Me and two friends had “classic movie nights” for a couple of years before I moved away. We would watch something which is considered a classic and it had to have been released before 2000. We watched only those which none of us three have seen before and we would watch it like once every two months or so. Movies like:
- M
- Gone with the Wind
- The Godfather
- Taxi Driver
- Murder on the Orient Express
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Rear Window
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Chinatown
- Le Grande Bouffe
- L’Avventura
- Tengoku to jigoku
- etc.
It was a ton of fun and we talked about the movie before, what our expectations are and after just generally and each of us would give it a IMDB star rating.
Now sadly my friends live 9 time zones away, so we can’t really do that anymore. But I was thinking to try to convince my wife to do this classic movies night with me. Right now she is reluctant because English is her 4rth language and especially older movies are using language differently too, but one day she will give in :D.
Anyway, now that you know the rules, what movies do you think I still missed and should watch?
Alien
Death race 2000
Unholy rollers
Attack of the killer tomatoes
Ilsa She Wolf of the SS
Coffee
The thing
The fly
Maximum Overdrive
Hell in frogtown
Stay (2005)
Weird, and heartbreaking
The Third Man, a noir tale about a dime store novelist trailing his smuggler friend, the soundtrack is its own character.
For more noir check out the opening scene from Touch of Evil
The Fifth Element (1997)
Its on Pluto.tv right now, just watched it last night actually.
EDIT: FYI, so is Terminator 1 & 2, and Total Recall.
Does it have to be serious? There are a ton of great comedies or dramadies.
- Cool Hand Luke
- Rebel Without a Cause
- Hard Days Night (this is terrible and great, you still have to see it)
- Psycho
- Forest Gump
- Star Wars
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Local Hero
- Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Joe vs the Volcano (it might be too on the nose right now)
- Life of Brian or The Holy Grail by Monty Python
- Highlander (just to see Sean Connery be a Spaniard)
- So I married an Ax Murderer and Wayne’s World
- The Game
- The Terminator
- Bull Durham
Yea cool hand Luke…one of the very best…
Hell yea brother. So many “movies you must see lists” are like Come & See, Grave of the Fireflies and the whole Decalogue. Don’t get me wrong these are all great but we so often leave silly joy out of the great film canon. I’m gonna continue this vibe
- Tampopo
- Paper Moon
- Sing Street
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- The Sting
- Hunt for the Wilderpeople
- About Time
- School of Rock
- O Brother Where Art Thou
- Midnight Run
- Barb and Starr Go To Vista Del Mar
I can’t believe I missed O Brother, it’s in my top 3.
Ooh these are awesome!
May I add:
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Spaceballs
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Uncle Buck
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Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
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Airplane! (Haven’t seen this one but it’s supposed to be a classic)
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Father of the Bride
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The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941 I believe, Bette Davis is fabulous in this)
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Death Becomes Her
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9 to 5 (Dolly Parton!)
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Clue
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Cutting it close but Office Space is another classic, as is The Matrix
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Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is also another great comedy
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Can’t help myself but The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is possibly my favorite hard sci-fi movie of all time
I could go on forever but those are just off top of my head that stand out as bucket list quality.
You haven’t seen Airplane!? Surely you can’t be serious‽
I am serious! And don’t call me Shirley!
(Only line I know from that movie, it’s on my bucket list though)
These are fantastic. It’s going to be a huge list for him to get through. I haven’t seen Death Becomes Her, but I’ll put that on my list.
- Look who’s coming to dinner (your The Man Who Came To Dinner reminded me of it).
- Grumpy Old Men
- The 6th Sense
So many of my pre-2000 favorites are listed in this thread. Here are a few more:
The Sandlot (1993)
The War (1994)
Enemy of the State (1998)
Fandango (1985)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Being There (1979)
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- Apocalypse Now
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Shining
Here’s my favourite films of all time:
- Nosferatu
- The Maltese Falcon
- Vertigo
- Little Shop of Horrors
- The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
- Videodrome
- Blade Runner
- Wild at Heart
- Drive
- Destroyer
Speaking of English as a second language, don’t forget Billy Wilder, who made a lot of great films, mostly comedies, but certainly all comedic.
- Ball of Fire (as writer)
- Double Indemnity
- Some Like It Hot
- Sunset Boulevard
- Sabrina
- Stalag 17
Others I’m forgetting …
Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks) ain’t bad neither. And it’s got a kitty!
I need to rewatch Some Like it Hot!
How versed are you all in animated movies?
One that may be less watched by younger generations but is still a classic could be the original Fantasia movie. Beautiful film set entirely to music, and where Mickey Mouse drawn in an oversized wizard costume comes from.
Any idea who the target audience for Fantasia is? When I saw chunks of it as a child I was bored out of my skull.
In the ‘30s and ‘40s animated Disney films were targeted at the general populace rather than just children.
1937 saw Snow White, the first feature-length animated film in the US. Animation on this scale was still relatively new so part of the appeal may have been novelty and awe at the technology, not unlike Pixar films in the mid-to-late ‘90s.
To be fair, I found the original Toy Story pretty dull too, back when it was new. I quite like 3 and 4 though!
HM, i wonder if I ever watched the whole movie, if so then as a child.
12 angry men To kill a mockingbird
Casablanca.
The Princess Bride, in case you and your wife haven’t seen it.
Okay, I’ve been told for years and years to watch this and I wish I understood the love. I really respect all the people who forced me to watch it, I just don’t get it. I think it’s good?
It has a certain type of witty humor, it’s not for everyone but it’s one of my favorites.
It is good, great really.
It has a huge cult following and although I like it okay, I don’t understand the cult.
Comedy is always hit and miss. If you didn’t find it funny or didn’t associate the story with childhood nostalgia then it won’t work.
Like rodents of unusual size are funny or they aren’t. If they aren’t, then you probably won’t like the movie. If you can’t identify with a family member trying to to help a child and the child resisting, but only because they are being childish, then you probably won’t like the movie.
And that’s fine. Not everyone has the same experiences.
I wonder if you’re right and that’s it, I don’t have the nostalgia for it. I don’t think it has anything to do with generations, because the people who made me watch came from all generations. Also, I had been hearing about how amazing it was for years, so it had a pretty high bar to jump over.
I enjoyed it without any element of nostalgia to it. The first time I saw it I was in my twenties.
I wouldn’t say it’s amazing but it has a sort of goofy charm and deliberate silliness that I found very endearing.
As a fan of animated films, some of my top picks are:
• An American Tail/Fivel Goes West
• The Land Before Time (the first one)
• The Secret of NIHM
• Robin Hood (you can guess which one, given my other answers)
• The original 1984 (love that film, not animated but still pretty good)
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Don’t know if any of these fit the bill, but I still personally stand by them due to nostalgia for the first 3 and just how much I like the remaining 2 movies.
Goodfellas, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ikiru, Jaws, Pulp Fiction
I agree with all of these too. I’ve never seen Ikiru. Also any Myasaki movie.
Fuck I missed that, it has to be Spirited Away, also Grave of Fireflies
I missed a ton too as I’m reading people’s replies. There were some pretty great movies before 2000.
