released about the aftermath of the Vietnam War, “Coming Home” attempts to fuse an anti-war message with a feminist consciousness story. While this is an ambitious aim, the film succeeds by zeroing in on the lives of only a couple of people. (the fact that it stars such inordinate talents as Jane Fonda, Jon Voight and Bruce Dern is not to the movie’s detriment either.)
The story revolves around the love that develops between a paraplegic Vietnam veteran (Voight) and the wife (Miss Fonda) of a U.S. Marine officer (Dern). This is a touchy subject, but one handled with sensitivity and taste.
Part of the appeal of “Coming Home” is that it does not wallow in excessive anti-war rhetoric about the scars of battle. Instead, it focuses on two very different types of maiming that befall two men who initially were not all that different. Both craved to be war heroes and to distinguish themselves in courageous battle for their country.
Luke (Voight) returns from Vietnam paralyzed from the waist down, while Bob (Dern), Sally’s husband, returns home maimed emotionally. Both men figure significantly in the life of Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda), and “Coming Home” is more the story of Sally’s emotional growth.
All the acting is exemplary, with Voight having the most demanding role. His portrayal of Luke has to convey at once a stinging bitterness yet an underlying softness, a cynical attitude toward the brutality of war, yet a vulnerability toward failing in love.” – Donna Chernin, Cleveland Plain Dealer
1. AN UNMARRIED WOMAN
79 LISTS | 8 TOP SPOTS Paul Mazursky | 124 mins | Comedy/Drama/Romance Jill Clayburgh | Alan Bates | Michael Murphy
“After so much idle chatter about “the age of the woman” in films, Paul Mazursky put his talent where his mouth is. The result was a stirring, hypnotic study of a sound marriage suddenly on the rocks, and what one divorcee did to pick up the pieces. The writing was intelligent and restrained; the characters looked and talked and ate and cried like real people. The scenes throbbed with improvised tension. And Jill Clayburgh gave the film a centrifugal force – lovely as a bruised camelia, deceptively strong when it mattered most, always resilient and desperate to survive, she brough a quiet dignity of her own to even the most anguished scenes, providing the film with a multi-leveled performance of amazing velocity, beauty and guts. Mazursky, as writer and director, shaped narrative detail and character nuance with the perceptive eye of both dramatist and social commentator, creating a film of shattering impact.” – Rex Reed
Full List:
| R | Film | L | #1 | AR | L% | #1% | TCL | TCL1 | TCL% | TCL1% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An Unmarried Woman | 79 | 8 | 4.23 | 66% | 10% | 24 | 4 | 57% | 14% |
| 2 | Coming Home | 73 | 10 | 4.24 | 61% | 12% | 23 | 1 | 55% | 3% |
| 3 | The Deer Hunter | 67 | 7 | 4.34 | 52% | 8% | 24 | 1 | 57% | 3% |
| 4 | Heaven Can Wait | 58 | 4 | 4.83 | 48% | 5% | 17 | 0 | 40% | 0% |
| 5 | Interiors | 55 | 7 | 4.08 | 46% | 9% | 16 | 2 | 38% | 7% |
| 6 | Days of Heaven | 55 | 13 | 3.63 | 45% | 16% | 23 | 8 | 55% | 28% |
| 7 | Autumn Sonata | 42 | 0 | 6.47 | 34% | 0% | 13 | 0 | 31% | 0% |
| 8 | Superman | 41 | 0 | 4.95 | 34% | 0% | 13 | 0 | 31% | 0% |
| 9 | Midnight Express | 36 | 4 | 4.87 | 30% | 5% | 9 | 1 | 21% | 3% |
| 10 | Animal House | 36 | 2 | 4.31 | 30% | 2% | 12 | 0 | 29% | 0% |
| 11 | A Wedding | 28 | 1 | 7.13 | 23% | 1% | 9 | 0 | 21% | 0% |
| 12 | Girlfriends | 28 | 0 | 6.13 | 23% | 0% | 11 | 0 | 26% | 0% |
| 13 | The Buddy Holly Story | 27 | 0 | 6.10 | 23% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 12% | 0% |
| 14 | Who'll Stop the Rain | 26 | 2 | 5.77 | 22% | 2% | 10 | 0 | 24% | 0% |
| 15 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers | 25 | 0 | 5.89 | 21% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 21% | 0% |
| 16 | Bread and Chocolate | 25 | 0 | 4.50 | 21% | 0% | 8 | 0 | 19% | 0% |
| 17 | Pretty Baby | 24 | 1 | 6.43 | 20% | 1% | 9 | 1 | 21% | 3% |
| 18 | Blue Collar | 20 | 1 | 7.22 | 17% | 1% | 11 | 1 | 26% | 3% |
| 19 | Halloween | 20 | 0 | 5.00 | 16% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 17% | 0% |
| 20 | Madame Rosa | 18 | 1 | 7.00 | 15% | 1% | 7 | 1 | 17% | 3% |
| 21 | The Last Waltz | 16 | 0 | 5.33 | 13% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 12% | 0% |
| 22 | Get Out Your Hankerchief | 15 | 1 | 6.00 | 12% | 1% | 6 | 0 | 14% | 0% |
| 23 | Straight Time | 14 | 1 | 5.75 | 12% | 1% | 7 | 1 | 17% | 3% |
| 24 | Stevie | 17 | 0 | 6.29 | 11% | 0% | 8 | 0 | 19% | 0% |
| 25 | Movie Movie | 14 | 0 | 4.56 | 11% | 0% | 8 | 0 | 19% | 0% |
| 26 | Grease | 13 | 0 | 4.57 | 11% | 0% | 3 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 27 | Magic | 13 | 1 | 6.43 | 11% | 1% | 4 | 1 | 10% | 3% |
| 28 | Dear Inspector | 11 | 1 | 4.75 | 9% | 1% | 4 | 0 | 10% | 0% |
| 29 | Watership Down | 11 | 0 | 5.00 | 9% | 0% | 6 | 0 | 14% | 0% |
| 30 | The Big Fix | 10 | 1 | 6.50 | 8% | 1% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| 31 | Hooper | 10 | 0 | 5.67 | 8% | 0% | 3 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
Lists Included 120 | Top Critics’ Lists Included 42
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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