Thursday, December 13, 2012

100 Classic Movies

As part of my 35 before 35 I want to watch 100 classic movies. My husband is a movie buff, but I feel like I am always saying, "I've never seen that."

This list comes from AMC's The Greatest 100 Movies of All Time and was compiled by Filmsite.org's Tim Dirks who writes about film. Film Greatness is highly subjective. I know because when I told him about this project my co-worker accusatorily asked, "Where's The Outsiders, Red Dawn, Gladiator?" I was curious how Mr. Dirks came up with this list and, fortunately, he wrote about that here.

THE LIST:

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. The Godfather [Film Series]
3. Star Wars [Film Series]
4. Casablanca
5. Schindler's List
6. It's a Wonderful Life
7. The Wizard of Oz
8. Gone With the Wind
9. To Kill a Mockingbird
10. Pulp Fiction
11. Psycho
12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
13. Citizen Kane
14. Rear Window
15. Jaws
16. North by Northwest
17. Vertigo
18. Apocalypse Now
19. Taxi Driver
20. Ben-Hur
21. E.T. The Extraterrestrial
22. The Bridge on the River Kwai
23. Lawrence of Arabia
24. Singin' in the Rain
25. The African Queen
26. 2001: A Space Odyssey
27. King Kong
28. The Maltese Falcon
29. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
30. Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
31. Raging Bull
32. The Grapes of Wrath
33. Blade Runner
34. Some Like it Hot
35. High Noon
36. On the Waterfront
37. The Graduate
38. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
39. The Searchers
40. Chinatown
41. Bonnie and Clyde
42. Notorious
43. West Side Story
44. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
45. Fantasia
46. A Streetcar Named Desire
47. Shane
48. Sunset Boulevard
49. All Quiet on the Western Front
50. Rebecca
51. Double Indemnity
52. The Quiet Man
53. Stagecoach
54. It Happened One Night
55. The Philadelphia Story
56. The Third Man
57. Rebel Without A Cause
58. The Adventures of Robin Hood
59. Roman Holiday
60. All About Eve
61. Red River
62. Midnight Cowboy
63. The Big Sleep
64. Easy Rider
65. Bringing Up Baby
66. The Wild Bunch
67. Modern Times
68. Duck Soup
69. The Best Years of our Lives
70. Annie Hall
71. The Night of the Hunter
72. Yankee Doodle Dandy
73. Paths of Glory
74. Touch of Evil
75. My Darling Clementine
76. The Bride of Frankenstein
77. The General
78. His Girl Friday
79. City Lights
80. Wuthering Heights
81. A Night at the Opera
82. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
83. Meet Me in St. Louis
84. An American in Paris
85. The Gold Rush
86. Top Hat
87. A Star is Born
88. The Birth of a Nation
89. The Magnificent Ambersons
90. 42nd Street
91. The Lady Eve
92. Sunrise
93. Out of the Past
94. Ninotchka
95. Greed
96. Trouble in Paradise
97. Letter from an Unknown Woman
98. Nashville
99. Intolerance
100. The Crowd

Dirks clearly states that the selection of films for this list is limited to Hollywood/American/British production of the last century with an emphasis on earlier work that is widely considered classic. This got me thinking, what are the essentials of foreign film? Independant film? What other great titles am I missing?   

I am going to review each title for the blog as I work my way through this list. Have you seen any of these? What did you think?

7 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. You'll notice I mentioned your outrage over this list at the beginning of my post. ;)

      So...
      101. The Outsiders
      102. Red Dawn
      103. The Gladiator (which I begrudgingly include)

      Any others?

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    2. Coincidentally, I just read this article about the remake of Red Dawn: http://www.xojane.com/entertainment/an-asian-american-woman-reacts-to-red-dawn

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  2. Kristal McKenzie loved Rear Window so I bought it all those years ago. I did really enjoy it, but I have not watched it in ages if you would like to watch it together. I look forward to talking to you about and reading your reviews of many of the others I have seen and maybe watching some of the ones I have not. I loved reading the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but I was not as smitten with the movie. Same with The Outsiders, haha.

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    Replies
    1. Come over! Bring Rear Window! We'll watch it and cuddle.

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    2. That sounds perfect. Let me get this pit bull adopted, and we have a date. Besides, I have the tiniest little Christmas gift for Lucas. Yours is coming via the USPS, and I am not sure when it starts (hint hint). Have they notified you yet (hintX1000)? Also, I think I will be in your neck of the woods on Jan 5th. I am not sure if I will be able to, but if you are home I might be able to swing by for a minute?

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    3. I have not been notified! I am so intrigued! I have a gift for you as well that is a big hit around our house. Come by. I'm available.

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