Top 100 Movies of All-Time by Matthew Toffolo. #1 Rocky, 1976

Enclosed is a list of my top 100 movies of all-time:

1. Rocky, 1976
2. Midnight Cowboy, 1969
3. Anchorman, 2004
4. Goodfellas, 1990
5. The Apartment, 1960
6. Catch Me if You Can, 2002
7. Do The Right Thing, 1989
8. Annie Hall, 1977
9. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940
10. Back to the Future, 1985

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...
99. The Verdict, 1982
100. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000

READ the full list of movies

Rocky is movie that made we fall in love with film. In the early 1980s, I remember my father's friend dropping off this gigantic machine off at our house one day that must have weighed over 20LBS. It was one of the first VCR's made. A BETA that my dad's friend said was going to be the type to buy in the future (he was wrong). He had three cassette tapes of movies: Rocky, Rocky 2, and some R rated film that I wasn't supposed to watch. In fact, being just out of my diapers I don't think even the Rocky movies were appropriate for me. But I watched anyway and fell in love with the southpaw (left handed person, which I also am) Rocky Balboa and his love for Adrian, the animal lover who worked at the pet shop, and boxing. He had doubts but in the end he believed in himself and it wasn't just about winning or losing.

I didn't fully understand the film, but loved it so much that I snuck out of bed in the middle of the night, figured out how to work this amazing machine and watched the film again as my family slept upstairs. I remember not wanting to be Rocky, but wanting to be the people who made this story because there must have been others who helped out who weren't in the actual movie. People we couldn't see like the puppeteer I met after the puppet show I went to the week before.

Rocky was the seed to me loving films. The amazing thing was that I really didn't watch many movies until I was in my later teens. I guess I was too busy playing sports and feeling angst towards the world!!

Rocky isn't the movie I've seen the most in my life. That film is probably Back to the Future, which is #10 on my list.

- Matthew Toffolo