Here are Cinephile Corner’s picks for the 22 best epic movies of all time, ranked:
22. Gladiator (2000)
21. Magnolia (1999)
Magnolia might feel a bit like the film that got away from Paul Thomas Anderson (because it kinda is), but it’s the sort of big-budget passion project that up-and-coming filmmakers rarely get to make nowadays. The ensemble cast of Magnolia is littered with A-listers and common Paul Thomas Anderson players, from Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman to Tom Cruise and John C. Reilly, each actor adds their own weight to this shotgun blast of characters.
20. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
19. Malcolm X (1992)
18. Casino (1995)
17. Short Cuts (1993)
16. The Deer Hunter (1978)
15. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
14. The Thin Red Line (1998)
13. Dune: Part Two (2024)
There’s nothing like Dune: Part Two, which feels like it could only be conceived by Denis Villeneuve and the best crew around him possible. Everyone is working at the top of their game to create one of the best theatergoing experiences of 2024. Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya star in the science fiction movie that stands against the genre’s best.
12. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
11. Barry Lyndon (1975)
10. Yi Yi (2000)
9. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
8. There Will Be Blood (2007)
Calling this a canonical masterpiece is almost redundant, yet revisiting Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood still feels shockingly alive, starting with Daniel Day-Lewis, whose Daniel Plainview might be the defining screen portrait of American ambition curdled into misanthropy. From the wordless, pickaxe-and-broken-bones prologue to the baptism humiliation and the “I drink your milkshake” finale, Day-Lewis maps a soul corroded by competition until there is nothing left but the will to dominate.
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
6. Apocalypse Now (1979)
5. Heat (1995)
4. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2. Titanic (1997)
1. The Godfather Part II (1974)
