It’s Wednesday, and for me that’s the busiest day of the week. So in light of my compressed time table I’m following Kottke’s lead and posting Ebert’s list of the 102 movies you must see.
they were the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They’re the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat “movie-literate.”
So, here’s the list. Beside each movie I’ve seen there’s an asterisk.
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
26 out of 102 ain’t so bad. Some of those flicks I haven’t seen but probably should, like Schindler’s List, Fight Club, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Oh well. Looks like I’m a long ways off from being the movie aficionado I long to be. (By the way, that last statement was sarcasm.)
