What's your favourite classic movie you think everyone should have seen once in their life?
What's your favourite classic movie you think everyone should have seen once in their life?
Me and two friends had "classic movie nights" for a couple of years before I moved away. We would watch something which is considered a classic and it had to have been released before 2000. We watched only those which none of us three have seen before and we would watch it like once every two months or so. Movies like:
- M
- Gone with the Wind
- The Godfather
- Taxi Driver
- Murder on the Orient Express
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Rear Window
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Chinatown
- Le Grande Bouffe
- L'Avventura
- Tengoku to jigoku
- etc.
It was a ton of fun and we talked about the movie before, what our expectations are and after just generally and each of us would give it a IMDB star rating.
Now sadly my friends live 9 time zones away, so we can't really do that anymore. But I was thinking to try to convince my wife to do this classic movies night with me. Right now she is reluctant because English is her 4rth language and especially older movies are using language differently too, but one day she will give in :D.
Anyway, now that you know the rules, what movies do you think I still missed and should watch?
- Brazil
- Nausicaa valley of the wind
- Requiem for a Dream
- Grave of the fireflies
All good films. Which reminds me, I should watch Brazil again.
I feel like First Blood is not only a good movie but a glimpse into how traumatized veterans were neglected by the US government and stigmatized by the general population. With the current administration shitting on veterans left and right, they’re definitely keeping that tradition alive, and the movie has become a lot more relevant because of it.
Growing up I preferred Rambo 2 and 3 but as an adult First Blood is a masterpiece.
Here's some good movies in each decade which are classics:
1930s: Modern Times
1940s: Double Indemnity
1950s: Vertigo
1960s: Bonnie and Clyde
1970s: Alien
1980s: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
1990s: Edward Sissorhands
Not much love for comedies so far, huh?
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Blazing Saddles
- Airplane!
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Spaceballs or Galaxy Quest (flip a coin)
Also, the Back to the Future trilogy.
Airplane!
Surely you can’t be serious‽
I am serious and don't call me Shirley
Gotta add Black Sheep and Tommy Boy to the list. Peak Farley/Spade era.
- Where Eagles Dare
- The Professionals
- Indiana Jones Trilogy
- The Great Escape
- Three Days of The Condor
- The Sting
- Thief
- The Mummy
- Ghostbusters
- Secret of NIMH
- It Happened One Night
Upvote for secret of NIMH!
Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Wizard of Oz, Raging Bull, Samurai Trilogy (Musashi Miyamoto), Ran, TMNT, Stand By Me, Mulholland Dr., Papillon, Kids, The Professional, The Toxic Avenger...super random list here off the top ...
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut. My favorite movie. If you watch the theatrical cut, shame on you. Seriously don’t do it. Sadly the sequel and related media are all connected to the theatrical cut. They fundamentally changed parts of the lore because of this. Secondly, The Final Cut is the canonical version.
Casablanca.
In no particular order:
- Monty Python's Life of Brian
- The Matrix
- Cool Runnings
- Inception
- Akira
- LOTR original trilogy
- Gladiator
- Alien
- Blade Runner
- Jurassic Park
- Shaolin Soccer
- Kung Fu Hustle
I'm sure there are more I could think of, but these are some of my favourites.
Run Lola Run (German film, subtitles available in several languages)
Citizen Kane
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Ocean's Eleven (2001, watch it anyway, it's great!)
12 Monkeys
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
2001 A Space Odyssey
The ShiningTampopo (dandelion). Japanese film from the 80s about food and god knows what else, but very funny.
I think about this most times I eat ramen, and I eat ramen a lot.
Bit of trivia: the director Jūzō Itami was thrown off a rooftop by the yakuza and they typed up a suicide note for him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juzo_Itami#Death
Being There (Peter Sellers)
Eating Raul
also check out 'the thin man's series, private detective duo, black and white and just....charming to watch.
Dead men don't wear plaid
THX1138
Logan's run
La Cage aux folles (the original french version of Robin Williams' The Birdcage)
Altered States
Pee Wees Big Adventure!
Would you and your wife be okay with reading subtitles? Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa is a Japanese movie, released in 1950, that explores how truth is perceived differently by different people.
Yes we read subtitles all the time, but my wife speaks Japanese so it would only be for me :D
Haha, then that makes the movie easier for her to enjoy. Have fun on your movie date nights!
Right now she is reluctant because English is her 4rth language and especially older movies are using language differently too, but one day she will give in :D.
Turn it around and watch films in the languages she is comfortable with.
If you let us know what they are (and if she has any red lines, like "no horror"), I am sure we can rummage up some good suggestions.
Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English.
So yeah horror is not popular but neither are some propaganda pieces, but surprisingly she likes war movies especially if they're based on real events.
What about foreign:
Breathless
The Bicycle Thief
Rashomon
Adding a couple to the international (depending where you're from) list:
The Seventh Seal
The Third Man
- The matrix
- Inception
- The big lebowski
- Trainspotting
- Edward scissorhands
- Lord of the rings (all three)
- scream
Wow. Am I so old that matrix is a classic now??
It's from 1999 so It's 26 years old I think
Rope
Rear Window
Wait until dark
Casablanca
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
This movie has a special place in my heart. For me it constantly remains you who's the most important person in your life. Your time together is short and fleeting. Unfortunate things can happen. You really need to hold the moments you have together while it lasts.
I always recommend the Alfred Hitchcock films from the 40s & 50s, but especially the color films from the 50s, and ESPECIALLY Rear Window, which is a prime example of a perfect movie. There us not a bad movie among them; in fact, every one of them is at least an 8, and many of them are genuine 10s, including:
Lifeboat
Rebecca
Strangers on a Train
Notorious
Dial M for Murder
Rear Window
North by Northwest
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Rope
Vertigo
Pyscho
Watch Double Indemnity and Body Heat same day or next day for a genre experience.
Some Like It Hot
Alien
Blazzing Saddles