Best Movies of 1957
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
12 Angry MenOne room, ninety-six minutes, twelve men, and not a single wasted line of argument.Read the review
Paths of GloryEighty eight minutes of the coldest anger ever aimed at command, and not a wasted frame.
The Bridge on the River KwaiAlec Guinness's colonel builds the enemy a perfect bridge out of pride, and David Lean turns that irony into a war film about the madness of doing a job well.
Wild StrawberriesBergman's road movie through an old man's memory is warmer and less schematic than The Seventh Seal, and Victor Sjöström's face carries every mile.
Witness for the ProsecutionCharles Laughton's wheezing, monocled barrister is the best reason to see Wilder's Christie adaptation, and the courtroom machinery around him never slips.
The Seventh SealA knight plays chess with Death on a burned-white beach and gets no answer worth having.