Masterpieces

"No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough." - Roger Ebert

There is an infinite amount of great films out there from all corners of the world, and every year we're hit with some fantastic new features. But every once and a while, we witness a film that's damn near perfect (or maybe even perfect), and for some reason or another, it touched you in a way and made an impression. That's the power of cinema. With that said, these are the films I've seen which I believe are masterpieces.

12 Angry Men (1957, Sidney Lumet)
12 Years a Slave (2013, Steve McQueen)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
8½ (1963, Federico Fellini)
A Clockwork Orange (1971, Stanley Kubrick)
A Hard Day's Night (1964, Richard Lester)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
A New Hope (1977, George Lucas)
A Night to Remember (1958, Roy Ward Baker)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958, Douglas Sirk)
Adaptation. (2002, Spike Jonze)
Aguirre, Wrath of God  (1972, Werner Herzog)
Alien (1979, Ridley Scott)
All About Eve (1950, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, Lewis Milestone)
Amadeus (1984, Milos Forman)
Apartment, The (1960, Billy Wilder)
Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola)
Army of Shadows (1969, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Asphalt Jungle, The (1950, John Huston)
Au revoir les enfants (1987, Louis Malle)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955, John Sturges)
Bad Sleep Well, The (1960, Akira Kurosawa)
Barry Lyndon (1975, Stanley Kubrick)
Battle of Algiers, The (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)
Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946, William Wyler)
Bicycle Thieves (1948, Vittorio De Sica)
Big Heat, The (1953, Fritz Lang)
Big Sleep, The (1946, Howard Hawks)
Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017, Denis Villeneuve)
Blast of Silence (1961, Allen Baron)
Blood Simple. (1984, Joel Coen)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale)
Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957, David Lean)
Broken Arrow (1950, Delmer Daves)
Bullitt (1968, Peter Yates)
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The (1920, Robert Wiene)
Cape Fear (1962, J. Lee Thompson)
Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
Children of Men (2006, Alfonso Cuarón)
China Syndrome, The (1979, James Bridges)
Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
Cinema Paradiso (1988, Giuseppe Tornatore)
Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
City Lights (1931, Charles Chaplin)
City of God (2002, Fernando Meirelles)
Conversation, The (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
Cool Hand Luke (1967, Stuart Rosenberg)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989, Woody Allen)
Dark City (1998, Alex Proyas)
Dark Knight, The (2008, Christopher Nolan)
Dark Passage (1947, Delmer Daves)

Day for Night (1973, François Truffaut)
Day of Wrath (1943, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
Day of the Jackal, The (1973, Fred Zinnemann)
Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951, Robert Wise)
Days of Heaven (1978, Terrence Malick)
Deer Hunter, The (1978, Michael Cimino)
Departed, The (2006, Martin Scorsese)
Diabolique (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Die Hard (1988, John McTiernan)
Dirty Dozen, The (1967, Robert Aldrich)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975, Sidney Lumet)
Don't Look Now (1973, Nicolas Roeg)
Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)
Downfall (2004, Oliver Hirschbiegel)
Dr. Strangelove (1964, Stanley Kubrick)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982, Steven Spielberg)
Ed Wood (1994, Tim Burton)
Elephant Man, The (1980, David Lynch)
Empire Strikes Back, The (1980, Irvin Kershner)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry)
Exorcist, The (1973, William Friedkin)
Exterminating Angel, The (1962, Luis Buñuel)
Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju)
Fanny and Alexander (1982, Ingmar Bergman)
Fargo (1996, Joel Coen)
Fight Club (1999, David Fincher)
Five Graves to Cairo (1943, Billy Wilder)
For a Few Dollars More (1965, Sergio Leone)
Forbidden Planet (1956, Fred M. Wilcox)
Frankenstein (1931, James Whale)
French Connection, The (1971, William Friedkin)
Full Metal Jacket (1987, Stanley Kubrick)
Godfather, The (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
Godfather: Part II, The (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The (1966, Sergio Leone)
GoodFellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
Grand Illusion (1937, Jean Renoir)
Grapes of Wrath, The (1940, John Ford)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988, Isao Takahata)
Great Escape, The (1963, John Sturges)
Great Expectations (1946, David Lean)
Halloween (1978, John Carpenter)

Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)
Heat (1995, Michael Mann)
High Noon (1952, Fred Zinnemann)
His Girl Friday (1940, Howard Hawks)
Howards End (1992, James Ivory)
Hud (1963, Martin Ritt)
Hurt Locker, The (2008, Kathryn Bigelow)
Hustler, The (1961, Robert Rossen)
Ice Storm, The (1997, Ang Lee)
In Cold Blood (1967, Richard Brooks)
Inception (2010, Christopher Nolan)
Inglourious Basterds (2009, Quentin Tarantino)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, Philip Kaufman)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)
JFK (1991, Oliver Stone)
Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg)
Johnny Guitar (1954, Nicholas Ray)
Killing, The (1956, Stanley Kubrick)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Robert Aldrich)
L.A. Confidential (1997, Curtis Hanson)
La dolce vita (1960, Federico Fellini)
La notte (1961, Michelangelo Antonioni)
Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962, David Lean)
Le cercle rouge (1970, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Le samouraï (1967, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Leopard, The (1963, Luchino Visconti)
Lighthouse, The (2019, Robert Eggers)
Limelight (1952, Charles Chaplin)
Lives of Others, The (2006, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
Long and the Short and the Tall, The (1961, Leslie Norman)
M (1931, Fritz Lang)
Maltese Falcon, The (1941, John Huston)
Manchurian Candidate, The (1962, John Frankenheimer)
Mean Streets (1973, Martin Scorsese)
Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)
Murder by Contract (1958, Irving Lerner)
My Darling Clementine (1946, John Ford)
My Neighbour Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki)
Naked Spur, The (1953, Anthony Mann)
Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)
Night of the Demon (1957, Jacques Tourneur)
Night of the Living Dead (1968, George A. Romero)
No Country for Old Men (2007, Joel & Ethan Coen)
North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)
Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922, F.W. Murnau)
Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Sergio Leone)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, Sergio Leone)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975, Milos Forman)
Ordet (1955, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
Ordinary People (1980, Robert Redford)
Orpheus (1950, Jean Cocteau)
Ox-Bow Incident, The (1943, William A. Wellman)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006, Guillermo del Toro)
Passion of Joan of Arc, The (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
Paths of Glory (1957, Stanley Kubrick)
Patton (1970, Franklin J. Schaffner)
Peeping Tom (1960, Michael Powell)
Pianist, The (2002, Roman Polanski)
Pinocchio (1940, Various)
Platoon (1986, Oliver Stone)
Producers, The (1968, Mel Brooks)
Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)
Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)
Ran (1985, Akira Kurosawa)
Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)
Rebecca (1940, Alfred Hitchcock)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955, Nicholas Ray)
Red Beard (1965, Akira Kurosawa)
Red River (1948, Howard Hawks)
Red Shoes, The (1948, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
Reservoir Dogs (1992, Quentin Tarantino)
Rififi  (1955, Jules Dassin)
Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks)
Rocco and His Brothers (1960, Luchino Visconti)
Rocky (1976, John G. Avildsen)
Roma (2018, Alfonso Cuarón)
Rome, Open City (1945, Roberto Rossellini)
Rosemary's Baby (1968, Roman Polanski)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi)
Saving Private Ryan (1998, Steven Spielberg)
Scarface (1983, Brian De Palma)
Scenes from a Marriage (1973, Ingmar Bergman)
Schindler's List (1993, Steven Spielberg)
Searchers, The (1956, John Ford)
Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
Seventh Seal, The (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
Shane (1953, George Stevens)
Shawshank Redemption, The (1994, Frank Darabont)
Sherlock Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton)
Shining, The (1980, Stanley Kubrick)
Short Cuts (1993, Robert Altman)
Silence of the Lambs, The (1991, Jonathan Demme)
Sleuth (1972, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Solaris (1972, Andrey Tarkovskiy)
Some Like It Hot (1959, Billy Wilder)
Spirited Away (2001, Hayao Miyazaki)
Sting, The (1973, George Roy Hill)
Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock)
Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957, Alexander Mackendrick)
Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)
Terminator, The (1984, James Cameron)
Testament of Dr. Mabuse, The (1933, Fritz Lang) 
There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson)
Thin Red Line, The (1998, Terrence Malick)
Third Man, The (1949, Carol Reed)
Throne of Blood (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan)
Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujirô Ozu)
Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles)
Touchez pas au grisbi (1954, Jacques Becker)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948, John Huston)
Trial, The (1962, Orson Welles)
Ugetsu monogatari (1953, Kenji Mizoguchi)
Umberto D. (1952, Vittorio De Sica)
Unforgiven (1992, Clint Eastwood)
Vengeance is Mine (1979, Shôhei Imamura)
Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
Wages of Fear, The (1953, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
White Heat (1949, Raoul Walsh)
Wild Bunch, The (1969, Sam Peckinpah)
Wings of Desire (1987, Wim Wenders)
Winter Light (1963, Ingmar Bergman)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957, Billy Wilder)
Woodstock (1970, Michael Wadleigh)
Yellow Sky (1948, William A. Wellman)
Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)
Z (1969, Costa-Gavras)