After my last blog, many of you have asked to see my list of films that I give out to my classes – so here it is. As I’ve repeatedly said, this is a very eclectic list that I use for a variety of reasons:
- To acquaint the students with (mainly) films from the American Studio System after sound was introduced.
- Some are true classics that they should know, if only for cultural reference, i.e., famous for being famous, like “Gone With the Wind” or “Lawrence of Arabia”.
- Sometimes a film (such as “Stage Door”) has been included because I want to introduce them to actors or actresses with whom they may not be familiar – such as Katherine Hepburn or Eve Arden.
- All the films have extremely strong stories, and utilize the storytelling elements I teach in class superbly.
- Some are included to illustrate specific storytelling elements: “All About Eve” for dialog, for instance, “Cleopatra” for spectacle, “Sunset Boulevard” for the clash of two styles (silent and sound) or “Inherit the Wind” for those films based on a real news story.
Because of the above-stated reasons, you’ll notice that many of the famed classics are missing, the most obvious of which is “Citizen Kane”. Sorry, I’ve never found it interesting or emotionally compelling enough to include. My apologies to its legion of admirers – but it’s my class, after all!
1930s
Stage Door
Camille
Ninotchka
A Tale of Two Cities
Gone With The Wind
Bride of Frankenstein
The Awful Truth
The Wizard of Oz
1940s
The Lady Eve
The Shop Around the Corner
Meet Me In Saint Louis
Citizen Kane
The Heiress
The Little Foxes
The Best Years of Our Lives
Casablanca
Mildred Pierce
Shadow of a Doubt
1950s
All About Eve
The Bad Seed
Some Like It Hot
Sunset Boulevard
North by Northwest
Marty
On the Waterfront
Singin’ in the Rain
Rebel Without a Cause
A Place in the Sun
Paths of Glory
1960s
West Side Story
Lilies of the Field
The Haunting
Cleopatra
Rosemary’s Baby
Bonnie & Clyde
Night of the Living Dead
Spartacus
Inherit the Wind
Lawrence of Arabia
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
The Graduate
Petulia
Patton
Psycho
Splendor in the Grass
To Kill a Mockingbird
1970s
The Godfather
The Godfather, Part 2
Cabaret
Chinatown
The Last Picture Show
Nashville
Annie Hall
1980s
Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels
A Room With A View
E.T., the Extra Terrestrial
Amadeus
Blue Velvet
Raising Arizona
Terms of Endearment
Ordinary People
Broadcast News
Moonstruck
Out of Africa
Remains of the Day
1990s
Searching for Bobby Fischer
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
The English Patient
Raise the Red Lantern (Chinese)
American Beauty
Shakespeare in Love
Unforgiven
Goodfellas
2000s
To Die For
A Beautiful Mind
No Country For Old Men
American Beauty
O Brother, Where Art Thou
The Queen
Chicago
Agora
The Descendants
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Milk
As I’ve said, there are a lot of necessary films missing from this list. Write and tell me what films you’ve seen from the list, and also some more films I should include.
Brad Geagley 
So glad to see that A Room with a View made your viewing list. Not many of my friends have ever seen or heard of this movie and it is one of my favourites – love the beautiful setting of Venice and the storyline provided the characters with some great ‘one liners’ and wholesome innocence of a era long gone. I haven’t watched it in awhile, but will be sure to sometime soon again.
I absolutely ADORE “A Room With a View” – a perfect Valentine’s Day movie, by the way. So romantic.
Film. Such a great medium. Thank you for your list. I’m delighted to report I’m familiar with all but a very few. Notably from 1930 and 40. After that I’ve seen them all and you picked many of my favorites. BTW citizen kane slipped in there too I see.
I find it funny that you mention that Citizen Kane would be missing from the list. And then it appears on the list. A flash of sudden guilt, perhaps? 😉
I never found it interesting myself.
Yeah! I thought I had left it off – but there it was. I still don’t like it.
And just when I thought I’d tapped my Netflix queue as low as it would go! Lots to consider here. I remember a couple years back checking out On the Waterfront and ever since I’ve noticed the way films use the same gates, bars, cages as a scenic symbol. Rosemary’s Baby is so weird and wild. Unforgettable whatever you make of it, right?
It’s a horror film set in the completely normal world – that’s what so great, I think. (That, and the evil alien growing inside you!)
How about Little Big Man. . .
I haven’t seen that one in so long. I’m not a bit Dustin Hoffman fan, to tell you the truth. And his makeup as the older character seemed a bit too rubberized to be real. But I will definitely take a look at it again. My most vivid memory of it was Dustin being bathed by Faye Dunaway…
Cabaret, Splendor in the Grass, The Bad Seed, and American Beauty are my favorite films and surprisingly enough I’ve seen over half of these. It makes me sad that film classes in my college don’t have the time to show all the movies on this list.
I absolutely worship those same films…and I AM making time in my class! My students are mesmerized by American Beauty, practically speechless by the end of it.
I scored myself a point for each one I’ve seen at least once. I must say that for the 30’s and 40’s, I’ve seen only 50%, for the 50’s, 7/11. But for the 60’s onward, I’ve seen them all. Even read the book of some. I’m sure we all have our won favorites and that you have considered not just the story but the editing, acting, etc. Glad to see I’m pretty good about choosing good film in your books.
I’ve been negligent in getting back to this list. I have actually seen some of them, many I haven’t, and some I’m not certain if I have or not (there are plenty of movies I saw when I was little that I didn’t know the names of, but would remember them if I were to start watching again). Also, I had a teacher in middle school who would show old movies – lots of Charlie Chaplin, silent films, and other assortments of non-pop culture things.
I’ll write back when I go over the list in detail.
Not sure how many people would be interested but thought I’d throw it out there that I’ve been reviewing the films of classic film legend Jean Harlow on my blog. With all the awesome discussion on classic films figured I’d try to entice more people into reading more reviews!
So, as predicted (by me) I’ve hardly seen any of these. There are many I know of, and could probably quote a line or two from, but haven’t actually seen. For most of these, when I was little I was “too young” to see it or be interested, but by the time I was older “everyone” had seen them. I probably would have gotten to them after college (when my parents and limited income didn’t restrict my movie rentals), but I got married instead – and my husband has seen most of them. So, what bits HAVE I seen?
Wizard of Oz
Casablanca (I was well over 20 when I finally saw this, my husband rented it as soon as I mentioned I hadn’t seen it)
Spartacus (I saw this as a kid)
The Graduate (shown in high school)
Amadeus
The Last of the Mohicans (at least twice)
The English Patient (I think I saw that)
American Beauty
Shakespeare in Love (I think)
I’ll mention a couple movies that I saw at some point that have really stuck with me (as you can tell, I’m no expert in film).
All’s Quiet on the Western Front
The Good Earth
I’ll mention that I saw both of those courtesy of the same high school teacher who showed The Graduate.