So, you can’t figure out what movie to watch tonight?
How about watching one of the greats – those classic movies that define their respective genres? So here’s a list of 50 great films that everyone should see at some point in their lives. These are our picks for making a great movie night!
Secondary genres are listed in parentheses.
Action: The Matrix (Sci-fi) / Die Hard (Thriller)
Adventure:
Animated: Toy Story (Comedy) / The Lion King (Drama)
Comedy: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Historical, or Hysterical) / The Princess Bride (Drama)
Comedy – Romantic: You’ve Got Mail (Drama)
Comedy – Dramatic: Forrest Gump (Historical)
Comic Book: Batman Begins (Action)
Courtroom: A Time to Kill (Drama) / A Few Good Men (Drama)
Creature: Jaws (Action/Adventure) /
Crime: The Untouchables (Drama/Gangster) / The Godfather (Drama/Gangster)
Documentary: Ken Burns’ The Civil War (Historical)
Drama: The Shawshank Redemption (Crime) / Schindler’s List (Historical)
Epic: Gladiator (Drama)
Experimental: Memento (Suspense)
Fantasy: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Drama)
Foreign:
Heist: Ocean’s 11 (Crime/Thriller)
Historical: Gone with the Wind (War/Drama)
Horror: The Shining (Thriller) / The Ring (Thriller)
Indie: Pulp Fiction (Crime/Thriller)
Mini-series: Band of Brothers (War)
Musical: The Wizard of Oz (Adventure) / Moulin Rouge! (Comedy/Romance)
Sci-fi: Star Wars: A
Sci-fi – Alien: The Abyss (Drama/Thriller) / Alien (Thriller)
Sports: The Natural (Drama) / Remember the Titans (Drama)
Suspense: The Sixth Sense (Drama/Thriller)
Thriller: Se7en (Crime/Drama) / Collateral (Crime/Drama)
Thriller – Psychological: The Silence of the Lambs (Crime/Drama)
War – Civil War: Glory (Drama)
War – Foreign War: Braveheart (Drama/Historical)
War – Revolutionary War: The Patriot (Drama/Historical)
War –
War – WWII: Saving Private Ryan (Drama/Historical) / Patton (Drama/Historical)
Western: The Outlaw Josey Wales (Drama) / Unforgiven (Drama)
7 comments:
Good list, it seems to me, speaking as one who doesn't see many movies. You did miss some good ones, such as The Mission, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Amadeus. All of them pose some moral or ethical questions, and the scores of the first and last are just splendid. At least one of the three won the Oscar for best picture.
To Kill A Mockingbird would probably be my fvorite black and white movie, but we forgot that category. I wouldn't know where to plug the other movies in, but I'm not sure that either one defined their genres [Drama/Thriller/War or Historical/Drama, respectively]
As much as I like A TIME TO KILL, I'd probably put 12 ANGRY MEN in its place.
Not sure that YOU'VE GOT MAIL is the best romantic comedy out there. NOTTING HILL, AS GOOD AS IT GETS or WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. you could probably put THE PRINCESS BRIDE there and put AIRPLANE! in the comedy section.
I love LEON THE PROFESSIONAL, but wouldn't rank it as the best "foreign" movie. RUN LOLA RUN, AMELIE, AMORES PERROS, DAS BOOT, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, DELICATESSEN and many older ones like THE SEVENTH SEAL.
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN for musical.
the original KING KONG for creature.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY instead of THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES for western.
CADDYSHACK and ROCKY might trump REMEMBER THE TITANS for sports.
and stanley kubrick's THE KILLING or THE USUAL SUSPECTS for heist.
all that being said, i know it's really difficult to rank just 50 movies. pretty good job.
I would like to clear up one thing. This is certainly not a list of the top 50 movies or even the best movies from a certain genre. These are some movies that have defined genres with some of our personal favorites thrown in to the mix. This list was created when a friend of our told us that he had never seen American movies (he spent a portion of his life in Africa), so we decided to put together the movies that we thought he should see first.
The foreign category was the hardest to pick for...Brady and I have seen Das Boot but haven't reviewed it, I've seen Amores Perros and Crouching Tiger. It is a hard category to just pick one. And I know its not really "foreign" but it works...sorta
I was definately feeling 12 Angry Men, we even tossed it in the runnings for our Court Room drama one. We went with A Time to Kill because 1. Big Name Actors. 2. Good story. 3. Its in Color
I love as Good as it Gets, Jack Nicholson is dang funny and the supporting cast is amazing. When Harry Met Sally was tossed because we agreed on You Got Mail being probably the most "male" friendly one.
Pacing on G&B&U killed me and we didn't want to bore our friend to death. But I watched prob 2 years ago...I could stand to see it again.
The Usual Suspects is personally one of my Top 10 favorite movies....I generally make everyone I know watch it, I think we just overlooked it.
*Nice to know people read this blog now. It'll be good to see you and my sister on Saturday Brian.*
Guys, I'm gonna have to say that my favorite Civil War movie is God's and Generals, although Glory runs a very tight second.
My vote for foreign film would be Goodbye Lenin. It is an amazing story about a family and their reaction to the fall of East Germany.
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