The 20 Movies You'd Better Have Seen Already

[mcscajun]

The 20 Movies You'd Better Have Seen Already
by Andrew O'Hehir

"All About Eve" (written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) Fasten your seatbelts, indeed. Everybody knows this movie today as the primordial Hollywood catfight, the best "backstage" drama of all time and a signature role for Bette Davis, perhaps the greatest actress in American film history. Watch it again for the density of its dialogue and its carefully structured drama. Mankiewicz was a stage refugee who saw the film medium as "a larger theater," a vision that for better or worse was mostly abandoned by mainstream American movies in the decades to follow.

(snip)

"The Big Sleep" (directed by Howard Hawks, 1946) The ultimate film noir -- even though, as an "A" picture, it may not technically qualify for the genre -- especially because the plot is finally too murky to be comprehensible and several scenes are lost forever. (A special-edition DVD reconstructs most of the missing soundtrack and a few images.) The ultimate Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall picture, the ultimate Raymond Chandler adaptation (partly scripted by William Faulkner) and an early example of Hollywood turning its poisoned gaze upon itself. (See also "Sunset Blvd.," below.)

"Blade Runner" (directed by Ridley Scott, 1982) The movie that invented the future. Been to Times Square lately?

(snip)

"Casablanca" (directed by Michael Curtiz, 1942) "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." The best-loved movie romance ever made.
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2002/10/30/literacy_101/index.html

Other films on the list:

"Battleship Potemkin"
"Blue Velvet"
"Chinatown"
"Citizen Kane"
"Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
"The 400 Blows"
"The Godfather" and "The Godfather: Part II"
"Jaws"
"Lawrence of Arabia"
"Nashville"
"Night of the Living Dead"
"The Seven Samurai"
"Sunset Blvd."
"Taxi Driver"
"2001: A Space Odyssey"
"Vertigo"

[terrya]

1. The only film I haven't seen from that list is "Battleship Potemkin"

That's not bad. :-)

[supernova]

2. Still have to see Seven Samurai and Blue Velvet

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Thanks for the heads up...

I've never seen "Nashville." Gonna netflix that one right now...:thumbsup:

Of course, you can add any Scorsese film to that list!:)

[MrScorpio]

4. I've seen them all

Except The 400 Blows and Nashville

[mcscajun]

5. Well, now that we're 'fessing up...

I've seen 16 out of the 20. The ones I haven't seen:

Battleship Potemkin
Blue Velvet
The 400 Blows
The Seven Samurai

I haven't seen all that many foreign films, so that accounts for three; Blue Velvet is David Lynch, and he's just So Weird. :)

[MrScorpio]

12. I saw Battleship Potempkin on PBS back in the '70s

And the Seven Samurai in high school film class

[Raiden]

22. I TIVO'd The 400 Blows

I just haven't gotten around to watchin' it yet

[Shopaholic]

6. I'm actually saving up a couple of these for my old age. . .

or my deathbed--which ever happens first.

[mcscajun]

7. Just be careful when you schedule "Night of the Living Dead"

or you might get to that deathbed sooner than you planned. :)

[48pan]

8. The 400 Blows... Battleship Potemkin... Nashville... Blue Velvet??

Not a very good list.

[AngryAmish]

9. This list is trash

No "Roadhouse".....

[mcscajun]

16. Hey, I like Road House as well as anyone.

Patrick Swayze is good eye candy. (Unless of course, you're talking the earlier film with Cornel Wilde....also good eye candy but a better actor.)

But neither one is a Must See for film buffs.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. My list of Must See flims

include:

What the %#&* do we know?
(A great film explaining the interrelationship of everything, and the influence of mind on matter)

Mind Walk
(This 1990 film takes the concept of interrelationships and shows how it can and should be used in politics and in the world)

A Captive in the Land
(A modern tale of a bodisattvah, imho, and my favorite movie)

Sunseed
(A documentary about some of the spiritual leaders around San Francisco in the late 60s, early 70s-best scene is when Murshid S.A.M., who started the Dances of Universal Peace, explains the difference between concepts of spirituality and spirituality.)

Two of these four include my favorite actor, who is not only tremendous on stage but a very kind, decent person in real life-thanks, Sam Waterston, for all that you do.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. The only ones I haven't seen are Blade Runner and

Night of the Living Dead.

[Bok_Tukalo]

13. Godfather sucked. That's right. I said it. Godfather sucked.

All that mob crap sucks from Godfather to Good Fellas to Casino.

It is craptacular.

[HEyHEY]

14. I think I saw a different version of "The 400 Blows"

At the Silverfox theatre

You KNEW that was coming

bada boom

[Mr. Blonde]

15. Not a great list, here's mine

The Godfather pts.1 and 2
Pulp Fiction
Star Wars (preferably all 6 but the original 3 for sure)
Blazing Saddles
The Big Lebowski
Fight Club
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Led Zeppelin live DVD
Raging Bull
Smokey and the Bandit
The Usual Suspects
LA Confidential
Dazed and Confused
Braveheart
Heat
Patton
The Matrix (1st one)
Miller's Crossing
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Gladiator
Snatch

[Left Is Write]

17. I have no interest in seeing any Godfather movie.

I have never seen Battleship Potemkin, The 400 Blows, Nashville, The Seven Samurai, or 2001.

[xmas74]

I've never watched 400 Blows.

I own quite a few of the movies on the list.

[xmas74]

18. dupe

[calico1]

19. I've seen about half of what's on the list

and frankly some I am not the least bit interested in seeing. I also disagree that Bette Davis was the greatest actress ever. I think she was quite a ham.

[DS1]

20. I watched Godfather I and II this weekend. Overrated. To say the least.

Acting good - Directing... :puke:

[DS1]

21. I'd switch Blue Velvet w/ Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari and I'd switch

Sunset Blvd with Breathless.

[Kat45]

23. I saw "Battleship Potemkin" with French subtitles on Canadian TV

And I don't speak French, except for the bit I remember from high school French class. But I think I pretty much figured out what was going on.

It was pretty interesting seeing a Russian movie with French subtitles when one doesn't speak either language! :-)

[ChoralScholar]

24. The only movie I've seen on the list

is 400 blows. I watched it in Intro to Film class as an undergrad.

[Arkana]

25. The only movie on that list I've seen is "Jaws".

[YellowRubberDuckie]

26. I've seen Night of the Living Dead.

That's it. I tried to watch Casablanca a few weeks ago, but it was slow and kinda boring, so I fell asleep.
Duckie

[bballny]

27. Godfather

is not overrated. It is a great fim and it stands up to the test of time.

[NMMNG]

28. I've only seen "Jaws" and "Night of the Living Dead"

:shrug:

[patricia92243]

29. I've seen 2 - I think - can't remember the plots of the ones I THINK i've

seen.

[superconnected]

30. I haven't seen most

"All about Eve"
"The Big Sleep"
"Casablanca"
"Battleship Potemkin"
"Blue Velvet"
"Chinatown"
"Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
"Lawrence of Arabia"
"Nashville"
"The Seven Samurai"
"Sunset Blvd."
"Vertigo"

But I did get given Casablanca a few weeks ago and intend to watch it this week and I am putting all about Eve and Vertigo on my list to go find.

How the heck did night of the living dead get on this list? It was terrible.

[mcscajun]

31. Read the article...he explains each 'pick'.

He's not saying these are the greatest films of all time...just perfect examples of particular elements of filmmaking.

[NYCGirl]

32. The one pic from the list I would advise EVERY Democrat to see:

with O'Hehir's description:

"A Face in the Crowd" (directed by Elia Kazan, 1957) For those of you who thought that corrosive critiques of the crypto-fascist media state belonged strictly to the postmodern era. "A Face in the Crowd" offers the best work of both director Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg, who might not have been best pals when you consider that Kazan infamously sang like a canary to the House Un-American Activities Committee, while Schulberg was a true-blue radical. Andy Griffith (yes, that Andy Griffith) plays an Arkansas hobo who is catapulted to TV superstardom and becomes the mouthpiece for a creepy right-wing political movement. This cynical magnum opus is a shattering indictment of many things that hadn't happened yet: TV as a method of creating and shaping mob mentality, the Reagan presidency, Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura, the media machinery that builds up celebrities only to destroy them. (See also Frank Capra's "Meet John Doe," made 16 years earlier and almost as amazing.)

Edited to add: A Face in the Crowd is in the author's second list of 20 films.