The Best 60s Movies
by Batmans_girlfriend | created - 24 Feb 2013 | updated - 28 Mar 2016 | PublicThe 60s movies I've seen so far...
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1. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Approved | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
Votes: 191,578
2. The Great Escape (1963)
Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson
Votes: 258,084 | Gross: $12.10M
3. The Italian Job (1969)
G | 99 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A comic caper movie about a plan to steal a gold shipment from the streets of Turin by creating a traffic jam.
Director: Peter Collinson | Stars: Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone
Votes: 50,152
4. The Longest Day (1962)
G | 178 min | Action, Drama, History
The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
Directors: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, Bernhard Wicki, Darryl F. Zanuck | Stars: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda
Votes: 58,937 | Gross: $39.10M
This is far more engaging than 'Lawrence of Arabia' which it lost the oscar to.
5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
PG | 142 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
British agent James Bond goes undercover to pursue the villainous Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who is planning to hold the world to ransom.
Director: Peter R. Hunt | Stars: George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Gabriele Ferzetti
Votes: 99,098 | Gross: $22.80M
You're wrong: this IS better than 'Goldfinger' and here's why...
1. Great music
2. The most genuinely romantic of the franchise
3. The best Blofeld
4. Fantastic ski chases - corny gadgets aren't even needed.
5. Actual poignancy is achieved
6. Best Bond girl
Quite frankly everyone, a serious contender for the best Bond film ever.
6. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Approved | 129 min | Crime, Drama
Atticus Finch, a widowed lawyer in Depression-era Alabama, defends a Black man against an undeserved rape charge, and tries to educate his young children against prejudice.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
Votes: 331,996
Read the book first, if you haven't already.
7. From Russia with Love (1963)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Director: Terence Young | Stars: Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Daniela Bianchi
Votes: 144,869 | Gross: $24.80M
8. Dr. No (1962)
PG | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program.
Director: Terence Young | Stars: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Bernard Lee, Joseph Wiseman
Votes: 178,923 | Gross: $16.07M
9. Goldfinger (1964)
PG | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
While investigating a gold magnate's smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton
Votes: 201,994 | Gross: $51.08M
10. The Sound of Music (1965)
G | 172 min | Biography, Drama, Family
A young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn
Votes: 259,744 | Gross: $163.21M
I'm sorry but this is just a brilliant film. I don't like musicals on the whole but I love the Sound of Music. There are some over the top sugary songs that I had to skip, but not having watched it for about 15 years I was astonished at how much I DID enjoy it. Have I become a raving sentimentalist? quite possibly.
11. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Sport
A young thief takes up long-distance running when he is sent to a borstal.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Tom Courtenay, Avis Bunnage, Alec McCowen
Votes: 9,353
12. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,183 | Gross: $28.90M
13. Easy Rider (1969)
R | 95 min | Adventure, Drama
Two bikers head from L.A. to New Orleans through the open country and desert lands, and along the way they meet a man who bridges a counter-culture gap of which they had been unaware.
Director: Dennis Hopper | Stars: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Antonio Mendoza
Votes: 116,654 | Gross: $41.73M
14. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
M | 158 min | Action, Adventure, War
Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark
Votes: 62,709
15. Mary Poppins (1964)
G | 139 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
In turn of the century London, a magical nanny employs music and adventure to help two neglected children become closer to their father.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns
Votes: 185,459 | Gross: $102.27M
16. The Sword in the Stone (1963)
G | 79 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A poor boy named Arthur learns the power of love, kindness, knowledge and bravery with the help of a wizard called Merlin in the path to become one of the most beloved kings in English history.
Directors: Wolfgang Reitherman, Clyde Geronimi, David Hand | Stars: Rickie Sorensen, Sebastian Cabot, Karl Swenson, Junius Matthews
Votes: 106,155 | Gross: $22.18M
17. Born Free (1966)
PG | 95 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of George and Joy Adamson and the orphaned lion cub, Elsa, they adopt.
Directors: James Hill, Tom McGowan | Stars: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Geoffrey Keen, Peter Lukoye
Votes: 6,994
Enjoyed this one. Great shots of African landscapes, playful interaction of animals and of animals with humans, slow pace of life...
I found it a touch uncomfortable seeing a white couple in Kenya (however warm and friendly they were) with local black men working for them. I don't think it is in anyway a racist film but I wonder if the title 'Born Free' is a bit ironic when you compare the lifestyles and social positions of the white and black peoples in the film.
Am I just being politically correct? I don't think so. I think we have to re-examine films just like any other work of art within the context of our times. That does not mean that this picture is redundant (even though there are elements of naivety bordering on pure thoughtlessness): it still remains an intimate and affectionate portrait of human and animal trying to co-exist, and it has an important message about the limits of our ability to 'control' nature.
It is also interesting from a psychological point of view: I kept wondering about Joy's personal history. Why had she developed such a close relationship with animals? Was her extraordinary tie to the lion 'Elsa' in part because she couldn't have a child of her own? Had she lost a child?
Other reviews of 'Born Free' talk about how this is a 'cute family-friendly picture'. It is, but it also goes deeper than that. There are undercurrents of great sadness: our natural world is shrinking because the human population is out of control... and that people have to take precedence over wild beasts (I always find this supremely ironic).
18. The Jungle Book (1967)
G | 78 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear have a difficult time trying to convince a boy to leave the jungle for human civilization.
Director: Wolfgang Reitherman | Stars: Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, Bruce Reitherman
Votes: 197,955 | Gross: $141.84M
19. Thunderball (1965)
PG | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond heads to the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.
Director: Terence Young | Stars: Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi, Luciana Paluzzi
Votes: 126,729 | Gross: $63.60M
20. How to Steal a Million (1966)
Approved | 123 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
The daughter of an art forger teams up with a burglar to steal one of her father's forgeries and protect his secret.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith
Votes: 29,749
21. The Lion in Winter (1968)
PG | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
1183 A.D.: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. When he allows his imprisoned wife Eleanor of Aquitaine out for a Christmas visit, they all variously plot to force him into a decision.
Director: Anthony Harvey | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle
Votes: 34,104 | Gross: $22.28M
Stunning acting.
22. The Battle of Britain (1969)
G | 132 min | Action, Drama, History
In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Curd Jürgens
Votes: 24,410 | Gross: $4.36M
23. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 313,140 | Gross: $44.82M
Undoubtedly great, but not a film I'd want to see more than once. It's lllooonnnngggg.
24. Torn Curtain (1966)
PG | 128 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin before planning an escape back to the West.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjörg Felmy
Votes: 29,139
Overall quirky and thoughtful, with a satisfying ending.
I don't think Andrews and Newman had good on screen chemistry. I felt that Andrews was uncomfortable in a wifely, submissive role (in contrast to the bold, independent roles in Mary Poppins & Sound of Music) and Newman was a bit wooden.
Other, less well known actors, were more impressive. Especially the woman who played a Polish character near the end: a very moving performance of a someone desperate to get out of East Germany and seek a better quality of life in the United States.
25. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
PG | 110 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid lead a band of outlaws. When a train robbery goes wrong, they find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heels. After considering their options, they escape to South America.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin
Votes: 226,261 | Gross: $102.31M
26. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (1965)
G | 138 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Hoping to push Britain to the forefront of aviation, a London publisher organizes an international air race across the English Channel, but must contend with two entrants vying for his daughter, as well as national rivalries and cheating.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, James Fox, Alberto Sordi
Votes: 9,206 | Gross: $31.11M
27. Arabesque (1966)
Passed | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
Story of international intrigue involving a university professor, an Arab prime minister, a ruthless businessman, a beautiful spy, and hieroglyphics.
Director: Stanley Donen | Stars: Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Alan Badel, Kieron Moore
Votes: 7,926
I started watching this with the attitude 'anything with Gregory Peck is fine with me...' but actually, I was quickly disappointed as this movie has dated more than other 60s films he did. Particularly irksome are some of the condescending and patronising attitudes to women, which now seem ridiculous, but then were common. Other disappointing aspects included fairly substandard acting, unsophisticated plotting, and a general predictability. However, I will say there were moments when the filming techniques were interesting and quite quirky. Odd and surprising perspectives and clever use of lighting definitely kept me watching longer than I would otherwise have done.
Overall this felt like a movie that relies too heavily on its star cast.
28. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Western
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè
Votes: 808,319 | Gross: $6.10M
I didn't enjoy this at all. I thought it was totally boring.
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