Here are some movies that one would enjoy seeing if one wanted to be more aware of the scope of movies, what movies can be at their best and worst.
What are those old-timers ranting about when they say that "They don't make 'em like they used to?" Not all of these are old, of course. There are future classics being made today, movies that are really breakthroughs or the peak of their genre, movies that changed the scope of moviedom from that point forward. Flicks like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars. They're here, too. But many of the breakthroughs -- inventing a new type of movie or setting a new standard for epic scope, vision, violence, ordering, symbolism, evil, humor, slapstick, parody, dystopia, and such -- many breakthroughs happen early in the life of a medium. Sure, new ones are happening now, especially with respect to computer graphics and "photographing" scenes that can't really be seen. But, well, for example, even the new style of action flicks, where everything goes fast and then blows up, started decades ago with films like Bullitt, which I think invented the insane city car chase, and the early James Bond films that blew up everything.
And there are a number of cases where the same plot gets recycled into another movie a decade or two later. And we won't even mention the remakes of older movies, very few of which come near the standard of the originals.
Please remember that this is not intended as a "best of" list, but
as a list of, well, hard to say, sort of milestones, cultural shared
experiences, cinemahhhhh vocabulary. Like Joe Bob's list but with a bigger
scope. And I'm sure I have erred in not including a couple of his choices
in there, because he really was going for the
milestone-breakthrough-things-can-never-be-the-same-again-who-let-the-nitrate-genie-out-of-the-bottle high spots. Saturday reaction: "Jesus H! How
could they do that? In public!" Monday reaction: "But, C.
B., our next project has to leap over that new bar!"
Your help is requested in editing it into a saner format, with perhaps more
clear distinction between cinema history and "cultural
literacy." Currently, they are divided into three
categories:
Happy viewing!
| Title | Genre | Actors, Directors | Comments | |
| 2001 A Space Odyssey | sci fi | Keir Dullea, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | Book by Arthur C. Clarke. The first realistic sci fi movie. Images you'll never forget. | must see |
| 8-1/2 | drama | Marcello Mastroianni, Federico Fellini (dir) | Second of the Italian decadence and ennui movies, with male mid-life crisis added. | must see |
| African Queen, The | drama | Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn | Grungy boatman and prissy schoolmarm go down the river. | must see |
| Agony and the Ecstasy, The | bio | Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison | Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and paint drips on the Pope. | must see |
| Airplane | comedy | Leslie Nielsen | Every possible slapstick device around a thin plot. | must see |
| Alien | sci fi | Sigourney Weaver | First you eat it, then it eats you. In the future, everything looks dirty. | must see |
| All That Jazz | musical | Roy Scheider, Bob Fosse (dir) | Choreographer's fantasy of death. Bob Fosse's sort of story of his own life. | must see |
| Annie Hall | comedy | Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts | Woody gets an Oscar for best picture. | must see |
| Apartment, The | comedy | Jack Lemmon | For company execs to hold afternoon assignations. | must see |
| Apocalypse Now | war | Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Francis Ford Coppola (dir) | Heart of Darkness (Conrad) retold in Vietnam. Apparently a near-disaster to make, but what a result. | must see |
| Arsenic and Old Lace | comedy | Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre | Great, funny movie of famous play. | must see |
| Awful Truth, The | comedy | Cary Grant, Irene Dunne | Couple really don't want to get divorced. | must see |
| Bad Seed, The | drama | dunno | Little girl likes to get her way, whatever it takes. | must see |
| Becket | drama | Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole | Henry II vs St. Thomas Becket. Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest? | must see |
| Bedazzled (old) | comedy | Peter Cook, Dudley Moore | Faust, with a hip Mephistopheles and a schlemiel. | must see |
| Ben Hur | biblical, Roman | Charlton Heston | Indy with chariots. One of the great Biblical epics. | must see |
| Birds, The | horror | Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedrin, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Seagulls' revenge on the beautiful people in Bodega Bay. | must see |
| Blazing Saddles | comedy | Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little, Mel Brooks (dir) | Black sheriff saves town in typical Mel Brooks insanity. | must see |
| Bonnie and Clyde | crime | Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway | Famous for its ultra-violent ending. | must see |
| Boys from Brazil, The | drama | Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, James Mason | Nazis in the late 1970s, the SS still plotting to take over. Book by Ira Levin. | must see |
| Bride of Frankenstein | sci fi | Elsa Lanchester | She's alive! Alive! Love the gray lightning bolts in the hair. | must see |
| Bridge on the River Kwai | war | Alec Guiness | Prisoners build the Bridge of Death in Burma. Maybe not quite historically accurate but compelling. | must see |
| Bringing up Baby | comedy | Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn | Hysterically funny madcap comedy. | must see |
| Bullitt | crime | Steve McQueen | Great San Francisco hill car chase. Became a cliche. | must see |
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | western | Paul Newman, Robert Redford | Western crime duo made pretty. | must see |
| Cabaret | musical | Lisa Minelli, Bob Fosse (dir) | 1930s decadence in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. Watch the kids sing Tomorrow Belongs to Me. | must see |
| Captain Blood | swashbuckler | Errol Flynn | Leaping from deck to deck with sword and knife! | must see |
| Casablanca | drama | Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman | Play it, Sam. If this boy-loses-girl doesn't choke you up, you have no soul. | must see |
| Charade | mystery | Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, James Coburn, Walter Matthau | Sort of like Ten Little Indians. Which crook did it? They die off one by one. | must see |
| Chinatown | crime | Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston | Nicholson as PI in corrupt LA. Nicholson is tough and bumbling. Huston is wonderfully slimy. | must see |
| Citizen Kane | bio | Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton | Welles's triumph as enfant terrible first-time director. | must see |
| Clockwork Orange, A | sci fi | Malcolm MacDowell | Anthony Burgess novel about ultra-violence. Lock your door. | must see |
| Cocoanuts, The | comedy | Marx Brothers | Why a duck? The brothers run a hotel in Florida. | must see |
| Crying Game, The | crime | Forrest Whitaker | IRA kidnapping goes wrong, but that's not the real story. | must see |
| Dark Passage | noir | Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall | Innocent man escapes from San Quentin, then is helped by woman, pursued by everyone else. | must see |
| Day the Earth Stood Still, The | sci fi | Michael Rennie | Flying saucer lands in D.C. Klaatu barada nikto, dude. | must see |
| Dead of Night | drama | Ensemble cast. | Weekend guests at country house tell weird stories, recurring nightmares. | must see |
| Death Wish | crime | Charles Bronson | Vigilante fighting street crime in New York. | must see |
| Desperate Hours (old), The | crime | Humphrey Bogart, Fredrick March | Escaped convicts hold family hostage. | must see |
| Dial M for Murder | noir | Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Let's kill her. Oops. That didn't work. Okay, let's frame her. | must see |
| Dirty Harry | crime | Clint Eastwood | The first of five (?) so far, San Francisco cop tough guy. Do you want to know? Well, do ya, punk? | must see |
| Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet | drama | Edward G. Robinson | German doctor discovers many good things, but is still reviled. | must see |
| Dr. Strangelove | black comedy | Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, James Earl Jones, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. You will laugh all the way to the end of the world. (Sellers plays three roles.) | must see |
| Dracula (old old) | horror | Bela Lugosi | First talkie vampire flick. Atmospheric, and scary as hell. | must see |
| Duck Soup | comedy | Marx Brothers | You're accused of not paying your taxes. Hey, I have an uncle who lives in Taxes. No, I mean money, dollars. Yeah, that's where he lives: Dollars, Taxes. | must see |
| Easy Rider | drama | Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, | Choppers and doobies. | must see |
| Exorcist, The | horror | Max von Sydow | Truly horrifying flick from the famous novel, much quoted and parodied. | must see |
| Fail Safe | sci fi | Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau | The not-at-all-funny reality version of Dr. Strangelove. Glitch nukes Moscow. Eeeeeeeeeeeee. How do you stop World War III? | must see |
| Fantasia (old) | animation | (Disney) | Many short music pieces set to animation, or short cartoons set to classical music. Gotta see the dancing hippos in tutus. | must see |
| Fargo | crime | William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, the Coen brothers (dir) | Fake kidnapping by massively incompetent criminals. Yah. | must see |
| Forbidden Planet, The | sci fi | Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Robby the Robot | Highest budget sci fi flick up to its time. The real Robby. | must see |
| Frankenstein (old old) | horror | Boris Karloff, Colin Clive | Yes, that monster. The original one. | must see |
| French Connection, The | crime | Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider | Frogs try to smuggle heroin into NYC. | must see |
| From Russia with Love | spy | Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya | The first (decent) James Bond movie. | must see |
| Godfather, The | crime | Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola (dir) | The beginning of a mob legend and film dynasty. | must see |
| Godzilla (old) | sci fi | Raymond Burr, the guy in the rubber suit | The Burr scenes were shot separately in the US and editing into the Japanese movie. | must see |
| Gold Rush, The | comedy | Charlie Chaplin | This steak is as tough as leather. | must see |
| Goldfinger | spy | Sean Connery | The best early James Bond. | must see |
| Gone with the Wind | drama | Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh | Civil War epic. Frankly, I don't give a damn. | must see |
| Graduate, The | comedy | Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Mike Nichols (dir) | Every boy's dream, then nightmare. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. | must see |
| Grapes of Wrath, The | drama | Henry Fonda, John Ford (dir) | Gritty, honest rendering of John Steinbeck novel. | must see |
| Great Escape, The | war | Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough | Escape from Nazi POW camp. Large ensemble cast. | must see |
| Harvey | comedy | Jimmie Stewart | He's not a rabbit, he's a puka. | must see |
| High Noon | western | Gary Cooper | Bad guys coming and no one to help. | must see |
| His Girl Friday | comedy | Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell | Hysterically funny madcap comedy. Remade several times. | must see |
| Horse's Mouth, The | comedy | Alec Guiness | Brilliant but nutso artist. | must see |
| How Green Was My Valley | drama | Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Roddy McDowall | Poor but noble coal miners in Wales. | must see |
| How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying | musical | Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee | Broadway musical on film. | must see |
| Hustler, The | crime | Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason | Pool player hits the skids. | must see |
| In the Heat of the Night | crime | Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger | Black northern cop in southern town. | must see |
| Incredible Shrinking Man, The | sci fi | dunno | Radiation or something. | must see |
| Inherit the Wind | courtroom | Spencer Tracy, Fredric March | The Scopes "monkey trial" of Clarence Darrow vs William Jennings Bryan. | must see |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The (old) | sci fi | Kevin McCarthy | Pod people in Santa Rosa. | must see |
| Invisible Man, The (old) | sci fi | Claude Rains | Footprints in the snow. | must see |
| Ipcress File, The | spy | Michael Caine | Using psychological stress to break and brainwash. | must see |
| It's a Wonderful Life | drama | Jimmie Stewart | How different would the world be without him? | must see |
| Jaws | horror | Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg (dir) | Don't eat the tourists, please. The shark is too damned smart. | must see |
| Key Largo | drama | Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall | Bad guys take over resort hotel in hurricane. | must see |
| Killing, The | crime | Sterling Hayden, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | How to rob a race track. | must see |
| King Kong (old) | sci fi | Clyde Beatty | ' Twas beauty killed the beast. | must see |
| La Dolce Vita | drama | Marcello Mastroianni, Federico Fellini (dir) | First of the Italian decadence and ennui movies. | must see |
| La Strada | drama | Anthony Quinn, Federico Fellini (dir) | Incredibly touching story of circus strong man and mute girl. | must see |
| Laura | crime | Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price, Otto Preminger (dir) | Murder investigator falls in love with his idea of the victim. | must see |
| Little Shop of Horrors, The (old) | black comedy | Jack Nicholson, Roger Corman (dir) | Feed me! Hungry plant from space becomes a sensation. Old B&W. | must see |
| Lodger, The (medium-old) | noir | George Sanders, Merle Oberon, Cedric Hardwicke | Jack the Ripper, maybe. | must see |
| Lost Weekend, The | drama | Ray Milland | Alcoholism long before the Days of Wine And Roses | must see |
| Love and Death | comedy | Woody Allen, Diane Keaton | Woody in Russia fighting Napoleon. | must see |
| Loved One, The | black comedy | Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Jonathan Winters, Rod Steiger, Robert Morley | Hysterical send-up of Hollywood funerals and Forest Lawn. Evelyn Waugh novel. | must see |
| M.A.S.H. | black comedy | Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Robert Altman (dir) | Hijinks in Korean War. The original. | must see |
| Ma and Pa Kettle | comedy | dunno | Dogpatch slapstick. Whole series. | must see |
| Magnificent Seven, The | western | Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, lots of others | American version of the Seven Samurai. One-stop shopping for Western cliches. | must see |
| Maltese Falcon, The | noir | Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, John Huston (dir) | Jon Huston's first movie as boy wonder director. | must see |
| Man for All Seasons, A | drama | Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw | Henry VIII vs Thomas More. | must see |
| Man Who Fell to Earth, The | sci fi | David Bowie | Alien illegal alien. | must see |
| Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The | western | Jimmie Stewart, John Wayne, Lee Marvin | Extremely bad guy, extremely good killing. | must see |
| Manchurian Candidate, The | spy | Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury | Soldier brainwashed to be assassin. | must see |
| Manhattan | comedy | Woody Allen (dir), Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway | B&W Woody. | must see |
| Matrix, The | sci fi | Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburn, the Wachowski brothers | Reality is going bye-bye. | must see |
| Midnight Cowboy | drama | Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman | Cowboy gigolo in New York. | must see |
| Miracle on 34th Street | comedy | Maureen O'Hara, Edmund Gwenn | Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. | must see |
| Mirage | noir | Gregory Peck, Walter Matthau | Traumatic amnesia from seeing something horrible. Why is everyone trying to kill me? | must see |
| Moby Dick (old) | drama | Gregory Peck | Herman Melville would not be unhappy. | must see |
| Mr. Roberts | comedy | Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Cagney | WW2 merchant marine ship. | must see |
| Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | drama | Jimmie Stewart | Trying to do good in D.C.? Filibuster. | must see |
| Mutiny on the Bounty (old old) | drama | Charles Laughton, Clark Gable | Hard captain, soft babes in Tahiti. | must see |
| My Favorite Year | comedy | Peter O'Toole | Kid is assigned as handler for an old time swashbuckler star. Insane. | must see |
| My Little Chickadee | comedy | Mae West, W. C. Fields | Quadruple entendre galore. | must see |
| Network | comedy | Fay Dunaway, Albert Finney | Backroom insanity in network TV. | must see |
| Never on Sunday | drama | Melina Mercouri | Hooker with heart of joy. | must see |
| Night at the Opera | comedy | Marx Brothers | You can't fool me. There ain't no sanity clause. | must see |
| Nightmare Before Christmas, The | comedy | Tim Burton (dir) | Astonishing piece of animation by the Anti-Pixar. A concept you can't imagine until you see it. | must see |
| Ninotchka | comedy | Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Bela Lugosi | Bolsheviks need to sell czar's old jewelry to fund the government. Hysterically funny. | must see |
| North by Northwest | spy | Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Innocent man caught in web of spies by mistaken identity. Ends up at Mt. Rushmore. Earlier drafts of this plot: The 39 Steps and Saboteur. Third time's the charm. | must see |
| Nosferatu (old) | horror | Max Schreck | Probably the original vampire flick. Chilling. Hard to find a good copy, but there are some. | must see |
| Odd Couple, The | comedy | Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon | Want a brown sandwich or a green sandwich? | must see |
| Of Mice and Men (old old) | drama | Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr. | Tragic John Steinbeck story. | must see |
| Oklahoma | musical | Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Rod Steiger | Wonderful movie of Hammerstein play. | must see |
| Omega Man, The | sci fi | Charlton Heston | End of the world, by virus this time. Remaining man against mutants. | must see |
| On the Waterfront | crime | Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb | I coulda been a contender. | must see |
| Our Man in Havana | comedy | Alec Guiness | Vacuum cleaner salesman becomes reluctant spy, from Graham Greene novel. | must see |
| Pat and Mike | comedy | Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn | Woman athlete and her manager. | must see |
| Paths of Glory | war | Kirk Douglas, Adolphe Menjou, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | The French general staff finds scapegoats to execute for a failing of the chain of command. Horrifying. | must see |
| Philadelphia Story, The | comedy | Katharine Hepburn, Jimmie Stewart, Cary Grant | Reporters come to cover society wedding. | must see |
| Planet of the Apes | sci fi | Charlton Heston | Musical chairs for primates. Apes replace Man. | must see |
| Play It Again, Sam | comedy | Woody Allen (dir), Diane Keaton | The classic Woody Allen as schlemiel flick. | must see |
| President's Analyst, The | comedy | James Coburn, Godfrey Cambridge | Why is everyone trying to kidnap me? Or kill me? | must see |
| Producers, The | comedy | Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks (dir) | Springtime for Hitler on Broadway. | must see |
| Psycho | crime | Anthony Perkins, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Mommy made me do it. | must see |
| Public Enemy | crime | James Cagney | The bad brother goes really bad. | must see |
| Pulp Fiction | crime | John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino (dir) | Miracles and weirdness in the life of two hoods. | must see |
| Putney Swope | comedy | Robert Downey, Sr. (dir) | A new take on advertising. | must see |
| Pygmalion | comedy | Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller | George Bernard Shaw play, precursor to My Fair Lady musical. | must see |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark | swashbuckler | Harrison Ford | Every adventure cliche imaginable. Non-stop and frenetic. | must see |
| Rear Window | crime | Jimmie Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Did he really slice up his wife into little pieces? | must see |
| Rebecca | crime | dunno | Daphne DuMaurier novel. | must see |
| Repulsion | drama | Catherine Deneuve | The rabbit in the purse. | must see |
| Richard III (Olivier) | Shakespeare | Laurence Olivier, Cedric Hardwicke, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson | Creepily good. | must see |
| Road Warrior (Mad Max), The | sci fi | Mel Gibson | The end of the world with mutants and no gasoline. | must see |
| Rocky Horror Picture Show, The | comedy | Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bosworth | Let's do the Time Warp again! Cult flick for midnight shows. | must see |
| Rosemary's Baby | horror | Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes | Ira Levin novel of a Devil dad in the Dakota. | must see |
| Run Silent, Run Deep | war | Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster | WW2 submarine conflict, outside and inside. | must see |
| Saboteur | spy | Robert Cummings, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Nazis in New York. Unforgettable cliffhanger at Statue of Liberty. | must see |
| Saturday Night Fever | drama | John Travolta | Disco fever. Widely parodied. | must see |
| Scarlet Pimpernel, The | drama | Leslie Howard | British aristocrats save French aristocrats. | must see |
| Seventh Seal, The | drama | Max von Sydow, Ingmar Bergman (dir) | Soldier plays chess with Death. | must see |
| Shaft (old) | crime | Richard Roundtree, Gordon Parks (dir) | Black private eye kicks butt. | must see |
| Shane | western | Alan Ladd | Ex-gunfighter saves family. | must see |
| Shot in the Dark, A | comedy | Peter Sellers, Walter Pidgeon | The funniest of the Inspector Clouseau flicks. | must see |
| Silence of the Lambs, The | crime | Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn | Wonderfully creepy psycho murderers. | must see |
| Singin' in the Rain | musical | Gene Kelly | Dancin' in the rain. | must see |
| Sleeper | comedy | Woody Allen | Man reawakens in far future, where hot fudge sundaes are health food. | must see |
| Sleuth | crime | Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine | Two-character play about what really happened. | must see |
| Some Like It Hot | comedy | Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis | Hiding from the mob, in drag. | must see |
| Sound of Music, The | musical | Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer | Almost-nun becomes Maria von Trapp. | must see |
| South Pacific | musical | Mitzi Gaynor, Rosanno Brazzi, Ray Walston | WW2 Navy on (Tonkinese) island | must see |
| Spartacus (old) | biblical, Roman | Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Stanley Kubrick (dir) | Huge ensemble cast. Script by Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted. | must see |
| Spirit of St. Louis | drama | Jimmie Stewart | Charles Lindbergh story. | must see |
| Stalag 17 | war | William Holden, | Gritty Nazi prison camp. | must see |
| Star Wars | sci fi | Harrison Ford, Alec Guiness, George Lucas (dir) | Hard to believe it was done with hand animation, compared with modern computer-generated imagery. | must see |
| Sting, The | crime | Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw | A con game, but the mark can never know that he was conned. | must see |
| Stranger, The | noir | Orson Welles, Ida Lupino, Edward G. Robinson | Nazis in Connecticut. Love the alarm clock. | must see |
| Strangers on a Train | crime | Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll | Let's trade murders, then we'll both have alibis. | must see |
| Sunset Boulevard | drama | William Holden, Gloria Swanson | I'm ready for my close-up now, Mr. DeMille. | must see |
| Taxi Driver | crime | Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster | You talkin' to me? | must see |
| Ten Commandments, The | biblical | Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner | Charlton parts the Red Sea. | must see |
| Terminator, The | sci fi | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton | The first of the series, one of the best B movies. | must see |
| The 39 Steps | spy | Robert Donat, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Seems like first draft of Saboteur and North by Northwest. | must see |
| Them | sci fi | James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn | Giant ants eat cities. | must see |
| Thin Man, The | crime | William Powell, Myrna Loy | Decadent drunks solve murder. | must see |
| Thing (old), The | sci fi | James Arness (remember Sheriff Dillon?) | The vegetable bites back. | must see |
| Third Man, The | noir | Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton | Welles's version of Graham Greene novel. Wonderful music. Watch it down to the last second. | must see |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | drama | Gregory Peck | Lawyer defends black man in the South. | must see |
| Tom Jones | comedy | Albert Finney, Susannah York | Ladykiller with humor. | must see |
| Topkapi | caper | Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximillian Schell, Robert Morley | Heart-stopping museum burglary. | must see |
| Topper | comedy | Cary Grant | May the ghosts be with you. | must see |
| Touch of Evil | noir | Orson Welles, Charlton Heston | Corrupt cop frames another cop's wife. | must see |
| Toy Story | comedy | Pixar Studios | First Pixar animated feature film. | must see |
| Treasure of the Sierra Madre | western | Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, John Huston (dir) | Gold fever makes men mad. We don't need no stinkin' badges. | must see |
| Twelve Angry Men (old) | courtroom | Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb | Eleven guilty votes, one not guilty, hours of argument. Gripping. | must see |
| Unforgiven | western | Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris | The West much closer to the way it actually was. Oscars for best picture and director. | must see |
| Usual Suspects, The | noir | Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne | The Devil's best trick was convincing was convincing people he doesn't exist. | must see |
| Village of the Damned (old) | sci fi | George Sanders | Perfect little blond space kids, monsters all, conceived on the same day. | must see |
| Viva Zapata | bio | Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn | The zealous peasant leader of the Mexican revolution. | must see |
| Wait Until Dark | crime | Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin | Blind woman versus really bad guys. | must see |
| War of the Worlds | sci fi | Gene Barry | Scary version of H. G. Wells's scary story. | must see |
| West Side Story | musical | Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno | Romeo and Juliet in New York, by Leonard Bernstein. | must see |
| White Heat | crime | Jimmy Cagney, Edmund O'Brien | Classic Jimmy Cagney gangster flick. Top of the world, Ma! | must see |
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | drama | Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor | Marital discord from hell. | must see |
| Witness for the Prosecution | courtroom | Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Alfred Hitchcock (dir) | Fun with double jeopardy. Twisty, twisty. | must see |
| Wizard of Oz, The | musical | Judy Garland | Follow the yellow brick road. | must see |
| Wolfman, The | sci fi | Lon Chaney, Jr. | A cane ... with a silver handle ... in the shape of a wolf. | must see |
| Young Frankenstein | comedy | Gene Wilder, Terry Garr, Mel Brooks (dir) | Following in granddad's oversized footsteps. | must see |
| Zorba the Greek | drama | Anthony Quinn | Dance with me. | must see |
| Adventures of Robin Hood, The | swashbuckler | Errol Flynn | Leaping from tree to tree with bow and arrow! | should see |
| Alfie (old) | drama | Michael Caine | Ladykiller with no soul. | should see |
| Beau Geste | war | Gary Cooper, Ray Milland | Three brothers in the Foreign Legion. | should see |
| Birth of a Nation | drama | 1915 silent, D. W. Griffith (dir) | The Civil War and the Klan during Reconstruction, unfortunately makes the Klan look heroic and useful. | should see |
| Blow-up | crime | David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Michelangelo Antonioni (dir) | What really did happen? Where's the proof? | should see |
| Bus Stop | drama | Marilyn Monroe | A crime in a storm always goes wrong. | should see |
| Day of the Jackal, The (old) | spy | Edward Fox, Derek Jacobi | The most exciting spy/crime novel I have ever read, and a pretty good movie, too. | should see |
| East of Eden | drama | James Dean, Julie Harris, Raymond Massey | Dysfunctional family before the term was coined. | should see |
| Grand Hotel | drama | ensemble | The first of the many-story ensemble cast movies. | should see |
| Great Dictator, The | comedy | Charlie Chaplin | The Little Tramp does Hitler | should see |
| Gunga Din | war | Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. | Kipling story. | should see |
| It Happened One Night | drama | Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert | Runaway socialite befriended by reporter. | should see |
| It Takes a Thief | crime | Cary Grant, Grace Kelly | Jewel robberies on the Riviera. 'There's hills in them thar gold.' | should see |
| Last Picture Show | drama | Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd | Larry McMurtry novel. | should see |
| Lawrence of Arabia | epic | Peter O'Toole | Sand epic. 'If he were any prettier, it would have been Florence of Arabia.' | should see |
| Lust for Life | bio | Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn | Van Gogh and Gaugin. | should see |
| M | crime | Peter Lorre | Criminals hunt one of their own. | should see |
| Marty | drama | Ernest Borgnine | Whatever it is women want, I ain't got it. | should see |
| Metropolis | sci fi | 1927 silent, Fritz Lang (dir) | Class warfare in far future. | should see |
| Play Misty for Me | crime | Clint Eastwood | Sadistic female stalker flick. | should see |
| Rebel without a Cause | drama | James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo | New kid in town proves himself. Others die. | should see |
| Red River | western | John Wayne | Cattle drive. | should see |
| Roman Holiday | comedy | Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn | Runaway princess befriended by reporter. | should see |
| Searchers, The | western | John Wayne, Natalie Wood | Said to be the best of the genre. Father searches for daughter taken by indians years ago. | should see |
| Seven Year Itch, The | comedy | Marilyn Monroe | Family away, sexy neighbor. | should see |
| Snake Pit, The | drama | Olivia de Havilland | How did I get into this asylum? I don't belong here! | should see |
| Tale of Two Cities, A | drama | dunno | The Dickens novel of the French Revolution. | should see |
| Twentieth Century, The | comedy | John Barrymore | Show biz types on a train ride. | should see |
| Z | drama | Yves Montand | A reform politician is murdered and the government covers it up. | should see |
| 48 Hours | crime | Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy | Cop-buddy-bad-partner flick. | fun to see |
| Absolute Power | crime | Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn | Mere burglary turns into major political intrigue. | fun to see |
| Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, The | comedy | John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum | Doc Savage updated for the next generation. | fun to see |
| American History X | drama | Edward Norton | Skinhead learns about life, how unfair the system really is, reforms. | fun to see |
| Arthur | comedy | Dudley Moore, Lisa Minelli, John Gielgud | Poor little rich kid drinks and drinks. Where's the rest of that moose? | fun to see |
| Bad Day at Black Rock | drama | Spencer Tracy | Man comes to small town to find who killed his friend. He is not welcomed. | fun to see |
| Barabbas | biblical, Roman | Anthony Quinn | You have the privilege to be the property of the Emperor Tiberius. | fun to see |
| Basic Instinct | crime | Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone | Murders that may have been written about long before. | fun to see |
| Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The | sci fi | dunno | Dinosaur attacks roller coaster. | fun to see |
| Big Easy, The | crime | Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin | Cops brawlin' in Nawlins. | fun to see |
| Blade Runner | sci fi | Harrison Ford | Future cops vs androids in one of the original punk future flicks. | fun to see |
| Blob, The | sci fi | Steve McQueen | Crazy goo. It eats you. | fun to see |
| Body Heat | crime | Kathleen Turner, William Hurt | Smart woman outsmarts attorney. | fun to see |
| Bound | crime | Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, Wachowski brothers (dir) | Laundering money, literally, and then stealing it. | fun to see |
| Brazil | comedy | Terry Gilliam (dir) | Hard to classify. | fun to see |
| Contact | sci fi | Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey | Good movie from book by Carl Sagan about first SETI message from the stars. | fun to see |
| Conversation, The | drama | Gene Hackman | Who bugs the bugger. Sort of an intro to Enemy of the State. | fun to see |
| Demolition Man | sci fi | Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock, Wesley Snipes | Cops and robbers in a future kinder, gentler, and very campy LA. | fun to see |
| Devil's Own, The | drama | Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford | The IRA, and attendant violence, comes to New York. This is not an American story with a happy ending. | fun to see |
| Die Hard | action | Bruce Willis | Eventually, *every*thing blows up. First of at least three movies in the series, all fun. | fun to see |
| Do the Right Thing | comedy | Spike Lee (dir) | Tough neighborhood to run a business in. | fun to see |
| Dogma | comedy | Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Kevin Smith (dir) | Theology can be funny. Jay and Silent Bob help save the Universe. And imagine Alanis Morissette as God. | fun to see |
| Earth Girls Are Easy | comedy | Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, Jim Carrie, Damon Wayans | Spaceship lands in bimbo's swimming pool. Carrie's and Wayans's first movie exposure. | fun to see |
| Enter the Dragon | action | Bruce Lee, John Saxon | The high-budget kung-fu movie up to its time. Amazing fight scenes. Much copied. | fun to see |
| F/X | crime | Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Jerry Orbach | Use Hollywood-style special effects to commit a crime, then rub out the f/x guy | fun to see |
| Fame | drama | Irene Cara | NY high school for the performing arts. | fun to see |
| Fatal Instinct | comedy | Armand Assante, Sherilyn Fenn | Parody of Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct put together. | fun to see |
| Father Goose | comedy | Cary Grant, Leslie Caron | Goody Two-Shoes and the Filthy Beast meet on WW2 Pacific island. | fun to see |
| Five Million Years to Earth | sci fi | dunno | Ancient spacecraft dug up in London subway. | fun to see |
| Giant Behemoth, The | sci fi | dunno | Dino eats roller coaster. | fun to see |
| Good Will Hunting | drama | Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck | Very smart but very damaged kid can't connect with real people. | fun to see |
| Hard Day's Night, A | musical | John, Paul, George, and Ringo | Delightful farce. But if you can't name all four beatles in less than two seconds, you might not care much. | fun to see |
| Heaven Can Wait | drama | Warren Beatty, Jack Warden, Julie Christie, Dyan Cannon, Buck Henry | Man accidentally killed before his time, gets another chance. Remake of Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison | fun to see |
| High Sierra | crime | Humphrey Bogart | Atmospheric crime drama. | fun to see |
| History of the Wold, Part I | comedy | Mel Brooks (writer and director, too), Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, et al. | Insanely funny Mel Brooks romp from Biblical times thru Rome. | fun to see |
| House of Games | crime | Joe Mantegna, Lindsay Crouse, David Mamet (author and director) | Incredibly complicated con game plot turns too real. | fun to see |
| I, Claudius | historical drama | Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed | (TV) Dozen-hour-long BBC production, wonderful, from the Robert Graves novels. | fun to see |
| I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka | comedy | Keenan Ivory Wayans, Isaac Hayes, Jimmy Brown, Spike Lee (dir) | An urban hero needs his own theme music. Black heros go after The Man. | fun to see |
| In the Line of Fire | crime | Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo | Ex-assassin wants to assassinate the President. | fun to see |
| Jeremiah Johnson | western | Robert Redford | Frontier man vs indians, incredible mountain scenery. | fun to see |
| L.A. Confidential | crime | Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito | LA cops, corruption and violence, surprise surprise. | fun to see |
| Last Action Hero | sci fi | Arnold Schwarzenegger | Movie as reality, reality as movie, great fun. | fun to see |
| Last Seduction, The | crime | Linda Fiorentino, Bill Pullman | Incredibly sexy heartless bitch screws, robs, kills, great fun. | fun to see |
| Millenium | sci fi | Kris Kristofferson | From the story by John Varley. The most plausible time travel story, complicated. | fun to see |
| Moon over Parador | comedy | Richard Dreyfus, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga | Actor impersonates dead Latin American dictator for a while. Dave in a banana republic. | fun to see |
| Moonstruck | comedy | Cher, Nicholas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia | Cher as accountant with boring life meets madman Cage for affair. | fun to see |
| Mr Saturday Night | comedy | Billy Crystal | Old comic's comic tells several jokes per minute. | fun to see |
| My Fair Lady | musical | Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison | Pygmalion with music. Broadway play. | fun to see |
| Narrow Margin | crime | Gene Hackman | How do you hide from the bad guys on a train for more than a few minutes? | fun to see |
| Nashville | drama | Robert Altman (dir) | Crazy country music business. | fun to see |
| No Way Out | spy | Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman | Politician accidentally kills his mistress, covers up, blames innocent man. Sorta. | fun to see |
| Noises Off | comedy | Michael Caine, Carol Burnett | Little-known but hysterically funny play within a play. | fun to see |
| Parallax View, The | spy | Warren Beatty | Lone reporter tracking down assassins. Great paranoia. | fun to see |
| Pillow Book, The | drama | dunno | A novel written in a unique medium. | fun to see |
| Repossessed | comedy | Leslie Nielsen | Naked Gun does The Exorcist. | fun to see |
| Ring, The | horror | Naomi Watts | This movie should have a warning label for people with weak hearts. | fun to see |
| Romeo is Bleeding | crime | Gary Oldman, Lena Olin | Dirty cop versus the Bitch Queen of Hell. But boy is she gorgeous. | fun to see |
| Run Lola Run | sci fi? | dunno | What if...? Seconds can make a difference when you're really in a hurry. | fun to see |
| Ruthless People | comedy | Bette Midler, Danny DeVito | A plot so complicated, twisted, and insanely funny that it cannot be explained. See it. | fun to see |
| Sabrina (old) | drama | Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Audrey Hepburn | Industrialist and the chauffeur's daughter. Better than the modern remake. | fun to see |
| Scrooged | comedy | Bill Murray | Insane modern Christmas Carol, and funny as the dickens. | fun to see |
| Sea of Love | crime | Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman | Who is killing off the few remaining straight single men in New York? | fun to see |
| Seven Samurai | war | Toshiro Mifune | Unemployed samurai save a village. Original version of The Magnificet Seven. | fun to see |
| Sex, Lies, and Videotape | drama | James Spader, Andie MacDowell | Everybody is having an affair with everybody else. | fun to see |
| Shakespeare in Love | drama | Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck, Tom Stoppard (author) | Shakespeare has trouble writing the play, but succeeds. | fun to see |
| Shampoo | comedy | Warren Beatty, Julie Christie | Ladykiller with no soul. Hairdresser who listens to women, understands them to nail them all. | fun to see |
| Silent Running | sci fi | Bruce Dern | Tree-hugging in orbit around Saturn. | fun to see |
| State and Main | comedy | William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Mamet (author and director) | Very funny Mamet craziness about trying to shoot a movie in a small town. | fun to see |
| Striptease | comedy | Demi Moore, Armand Assante, Burt Reynolds | Good movie version of great book by Carl Hiassen. Burt in Vaseline has to be seen. | fun to see |
| They Live | sci fi | Meg Foster | Guy finds special sunglasses that let him see the aliens among us and their subliminal messages. | fun to see |
| Thousand Clowns, A | comedy | Jason Robards, Jr. | Man hates the insipid, gosh 'n' golly, you betcha. | fun to see |
| Three Days of the Condor | spy | Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow | Accidental amateur spy. Everyone wants to kill him, of course. | fun to see |
| Thunderheart | crime | Val Kilmer, Scott Glenn | The Washington redskin (Indian FBI agent) goes west to investigate murder on the reservation. | fun to see |
| Time Machine, The (old) | sci fi | Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux | Good version of H. G. Wells's story. | fun to see |
| Top Secret | comedy | dunno | Sort of an early draft of Airplane. Not so pollished but funny. | fun to see |
| Total Recall | sci fi | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone | Governor Arnie version of classi sci fi story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. | fun to see |
| Twelve Monkeys | sci fi | Bruce Willis, Andy MacDowell | Time travel that sorta works, complete with paradoxes. | fun to see |
| Two Jakes, The | crime | Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel | Sequel to Chinatown. Much better than the average sequel. | fun to see |
| Victor Victoria | comedy | Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston | Gender confusion in the theatre, surprise, surprise. | fun to see |
| Videodrome | horror | James Woods | TV really does warp your mind. | fun to see |
| Waking Life | animation | dunno | Amazing combination of real film footage and various animation styles. | fun to see |
| Walk like a Man | comedy | Howie Mandel | Boy raised by wolves, returns to society. Insane. | fun to see |
| Where the Buffalo Roam | comedy | Bill Murray, Peter Boyle | Bill Murray does Hunter Thompson (Uncle Duke for you Doonesbury fans) wonderfully. | fun to see |
| Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? | comedy | George Segal, Jaqueline Bisset, Robert Morley | As advertised. Comedy-mystery. | fun to see |
Comments and flames to the author. "Why use rational argument when there's a flame-thrower handy?" Hey, go ahead. I didn't exactly leave the gloves on when I wrote this.
Last edited 2004/05/24.
Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, Richard Landau. All rights reserved.