Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time

163

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
Director: David Lean
An intelligent tale of misguided pride among a group of British POWs who have been co-opted into building a railway bridge for the Japanese army, this is Lean mixing epic visuals with true complexity. Read Review

162

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Director: Wes Craven
A new breed of cinematic killer who literally climbed inside your dreams, Freddy Krueger was a truly scary creation, with Craven riffing on almost Jungian fear of what sleep might bring. Read Review

161

The Year Of Living Dangerously (1982)
Director: Peter Weir
It’s testament to the power of Weir’s superior political thriller-romance that it was banned in Indonesia, where its events take place, until 1999. Starring a never-more-dashing Mel Gibson as foreign correspondent Guy Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver as British Embassy official Jill Bryant, it’s set during an attempted 1965 coup against the brutal Sukarno regime. Often compared to Costa-Gavras’ Missing, released the same year, it brilliantly captures the knife-edge tension of its setting. It is also notable for one of the most extraordinary performances of the ’80s — actress Linda Hunt’s portrayal of a male Chinese-Australian dwarf named Billy Kwan. It was a role that, quite rightly, won her an Oscar. Read Review

160

Being There (1979)
Director: Hal Ashby
Heartfelt comedy and biting social satire with Peter Sellers (in his last role) as Chance, a guileless child-man whose simple pronouncements on tending a garden are taken as profound insights into the nature of the world.

159

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Director: Wes Anderson
And you thought your family was crazy… Anderson’s eccentric, hilarious and moving dramedy about the world’s most dysfunctional clan is almost too quirky for its own good. Almost. Read Review

This poll was conducted in November 2008. The list was compiled using votes from Empire readers, Hollywood actors, actress and key film critics.

In conjunction with the poll results, we produced 100 individual covers celebrating some of the key films in the list. View 100 Covers

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