While Netflix has scaled back on their movie library in recent years to make way for more TV and exclusive content, there are still more movies on the streaming service than you can count. There’s even a fine selection of older movies, which is why we’ve assembled this list of the 10 Best Classic Movies on Netflix, all of which you can check out in the gallery below!
So what makes a movie a classic? A sense of timelessness, or a feeling of capturing lightning in a bottle among the lead actors. The right story at the right time with the right people. Whether it’s creating indelible images or characters you want to revisit again and again, a movie that’s defined as a classic has touched a lot of viewers’ hearts — young and old — and will continue to do so as long as movies are seen on the big or small screen.
Come back with us to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when leading men were MEN, and films had a real sense of class to ’em!
10 Best Classic Movies on Netflix
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Fantasia (1940)
There are several Disney classics available on Netflix, although none of them can top the jewel in the crown of Walt Disney's legacy as a producer. Fantasia broke the mold of what an animated feature could be only a few years after the birth of said features, setting animation to classical music in a way that doesn't always conform to funny animal conventions.
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His Girl Friday (1940)
Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant star in this movie that practically defined the term "screwball comedy." They play two fast-talking reporters who used to be married, with Grant attempting to sabotage Russell's new marriage by roping her into a story she can't refuse.
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Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Gloria Swanson earned her rightful place in film history with her haunting final line, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." Her washed up silent star Norma Desmond is so hermetically sealed in the past that she tips over into psychotic delusion, and watching the seams in her fragile psyche unravel is a marvel to behold.
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The Quiet Man (1952)
John Ford directs this gorgeous full-color trip through the Irish countryside as John Wayne's ex-pat American comes to the Emerald Isle and finds love with Maureen O'Hara. Unfortunately her character's ornery brother (Victor McLaglen) doesn't like Wayne, and a rift forms between the two the culminates in one of the longest and most memorable fistfights in film history.
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Roman Holiday (1953)
Audrey Hepburn won an Academy Award for her role as a reluctant princess who sheds her royal trappings to spend a weekend in Rome living it up as a normal person. Along the way she meets a reporter (Gregory Peck) who treats her with kindness, then attempts to nab an exclusive interview once he learns her identity. A romantic treat!
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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick truly changed the cinematic form with this sci-fi tale about a space mission to Jupiter that becomes increasingly dangerous -and abstract- the further it goes. The humans are all business, but it's the homicidal A.I. HAL 9000 that steals the show and nearly everyone's lives. Despite being nearly 50-years-old, the effects still stand up today.
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Barbarella (1968)
This is the movie that turned Jane Fonda into an instant sex symbol. Her see-through black plastic top alone became the costume that launched a thousand puberties. Based on Jean-Claude Forest's French "Barbarella" comics, this movie is a camp fantasy spectacle featuring all forms of pop fun from a winged angel to an electronic orgasm machine.
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The combination of William Goldman's punchy screenplay and George Roy Hill's rollicking direction with the amazing chemistry between leads Paul Newman and Robert Redford turned this into a smash hit. It also set the tone for action-comedies for years to come by never skimping on either.
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The Paper Chase (1973)
Timothy Bottoms stars as a first-year Harvard Law student who gets saddled with the notoriously rigorous Professor Kingsfield (John Houseman) and almost immediately earns his scorn. Further complications arise when he begins dating Kingsfield's daughter (Lindsay Wagner). One of the best college movies ever made, with an all-time performance from Houseman, who you will never forget... even though he might forget you.
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The Warriors (1979)
Walter Hill directed this grungy gang movie loosely modeled on Greek mythology about a Coney Island gang called The Warriors that is framed for murder and has to get back to home base without getting offed by every rival gang in the city. Along with Scarface, this is one of the few movies that pretty much every hip hop artist knows by heart.
