Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time

Alien (1979)
Director: Ridley Scott
A sci-fi slasher film. A B idea, made great by Scott’s grimily industrial space programme, H. R. Giger’s obscenely biomechanical monster and Sigourney Weaver’s sweaty feminism. Read Review

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
Director: George Roy Hill
The cuddliest downbeat Western succeeds on canny miscasting. Newman and Robert are dead wrong as ageing outlaws, but perfect as 1969 defiant youth. Read Review

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Gone With The Wind (1939)
Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood
Exhausting at least three directors, stars Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, megalomaniac producer David O. Selznick delivered the epic of Hollywood’s golden age. Read Review

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Aliens (1986)
Director: James Cameron
Where Ridley Scott was all about slow-building tension, James Cameron creates a whirlwind of pure panic and violence. Probably the most exciting film ever made. Read Review

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Die Hard (1988)
Director: John McTiernan
Is it yippee-kay-yay or yippy-kay-yay or yippy-ki-aye? The argument rages on and on. Motherfuckers. Read Review

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Citizen Kane (1941)
Director: Orson Welles
It may come as a jolt to film historians that Welles’ hallowed classic, so embalmed as the ‘Greatest Film Ever Made’, has only just squeezed into the top 30. Has time finally caught up with it? While Welles’ achievement is never in doubt, it remains a film that appeals more to the academic and critic than the film fan, partly because of its reputation. Talked of with hushed voices and nodding heads by wise arbiters of film, for the non-acolyte it can feel like an enigma — a whopping cathedral of a movie, awe-inspiring, but too vast and ornate to love. If the list embodies only technical prowess and thematic power then its demotion is a shock, but is it a friend for life? A comfort? On current showing, perhaps not. 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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