Blog

First of all, I ripped this idea from kottke.org. Not that anyone reads this thing anyway. But if you do and you’re about to cry “ripoff”, the line to collect your $0.00 refund forms to the left.

Anyway…

Some film critic I’ve never heard of published his list of “201 Movies You Need To See Before You Die”

I’m not sure that I’ll care that I haven’t seen The Maltese Falcon when I’m dead and buried. According to this guy though, it’s pretty important. Either way it looks like I have a lot of movies to watch if I want to keep up.

Here’s his list, with the ones I’ve actually seen in bold.

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

Only 28 out of 102. I left out ones that I’ve only seen parts of or that I somehow watched but have no memory of. But even if I cheated and included all of those, it’d still be less than half.

I’m not sure if I really care, but it’s kind of interesting for some reason. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of movies (I’ve never really kept track as I would guess most people haven’t). And I’ve certainly seen quite a few that I’d consider really good or even great. I could probably make my own list of 102 (or even more) essential movies. But according to this guy I haven’t seen shit. But I have a feeling that I’d probably sleep through a bunch on this list. Generational difference maybe? Or am I just unable to appreciate good movies? I hope not.

Besides, any essential movie list that doesn’t include Big Trouble in Little China is obviously flawed.

- Dan