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What do you consider to be the essential/must see films?

posted 5 years ago by [deleted]
112 replies | jump to latest

What are the films you consider to be essential films that every film buff must see? Not necessarily your personal favourite or the best, but the films that are required viewing. List yours and tell me how many have you seen from my list? Here is my list of essential films:

2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
8½ 1963
A Clockwork Orange 1971
All About Eve 1950
Apocalypse Now 1979
Ben-Hur 1959
Bicycle Thieves 1948
Bonnie and Clyde 1967
Citizen Kane 1941
City Lights 1931
Dog Day Afternoon 1975
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982
The Exorcist 1973
Freaks 1932
The Godfather 1972
The Godfather: Part II 1974
Gone with the Wind 1939
The Graduate 1967
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages 1916
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels 1975
King Kong 1933
La Strada 1954
Lawrence of Arabia 1962
M 1931
Man with a Movie Camera 1929
Metropolis 1927
Midnight Cowboy 1969
Nashville (1975)
Network (1976)
The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928
Persona 1966
Picnic at Hanging Rock 1975
Psycho 1960
Pulp Fiction 1994
Raging Bull 1980
Ran 1985
Rashomon 1950
Rebel Without a Cause 1955
The Red Shoes 1948
Rosemary's Baby 1968
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom 1975
Sanshô dayû 1954
Schindler's List 1993
Seven Samurai 1954
The Seventh Seal 1957
The Shining 1980
Singin' in the Rain 1952
Solaris 1972
Star Wars 1977
Sunrise 1927
Sunset Boulevard 1950
Taxi Driver 1976
Vertigo 1958
West Side Story 1961
The Wizard of Oz 1939

[–] snepts (11123) 5 years ago

I might add My Fair Lady. Viewed properly it can be an immersive experience, and it's very pleasant even though the whole situation is quite absurd. A tip of the hat to Mr G. B. Shaw.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Good movie.

[–] Eric56 (4580) 5 years ago

You forgot "Casablanca".

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Good film, but personally I'm not convinced it is an essential film.

[–] KvlhokVjequs (285) 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Blasphemy!!!

[–] slimone (7996) 5 years ago

Good list Allaby. I would like to add

Some Like It Hot
St. Vincent
Tale of Two Cities
Giant
Spartacus
Streetcar Named Desire
Untouchables
Casablanca
On the Waterfront

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Good additions. Which version of A Tale of Two Cities would you add as there are several?

[–] slimone (7996) 5 years ago

With Ronald Colman made in 1935.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I don't think I have seen that one yet. I may have to check it out.

[–] slimone (7996) 5 years ago

I haven't seen the others, but this one was amazing. The ending mystified me.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

To me film and art in general is a very personal thing. I see a number of films listed in the OP's post that I think are absolute garbage. I also see many films listed that I would consider to be average.

My point is there isn't any film that "must be seen", just watch what you enjoy.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Same, thinking taste in film, books, music, etc is highly personal, and I watch what I enjoy. Usually ;p

I don't see any in the OP that I've seen or think are garbage, but some in my opinion are average or just above. Okay, there's one that I truly can't stand.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Which one can't you stand?

The other problem with lists like the one here is they tend to be made up of very hyped films. I find that a film very rarely warrants the hype it receives and as a result when I watch it I am expecting something amazing and it falls short. Sometimes very short of expectations.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

Vertigo.

You mean hyped amongst film critics? I agree with that. Citizen Kane was a disappointment to me for that reason. Extraordinary camera work and beautifully shot all together, but the story, especially the ending, yeah, okay.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Hyped in general by the media, critics, popular opinion. I think if a film starts getting praised heavily for camera work and costumes, scenery etc than chances are the film itself is probably going to be crap regardless of whether it looks good aesthetically or someone thinks it has some kind of artistic merit.

Pulp Fiction is one of the films listed which I just do not like at all, tried three times to watch it over the years and can never get through it. I don't like Tarantino at all actually very over rated in my opinion.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

It is hard to keep your expectations reasonable when a lot of people are raving about a film.

At least you have Pulp Fiction a try. Three times. I've never tried, and don't like Tarantino either.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

It was the big film when it came out at the time and I always dodged it for that reason was just sick of seeing hearing about it. Just seeing snippets of it though made me cringe not into cartoon style anything, not even cartoons let alone live films.

Years later though I figured I would see what all the fuss was about but was bored to death by it and thought it was a mess.

[–] Knish (1721) 5 years ago

What a tedious generic list, did you copy and paste part of the imdb top 250?

How about some real cinema like le samourai or badlands.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

No, I didn't copy and paste the imdb top 250 or any other list. This is my own list of films I feel are essential. The films I listed are definitely real cinema and I wouldn't consider my list to be tedious or generic. I personally don't consider Le Samourai or Badlands to be essential films, although both are great.

[–] Knish (1721) 5 years ago

Well, your list doesn't have any personal taste. It's a list of movies you know are popular and people will agree with. You can do better than that.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

You are incorrect. This is my personal list of films I would consider essential. Not all of these films are popular. Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages is a silent film with only 13,000 votes. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels has less than 6,000 votes. Sanshô dayû has less than 13,000 votes. Some of the films on the list would not be known by the average person. How many of them have you actually seen?

[–] Knish (1721) 5 years ago

I have seen 34 of them.

The only ones I would say are essential to me are apocalypse now, the graduate, vertigo and psycho.

If it is your personal list, then your taste might just be what most people like or you don't watch a lot out of your comfort zone.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I have very diverse taste and watch a wide variety of films, from all genres, from all over the world and from the silent era to the present. I watch popular films and obscure, independent films that you probably haven't even heard of. As I mentioned in my original post, this is the list films I consider essential and must see, not necessarily my own personal favourites.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

The Third Man
Touch of Evil
Asphalt Jungle
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Key Largo
Diabolique
The Searchers
Stagecoach
The Grapes of Wrath

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I don't think I have seen Asphalt Jungle, but I have seen and enjoyed the others.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I'll approach the question from a different angle kind of, rather than a general list, I will try and break it down depending on what you would hope to see/find in a film.

Modern day adventure as per Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer - Almost Famous (2001) & Stand by Me (1986)

Underdog comes good - Rocky (1976)

Film Noir - Double Indemnity (1944) Laura (1944) & In a Lonely Place (1950)

Western - Shane (1953), The Searchers (1953)

Sci Fi - Terminator (1984) Back to the Future (1985)

Drama - Waterloo Bridge (1940)

Adventure - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) The Mummy (1999) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) the last one still being the best Robin Hood film in my opinion.

Fantasy - Wizard of Oz (1939)

Rock music based - Rock Star (2001) Almost Famous (2001)

War - Gallipoli (1981)

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Interesting approach. I don't think I have seen Waterloo Bridge, Rock Star or Gallipoli, but I have seen the others. I love Double Indemnity and Laura and Back to the Future and Terminator are great. I find Rocky to be a little overrated.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Waterloo Bridge is a great drama and romance. One thing I love the most about classic films is how they do so much with subtext and getting the message through when censorship was so strict. Shane is a lot like that too, you see in Shane that there is definitely some kind of attraction between Shane who is an outsider and stranger and the homesteaders wife. They never do anything, not even say anything but you can just sense it.

If it were made now they would just have the two banging behind the husbands back. Not the same really.

Rock Star is often maligned but it is a good portrayal of the 80's rock scene and music, it is fun film.

Gallipoli is an Aussie film and one of the first with Mel Gibson in it. Gallipoli is a major military campaign in Australian history but the film is more about the mateship between the two characters. Quite well done.

Fair enough on Rocky, to me it is a feel good movie. As per one of my other posts in this thread I don't necessarily see any film as must see and it is all a matter of personal opinion in the end.