Classic Great Movies

[RicktheRuler]

[ QUOTE ]
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
West World

Western:
Rio Bravo
The Outlaw Josey Wales
High Plains Drifter

Drama:
Casablanca
Amadeus
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (you could categorize this as Sci Fi as well)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Comedy:
The Jerk
Annie Hall (some people don't find Woody Allen funny but I love his movies
Tootsie

War Movies:
The Deerhunter
Patton
Glory
The Bridge on the River Kwai

Film Noir/Thriller:
The Maltese Falcon
Touch of Evil
Chinatown


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It might be cliche, but a list like this is never complete without Citizen Kane.

[Blarg]

Try some of Hitchcock's stuff. Most of it is very fun just on a surface level, and you'll be in the hands of a master.

For a real fun quick start, try:

Psycho
Rear Window
North by Northwest
The 39 Steps

For more evocative stuff:

Shadow of a Doubt
Suspicion
The Wrong Man

For something slower but really evocative:

Vertigo

Other good ones:

Notorious
Strangers on a Train


Ones some people find kinda "iffy":

Marnie
The Birds

Chick Flick with still some fun parts:

Rebecca
the second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much

Hmmm, some non-Hitchock classics:

Lawrence of Arabia
The Bridge Over the River Kwai
The Great Escape
Cool Hand Luke(I think this film will get much more highly rated over time -- extremely good and fun)
Stagecoach
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Gold Rush
The Third Man
The Big Heat
The Maltese Falcon
Casablanca
Treasure of the Sierra Madre]
Rebel Without a Cause
Rosemary's Baby

Nothing complete about that list at all, but it would take a pretty ornery fella to find fault with those. It's a solid start for films from this side of the pond.

There are plenty of non-American great films too, but I don't want to provoke a riot.

[shant]

The Graduate
Dog Day Afternoon
Taxi Driver

[CCass]

The Quiet Man

[BWebb]

I'm guessing you've seen Godfather I & II, but if not add those. Apocolypse Now, Python's Search for the Holy Grail, plus all the ones mentioned above.

[M2d]

singing in the rain
swing time
casablanca
the big sleep
used cars

[Uston]

It's only barely out of your time frame but you should add Cinema Paradiso to your queue and bump it to the top. Note: I can only vouch for the original version. I haven't seen the director's cut. Both are included on the DVD. If you don't love this movie you have no soul.

Also:

Full Metal Jacket
Raising Arizona
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
The Quiet Man

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I watch it every time it's on...drives the wife crazy. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[RacersEdge]

Scanned the thread - didn't see this one: Stalag 17 - basis for Hogan's Heroes, but S17 is a drama...the William Holden character in there is so cool..

[Blarg]

Should have mentioned High Noon, The Searchers, and My Darling Clementine.

And Kiss Me Deadly wouldn't be bad if you want to see where Quentin Tarantino got one of his ideas from.

And McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
Ordinary People.
An Unmarried Woman.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
The Island of Lost Souls
The Wolfman
Straight Time
Serpico
Little Big Man
The Night of the Hunter
Jungle Book
Gunga Din
The Man Who Would Be King
War of the Worlds
The Last Detail
Five Easy Pieces
Midnight Cowboy
The Hustler
The Conversation
The Killing
Last Tango in Paris
The Wild Bunch