Stephen Roach’s Top 10 GOAT Films
Stephen Roach@clarencejboddicker · 23 Oct 2026 · View profile
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1
RoboCop (1987)
In a near-future dystopia, Detroit is on the brink of social and financial collapse. Overwhelmed by crime and dwindling resources, the city grants the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) control of the Detroit Police Department. OCP senior president Dick Jones demonstrates ED-209, a law-enforcement robot designed to supplant the police.
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2
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
A train arrives at the Old West town of Flagstone where a man with a harmonica (later dubbed "Harmonica") kills three men attempting to ambush him. Although Harmonica was expecting an outlaw named Frank, he concludes the men belonged to the outlaw Cheyenne's gang. Meanwhile, Frank and his gang murder Brett McBain and his three children as they prepare for a celebration at his ranch Sweetwater.
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3
The Burmese Harp (1956)
Private Mizushima, a Japanese soldier, becomes the harp (or saung) player of Captain Inouye's group, composed of soldiers who fight and sing to raise morale in the World War II Burma Campaign. When they are offered shelter in a village, they eventually realize they are being watched by British and Indian soldiers. They retrieve their ammunition, then see the advancing force.
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4
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
In the American Southwest during the Civil War, a mercenary known as "Angel Eyes" interrogates a former Confederate soldier to learn the alias of a man who stole a stash of Confederate gold. The soldier, Stevens, reveals the man's alias, Bill Carson, and attempts to bribe Angel Eyes to kill his employer before drawing on him. Angel Eyes kills him and, returning to his employer, kills him as well.
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5
The Godfather (1972)
In the mid-1940s, Michael Corleone is a World War II veteran and the youngest son of Don Vito Corleone. Vito is head of the Corleone mafia family and runs it with his eldest son Santino a.k.a. Sonny and adopted son Tom Hagen, a lawyer who is the family's consigliere. At his sister Connie's wedding to Carlo Rizzi, Michael introduces his family to his girlfriend, Kay Adams.
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6
The Godfather Part II (1974)
=== Vito === In 1901, nine-year-old Vito Andolini escapes from Corleone, Sicily, in the Kingdom of Italy to New York City after mafia chieftain Don Ciccio kills the rest of his family. An immigration officer registers him as Vito Corleone. By 1917 Vito is married in Little Italy and has an infant son, Sonny. Black Hand extortionist Don Fanucci preys on the neighborhood, costing Vito his grocery store job.
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7
Goodfellas (1990)
In 1955, teenager Henry Hill becomes enamored by the criminal life and Mafia presence in East New York, a working class Italian American neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. He begins working for local caporegime Paulie Cicero and his associates Jimmy Conway, an Irish American truck hijacker and gangster, and Tommy DeVito, a fellow juvenile delinquent predisposed to violence.
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8
The Thing (1982)
In Antarctica, a Norwegian helicopter pursues a sled dog to an American research station. The Americans witness the passenger fumble a grenade and accidentally blow up the helicopter and himself. The pilot fires a rifle at the dog and shouts at the Americans, but they cannot understand him, and he is shot dead in self-defense by station commander Garry. The American helicopter pilot, R. J. MacReady, and Dr.
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9
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
In the 1930s, three thugs search for a man named "Noodles". Noodles is drugging himself in an opium den with a newspaper next to him featuring the deaths of bootleggers Patrick Goldberg, Philip Stein and Maximilian Bercovicz. He recalls the police removing their corpses, one burnt beyond recognition. Noodles evades capture and leaves the city.
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10
There Will Be Blood (2007)
In 1898, Daniel Plainview finds silver while prospecting in New Mexico but breaks his leg. Dragging himself from the pit, he takes a sample to an assay office and receives a silver and gold claim. In 1902, he discovers oil in California. Following the death of a worker in an accident, Daniel adopts his orphaned son, H.W., in order to pass himself off as a family man to potential investors.
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Film details come from Wikidata; plot summaries and posters from Wikipedia — plot text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, with each film linking to its article. Posters remain the property of their owners. IMDb links go to imdb.com.
Header: public-domain posters for Battleship Potemkin, It, Safety Last!, Sherlock Jr., Steamboat Bill Jr., Sunrise, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The General, The Gold Rush, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Jazz Singer, The Kid, The Lost World, The Phantom of the Opera, The Thief of Bagdad and Wings, from Wikimedia Commons.