Tuesday, March 24, 2009

100 Movies

Earlier today, Pajiba posted Yahoo's list of 100 Movies You Should See Before You Die.

12 Angry Men (1957)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) -- My mother claims to have fallen asleep while 8 months pregnant when she saw this one. I don't think she needed pregnancy as an excuse.
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 ½ (1963)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964) -- I thought I'd seen this one, but no. It was Help! Bugger.
The African Queen (1952)
-- Bogart and Kate. What more could you ask for?
Alien (1979)
All About Eve (1950)
Annie Hall (1977)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Battle of Algiers (1967)
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Blade Runner (1982)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Blow Up (1966)
Blue Velvet (1986) -- A great movie I will never see again.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Breathless (1960)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Casablanca (1942)
Chinatown (1974)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Die Hard (1988)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Duck Soup (1933)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
The French Connection (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Goldfinger (1964)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1968)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Graduate (1967)
Grand Illusion (1938)
Groundhog Day (1993)
In the Mood For Love (2001)
It Happened One Night (1934)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Jaws (1975)
King Kong (1933)
The Lady Eve (1941)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Lord of the Rings (2001,2002,2003)
M (1931)
M*A*S*H (1970)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Matrix (1999)
Modern Times (1936)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)

Network (1976)
Nosferatu (1922)
On the Waterfront (1954)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Paths of Glory (1958)
Princess Mononoke (1999) -- ?????
Psycho (1960)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Raise the Red Lantern (1992)
-- I might even have the poster for this (I worked at a movie theater when it came out).
Rashomon (1951)
Rear Window (1954)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Rocky (1976)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
-- Aside from a pretty spectacular (and realistic) opening scene, I thought this was a standard Hollywood war movie.
Schindler’s List (1993)
The Searchers (1956)
Seven Samurai (1954)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) -- I know I am in the minority, but while it is entertaining, this one seems more like a very good TV movie to me.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) -- and I never really got the fuss over this one either.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) -- Really????
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Star Wars (1977)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Third Man (1949)
This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Titanic (1997)
-- 2+ hours of my life I will never get back.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Toy Story (1995)
-- Really?
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Vertigo (1958)
When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
Wings of Desire (1988) -- I can't count this: every time it has come on, I've fallen asleep.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
The World of Apu (1959) -- ?????

I've seen 54 of these. I don't agree with them all, or even very many. Some movies I think are missing: His Girl Friday, The Apartment, 28 Weeks (switch Silence of the Lambs with this one), Say Anything, The Unforgiven, The Incredibles, Harold and Maude. And so on.

What say you?

1 comment:

Helen said...

I've seen 72 of them, to my surprise. That isn't to say that I remember very much about them now. I agree with you entirely about Saving Private Ryan and Shawshank Redemption and I'm too scared to see Blue Velvet even once. If I just had to choose one Marx Brothers film, it would be A Day at the Races, not Duck Soup. And it should include His Girl Friday and The Front Page for purposes of comparison.

No To Have and Have Not? No Thelma and Louise?

And I don't care how long I live, I don't want to see Raging Bull.

But it's not a bad list, and it doesn't have an over-high proportion of violent blockbusters.