Author's Note: I apparently did this in July of 2009 but didn't list my top ten favorites. It simply had my favorite film and then a few honorable mentions that would have been in the top five.
I started a series of lists that rank my top ten favorite movies by decase. It began in the 1920s and will be working toward the new millennium.
To compile this list, I took my ranked films from IMDb, which I grade after every movie viewing, and sorted them from highest to lowest. Then, looking at each movie in each decade I came up with my favorite ten.
I have included some honorable mentions to show what the top ten were up against. We will continue with the 1990s.
1990s
Honorable Mentions: The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Unforgiven (1992), Jurassic Park (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Braveheart (1995), Casino (1995), Goldeneye (1995), The Usual Suspects (1995), Fargo (1996), Swingers (1996), American History X (1998), Rounders (1998), American Beauty (1999), Fight Club (1999), Toy Story 2 (1999)
10. The Lion King (1994)
The final masterpiece animated film from Disney prior to a 15-year drought from the Mickey Mouse company, The Lion King includes delightful characters, a heartbreaking storyline of Greek tragedy proportions, award-winning songs from music legend Elton John and Hans Zimmer resulting in a sequel, prequel, and Broadway adaptation. The movie was nominated for four Golden Globes, winning three, and four Academy Awards, taking home two Oscars. It won three Annie Awards, was named Favorite Movie at the Kids' Choice Awards, and was nominated for two Saturn Awards, two BAFTAs, two BMI Film & TV Awards, and two MTV Movie Awards. Time and Empire Magazine listed The Lion King among its greatest movies lists and the American Film Institute included the movie on its 10 Top 10 Animated list and the song "Hakuna Matata" among its 100 Songs list.
9. Heat (1995)
Listing the main cast and director of Heat for today's readers might not have the impact it did in 1995, but at the time Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, and Michael Mann were hot commodities in Hollywood. Besides being a tense crime heist drama film, Heat was also significant for teaming film icons De Niro and Pacino for the first time since 1974's The Godfather Part II, which never saw the two stars share the screen. Based on real events, the movie follows an LAPD detective's pursuit of a career criminal and his crew. A critical and commercial success, Heat combined thrilling action sets, gripping dialouge, and powerful performances that left its imprint in both Hollywood and the criminal world. Several crimes have been linked to be modeled after Mann's film, with the initial armored car caper being a blueprint for thefts to come.
8. Schindler's List (1993)
There are some movies out there too grievous, too realistic, to watch multiple times. They may be incredible pieces of work, but ultimately just too sorrowful to agonize through more than a handful of times. Requiem for a Dream and Precious are both on that list for me. American History X nearly reaches that threshold. Steven Spielberg's epic Holocaust drama Schindler's List meets the guidelines for many to never sit through a second viewing. The movie tells the tale of real-life German Oskar Schindler who saved more than a thousand Jews during World War II, but it is the period-setting black-and-white cinematography, stark photography, and documentary style that people have a hard time forgetting. Schindler's List is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, was a critical darling at awards shows, and made nearly a $300 million profit at the box office. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and BAFTAs, winning seven at each ceremony that included Best Picture and Best Director, and five Golden Globes, winning the award for Best Motion Picture - Drama, Director, and Screenplay. The film also saw its way onto the American Film Institutes Top 100 Movies, 100 Movies 10th Anniversary, 100 Cheers, 10 Top 10 Epics, and 100 Heroes and Villains (twice) lists.
7. The Matrix (1999)
A glitch in the matrix. I know kung fu. Red pill or blue pill. The one. These were references to The Matrix that have lived on in every-day vernacular for the past 15 years, but this film's real gift to Hollywood was the establishment of "bullet time." Set in a dystopian future, humans are bred by machines for power and their subconscious is kept in a simulated reality called the Matrix. Heavily influenced by Japanese animation, martial arts films, and wire fu techniques from Hong Kong cinema, the Wachowski brothers advanced American action films in visual effects with the use of "bullet time," where action was slowed down but the camera speed remained normal. The Matrix was a box office smash and critically admired for its clever premise and ramped-up action sequences, earning $460 million worldwide and winning four Academy Awards. It also won two BAFTAs, with three more nominations, two Saturn Awards, with another seven nominations, and was included on AFI's 100 Thrills list. The legacy of this movie can be found in numerous films and video games since its release and has resulted in its placement on several lists as one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time and inclusion in 2012 to the Library of Congress National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."
6. Goodfellas (1990)
Americans have always had a fascination for the mafia and Martin Scorsese's inside look into the criminal fraternity is the greatest since Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather films in the 1970s. Goodfellas follows the rise and fall of Lucchese family foot soldier Henry Hill and his associates. The film is based on Hill's biography Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family by Nicholas Pileggi. The film received overwhelming positive feedback and was named the best movie of the year by several film critics, including Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, and Peter Travers. Earning six Academy Award, five Golden Globe, and seven BAFTA nominations, the movie received six wins total. It also received a myriad of nominations and wins at other award ceremonies. Publicatons including Sight and Sound, Time, Empire, Total Film, and Premiere rated Goodfellas among the best films of all time and inspired the creation of HBO's The Sopranos. It ranked 94th and 92nd on AFI's 100 Movies and 100 Movies 10th Anniversary Edition lists, respectively, and ranked second on AFI's 10 Top 10 Gangster films. In 2000, it was included in the National Film Registry.
5. Toy Story (1995)
The film that put PIXAR on the map, had Disney rethinking its animation style, and created two characters to children that have become as legendary as Mickey Mouse, Bambi, and Cinderella, Toy Story introduced computer animation in feature-length format to the world. PIXAR's first major hit features Buzz, Woody, and other toys who come to life when humans aren't around and follows the adventures of the two main characters when they get separated from the group as a result of Woody's jealousy at the attention Buzz receives as the new toy in the house. At the time of its release, Toy Story was praised by critics and audiences alike, considered to be the greatest animated film of all time, and spawned two sequels, short films, toy merchandising, video games, and theme park rides. Toy Story won eight Annie awards and was nominated for several Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Kids' Choice Awards, and MTV Movie Awards. It also won best animated feature at the Los Angeles and Kansas City Film Critics award shows. Director John Lasseter was awarded an Academy Special Achievement Award "for the development and inspired application of techniques that made possible the first feature-length computer-animated film." The Library of Congress included the movie in the National Film Registry in 2005.
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
What computers did to advance animation in Toy Story, Terminator 2: Judgment Day did the same in progressing computer visual effects. James Cameron's follow-up to 1984's The Terminator brought Arnold Schwarzenegger back to the screen as the killer robot from the future, but this time he is programmed to be the protector of Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor and her son John, who will be a liberator for mankind in the future in the war against the machines. Audiences and critics alike were blown away by the special effects Cameron was able to manufacture, creating the first partially computer-generated main character in the T-1000 model terminator, played by Robert Patrick. Terminator 2 was awarded best visual or special effects at the Academy, Saturn, and BAFTA awards. It also won three additional Academy Awards, four Saturn Awards, and a BAFTA. At the time of its release, the movie had the highest budget of all time at a little more than $100 million, however, it made nearly $520 million from worldwide receipts. The American Film Institute included the film on its 100 Thrills, 100 Quotes, and 10 Top 10 Science Fiction lists and the Terminator character was included on both the 100 Heroes and Villains list.
3. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Initially receiving a tepid reception from audiences and barely making its money back on the initial box office run, Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption has since grown to become an exemplary case in storytelling and acting. The story, based on a novella from Stephen King, is about a banker named Andy Dufresne, imprisoned for the murder of his wife and her lover, befriends a fellow inmate and becomes the warden's personal treasurer in a money laundering scheme. The Shawshank Redemption received seven Academy Awrds nominations, but went home empty-handed. It did win two Golden Globes and received nominations at the Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild of America, and American Society of Cinematographers award ceremonies. AFI ignored the film in its initial 100 Movies list, but upon review for the 10th Anniversary Edition it ranked at 72. It was also included in AFI's 10 Cheers list. Readers of Empire magazine ranked the film as the best film of the 1990s and IMDb users have listed the movie as the greatest of all time as of this writing.
2. Forrest Gump (1994)
Second guessing an Academy Award winning best picture is nothing new and there are not many movies that have won the top Oscar as emotionally gratifying as Forrest Gump, but for some reason there are several moviegoers who find the fictional biographical tale that covers multiple newsworthy moments in American history across numerous decades so trite. Along with the Best Picture win, the film was also awarded an Oscar for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. It also received seven Golden Globe nominations, winning in three categories, along with numerous other accolades were bestowed upon the movie at the People's Choice Awards, Saturn Awards, and Young Artist Awards. With powerful performances, a top-selling soundtrack, and symbolism laced throughout Forrest Gump, the real standout achievement of the movie are the special effects that incorporated Tom Hanks' character into real-life archive footage. The AFI included the film in its 100 Movies, 100 Movies 10th Anniversary, 100 Quotes, and 100 Cheers lists and the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2001.
1. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Acclaimed for intense and graphic sequences of war violence, including the opening scene that depicts soldiers storming Omaha Beach on D-day, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan is an epic story detailing the horrors of war that surrounded a small group of men searching for a single man in all of German-occupied France. Its depiction of warfare was so realistic, there are reports of World War II veterans walking out of the film rather than suffer the memories Speilberg was able to recall through his photography. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning five awards and resulting in Spielberg garnering his second Best Director award. However, the movie's lack of a Best Picture win puts it on the losing side in one of the greatest upsets in Academy history. Other award ceremonies recognizing the picture were the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, Saturn Awards, and Grammys. Saving Private Ryan was celebrated among critics and earned significant returns at the box office. The American Film Institute included the picture among its 100 Thrills, 100 Cheers, 100 Movies 10th Anniversary Edition, and 10 Top 10 Epics lists.
Analysis
Like several examples on this list prove, film in the 1990s saw great advances in CGI-technology and it was the pinnacle of Tom Hanks career. In 1997, home theater saw the emergence of the DVD, providing for sharper picture quality and interactive special features, including director and actor commentaries and in-depth "making of" documentaries. The Internet also played a part in marketing films, beginning with The Blair Witch Project. Another accomplishment of the decade for cinema was the rise in independent filmmaking.
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