I recently made a point to see all of the films I had not seen on IMDB’s Top 250 list and outside of the unavailable Safety Last! (Does anyone own this or know where I can buy it for less than $80?) I managed just that. In talking about taking on the list I discussed it with a fellow Seattle critic who said to me, “Yeah, but there are a lot of fanboy films on that list.” I told them I understood that, but there are also plenty of great films on that list and also said it is always best to be sure you see all the films your potential readership has seen and also believes are great.
On top of the IMDB list I have also created a spreadsheet that totals 495 films made up of the IMDB Top 250, the AFI Top 100, the complete list of Best Picture winners and Roger Ebert’s List of Greatest Movies and it appears I have a few new films to add to my list as Yahoo has released a list of their 100 Movies To See Before You Die and of that list there are seven I have not yet seen.
I have included the entire list below and you can get a detailed look at Yahoo right here. Movies marked with an * are those I apparently need to see before I die.
How many do you have left to see? Anyone out there seen them all?
The list is in alphabetical order
- 12 Angry Men (1957)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- The 400 Blows (1959)
- 8 ½ (1963)
- A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
- The African Queen (1952)
- Alien (1979)
- All About Eve (1950)
- Annie Hall (1977)
- Apocalypse Now (1979)
- The Battle of Algiers (1967)
- The Bicycle Thief (1948)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Blazing Saddles (1974)
- Blow Up (1966)
- Blue Velvet (1986)
- Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
- Breathless (1960) *
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- Bringing Up Baby (1938)
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
- Casablanca (1942)
- Chinatown (1974)
- Citizen Kane (1941)
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
- Die Hard (1988)
- Do the Right Thing (1989)
- Double Indemnity (1944)
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
- Duck Soup (1933)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- Enter the Dragon (1973)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
- The French Connection (1971)
- The Godfather (1972)
- The Godfather, Part II (1974)
- Goldfinger (1964)
- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1968)
- Goodfellas (1990)
- The Graduate (1967)
- Grand Illusion (1938) *
- Groundhog Day (1993)
- In the Mood For Love (2001) *
- It Happened One Night (1934)
- It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
- Jaws (1975)
- King Kong (1933)
- The Lady Eve (1941) *
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- The Lord of the Rings (2001,2002,2003)
- M (1931)
- M*A*S*H (1970)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- The Matrix (1999)
- Modern Times (1936)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
- National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
- Network (1976)
- Nosferatu (1922)
- On the Waterfront (1954)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
- Paths of Glory (1958)
- Princess Mononoke (1999)
- Psycho (1960)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- Raging Bull (1980)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Raise the Red Lantern (1992)
- Rashomon (1951)
- Rear Window (1954)
- Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
- Rocky (1976)
- Roman Holiday (1953)
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- Schindler’s List (1993)
- The Searchers (1956)
- Seven Samurai (1954)
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
- Some Like It Hot (1959)
- The Sound of Music (1965)
- Star Wars (1977)
- Sunset Blvd. (1950)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- The Third Man (1949)
- This is Spinal Tap (1984)
- Titanic (1997)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
- Toy Story (1995)
- The Usual Suspects (1995)
- Vertigo (1958)
- When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
- Wild Strawberries (1957)
- Wings of Desire (1988) *
- The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) *
- The World of Apu (1959) *
