My Top (93) IMDb Ratings

Anyone who knows me knows I'm very much into something I called 'filmed entertainment.' Included in this expansive phrase are feature movies, short subject films, documentaries, TV series, made-for-TV movies, and TV mini-series. Of course I've watched all these things since I was a young kid; however; I grew more serious about cinema, especially international cinema, after 1995. My tastes run from popular TV programs to arthouse and experimental films.

In the early 2000's it was clear that I had to somehow keep track of what I've seen, what I want to see, and what I should see. After the fifth time I pulled the same item off the library shelf thinking hmmm, this looks interesting only to watch the first two minutes and think isn't this the one where he does....yeah, I've seen this already! So, I started tracking what I'd watched on IMDb and I also developed a very detailed, many paged spreadsheet. I rely on my spreadsheet so much now that I rarely walk up to the library shelf (other than their version of 'New Releases') -- I simply search for things on my various lists, place holds, and watch them as they arrive.

To date I have rated 5,995 titles on IMDb and have 6,222 items listed and 'seen' in my database. Why the difference in numbers? Well, 217 titlez in my spreadsheet aren't even cataloged in IMDb and even after downloading my IMDb data, comparing it to my spreadsheet, updating both, I still have managed to lose ten titles -- after completing my comparison the number was three, so roughly one title a month seems to fail to update on IMDb. Oh well.

Anyway, as I approach my 6,000 IMDb rated title, I thought it was time to provide some listings about something I seem to care so much about. To start off a series of posts, I decided to list all items I have rated 10 out 10 stars on IMDb. What does a 10 star rating mean? Are these the best movies of all time? Are they somehow the most important or simply my favorites? This is a very difficult question to answer mostly since there are no guidelines for how many stars one user assigns a movie. For instance, someone might give every movie with Ben Affleck in it a 10 and every movie with Matt Damon in it a 1 on principle. I have tried to develop a rating system that resembles how we were graded as students. In school, a C was considered average and minus a curve, a score of 70-79% (correct) was generally a C. This is where I start. I then add and subtract a star for things that stand out to me related to acting, cinematography, design, plot, stupidity, originality -- okay, I admit, it's a very inexact science. I also freely admit that my ratings are highly subjective and you will probably notice a difference between my rating and IMDb's weighted average.

One note, generally a really good/great movie will only score 9 stars on my rating -- to earn that tenth star, it has to have that something extra; it must move me emotionally. So, the movies and TV programs listed below are each examples of works that have touched me deeply.

I will make some more remarks over this series of posts related to ratings and such. Please, feel free to ask questions though I'm unlikely to 'discuss' (aka argue) a item's merits. If you haven't seen some of these movies and TV programs, I hope you will track them down. They may not touch you the same way they have touched me, but you'll see what does, in fact, touch me.

The Top 93 are not provided in an discernible order.

Enjoy!

Title	Year	Type	My Stars	AVG Stars	# of Ratings	When I Rated Item
My Dog Tulip	2009	Feature	10	6.8	782	11 months ago
4 Little Girls	1997	Documentary	10	7.7	1,546	28 Sep 2004
500 Nations	1995	Mini-Series	10	8.5	266	27 Sep 2004
The Hanging Garden	1997	Feature	10	6.9	2,157	13 Dec 2008
49 Up	2005	Documentary	10	8.2	1,382	16 Nov 2007
Touching Evil	1997	TV Series	10	7.8	564	12 Aug 2007
Wild Pacific	2009	TV Series	10	8.9	645	28 Feb 2010
Stevie	2002	Documentary	10	8.0	1,749	30 Jun 2005
Broadway: The American Musical	2004	TV Series	10	8.5	229	02 Nov 2007
Hearts and Minds	1974	Documentary	10	8.3	2,707	28 Oct 2009
The Boys in the Band	1970	Feature	10	7.4	1,750	5 months ago
The Civil War	1990	Mini-Series	10	9.4	3,067	03 May 2008
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love	1959	Feature	10	8.5	2,009	24 Oct 2011
The Blue Planet	2001	Mini-Series	10	9.3	3,530	16 Sep 2008
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer	1961	Feature	10	8.7	1,527	24 Oct 2011
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara	2003	Documentary	10	8.2	13,478	5 months ago
Winged Migration	2001	Documentary	10	7.9	8,238	20 Mar 2009
The World at War	1973	TV Series	10	9.6	3,571	12 Oct 2010
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters	1985	Feature	10	7.8	3,373	02 Oct 2010
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	1945	Feature	10	7.9	3,626	10 months ago
House of Cards	1990	Mini-Series	10	8.9	1,947	31 Aug 2007
Ace in the Hole	1951	Feature	10	8.2	11,040	06 Oct 2010
From the Earth to the Moon	1998	Mini-Series	10	8.9	5,129	31 Aug 2004
The Last Emperor	1987	Feature	10	7.8	39,178	01 Apr 2001
To Live	1994	Feature	10	8.0	7,860	14 Dec 2007
The Corner	2000	Mini-Series	10	8.6	1,994	30 Sep 2009
Umberto D.	1952	Feature	10	8.2	10,903	20 Feb 2009
Departures	2008	Feature	10	8.1	19,444	16 Mar 2010
Eyes on the Prize	1987	TV Series	10	9.0	279	07 Mar 2008
Presumed Guilty	2008	Documentary	10	8.2	840	11 Aug 2010
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity	1959	Feature	10	8.5	1,510	24 Oct 2011
Carrier	2008	TV Series	10	8.3	412	09 Aug 2008
West Bank Story	2005	Short Film	10	7.4	1,169	05 Aug 2009
42: Forty Two Up	1998	Documentary	10	8.3	1,163	16 Nov 2007
Walking with Prehistoric Beasts	2001	TV Series	10	8.4	719	21 Jun 2008
Cabaret	1972	Feature	10	7.8	24,300	20 Jan 2010
Mean Creek	2004	Feature	10	7.3	18,714	21 Mar 2008
An Unreasonable Man	2006	Documentary	10	7.7	1,137	29 Mar 2008
Koyaanisqatsi	1982	Documentary	10	8.2	16,432	19 Aug 2009
Judgment at Nuremberg	1961	Feature	10	8.3	22,099	05 Oct 2007
The Black Adder	1982	TV Series	10	8.4	12,792	23 Feb 2007
Joyeux Noel	2005	Feature	10	7.7	13,198	25 Jan 2008
Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance	2004	TV Series	10	8.1	175	12 Jul 2005
Witnesses	2003	Feature	10	6.9	490	28 Oct 2009
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	2001	Feature	10	8.8	622,990	04 Aug 2003
The Godfather	1972	Feature	10	9.2	618,844	04 Aug 2003
The Joy Luck Club	1993	Feature	10	7.2	9,678	6 months ago
The Wire	2002	TV Series	10	9.5	75,968	19 Dec 2008
City of God	2002	Feature	10	8.7	279,246	11 Apr 2008
The Help	2011	Feature	10	8.1	116,371	4 weeks ago
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery	1997	Documentary	10	8.7	451	03 May 2008
Vietnam: A Television History	1983	TV Series	10	8.8	148	03 May 2008
V for Vendetta	2005	Feature	10	8.2	400,858	16 Mar 2007
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	Feature	10	8.9	599,506	24 Aug 2004
American History X	1998	Feature	10	8.6	390,692	04 Aug 2003
The Lives of Others	2006	Feature	10	8.5	133,165	11 Apr 2008
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	2002	Feature	10	8.7	537,521	24 Aug 2004
Trainspotting	1996	Feature	10	8.2	247,162	20 Feb 2009
Deadwood	2004	TV Series	10	9.0	29,947	18 Jan 2008
The King's Speech	2010	Feature	10	8.2	210,741	24 Aug 2011
I'll Wait for the Next One...	2002	Short Film	10	7.5	673	19 Aug 2009
The Godfather: Part II	1974	Feature	10	9.1	395,647	04 Aug 2003
Rome	2005	TV Series	10	9.0	44,281	21 Dec 2007
Six Feet Under	2001	TV Series	10	8.9	45,303	03 May 2008
Children of Men	2006	Feature	10	8.0	235,457	21 Mar 2008
Little Terrorist	2004	Short Film	10	7.1	436	28 Oct 2009
Million Dollar Baby	2004	Feature	10	8.1	242,661	12 Dec 2009
The Reader	2008	Feature	10	7.6	104,084	15 Dec 2009
Hotel Rwanda	2004	Feature	10	8.2	147,159	02 Mar 2007
Dog	2002	Short Film	10	6.9	284	19 Aug 2009
Changeling	2008	Feature	10	7.8	123,031	16 Jan 2010
Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker	1994	Feature	10	6.8	365	01 Apr 2001
Das Boot	1981	Feature	10	8.5	99,550	04 Aug 2003
Amores Perros	2000	Feature	10	8.1	99,758	04 Aug 2003
Lawrence of Arabia	1962	Feature	10	8.5	109,776	04 Aug 2003
Leaving Las Vegas	1995	Feature	10	7.6	61,185	09 Mar 2007
M*A*S*H	1972	TV Series	10	8.4	16,676	30 Sep 2009
Dances with Wolves	1990	Feature	10	8.0	108,178	03 May 2008
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring	2003	Feature	10	8.1	32,861	22 Jun 2010
Grave of the Fireflies	1988	Feature	10	8.4	59,064	02 Mar 2007
Glory	1989	Feature	10	7.9	72,640	04 Aug 2003
The Color Purple	1985	Feature	10	7.7	38,499	17 Jun 2010
A Christmas Story	1983	Feature	10	8.0	66,237	04 Aug 2003
Insectia	1999	Mini-Series	10	8.4	42	27 Aug 2004
Czechoslovakia 1918-1968	1969	Documentary	10	6.7	53	02 Dec 2009
The Apartment	1960	Feature	10	8.4	57,689	04 Aug 2003
Sling Blade	1996	Feature	10	8.0	51,216	04 Aug 2003
Fried Green Tomatoes	1991	Feature	10	7.4	32,810	17 Jun 2010
The Sea Inside	2004	Feature	10	8.0	39,354	12 Dec 2009
The Ten Commandments	1956	Feature	10	7.8	29,401	04 Nov 2009
The Night of the Hunter	1955	Feature	10	8.2	37,232	02 Dec 2009
Live Flesh	1997	Feature	10	7.4	14,946	12 Apr 2001
House of Sand and Fog	2003	Feature	10	7.6	41,316	16 Sep 2004