UPDATE--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is now obsolete. Check out the new version of the list:
The 1001 greatest films, ranked as objectively as possible.
END OF UPDATE---------------------------------------------------------------
I decided to start this project after observing the sheer absence of good, unbiased, ranking movie lists, that encompasses both new and old generations, addressed movies outside the US with fairness, and combined opinions of both critics and casual viwers. All of that while also beign as objective as possible.
Needless to say, creating such a list would prove to be a hard problem to tackle. Since the result would be something like an aggregated list, my first step was to look for the best exemple of such a list, that already combined a…
UPDATE--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is now obsolete. Check out the new version of the list:
The 1001 greatest films, ranked as objectively as possible.
END OF UPDATE---------------------------------------------------------------
I decided to start this project after observing the sheer absence of good, unbiased, ranking movie lists, that encompasses both new and old generations, addressed movies outside the US with fairness, and combined opinions of both critics and casual viwers. All of that while also beign as objective as possible.
Needless to say, creating such a list would prove to be a hard problem to tackle. Since the result would be something like an aggregated list, my first step was to look for the best exemple of such a list, that already combined a huge portion of the relevant data that I needed. "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?" (TSPDT) would prove to be the best list by far, having already aggregated 11,398 individual lists (as of 2020) into one single big list, ranking the top 1000 movies. Since no other data that I used got nowhere even close to this sample size, TSPDT became my base reference.
That being said, the list had its flaws. It heavily biased for american movies, for movies before the 80's, and is hugely formed by traditional big name critics opinions. So I had to do my own work. I devised my own mathematical system, using weighted averages and other operations, in order to combine TSPDT list with other, very diferent but very trusted, lists in the best way possible. The use of mathematical formulas were an atempt to minimize any subjective analysis. Of course, eliminating it would be impossible (the whole nature of even the base list is based on subjective opinion), but I'm confident that the result has minimal interference from my part. The only insertion of my subjectivity in the list is in the weighted values that I attributed to the diferent lists used as data (which had to be done. Some lists are simply better than others).
I gave a special treatment to horror movies, since the general consensus on them varies greatly, and the opinion of critics and the general public differs significantly. That doesn't mean that I weighted them higher in any form, it just means that I used unique lists as data to rank them in my list. The base list for their rankings was the one on "They Shoot Zombies, Don't They?", which is another list following the formula on TSPDT (very fortunate indeed).
UPDATE: Now using specific lists to draw more accurate data for multiple movie genres.
No such a list will ever do justice. There's no way to even claim that a particular list has THE best 1001 movies ever made in history, not to mention ranking them. But I can say that I'm happy with the result (even though I disagree with a lot of things). I think this is the best list I've seen that is relatively accurate and fair, would speak to a significant number of people, covers movies from all generations and different countries, combines critics and the general public's tastes, has a broad number of genres, and is with as little bias as possible.
The individual lists that I used for data were checked to see if they didn't were already aggregated in the TSPDT list. They were somewhat prestigious lists available on the internet, and preferably already aggregating in their form (Letterboxd was one of them).
The mathematical system that I used I wish to remain a secret to preserve the authenticity of the list. But I can tell you it wasn't too crazy or complicated, and involved weighted averages (the highest weight was attributed to the TSPDT lists).
List Stats:
Movies by decade:
1900's: 1
1910's: 3
1920's: 30
1930's: 65
1940's: 75
1950's: 138
1960's: 160
1970's: 153
1980's: 120
1990's: 123
2000's: 101
2010's: 32
Top Year: 1974 (22 films)
Movies from director:
13 - Alfred Hitchcock.
12 - Jean-Luc Godard; John Ford; Luis Buñuel.
11 - Akira Kurosawa; Ingmar Bergman; Jean Renoir.
10 - Federico Fellini; Howard Hawks; Stanley Kubrick.
9 - Hayao Miyazaki; Luchino Visconti; Robert Bresson.
8 - Charles Chaplin; John Huston; Michael Powell; Roberto Rossellini; Yasujirō Ozu.
7 - Abbas Kiarostami; Andrei Tarkovsky; François Truffaut; Fritz Lang; Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; John Cassavetes; Kenji Mizoguchi; Martin Scorsese; Michelangelo Antonioni; Roman Polanski; Steven Spielberg.