Thursday, April 27, 2006

102 movies you have to see--a survey

While killing time between classes, I found a link to a RogerEbert.com piece entitled "102 Movies You Must See Before...," and to my surprise, I've only seen 36 of them. I'm not sure if this is a good number or not, but I feel I should see more...because there are some serious ommissions on my list.

I only picked the movies that I am 100% sure I've seen all the way through and could discuss with any degree of accuracy. I'm proposing a survey...how many of these have you seen? Figure it out and post your results in the comment section. Here's my list:


  1. "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
  2. "Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott
  3. "Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
  4. Apocalypse Now" (1979) Francis Ford Coppola*
  5. "Bambi" (1942) Disney
  6. "The Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
  7. "The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller
  8. "Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott
  9. "Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
  10. "Casablanca" (1942) Michael Curtiz
  11. "Chinatown" (1974) Roman Polanski
  12. "Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
  13. "Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
  14. "Do the Right Thing" (1989 Spike Lee
  15. "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) Stanley Kubrick
  16. "Duck Soup" (1933) Leo McCarey
  17. "E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
  18. "Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
  19. "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
  20. "The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
  21. "Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
  22. "Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
  23. "Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
  24. "GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
  25. "The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
  26. "Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
  27. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean
  28. "Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
  29. "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
  30. "Metropolis" (1926) Fritz Lang
  31. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry
    Gilliam
  32. "On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
  33. "Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
  34. "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
  35. "Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
  36. "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cut and pasted the list, then deleted all the ones I havnt seen.

-"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
-"Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott
-"Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
-"Apocalypse Now" (1979) Francis Ford Coppola*
-"The Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
-"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) William Wyler
-"The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller
-"The Big Sleep" (1946) Howard Hawks
-"Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott
-"Blue Velvet" (1986) David Lynch
-"Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) Arthur Penn
-"Breathless" (1959 Jean-Luc Godard
-"Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
-"Casablanca" (1942) Michael Curtiz
-"Un Chien Andalou" (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
-"Chinatown" (1974) Roman Polanski
-"Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
-"A Clockwork Orange" (1971) Stanley Kubrick
-"The Crying Game" (1992) Neil Jordan
-"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) Robert Wise
-"Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
-"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) Luis Bunuel
-"Double Indemnity" (1944) Billy Wilder
-"Dr. Strangelove" (1964) Stanley Kubrick
-"E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
-"Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
-"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
-"The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
-"Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
-"Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
-"Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
-"The Godfather," "The Godfather, Part II" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
-"Gone With the Wind" (1939) Victor Fleming
-"GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
-"The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
-"Halloween" (1978) John Carpenter
-"A Hard Day's Night" (1964) Richard Lester
-"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) Frank Capra
-"Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
-"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean
-"M" (1931) Fritz Lang
-"Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
-"The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
-"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) John Frankenheimer
-"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
-"Night of the Living Dead" (1968) George Romero
-"North by Northwest" (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
-"Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Sergio Leone
-"Out of the Past" (1947) Jacques Tournier
-"Psycho" (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
-"Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
-"Rear Window" (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
-"Red River" (1948) Howard Hawks
-"Schindler's List" (1993) Steven Spielberg
-"The Searchers" (1956) John Ford
-"The Seven Samurai" (1954) Akira Kurosawa
-"Some Like It Hot" (1959) Billy Wilder
-"Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
-"Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
-"The Third Man" (1949) Carol Reed
-"Touch of Evil" (1958) Orson Welles
-"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) John Huston
-"Vertigo" (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
-"West Side Story" (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
-"The Wild Bunch" (1969) Sam Peckinpah
-"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming

Which makes.... 66, if I counted correctly. Pretty good list, heavy on the Film Noir (which suits me just fine). My two biggest quibbles with Roger Erbert (who I always thought was a big fat idiot)are:
Why The Holy Grail and not The Life of Brian? Seriously, both deserve a place, but if yu are going to just pick one of them, pick the best film about religion ever made.
Why The Rules of the Game and not Grand Illusion? How can you miss out the war film Goebbels called "Filmic Public Enemy Number One"?
But I know these things are all subjectve and all that stuff, and its Eberts list, not mine. Pretty good overall tho, and some of my favorite films were included, so a good effort.
-eoin

Amy said...

Only 20 for me. And I didn't see any Kevin Bacon movies on the list. Seen pretty much all of those.

Anonymous said...

couple things - I used the DuBose rules/Eoin cut-paste method and landed at 46. I'm sure I've seen others but the memory is sketchy (ie 2001, Casablanca, 3rd Man....). 2nd, to my read, it's not Ebert's list - it's Jim Emerson's. What could/would be fun is our collective lists of have-to-sees. Might have to blow an hour and create my own.

"The 400 Blows" (1959) Francois Truffaut
"Apocalypse Now" (1979) Francis Ford Coppola*
"Bambi" (1942) Disney
"The Bicycle Thief" (1949) Vittorio De Sica
"Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott
"Blue Velvet" (1986) David Lynch
"Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) Arthur Penn
"Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
"Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
"A Clockwork Orange" (1971) Stanley Kubrick

"Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
"Do the Right Thing" (1989 Spike Lee
"Dr. Strangelove" (1964) Stanley Kubrick
"E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
"The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
"Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
"Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
"The Godfather," "The Godfather, Part II" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola

"Gone With the Wind" (1939) Victor Fleming
"GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
"The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
"Halloween" (1978) John Carpenter
"A Hard Day's Night" (1964) Richard Lester
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) Frank Capra
"Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
"Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) John Frankenheimer
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam

"Night of the Living Dead" (1968) George Romero
"On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
"Pink Flamingos" (1972) John Waters
"Psycho" (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
"Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
"Rear Window" (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
"Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) Nicholas Ray
"The Seven Samurai" (1954) Akira Kurosawa
"Some Like It Hot" (1959) Billy Wilder
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) Elia Kazan

"Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
"Touch of Evil" (1958) Orson Welles
"Vertigo" (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
"West Side Story" (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
"The Wild Bunch" (1969) Sam Peckinpah
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming