SF + Fantasy Films
Thanks to everyone who, besides nominating 20 (or thereabouts) of their favorite sf & fantasy films for the list below, also volunteered to help winnow that list down to 100 “essentials.” Instructions will follow the list of 140 titles (I think I counted them accurately) with 3 or more nominations:
The Abyss (James Cameron, 1989)
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Terry Gilliam, 1988)
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) (Lotte Reiniger, 1927)
Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 1988)
Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi/Wilfred Jackson/Hamilton Luske, 1951)
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)
The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 1971)
Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
La Belle et la bête (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
Big (Penny Marshall, 1988)
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
Blithe Spirit (David Lean, 1945)
A Boy and His Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975)
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)
Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari) (Robert Wiene, 1920)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
Celine and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau) (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
Charly (Ralph Nelson, 1968)
Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi/Wilfred Jackson/Hamilton Luske, 1950)
The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus) (Marc Caro/Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1995)
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo hu cang long) (Ang Lee, 2000)
Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998)
The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson/Frank Oz, 1982)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)
Delicatessen (Marc Caro/Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991)
The Devil and Daniel Webster/All That Money Can Buy (William Dieterle, 1941)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)
The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981)
The Exterminating Angel (El Ángel exterminador) (Luis Buñuel, 1962)
Fantasia (Ben Sharpsteen et. al., 1940)
Fantastic Planet (La Planète sauvage) (René Laloux, 1973)
Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989)
The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997)
Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)
Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947)
Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950)
The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963)
Horror of Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)
The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)
Invaders from Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
The Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933)
The Iron Giant (Brad Bird, 1999)
It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963)
Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
Kiki's Delivery Service (Majo no takkyubin) (Hayao Miyazaki, 1989)
King Kong (Merian C. Cooper & Ernst Schoedsack, 1933)
Kwaidan (Kaidan) (Masaki Kobayashi, 1964)
Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986)
Logan’s Run (Michael Anderson, 1976)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, 2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003)
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964)
A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
The Matrix (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 1999)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 1947)
Monsters, Inc. (Peter Docter, 2001)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam/Terry Jones, 1975)
My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro) (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)
Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993)
Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922)
Orpheus (Orphée) (Jean Cocteau, 1949)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Albert Lewin, 1945)
Pinocchio (Ben Sharpsteen/Hamilton Luske, 1940)
Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968)
Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948)
The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983)
Return to Oz (Walter Murch, 1985)
RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
Scrooge/A Christmas Carol (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1951)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (Nathan Juran, 1958)
Shrek (Andrew Adamson/Vicki Jenson, 2001)
Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972)
Sleeper (Woody Allen, 1973)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Jack Clayton, 1983)
Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi) (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Nicholas Meyer, 1991)
Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
Starman (John Carpenter, 1984)
Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)
The Tales of Hoffman (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, 1951)
The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954)
The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger/Michael Powell/Tim Whelan, 1940)
The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks, 1951)
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936)
Throne of Blood (Kumonosu jô) (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981)
The Time Machine (George Pal, 1960)
Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)
Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, 1999)
12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, 1954)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
2010 (Peter Hyams, 1984)
Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla, 1960)
The War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin, 1953)
Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978)
Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis/Richard Williams, 1988)
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) (Wim Wenders, 1988)
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000)
X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer, 2003)
Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974)
Basically, all you have to do is reply to this message by listing the films above that you’ve actually viewed, ranked in the order that you’d like to see them on the final list of “100 most essential sf/fantasy films.” (Thus, your number one film would be “most essential,” your number two would be “2nd most essential,” etc.) How you define this is up to you. You may wish to consider the films’ historical importance, or how well they fulfill (or challenge) the requirements of their genre(s), or how much you responded to them as a viewer; these are only some of the many possible criteria by which these films may be judged for this list.
Ideally, what I’d love to see every juror’s complete and fully ranked list of films they’ve seen from the master list. Since this is the real world, where people have a lot of other demands on their energy and attention, I’ll just say that such lists are desired but not absolutely required. Jurors pressed for time and effort may start with a “top 20” list (or 30, or 40--do I hear 50?) drawing upon the above titles, and expand on it later if necessary. Ties are OK, but anyone submitting a list with too many of them risked being contacted with queries such as, “Of the films X and Y--two of the 35 titles you have tied for 15th--which do you really, really prefer?”
That’s all for now. Happy listing, and please let me know if you have any questions!