pantsfarm

I came across this list of 102 movies the film critic Jim Emerson says one must see before regarding themselves as movie literate.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t at all consider myself movie literate. And just glancing at this list I know for certain I haven’t seen a lot because of how many appear to have been made before, say, when I was born (1984, but this is sort of arbitrary I could just as easiliy say 1980 or 1970). That said, here’s the list and I’ve indicated with *s those I have seen. I’ve tried to add some footnotes too with other random remarks of mine.

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
The 400 Blows
8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
All About Eve
Annie Hall
Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
The Bicycle Thief
The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
Blowup
Blue Velvet
* Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless [1]
Bringing Up Baby
Carrie
Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
* Chinatown
Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
* Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
* Double Indemnity
Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
* E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial
Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
* The Exorcist
* Fargo
* Fight Club
Frankenstein [2]
The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
* Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
* The Graduate
Halloween
A Hard Day’s Night
Intolerance
It’s a Gift
* It’s a Wonderful Life
* Jaws
The Lady Eve
* Lawrence of Arabia
M
* Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior [3]
The Maltese Falcon
* The Manchurian Candidate [4]
Metropolis
Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
The Night of the Hunter
Night of the Living Dead
North by Northwest
Nosferatu
On the Waterfront
* Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
Pink Flamingos
* Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
Rashomon
* Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
* Schindler’s List
The Searchers
* The Seven Samurai
Singin’ in the Rain
Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard
* Taxi Driver
The Third Man
Tokyo Story
Touch of Evil [5]
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
Vertigo
* West Side Story
The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz

1: Presumably this refers to the Godard film √� bout de souffle from 1960 rather than North by Northwest which also comes up when I search imdb. Wait, actually it does.
2: I’ve only seen the 1994 Kenneth Branagh film.
3: I think I’ve seen this, but my memory is shaky on this one. Maybe on TV once? Maybe not.
4: I’ve seen both the recent remake as well as the famed original.
5: I actually have this sitting in my room. Maybe this will motivate me to watch it. Probably not. I still haven’t watched Citizen Kane or Casablanca either.

So there you have it. Spare me the “Oh my how have you never seen Casablanca!?” remarks. I should note also that I came upon this list by way of reading kottke and this entire post is pretty much stolen in idea and format.