The Best Movies Of The '60s
The 1960s were a great period for film. Some of the best and most memorable movies came out in the 1960s. The '60s saw the overlap of many of the iconic film directors and stars from Hollywood's Golden Age along with some of the young upstarts who came to define the next generation of stars and powerbrokers.
The best movies of the '60s spanned many genres as well. Famous thrillers like Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate are considered classics as is Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. There were also musicals that were adopted to the big screen like West Side Story. If you are a fan of westerns, there plenty of great films in the genre made in the '60s. These tough guy movies, like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, introduced Clint Eastwood to the mainstream while Paul Newman and Robert Redford captured the hearts of audiences in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Movies like Midnight Cowboy and Easy Rider were gritty films that introduced Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson to the world. Hoffman was nominated for his role in The Graduate during the same decade. These films, which wouldn't even get made now, were actually popular movies of the 1960s.
The 1960s were a special period in film history and these are the decade's best movies. Vote for the movies you think are the best of the '60s and should be recognized as the best of the decade.
- The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the assembled drivers that he's buried a ...more
- Convinced of his irresistible appeal to women, Texas dishwasher Joe Buck (Jon Voight) quits his job and heads for New York City, thinking he'll latch on to some rich dowager. New York, however, is ...more
- A young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move to a New York City apartment ...more
- There's a single piece of land around Flagstone with water on it, and rail baron Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) aims to have it, knowing the new railroad will have to stop there. He sends his henchman ...more
- In 1943, a small commando team is sent to destroy huge German guns on the Greek Island of Navarone in order to rescue Allied troops trapped on Kheros. Led by British Major Franklin (Anthony Quayle), ...more
- After Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) falls for the dashing Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been ...more
- In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood (Spencer Tracy) hears evidence ...more
- When Joanna Drayton (Katharine Houghton), a free-thinking white woman, and black doctor John Prentice (Sidney Poitier) become engaged, they travel to San Francisco to meet her parents. Matt Drayton ...more
- When Harold Hill, a traveling con man, arrives in River City, he convinces the locals to start a band by purchasing the uniforms and instruments from him. His intention is to flee as soon as he ...more
- Led by one-eyed evil mastermind Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), the terrorist group SPECTRE hijacks two warheads from a NATO plane and threatens widespread nuclear destruction to extort 100 million ...more
- Easy Rider is a 1969 American independent road drama film directed by Dennis Hopper. Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) are freewheeling motorcyclists that sell cocaine smuggled from ...more
- The Beatles in their feature film debut, one of the greatest rock-and-roll comedy adventures ever. The film has a fully restored negative and digitally restored soundtrack. The film takes on the ...more
- After saving the life of his royal father's usurper, Pelias (Douglas Wilmer), whom he fails to recognize, Jason (Todd Armstrong) is encouraged by the conniving murderer to begin a quest in search of ...more
- In this bittersweet, classic musical drama, the vibrant and beautiful young Fanny Brice (Barbra Streisand) starts out as a bit player on the New York City vaudeville stage, but works her way up to ...more
- Two identical twin sisters, separated at birth by their parents' divorce, are reunited years later at a summer camp, where they scheme to bring their parents back together. The girls, one of whom has ...more
- Setting off on a journey to the west in the 1830s, the Prescott family run into a man named Linus (James Stewart), who helps them fight off a pack of thieves. Linus then marries daughter Eve Prescott ...more
- In this gritty Western classic, aging outlaw Pike Bishop (William Holden) prepares to retire after one final robbery. Joined by his gang, which includes Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine) and brothers ...more
- Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) is an aging child star left to care for her wheelchair-bound sister Blanche (Joan Crawford), also a former child actress. Stuck living together in a mansion in old ...more
- "Cleopatra" is a lengthy, sprawling, spectacular love story, helmed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, depicting Cleopatra's manipulation of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony in her ill-fated attempt to save the ...more
- Sentenced to life in solitary confinement after killing a prison guard, despondent inmate Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster) combats loneliness and tedium by nursing an ailing bird back to health. Stroud ...more
- In the 1920s, Tennessee schoolteacher Bertram Cates (Dick York) is put on trial for violating the Butler Act, a state law that prohibits public school teachers from teaching evolution instead of ...more
- Bored millionaire Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) concocts and executes a brilliant scheme to rob a bank without having to do any of the work himself. When Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway), an investigator ...more
- This Disney adaptation of the classic fable chronicles King Arthur's humble beginnings. As an orphaned child, Arthur, who was then known as Wart, wants to help his foster brother, Kay, succeed in ...more
- On a sea voyage to transport breadfruit to Jamaica, English Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) abuses his crew and officers enough to anger his 1st Lieutenant, Fletcher Christian (Marlon Brando). When ...more
- Down and out producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel), who was once the toast of Broadway, trades sexual favors with old ladies for cash contributions. Max's new accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), ...more