{"id":18904,"date":"2026-08-17T20:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=18904"},"modified":"2026-08-16T10:04:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T14:04:47","slug":"jonathan-rosenbaums-alternate-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/18904","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Rosenbaum’s Alternate 100"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wanted to celebrate the American semiquincentennial in some way, but it was too hot to go out for fireworks, so I watched all twenty of my still-unseen movies on Jonathan Rosenbaum’s 1998 list of American movies, from his “List-o-Mania<\/a>” response to the AFI 100 list. Rosenbaum’s lists and writings have been as important to my movie hobby as Cinema Scope<\/a> has. Discovering this article online in 2000 or 2001 was especially eye-opening, realizing that you could just put Dead Man<\/em> on a list of greatest films instead of Star Wars<\/em>. Of course my reaction was to watch everything Rosenbaum says is good, and I’ve slowly chipped away at his top-1000 from the Essential Cinema<\/em> book while also chipping away at a hundred lists from other sources, and catching up with films from favorite directors and stars and companies, trying to keep up with new releases and reissues, and so on. One of these days I’ll run out of good movies, but for now here’s my vaguely-tier-ranked roundup of Rosenbaum’s Alternate 100.<\/p>\n

“Selecting America’s 100 greatest movies has to be an ongoing, perpetual activity of exploration and discovery \u2014 something that can only happen if we stop to consider what we still don’t know about the subject and try to set up some channels for educating ourselves.”<\/p>\n

–
\nDead Man<\/a> (1995)
\nDo the Right Thing<\/a> (1989)
\nEraserhead<\/a> (1978)
\nThe Killing<\/a> (1956)
\nMeet Me in St. Louis<\/a> (1944)
\nThe Night of the Hunter<\/a> (1955)
\nThe Palm Beach Story<\/a> (1942)
\nSunrise<\/a> (1927)<\/p>\n

–
\nAnatomy of a Murder<\/a> (1959)
\nBigger Than Life<\/a> (1956)
\nFreaks<\/a> (1932)
\nGentlemen Prefer Blondes<\/a> (1953)
\nGreed<\/a> (1925)
\nThe Lady From Shanghai<\/a> (1948)
\nLove Streams (1984)
\nThe Magnificent Ambersons<\/a> (1942)
\nThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance<\/a> (1962)
\nMonsieur Verdoux (1947)
\nPoint Blank<\/a> (1967)
\nRio Bravo<\/a> (1959)
\nThe Scarlet Empress<\/a> (1934)
\nScarlet Street<\/a> (1945)
\nSherlock Jr.<\/a> (1924)
\nThe Steel Helmet<\/a> (1951)
\nTrouble in Paradise<\/a> (1932)
\nWoodstock<\/a> (1970)<\/p>\n

–
\nAn Affair to Remember<\/a> (1957)
\nBride of Frankenstein (1935)
\nThe Crowd<\/a> (1928)
\nFoolish Wives<\/a> (1922)
\nThe General (1927)
\nJohnny Guitar<\/a> (1954)
\nJudge Priest<\/a> (1934)
\nMake Way for Tomorrow<\/a> (1937)
\nPark Row<\/a> (1952)
\nThe Seventh Victim<\/a> (1943)
\nStars in My Crown<\/a> (1950)
\nTo Sleep With Anger<\/a> (1990)<\/p>\n

–
\nAce in the Hole<\/a> (1951)
\nThe Big Sky<\/a> (1952)
\nThe Black Cat<\/a> (1934)
\nChristmas in July<\/a> (1940)
\nThe Docks of New York<\/a> (1928)
\nEadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer<\/a> (1974)
\n11 x 14<\/a> (1976)
\nForce of Evil<\/a> (1948)
\nGilda<\/a> (1946)
\nHousekeeping<\/a> (1987)
\nKiller of Sheep<\/a> (1978)
\nThe Ladies’ Man<\/a> (1961)
\nLetter From an Unknown Woman<\/a> (1948)
\nLonesome<\/a> (1929)
\nMan’s Castle<\/a> (1933)
\nThe Naked Spur<\/a> (1953)
\nNanook of the North (1922)
\nThe Nutty Professor (1963)
\nPanic in the Streets<\/a> (1950)
\nThe Phenix City Story<\/a> (1955)
\nThe Shooting<\/a> (1967)
\nThe Shop Around the Corner<\/a> (1940)
\nThe Tarnished Angels<\/a> (1958)
\nThat’s Entertainment! III<\/a> (1994)
\nThis Land Is Mine<\/a> (1943)
\nThunderbolt<\/a> (1929)
\nWanda<\/a> (1971)
\nWhile the City Sleeps<\/a> (1956)
\nZabriskie Point<\/a> (1970)<\/p>\n

–
\nCat People<\/a> (1942)
\nConfessions of an Opium Eater<\/a> (1962)
\nHallelujah, I’m a Bum<\/a> (1933)
\nThe Hustler<\/a> (1961)
\nKiss Me Deadly<\/a> (1955)
\nLaughter<\/a> (1930)
\nLove Me Tonight<\/a> (1932)
\nMcCabe & Mrs. Miller<\/a> (1971)
\nReminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania<\/a> (1971)
\nScarface<\/a> (1932)
\nScenes From Under Childhood<\/a> (1967)
\nThe Scenic Route<\/a> (1978)
\nShadows<\/a> (1960)
\nStranger Than Paradise (1984)
\nThe Strawberry Blonde<\/a> (1941)
\nSylvia Scarlett<\/a> (1935)
\nWill Success Spoil Rock Hunter?<\/a> (1957)<\/p>\n

–
\nAvanti!<\/a> (1972)
\nBroken Blossoms<\/a> (1919)
\nThe Great Garrick<\/a> (1937)
\nThe Heartbreak Kid (1972)
\nLast Chants for a Slow Dance<\/a> (1977)
\nMikey and Nicky<\/a> (1976)
\nMy Son John<\/a> (1952)
\nReal Life<\/a> (1979)
\nTrack of the Cat<\/a> (1954)<\/p>\n

–
\nThe Barefoot Contessa<\/a> (1954)
\nIntolerance<\/a> (1916)
\nThe Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
\nTom Tom the Piper’s Son<\/a> (1969)
\nTry and Get Me!<\/a> (1950)
\nThe Wrong Man (1957)
\nVinyl<\/a> (1965)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to celebrate the American semiquincentennial in some way, but it was too hot to go out for fireworks, so I watched all twenty of my still-unseen movies on Jonathan Rosenbaum’s 1998 list of American movies, from his “List-o-Mania” response to the AFI 100 list. Rosenbaum’s lists and writings have been as important to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1588],"class_list":["post-18904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-inventory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18904"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18954,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18904\/revisions\/18954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}