Year Released: 1948
This 1948 American adventure movie has a perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on nearly 50 different reviews. It also holds a 4/4 on Roger Ebert, and an 8.2/10 on IMDb.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre won three Academy Awards, including Best Director for John Huston, along with three Golden Globes; Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and another Best Director Award.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Year Released: 1981
Harrison Ford stars as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, an action/adventure movie about an archaeologist who must find the fabled Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do. The film is directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, but it’s actually based on a story written by George Lucas and Howard Kazanjian.
The film grossed nearly $385 million against a budget of $18 million, and it was, for the most part, well-received by critics. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Score. It won five, including Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. Raiders of the Lost Ark currently holds a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Rear Window
Year Released: 1954
How many Alfred Hitchcock films do we have on this list? Let’s just say that there are a lot of them here. This picture stars James Stewart as a journalist that’s stuck at home in a wheelchair after he suffers a broken leg. He begins to watch his neighbors out of boredom, and winds up discovering something much more sinister than he expected to find.
Rear Window is widely regarded as one of Hitchcock’s best films. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, and in 1997 was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was also listed on AFI’s list of the “100 Years…100 Movies” list as number 42.
Paths of Glory
Year Released: 1970
Legendary film director, Stanley Kubrick, created this 1957 war film, which tells the story of failed leadership and mishaps during World War I. The motion picture was based on the novel that holds the same title and was written by Humphrey Cobb.
Paths of Glory was considered “incontestably offensive” to France and was banned in the country. It also wound up being banned in all of the U.S military bases, both in and out of the United States. Despite the controversy, it wound up earning a number of awards and being nominated for several others, including the BAFTA for Best Film. The movie holds a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is preserved in the U.S National Film Registry.
Taxi Driver
Year Released: 1976
Taxi Driver stars a young Robert De Niro as a seriously unstable cab operator in NYC who gets wound up in trying to play hero to an underage prostitute. Directed by the legendary Martin Scorsese, the film was named the 31st-best ever made by Sight & Sound in 2012.
A 12-year old Jodie Foster, who played a controversial role in the film that required psychological testing and counseling before production, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her part. That was among several other nominations that year, which included Best Picture. The movie didn’t end up winning in any of the categories, though it does have a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and received the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1976.