Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top 100 American Films

(Alternate to the American Film Institute Top 100)

• Ace in the Hole (The Big Carnival) (1951, Billy Wilder)
• Affair to Remember, An (1957, Leo McCarey)
• Anatomy of a Murder (1959, Otto Preminger)
• Avanti! (1972, Billy Wilder)
• Barefoot Contessa, The (1954, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
• Big Sky, The (1952, Howard Hawks)
• Bigger Than Life (1956, Nicholas Ray)
• Black Cat, The (1934, Edgar G. Ulmer)
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale)
• Broken Blossoms (1919, D.W. Griffith)
• Cat People (1942, Jacques Tourneur)
• Christmas in July (1940, Preston Sturges)
• Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962, Albert Zugsmith)
• Crowd, The (1928, King Vidor)
• Dead Man (1995, Jim Jarmusch)
• Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee)
• Docks of New York, The (1928, Josef von Sternberg)
• Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1974, Thom Andersen)
• 11 x 14 (1976, James Benning)
• Eraserhead (1978, David Lynch)
• Foolish Wives (1922, Erich von Stroheim)
• Force of Evil (1948, Abraham Polonsky)
• Freaks (1932, Tod Browning)
• General, The (1927, Buster Keaton)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953, Howard Hawks)
• Gilda (1946, Charles Vidor)
• Great Garrick, The (1937, James Whale)
• Greed (1925, Erich Von Stroheim)
• Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933, Lewis Milestone)
• Heartbreak Kid, The (1972, Elaine May)
• Housekeeping (1987, Bill Forsyth)
• Hustler, The (1961, Robert Rossen)
• Intolerance (1916, D.W. Griffith)
• Johnny Guitar (1954, Nicholas Ray)
• Judge Priest (1934, John Ford)
• Killer of Sheep (1978, Charles Burnett)
• Killing of a Chinese Bookie, The (1976, John Cassavettes)
• Killing, The (1956, Stanley Kubrick)
• Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Robert Aldrich)
• Ladies' Man, The (1961, Jerry Lewis)
• Lady From Shanghai, The (1948, Orson Welles)
• Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977, Jon Jost)
• Laughter (1930, Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast)
• Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948, Max Ophuls)
• Lonesome (1929, Paul Fejos)
• Love Me Tonight (1932, Rouben Mamoulian)
• Love Streams (1984, John Cassavetes)
• Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942, Orson Welles)
• Make Way for Tomorrow (1937, Leo McCarey)
• Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (1962, John Ford)
• Man's Castle (1933, Frank Borzage)
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, Robert Altman)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Vincente Minnelli)
• Mikey and Nicky (1976, Elaine May)
• Monsieur Verdoux (1947, Charles Chaplin)
• My Son John (1952, Leo McCarey)
• Naked Spur, The (1953, Anthony Mann)
• Nanook of the North (1922, Robert J. Flaherty)
• Night of the Hunter, The (1955, Charles Laughton)
• Nutty Professor, The (1963, Jerry Lewis)
• Palm Beach Story, The (1942, Preston Sturges)
• Panic in the Streets (1950, Elia Kazan)
• Park Row (1952, Samuel Fuller)
• Phenix City Story, The (1955, Phil Karlson)
• Point Blank (1967, John Boorman)
• Real Life (1979, Albert Brooks)
• Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971, Jonas Mekas)
• Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks)
• Scarface (1932, Howard Hawks)
• Scarlet Empress, The (1934, Josef von Sternberg)
• Scarlet Street (1945, Fritz Lang)
• Scenes From Under Childhood (1970, Stan Brakhage)
• Scenic Route, The (1978, Mark Rappaport)
• Seventh Victim, The (1943, Mark Robson)
• Shadows (1960, John Cassavettes)
• Sherlock Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton)
• Shooting, The (1967, Monte Hellman)
• Shop Around the Corner, The (1940, Ernst Lubitsch)
• Sound of Fury, The / Try and Get Me! (1950, Cy Endfield)
• Stars in My Crown (1950, Jacques Tourneur)
• Steel Helmet, The (1951, Samuel Fuller)
• Stranger Than Paradise (1984, Jim Jarmusch)
• Strawberry Blonde, The (1941, Raoul Walsh)
• Sunrise (1927, F.W. Murnau)
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935, George Cukor)
• Tarnished Angels, The (1958, Douglas Sirk)
• That's Entertainment! III (1994, Bud Friedgen & Michael J. Sheridan)
• This Land Is Mine (1943, Jean Renoir)
• Thunderbolt (1929, Josef von Sternberg)
• To Sleep With Anger (1990, Charles Burnett)
• Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969, Ken Jacobs)
• Track of the Cat (1954, William A. Wellman)
• Trouble in Paradise (1932, Ernst Lubitsch)
• Vinyl (1965, Andy Warhol)
• Wanda (1971, Barbara Loden)
• While the City Sleeps (1956, Fritz Lang)
• Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957, Frank Tashlin)
• Woodstock (1970, Michael Wadleigh)
• Wrong Man, The (1957, Alfred Hitchcock)
• Zabriskie Point (1969, Michaelangelo Antonioni)

See this list at the Chicago Reader