An alternative Top 250: the “favoritest” movies relative to era
This is an alternative to the standard IMDb Top 250 list, using the same IMDb rating data (via the weekly FTP data files) in a different way.
I've taken the number of high IMDb votes (ratings 8–10) for each film, and multiplied by a factor based on the number of "typical" votes for movies from the half-decade of that film's release. This tends to weight older films more based on the fewer votes being cast for their movie peers, and serves to highlight movies that are disproportionately watched and loved from their era.
The result is a list of 250 populist greats (the era-adjusted most favorite films according to IMDb voters, or what I'm calling the "favoritest") that stand out in viewership and esteem among titles from the same time period.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other pat...
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Modern Times (1936)
A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being...
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Seven Samurai (1954)
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gat...
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Psycho (1960)
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorio...
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The Great Dictator (1940)
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
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Vertigo (1958)
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becomi...
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Alien (1979)
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of...
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Sherlock Jr. (1924)
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's f...
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North by Northwest (1959)
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
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It Happened One Night (1934)
A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leave...
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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank p...
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Taxi Driver (1976)
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasin...
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Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Un Chien Andalou is an European avant-garde surrealist film, a collaboration between director Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.
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