Oct 03 2008
Movies Everyone Should Watch
As I grow further into my relationship with my girlfriend, it becomes painfully obvious we did not watch the same movies growing up. It’s not so much the fact that she hasn’t watched these movies, but it’s much more that I have seen these movies and they have molded me and my viewing habits to become who I am today. I got to thinking one day of all the movies I thought she should watch, because they are either really really good films or simply movies that are relevant to our society (even if it’s simply for understanding the reference jokes in Family Guy).
Now, by no means is this list comprehensive. I expect feedback from you to add your own films that you honestly believe that everyone should watch. Now, what designates a movie that everyone should watch? It’s made an impact on you, it was the talk of the world when it came out, many other movies have parodied it or made references to it, movies build off these movies to be “original.” In short, these are the movies that shaped our lives.
This is not a “best 100″ films list. These films were chosen because of how they struck people and stayed with them. Some of these titles I would never put on my BEST OF list, but they do deserve recognition for their cultural contribution. In turn, I will halt from putting down many films that I truly love because I know those films would not and have not been as culturally powerful as others.
Feel free to disagree with some of these if you’d like, but I feel this is a strong list.
Raiders of The Lost Arc
Star Wars (episodes IV - VI)
The Matrix
Never Ending Story
Labyrinth
Karate Kid
The Birds
Cool Hand Luke
Shawshank redemption
Schindler’s List
The Godfather (parts 1 & 2)
Pulp Fiction
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Goodfellas
Planet of the Apes (original)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Rocky
Young Frankenstein
The History of the World, Part 1
Princess Bride
Evil Dead II
The Exorcist
A Marx Brothers Film (I suggest Duck Soup)
12 Monkeys
Lion King
Akira
Snow White
Toy Story
Scarface
Trainspotting
Harvey
Ghandi
Snatch
Stand By Me
The Wild Bunch
Big Lebowski
Conan the Barbarian
Sixth Sense
Annie Hall
Donnie Darko
Die Hard
Mononoke-Hime (Princess Mononoke)
Fargo
The Big Sleep
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Braveheart
Jaws
Full Metal Jacket
Blackhawk Down
Saving Private Ryan
Some Like it Hot
Sin City
The Great Escape
Metropolis
A Kurosawa film (I suggest Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, orRashomon)
2001
Silence of the Lambs
Spider-Man (1 and 2)
Raging Bull
Terminator 2
Resivour Dogs
Requiem For a Dream
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Shining
The Pianist
Double Indemdity
Chinatown
Alien and Aliens
Forrest Gump
A Clockwork Orange
Roger & Me
Bowling For Columbine
Highlander
Taxi Driver
American Beauty
Amelie
American History X
Apocalypse Now
Leon: The Professional
Se7en
Lord of the Rings
It’s a Wonderful Life
Citizen Kane
Dr Strangelove
Psycho
Memento
Fight Club
Usual Suspects
Dumb and Dumber
Billy Madison /or Happy Gilmore
Tommy Boy
Office Space
Boogie Nights
Amadeus
As Good as it Gets
Clerks
Slingblade
Bad Santa
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
A Christmas Story
Run Lola Run
Life is Beautiful
Iron Giant
A Few Good Men
The Crow
Dead Poet’s Society
Clueless
Can’t Hardly Wait
Titanic
Gone With The Wind
Bonnie and Clyde
Blue Velvet
The Crying Game
E.T. (before Steven went back and fugged with it)
Mad Max
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Wizard of Oz
Arsenic and Old Lace
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Edward Scissorhands
Nightmare Before Christmas
Cube
Halloween
28 Days Later
Airplane!
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Rebel Without A Cause
Fear and Loathing in Las Veags
Rushmore
A very bad film done by the MST3K guys
City of Lost Children
Boondock Saints
Adaptation
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Now, what are you thoughts?
Very nice list. As many of those movies agree with my tastes, I will definitely look into the ones there that I haven’t yet seen. How about “The Onion”? Although it’s not much in contribution, it pokes all the fun that can be poked at American media today.
I loved the Onion Movie. I laughed so hard my spleen hurt. Like I had said in a previous post, The Onion Movie is this generation’s “Kentucky Fried Movie” or “Amazon Women on the Moon.” So quite possibly, I would say all three.
I agree, I’ve seen most of these, and they are great - I kept thinking of one and would find it later down the list…but how about Event Horizon?
Very nice list. You covered pretty much every movie i could think of that deserved the spot.
American History X was an amazing movie :]
Very good list. I would add K-PAX (with Kevin Spacey) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (with Jim Carrey). K-Pax because it dwells with surreal planes and what is real and what isn’t, and is an strong psychological film; Eternal Sunshine because, well, it’s my favorite love story ever, and depicts the sad reality of human relationships: we hardly ever truly appreciate what we have until it’s gone.