1928-1947
[1] The Wizard of Oz (Fleming, 1939) vs. [16] Jezebel (Wyler, 1938) (23-1)
[2] Great Expectations (Lean, 1946) vs. [15] A Star is Born (Wellman, 1937) (14-8)
[3] Seventh Heaven (Borzage, 1927) vs. [14] The Song of Bernadette (King, 1943) (9-11)
[4] The Philadelphia Story (Cukor, 1940) vs. [13] Lost Horizon (Capra, 1937) (15-8)
[5] The Grapes of Wrath (Ford, 1940) vs. [12] Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Hall, 1941) (21-2)
[6] The Adventures of Robin Hood (Curtiz/Keighley, 1938) vs. [11] Fantasia (Disney, 1940) (11-13)
[7] Sunrise (Murnau, 1927) vs. [10] Sergeant York (Hawks, 1941) (13-8)
[8] Black Narcissus (Powell/Pressburger, 1947) vs. [9] Miracle on 34th St. (Seaton, 1947) (9-15)
1948-1967
[1] Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, 1950) vs. [16] Hud (Ritt, 1963) (18-5)
[2] To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan, 1962) vs. [15] The Quiet Man (Ford, 1952) (19-5)
[3] The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Huston, 1948) vs. [14] Doctor Zhivago (Lean, 1965) (19-5)
[4] High Noon (Zinnemann , 1952) vs. [13] A Streetcar Named Desire (Kazan, 1951) (13-11)
[5] Judgment at Nuremberg (Kramer, 1961) vs. [12] Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 1967) (6-18)
[6] 8½ (Fellini, 1963/Italy) vs. [11] Spartacus (Kubrick , 1960) (11-12)
[7] The Red Shoes (Powell/Pressburger, 1948) vs. [10] The Heiress (Wyler, 1948) (14-6)
[8] The Hustler (Rossen, 1961) vs. [9] Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Nichols, 1966) (16-7)
1968-1987
[1] Star Wars (Lucas, 1977) vs. [16] The Lion in Winter (Harvey, 1968) (16-8)
[2] The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner, 1980) vs. [15] The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich, 1971) (17-7)
[3] Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981) vs. [14] The Killing Fields (Joffe, 1984) (21-3)
[4] Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979) vs. [13] Network (Lumet, 1976) (15-9)
[5] Aliens (Cameron, 1986) vs. [12] All the President’s Men (Pakula, 1976) (5-12)
[6] Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980) vs. [11] Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975) (20-4)
[7] Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Hill, 1969) vs. [10] The Exorcist (Friedkin, 1973) (18-6)
[8] Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969/Algeria) vs. [9] Fanny and Alexander (Bergman, 1982/Sweden) - TIE (10-10)
Z’s a tight, well-oiled machine, but Fanny is one last masterpiece from a Giant. WINNER: Fanny and Alexander
1988-2007
[1] The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson, 2001) vs. [16] The Lion King (Allers/Minkoff, 1994) (20-4)
[2] The Usual Suspects (Singer, 1995) vs. [15] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Lee, 2000/Taiwan) (18-6)
[3] The Matrix (Wachowski/Wachowski, 1999) vs. [14] Little Miss Sunshine (Dayton/Faris, 2006) (11-13)
[4] Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg, 1998) vs. [13] The Incredibles (Bird, 2004) (14-9)
[5] Pan’s Labyrinth (del Toro, 2006/Mexico) vs. [12] The Bourne Ultimatum (Greengrass, 2007) - TIE (12-12)
I find the Bourne movies interchangeable and redundant, but the del Toro is one-of-a-kind. WINNER: Pan’s Labyrinth
[6] The Pianist (Polanski, 2002) vs. [11] Fargo (Coen, 1996) (2-22)
[7] Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Cameron, 1991) vs. [10] There Will Be Blood (Anderson, 2007) (9-13)
[8] L.A. Confidential (Hanson, 1997) vs. [9] Life Is Beautiful (Benigni, 1998/Italy) (15-9)
Not surprisingly, foreign language films fare poorly (0-3-1) against English language films. This will be a pattern in the other showdowns. Kubrick suffers his only loss here, but still has 5 films across the four showdowns (the most of any director).