Last Updated on October 6, 2021 by
There are about as many lists of the world’s best movies as there are stars in space. But what if we didn’t have a version of our own? Here we, therefore, present a list of some of what we consider to be amongst the best films ever made.
This post focuses on modern movies, but there is some movies that are a bit older in this list as well.
What do you think are the world’s best films of all time?
19. Good Will Hunting
20-year-old Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is by far the smartest at MIT status university, the problem is that he only works there as a janitor. His everyday life consists of fights and pub rounds with his friends. When Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård) one day announces a mathematics competition at the university, Will’s incredible intelligence is discovered. After a prison sentence, he is ordered to seek out psychologist Sean McGuire (Robin Williams), who recognizes himself in his reluctant patient as he himself has undergone similar crises in his life.
18. Alien
When the crew of the Nostromo spaceship is on its way home to Earth after a mission, they suddenly receive an emergency signal from a nearby planet. When they get there, it turns out that it is not an emergency signal but a warning signal. A host of unknown creatures are revealed and the crew has no idea what danger they are in. Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic space horror is just as good – and scary – as it was 35 years ago.
17. Slumdog Millionaire
Multiple Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire is the colorful and incomparable story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a young man from Bombay’s slum who poses in the Indian version of “Who wants to become a millionaire?” He exceeds everyone’s expectations, which raises suspicions of cheating on both the program manager and the police. The film then portrays Jamal’s life in flashbacks as he tries to explain how karma led him to win the competition.
16. Full Metal Jacket
There are a whole bunch of amazing films about the Vietnam War: “The Pluton”, “The Settlement” and “Apocalypse Now”, to name a few. But best of all is Master Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” from 1987. During the first half, the film follows a platoon of US Navy soldiers through their training, while the second depicts some of the experiences of two of them in the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War.
15. Rosemary’s Baby
Roman Polanski’s unpleasant masterpiece follows Rosemary (Mia Farrow), a woman who, together with her husband, moves into a new apartment in Manhattan. Soon, however, strange things start to happen and Rosemary begins to conspire against her and her unborn child – or has she gone crazy? A close friend ends up in a coma, her husband’s competitor in his career goes blind, a girl Rosemary met downstairs in the laundry room commits suicide – and why does Rosemary’s pregnancy have such different side effects? Brilliant actor efforts blend with seductive views of New York and a Mia Farrow in stunning 1960s creations.
14. Life is Beautiful
No, we’re not talking about the Christmas classic of the same name with Jimmy Stewart starring, but Roberto Benigni’s triple Academy Award-winning film from 1997. The film opens as a romantic comedy and tells the story of an Italian Jew, Guido Orefice (Benigni), who in the 1930s Italy comes to a new city and awaits beautiful Dora (Nicoletta Braschi). Guido and Dora eventually become a couple and have a son, Giosuè (Giorgio Cantarini). During the second half of the film, we are in the middle of World War II and one day Guido is told that he and his son will be deported to a concentration camp. To keep hope and mood up, he tries to persuade his son that everything is just a game where it is necessary to collect points to win a chariot.
13. Big Fish
No matter what everyone else says – “Big Fish” is Tim Burton’s best movie! William Bloom (Billy Crudup) has long broken contact with his father, Edward (Albert Finney), but returns to his childhood home when he is reached by the news that the father is dying of cancer. In his attempts to get to know his father, William hears a plethora of unlikely clues about his life, staged in Burton’s truly unique and magical way.
12. Amelie from Montmartre
Amelie Poulain is a young waitress with a somewhat special childhood. As an adult, she lives alone in a loft in Montmartre, northern Paris. One day, she finds in her apartment an old metal box hidden in a cavity behind a skirting board. The box contains old things that belonged to a child who once lived in the apartment. Amelie decides to try to find the original owner and, if he is happy about the reunion, spend his time changing other people’s lives.
11. American History X
Brothers Derek (Edward Norton) and Danny (Edward Furlong) lose their father in a shooting drama in which the perpetrators were of African American origin. The grief and hatred drives Derek into a neo-Nazi movement where he quickly rises to the degrees. Little brother Danny follows, but after another drama with a deadly end, Derek ends up in jail. During his time behind bars, he realizes that he has chosen the wrong path, and when he is released after three years, his only desire is to save his little brother from the same fate.
10. Casablanca
The classic of the classics, “Casablanca”, takes place during the Second World War where Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) plays a cynical café owner in the city of Casablanca in French Morocco, which is governed by the German allied French Vichy regime. Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), a woman whom Rick was in love with but who left him in Paris shows up with Victor Lazlo, the leader of a resistance movement and Rick is put in a situation of conflicts, surrounded by greedy businessmen, petty crooks and admirable women at his cafe.
9. Almost Famous
The year is 1973 and 15-year-old William is obsessed with rock music. He is commissioned by the music Bible Rolling Stone Magazine to write an article about the upcoming stars of the band Stillwater. Despite his mother’s anxious objections, Billy goes on tour with the wild rock stars and is invited on a trip he will never forget. “Almost Famous” is, besides a hot and furious entertaining drama, also packed with fantastic 60s and 70s music.
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) thinks he can avoid the hard work in prison by playing crazy. When he ends up in a mental hospital, he tries to liven up the mood by socializing with the other patients, which does not suit the horrible Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher).
7. Schindler’s List
Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning major in black and white tells the true story of the enigmatic Oskar Schindler – a member of the Nazi Party, a women’s man and a businessman who rarely dared to bribe himself to the success he aspired to. During World War II, he suddenly took a stand and used his entire fortune to redeem his Jewish workers.
6. The key to freedom
“The Key to Freedom” is considered by many to be the world’s best film and top view as a tight list on IMDB, and it is hard to defend against this excellent drama in tickling prison environment based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. The film was nominated for nine Oscars but did not win a single. The roles include Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, who play prisoners at the infamous Shawshank Prison.
5. City of God
Two young people grow up in one of Rio’s shantytowns where violence and brutal gang settlements are part of everyday life. One, “The Rocket” as he is called by his friends, becomes a photographer, while the other, Zé Pequeno, becomes a drug dealer and gang leader. In order to stay alive without being part of the gang’s activities and enjoying their protection, the Rocket is forced to balance its loyalties as a photographer and the gang’s goodwill.
4. Pulp Fiction
Raw cool “Pulp Fiction” is considered by many to be Tarantino’s best and one of the most influential films of the 1990s. The film revolves around four different acts where, among many other characters, we get to follow the torpedoes Vincent and Jules, brilliantly portrayed by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. Travolta’s involvement in the film marked a grand comeback in Hollywood’s finery after years of flops.
3. Godfather II
“Godfather II” is, as the title suggests, the second part of Francis Ford Coppola’s trilogy, based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name. It really is just as good as one, but somewhere you have to decide and then it became a third place for the film that focuses on Michael Corleone’s (Al Pacino) takeover as the clan’s head after his father’s death.
2. The Godfather
The first part of the “Godfather” trilogy goes to the story for many reasons, thanks in large part to unforgettable actresses from not least Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and Al Pacino – and the classic stage with the horse’s head in bed! The film was awarded with Oscar statues for best film, best male lead (Marlon Brando) and best screenplay.
1. Forrest Gump
Robert Zemecki’s 1997 masterpiece of Forrest Gump’s (Tom Hanks) fantastic life can be seen as many times as possible! Good-hearted Forrest really only wants his childhood friend and great love, Jenny (Robin Wright), to have a good life, and during the journey he, despite his considerably limited intelligence, managed to succeed with the art piece to become, among other things, elite athlete, war hero in Vietnam and successful businessman. Great, gripping, fun, exciting – “Forrest Gump” has everything a good movie should have, and thus deserves the title of the best movie of all time!