Monday, December 30, 2013

The Lists: Must See Movies

Blue Velvet. Image courtesy of MGM.
The last - and easily, longest - of my all-time roundups is my Must See Movies list. This is not a typical movie list in that it's not ranked, but rather presented alphabetically by decade.

This is not necessarily a list of my favorite movies, although my personal choices are all in there. Rather, I used the 1,000 Movies You Must See Before You Die list as an inspiration, in that I list not only my favorites, but also movies that I believe should be on any essential viewing list. If someone asked me for an extensive list that would cover all bases for a well-rounded film education, this is what I'd give them.

However, at one point while making this list, I realized I was cutting off too many titles that I believed should be included. So, quite frankly, I have no idea how many movies are on this list. I'd be willing to bet it's over 1,000, but I haven't counted. And yet, I still had to cut numerous movies of which I'm very fond. But I felt that I had to be at least somewhat selective.

There are a number of titles missing that might cause some to scratch their heads. For example, you won't find "The Sixth Sense," "Avatar," "The Avengers," "Caddyshack," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Grease," "Shaun of the Dead," "Gummo," "In the Realm of the Senses," "The Hills Have Eyes," "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Top Gun," "Fatal Attraction," "Akira," "Man Bites Dog," "Funny Games," "Oldboy" "The Tenant," "Napoleon Dynamite" or "Little Miss Sunshine." It's not that I didn't like these films - well, I can't say I much liked "Napoleon Dynamite" - but I just didn't believe they should make the cut. In some cases, I substituted obscure titles for better known examples of a specific genre.

Without further ado, here are the lists by decade. As always, I'd love to hear your comments in the section provided. Tell me which movies you believe should have made the list, but did not.

1903-1929
1930-1939
1940-1949
1950-1959
1960-1969
1970-1979
1980-1989
1990-1999
2000-2009
2010-2020

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