WGA 101 Greatest Screenplays That I've Seen

Submitted by AJDaGreat on Mon, 05/01/2006 - 04:25
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  1. Casablanca (1942)
  2. The Godfather (1972)
  3. Chinatown (1974)
  4. Citizen Kane (1941)
  5. All About Eve (1950)
  6. Annie Hall (1977)
  7. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
  8. Network (1976)
  9. Some Like It Hot (1959)
  10. The Godfather Part II (1974)
  11. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  12. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
  13. The Graduate (1967)
  14. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  15. The Apartment (1960)
  16. Pulp Fiction (1994)
  17. Tootsie (1982)
  18. On the Waterfront (1954)
  19. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
  20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
  21. North by Northwest (1959)
  22. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  23. Gone With the Wind (1939)
  24. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
  25. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  26. Double Indemnity (1944)
  27. Groundhog Day (1993)
  28. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
  29. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
  30. Unforgiven (1992)
  31. His Girl Friday (1940)
  32. Fargo (1996)
  33. The Third Man (1949)
  34. The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
  35. The Usual Suspects (1995)
  36. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
  37. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
  38. American Beauty (1999)
  39. The Sting (1973)
  40. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
  41. Goodfellas (1990)
  42. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
  43. Taxi Driver (1976)
  44. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  45. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
  46. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
  47. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
  48. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
  49. Schindler’s List (1993)
  50. The Sixth Sense (1999)
  51. Broadcast News (1987)
  52. The Lady Eve (1941)
  53. All the President’s Men (1976)
  54. Manhattan (1979)
  55. Apocalypse Now (1979)
  56. Back to the Future (1985)
  57. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
  58. Ordinary People (1980)
  59. It Happened One Night (1934)
  60. L.A. Confidential (1997)
  61. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  62. Moonstruck (1987)
  63. Jaws (1975)
  64. Terms of Endearment (1983)
  65. Singin’ in the Rain (1957)
  66. Jerry Maguire (1996)
  67. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
  68. Star Wars (1977)
  69. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
  70. The African Queen (1950)
  71. The Lion in Winter (1968)
  72. Thelma and Louise (1991)
  73. Amadeus (1984)
  74. Being John Malkovich (1999)
  75. High Noon (1952)
  76. Raging Bull (1980)
  77. Adaptation (2002)
  78. Rocky (1976)
  79. The Producers (1968)
  80. Witness (1985)
  81. Being There (1979)
  82. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
  83. Rear Window (1954)
  84. The Princess Bride (1987)
  85. La Grande Illusion (1937)
  86. Harold and Maude (1971)
  87. 8 ½ (1963)
  88. Field of Dreams (1989)
  89. Forrest Gump (1994)
  90. Sideways (2004)
  91. The Verdict (1982)
  92. Psycho (1960)
  93. Do the Right Thing (1989)
  94. Patton (1970)
  95. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
  96. The Hustler (1961)
  97. The Searchers (1956)
  98. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
  99. The Wild Bunch (1969)
  100. Memento (2000)
  101. Notorious (1946)
Author Comments: 

List is available here:

http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=1807

The ones with numbers are the ones I've seen.

Cloned From: 
IMDB Top 100 as of October 18th, 2004 That I've Seen
AJDaGreat05/01/2006

When I first saw this list, I loved it, because the top 10 is very solid. Then I realized the list has no credibility because Bringing Up Baby isn't on it. What the hell?

It's a pretty generic, high-profile list with few interesting choices. I am very glad to see Harold and Maude and Memento on the list, but even those aren't terribly interesting picks for a screenplay list, and besides, it's too little too late.

A lot of sketchy picks here too. The Sixth Sense? Successful because of great, creepy direction and excellent performances, not the script. Also, I'm sorry, but Psycho? A classic, sure, but not based on the screenplay. Only has one scene where the writing is worth talking about (the Norman/Marion scene with the line "A boy's best friend is his mother"). Is one iconic line enough to get a script onto this list? If so, where's Planet of the Apes? "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty apes!"

There are also some very entertaining adventure films on here that I nonetheless do not think are among the greatest achievements in film writing ever. The Wizard of Oz? Raiders of the Lost Ark? Back to the Future? Bah.

WGA, you've kinda let me down, not gonna lie. But ah, well, whaddayagonnado.