Scott Kacsmar: My Top 500 Films of All Time

For lovers of film and round numbers, there’s really no milestone like watching your 5,000th film. That’s the milestone I hit recently on the day I turned 34 and 1/3 years old. If you grew up years before having the internet or a smartphone by your side, you probably hit 1,000 movies on the strength of your VHS collection and many trips to the rental stores and local theaters.

The chase to 5,000? That’s been much different, aided so much by the DVR and streaming services. Thanks to the internet, it’s never been easier to track down obscure movies and watch at your own pace.

Technology has also made it so simple to track your progress. You can always see what I’ve watched and rated on my IMDb and Letterboxd accounts. Things have come a long way from the red pen and notebook I used in elementary school to track and rate the movies I watched. That set the groundwork for a spreadsheet I maintain to this day, which helped me create my accounts on those film pages.

Thanks to decades of tracking this stuff, it wasn’t that difficult for me to create a list of my 500 favorite films of all time. Take note of the word “favorite” there rather than “best” or “greatest.” This is my personal preference, so the only person who should be getting mad at me for a certain film placement is myself.

So how did I get things down to a top 500?

Documentaries (sorry, Grizzly Man) and shorts were excluded. My starting list included about 650 titles that I rated an 8/10 on IMDb (or 4/5 on Letterboxd). One thing I did not do was look at the nearly 1,900 titles I rated a 7/10 (3.5/5), which is easily my most commonly used rating. Should some of those films probably have been rated higher and could make my top 500? I have no doubt, but maybe during the next pandemic I can take a look at those.

Much like when ranking the top 100 NFL players of all time, I have a really hard time comparing movies from different genres. It’s not unlike trying to compare a quarterback to a linebacker. While I could give you my top 10 war or top 10 sci-fi movies, the mixing of genres makes things difficult.

To compromise, I only ranked my top 100 films. Everything from 101-500 is in alphabetical order. I had roughly 100 films that I rated a 9/10 (4.5/5), because I have always been strict on ratings, so that helped make the decision to stop at 100 much easier. If you ever looked at my ratings online before, then you know I’ve only given my #1 favorite film a perfect score, so the start of the list won’t be a surprise.

My Top 500 Favorite Films of All Time

For the full 500, see my list on Letterboxd here.

In closing, I must say it’s fitting that I hit this milestone during the COVID-19 pandemic. When March started, I was going through the incredible FX series Nip/Tuck for the first time. Right after I finished that my focus shifted back to films, which I have neglected in favor of TV series for years now as TV looks to be the superior format for storytelling these days.

I’ve always said that I could catch up on films if there was ever a period where new ones just stopped being made for a year or two. Well, COVID is about the closest we’re going to get to that reality. According to Letterboxd, I’ve watched 456 films this year and that’s mostly from March through August.

As 2020 has reminded us daily, tomorrow is never guaranteed. Do I have another 5,000 films in me to get to 10,000? That’s too hard to say, which is why I respect the 5,000 milestone.

There’s also the sobering fact that I have likely consumed more great films in 34 years than I will for the rest of my life, even if I live to a very old age. In a way, this was unavoidable. There are over 100 years of cinema to draw from right now, and as you have seen, I’ve dug deep into it already. I could probably create a watchlist of 2,500 films from the lists I collect of great films, but many of those are obscure and hard to find. It would take a lot of quality future releases to get over 10,000 films.

If I’m fortunate enough to look back on this list in 20-30 years, I’ll be curious to see how many titles in my top 100 change. No matter the amount, I will keep watching. I will keep hunting for gems. I will keep hoping to be entertained or moved while I still can.