Welcome to MovieJawn’s first ever Sound & Vision Poll, where our writers share why they love their 10 favorite movies of all time!

by A. Freedman, Contributor

Alien (dir. Ridley Scott, 1979)

For many years, the edge went to James Cameron's Aliens, but with aging comes wisdom. Ridley Scott's Alien is simply perfect, one of the most perfect films ever made. What was ostensibly a "B" story was grafted onto "A" level filmmaking, and the movies were never the same.

Apocalypse Now (dIr. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

Hollywood's biggest art film ever made is also one of its biggest nightmares- on screen, and legendarily, off. Francis Ford Coppola began the decade he owned with the line "I believe in America- America has made my fortune." He ended it with "the horror...the horror." Apocalypse Now is the disintegration of American mythos, as seen through a bad ayahuasca trip.

Clueless (dir. Amy Heckerling, 1995)

Clueless is an absolute hallmark of 90's pop culture- and a beloved comedy that gives millennials and our Gen X elders something to bond over. Beyond that, it is a sharply observed laugh riot through 90 minutes, bringing Jane Austen into the world of Beverly Hills (just over the valley from Ridgemont High). Every top ten list needs a comedy, and this is my personal favorite.

Goodfellas (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1990)

The story of Henry Hill mirrors the corrupt nature of post war American capitalism. Scorsese plants us in his POV, and we enjoy living vicariously through his excesses...until he hits rock bottom, running errands strung out on cocaine and gazing at the sky for the helicopter he thinks is following him. We're in the ditch with him, and we look back and see those good times were always leading to this point. The worst fate a wise guy can suffer in a Scorsese film isn't death- it's turning into a regular schmuck like everyone else.

JFK (dir. Oliver Stone, 1991)

Though its reputation has suffered in the age of conspiracy thinking (this is supposedly Alex Jones' favorite film), Oliver Stone put together a behemoth, frenzied masterpiece in JFK. Created as a "countermyth" to the conclusions of the Warren commission, Stone made something that none of his peers would dare attempt. Then he snuck it into the American consciousness through a committed Kevin Costner and a bevy of the best living character actors. In doing so, JFK both provided an itch I've been scratching at ever since I first saw it.

King Kong (dirs. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack, 1933)

Peter Jackson's 2005 version could never. This Pre-Code film reliant on stop motion effects and miniatures still can't be beat, one of the most perfect blends of adventure, action and horror to ever grace the silver screen. It also explored ideas of race and colonialism that audiences at the time mostly absorbed unconsciously.

The Last Of The Mohicans (dIr. Michael Man, 1992)

As much as I want to put Heat on this list, the edge goes to Mann's epic of war and romance in Colonial America. Daniel Day-Lewis stepped fully into the unabashed hero's role that he would rarely embrace again as Nathaniel "Hawkeye", the adopted son of Chingachcook (Russell Means). Nathaniel's passionate love affair with Cora Munro (the daughter of a British General) provides the grounding emotional core of a story where "the whole world's on fire." Nathaniel is a perfect stand-in for the viewer, as so few of us have any right to this land that we now occupy, where our survival nevertheless depends on co-existence.

Rear Window (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

Rear Window may not even be my favorite Hitchcock (that would probably go to The Birds), but it is his most definitive artist statement. It is of a one-two punch with Vertigo in terms of movies about the nature of the voyeuristic gaze. He understood our need for movies- why we watch them, how we watch them, and why we can't stop watching them.

Rosemary's Baby (dir. Roman Polanski, 1968)

Sometimes the impact of a movie can boil down to the simple lesson it teaches you. The people you trust can betray you. The horror of Rosemary's Baby lies in the slow burn manner of Rosemary's mental deterioration. Self-doubting and gaslit, Rosemary is left on her own to navigate her pregnancy while in the grips of a Satanic cult. But this is no dream- it's really happening. Then there's the paradoxical meaning of its disgraced auteur's personal life...that such a monster could so perfectly capture Rosemary's point of view adds layers to the story that are difficult to process.

Zodiac (dir. David Fincher, 2007)

David Fincher traffics in the cinema of obsession. Anyone who loves his films probably shares the same type of affliction as the protagonist- the need to get to the absolute bottom of something. Zodiac is his magnum opus- a long spanning search for the real identity of a bay area serial killer who went several years without killing. Whereas JFK indulges an obsession because it's the right thing to do, Zodiac is more interested in why we obsess, and the cost. What makes the ending so powerful is that it feels true to life. We rarely get closure, and often have to decide the answers for ourselves, without definite proof.

Ten heartbreaking omissions, in alphabetical order...

Blade Runner
Chinatown
Fargo
The Godfather Part II
Halloween (1978)
Heat
Jaws
The Night Of The Hunter
The Shining
Unforgiven