I’m trying to find some hidden gems worth watching. Maybe they’re not exactly hidden, but there are a lot in this list I haven’t even heard of. Bonus points if you figure out why they’re ordered this way. I’ve asterisked the ones I’ve seen and remember enough to have an opinion about, just for fun.
Harakiri (1962)
High and Low (1963)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Come and See (1985)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Le Samouraï (1967)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Sunrise (1927)
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Like Stars on Earth (2007)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Diabolique (1955)
Ikiru (1952)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
The Kid (1921)
La Strada (1954)
Persona (1966)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Stalag 17 (1953)*
The General (1926)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
Stalker (1979)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
It Happened One Night (1934)
The Hustler (1961)
The Killing (1956)
The 400 Blows (1959)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
The Celebration (1998)
Castle in the Sky (1986)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Yojimbo (1961)
Nosferatu (1922)*
The Wild Bunch (1969)*
Notorious (1946)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
8½ (1963)
Touch of Evil (1958)*
Mary and Max (2009)
La Haine (1995)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)*
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)*
Ran (1985)
High Noon (1952)
City Lights (1931)
All About Eve (1950)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Roman Holiday (1953)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Rebecca (1940)
Rope (1948)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
Ip Man (2008)
The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Network (1976)
The Apartment (1960)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Rashomon (1950)
M (1931)
A Separation (2011)
On the Waterfront (1954)
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Modern Times (1936)
Manhattan (1979)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Metropolis (1927)
The Intouchables (2011)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)*
The Third Man (1949)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
For a Few Dollars More (1965)*
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
The Artist (2011)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)*
Gandhi (1982)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)*
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)*
Ben-Hur (1959)*
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
I’ll start by admitting that I haven’t seen everything on your list.
Most of these are at least very good movies. Whether a movie is a must-see depends on your taste and your goals (e.g. would you consider a movie a must-see if it represents an important milestone in film history, regardless of whether you think you’ll like it?). Here are some from your list that I believe are really great:
[ul]
[li]Anatomy of a Murder[/li][li]Witness for the Prosecution[/li][li]The Gold Rush[/li][li]The Hustler[/li][li]The Treasure of the Sierra Madre[/li][li]The Manchurian Candidate[/li][li]All About Eve[/li][li]Network[/li][li]The Apartment[/li][li]A Separation[/li][li]Paths of Glory[/li][li]Cool Hand Luke[/li][li]The Third Man[/li][li]The Maltese Falcon[/li][li]Singin’ in the Rain[/li][/ul]
Not every movie in this list is perfect. For example, I think Mary Astor was mis-cast in The Maltese Falcon. I don’t like the music in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. In my opinion, these flaws aren’t significant enough to keep them from being great movies.
BTW, The Third Man is one of my all-time favorites. It has a great story, great acting, great dialogue, interesting characters, a unique and interesting musical track, and it doesn’t have a single significant flaw (in my opinion).
The only movies in your list that I might call “overrated” are The Artist and Metropolis. I liked The Artist - I thought it was very entertaining and well-made, but I don’t think it deserved all the praise that it got. The story was basically a retelling of A Star Is Born with touches of Singin’ in the Rain.
Metropolis was groundbreaking for its time, but I don’t think it holds up well. I saw it recently and thought it was very heavy-handed in the way it delivered its message. I also thought some of the acting was over the top.
I think if you’re going to watch For a Few Dollars More you should watch A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly too. Not that the stories are really related, but they’re all great. Or maybe you’ve already seen those two anyway.
The Battle of Algiers (1966) Stalag 17 (1953)* Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
[del]The Grapes of Wrath (1940)[/del] The Wild Bunch (1969)* Notorious (1946)
[del]8½ (1963)[/del] Touch of Evil (1958)* The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Ran (1985)
[del]High Noon (1952)[/del] Rebecca (1940)
[del]Barry Lyndon (1975)[/del] Rashomon (1950)
[del]On the Waterfront (1954)[/del] The Intouchables (2011)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
The Third Man (1949)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)*
[del]Rosemary’s Baby (1968)[/del]
[del]Gandhi (1982)[/del] Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Ben-Hur (1959)**
Bolded are excellent, must-sees. Strike-thrus are over-rated glurge.
I haven’t seen a majority but from the list I cherry picked my favorites (and a couple that are some of my favoritest favorites) that I’d put on anyone’s “Must See” list:
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Network (1976) The Apartment (1960)!!!
Paths of Glory (1957)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) Cinema Paradiso (1988)!!!
The only one there that I think might be overrated is The Artist, but it’s still good and very entertaining - just not a Great Film, at least when compared to the rest of the list.
I see several number of Miyazaki’s anime movies (My Neighbor Totoro, Castle In The Sky, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Howl’s Moving Castle) - IMHO they’re all good and some are terrific, and to which I’d add Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. I’d rank those two higher than Howl’s Moving Castle, FWIW, though I would definitely recommend it all the same.
In addition to the classic It Happened One Night would be a less remembered comedy classic of the era, Midnight (also starring Claudette Colbert, with Don Ameche). I caught it by accident while channel surfing in a hotel room a few years ago; I was lucky enough to start watching it within 10 minutes of the start of the movie and my wife and I laughed so much we were afraid we’d get that pounding on the wall bit from the next room.
I was a bit surprised to see For A Few Dollars More on this list but not the other “Man With No Name” Spaghetti Westerns by Sergio Leone (A Fistful Of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) or his other great Western, Once Upon A Time In The West. But I kind of agree that I like it the best. I even have “The Musical Pocket Watch” theme (spoiler-free link) from the soundtrack on my cellphone so I can cue it up when needed for a throwdown challenge to a one-on-one duel: *“When the chimes end, pick up your gun.” * (Yeah, it’s come up.)
Alongside of* Singing In The Rain* would be (to me) An American In Paris and Gigi.
Of the ones I’ve seen, these I’d consider absolute must-see with my favorites bolded:
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)**
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)**
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Stalag 17 (1953)* The General (1926)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
It Happened One Night (1934) The Hustler (1961)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Nosferatu (1922)*
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)*
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)*
Ran (1985) High Noon (1952)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
M (1931)
On the Waterfront (1954) My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Metropolis (1927)
Paths of Glory (1957)
The Third Man (1949)
The Maltese Falcon (1941) For a Few Dollars More (1965)*
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
The Artist (2011)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Ben-Hur (1959)*
Here are the ones from your list that I’ve seen and thought were very good or great:
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Bicycle Thieves (1948) [I think this is also known sometimes as “The Bicycle Thief”]
City Lights (1931)
Rebecca (1940)
Network (1976)
The Apartment (1960)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Modern Times (1936)
Manhattan (1979)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Every one of those will be considered overrated by somebody, and everyone of those will be hailed as the finest produced by someone else. It’s just the reality of how these things work. However every one of those films is notable for one reason or another, some are important or influential. Some are pioneering, others are just really well made. Asking an entire board to pick and choose is pointless, as you’ll just get too many contradicting answers to make much of a decision.
And while not necessarily my favorites, leagues better than Butch Cassidy or Cool Hand Luke which the same poster elevated over a list with 75% of the films better than them.
(IMHO)
The Top 10 from that list, to these eyes (in chrono order):
**The General
Sunrise
Modern Times
The Big Sleep
Singin’ in the Rain
Tokyo Story
Night of the Hunter
Persona
The Battle of Algiers
The Wild Bunch
**
I understand those criticisms, and even agree with you somewhat, and I still think Metropolis is brilliant. The best description I can think of is that everything in it is over-the-top; the sets, story, acting, special effects, dialog, etc. Parts of it seem stilted and silly to a modern audience, but you couldn’t really change them, either. You couldn’t have subtle, naturalistic acting in that world. If you can appreciate how groundbreaking this was and the brutal beauty of the images, it’s a must-see.
