It only came out 261 days into the decade.
That doesn’t matter though.
Goodfellas is the greatest movie of the 1990’s.
I’ll even go a step further.
Since Goodfellas came out, there hasn’t been a better movie made.
It’s cruelly poetic that a movie about thieves was robbed at the Oscars.
It famously lost out to Dances With Wolves and Kevin Costner for Best Picture and Director respectively that year.
But, it even goes beyond that.
Joe Pesci did win Best Supporting Actor but somehow Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta weren’t even nominated.
De Niro was instead nominated for Awakenings (which is good but notthis).
Liotta wasn’t nominated at all.
You could argue it’s the greatest performance ever not be nominated.
When Goodfellas came out, it was deemed as too violent by some of the older Academy voters.
There is so much brilliance in Goodfellas.
It’s the finest editing job I’ve ever seen in a film.
Thelma Schoonmaker was (and still is) a longtime collaborator with Scorsese and this is their masterpiece.
She did win 3 Oscars (Raging Bull, The Aviator and The Departed) but this is perfection.
So much of this is elite.
The Copacabana long shot through the kitchen to their seat.
The panic that the helicopter overhead brings.
I love that shot so much.
That’s just one shot.
There is so much about Goodfellas that is so rich but also so exciting that it never gets old.
It just stays great.
This is about truly evil people and like Raging Bull, it never shies away from that.
Henry Hill is never sad at the lives he hurt.
He’s mad he’s not important anymore.
Same with everyone we spend time with in the movie.
They never show remorse.
They just hate they got caught.
But that’s true filmmaking.
Scorsese never holds our hand.
He simply shows these people as entertainingly as possible.
That’s all you’re free to ask for from a great movie.
The answer is pretty simple.
I don’t like those movies as much as the other movies on this list.
Now, I completely understand that 99% of lists like this would have The Matrix on it.
Anyone can search online for a traditional list of 1990’s movies but that seemed boring to me.
However, that also means more people will shit on a personal list.
But you know what?
These lists exist so people will argue with them.
No one would have the exact same list of 100 movies.
These lists are created so people will react.
I know I do whenever I see a top 100 list that Rolling Stone or someone puts out.
You think I have Braveheart too low or Back To The Future 3 too high?
That’s perfectly fair.
I disagree clearly but you’re supposed to argue with lists like this.
Why did this list take so fucking long?
It was supposed to!
It gave me a blog topic each week about something I cared about.
I will say I should have been done after 100 weeks and it took 128 weeks.
I re-watched every movie before writing the blog and there were some weeks I wasn’t able to.
But I really enjoyed this process.
I liked writing about movies (nearly) every Friday.
So much so, that I’m going to keep doing it.
Starting next month, I’ll be ranking every movie that comes out in wide release in 2025.
See you guys in January with (checks notes): Den Of Thieves 2.
THE GREATEST MOVIES OF THE 1990’S:
1.
The Shawshank Redemption
4.
Good Will Hunting
5.
The Silence Of The Lambs
8.
The Sixth Sense
10.
A Few Good Men
14.
The Truman Show
16.
There’s Something About Mary
20.
Schindler’s List
22.
Saving Private Ryan
25.
Dumb & Dumber
27.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31.
Out Of Sight
36.
Carlito’s Way
37.
Wayne’s World
45.
Back To The Future Part III
47.
A Bronx Tale
48.
The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49.
Eyes Wide Shut
50.
The Green Mile
54.
Man On The Moon
55.
Boyz N The Hood
56.
Grosse Pointe Blank
57.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
63.
The Usual Suspects
65.
In The Line Of Fire
66.
My Cousin Vinny
67.
The River Wild
79.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
Stir Of Echoes
82.
Mission: Impossible
83.
For Love Of The Game
86.
Being John Malkovich
87.
Men In Black
88.
Glengarry Glen Ross
92.
Die Hard With A Vengeance
93.
The Blair Witch Project
94.
Any Given Sunday
99.
The Wedding Singer
100.
