Film critic Jim Emerson recently compiled a list of 102 movies that you should see before you can consider yourself movie-literate:
"...they [are] the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They're the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat "movie-literate."
Here's his list. The ones with an asterisk are the ones I've seen.
* 2001: A Space Odyssey
* The 400 Blows
*8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
All About Eve
* Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
*The Bicycle Thief
The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
*Blowup
* Blue Velvet
*Bonnie and Clyde
*Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
*Carrie
Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
* Chinatown
* Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
*The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
* Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
* Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
*Double Indemnity
* Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
* E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial
*Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
*The Exorcist
* Fargo
* Fight Club
*Frankenstein
The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
* The Graduate
*Halloween
* A Hard Day's Night
Intolerance
It's a Gift
* It's a Wonderful Life
*Jaws
The Lady Eve
Lawrence of Arabia
M
*Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
The Maltese Falcon
The Manchurian Candidate
Metropolis
Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
*The Night of the Hunter
*Night of the Living Dead
* North by Northwest
Nosferatu
* On the Waterfront
*Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
*Pink Flamingos
*Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
Rashomon
* Rear Window
*Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
*Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
* Schindler's List
*The Searchers
* The Seven Samurai
Singin' in the Rain
*Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
*Sunset Boulevard
* Taxi Driver
The Third Man
Tokyo Story
* Touch of Evil
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
*Trouble in Paradise
*Vertigo
* West Side Story
*The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz
I've seen a total of 63. Either I'm very movie-literate or I need to get a life. How'd you do? Post a comment and let me know.
7 comments:
I have seen less than you...about fifty of them.
You never saw Nashville? Altman rocks...if you ever want to see it I have it on DVD. I need to see Rashomon, although I've seen other Kurosawa films.
Don't be a playa hatah.
I've never seen all of Nashville, just bits and pieces. I love Altman, The Player, M.a.s.h., 3 sisters. I even liked Popeye even though everyone else seemed to hate it. Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is really good. Supposedly influenced both Star Wars and The Magnificent Seven.
Thanks for the tip on the Kurosawa flick. You have perfect man boobs, by the way.
Willy b--
Thank you for noticing my man-boobs. I consider them to be my best feature. Actually, wouldn't they be monkey-boobs. Just a thought...
HM
I've seen 74 of these. I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed or what. I do enjoy movies though. I guess my grandfather sort of influenced me, he had a huge collection of movies on VHS. He taped everything, I think he has something like over 25,000 movies. Any time I hadn't seen a certain obscure movie, he would look at me with disbelief and disappointment and tell me it's a 'MASTERPIECE!' He would promptly find the movie and make me watch it.
Bikeparts--
It's cool that you had someone like your Grandfather to show you some of these movies. It shows he has great taste!
Head Monkey
Um...how come obvious classics like Shaving Ryan's Privates and Black Cock Down aren't on this list. How bogus.
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