Come on, Repo Man? This may well be amongst many people’s favorite movies, but I don’t think it fits into the “Classics” genre. It’s really more of a cult classic.
Also, vouching that a movie will become a classic doesn’t mean that you need like it at all; most of my favorite movies wouldn’t be considered “classics”, and a classic need not be high art.
Some utterly bewildering nominations for classic status. A lot of these suggestions (Full Metal Jacket, Shakespeare in Love, Dead Again) are little more than above average interpretations of well worn genres. While I’m not a fan of Titanic, I do think that it has the necessary attributes to be called a classic: epic scope and ambition, timelessness, grandeur.
I think Crunchy Frog’s nominations were closest to the mark, but i’d also throw in The Music of Chance, Barton Fink and The Man Who Wasn’t There.
A lot of movies deemed to be classics tend to be overproduced, overacted, underscripted, excessively lengthy and just plain unwatchable piles of excrement.
‘Gone With The Wind’ is a classic example of this. ‘Titanic’ has just exhumed what I hoped was a dead genre of film.
Yeah, it’s ‘classic’. It’s crap, but it’s still got ‘classic’ emblazoned all over it.
Unforgiven–one of the best-written movies of the last twenty years, plus a great cast.
Groundhog Day–best Hollywood comedy of the last 20 years, bar none.
Diner–long after people have forgotten about Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, and Kevin Bacon (come to think of it, that’s already happened), this movie will still stand out as an example of how to do an ensemble piece.
Seven and Fight Club–love him or hate him, you can’t deny that David Fincher has talent and style.
Is Memento American?
Things that I think people will still watch in 20 years that haven’t been mentioned yet -
Silence of the Lambs - perfect.
The Sixth Sense
Sleepless in Seattle
Aliens
Blade Runner
Back to the Future
This is Spinal Tap
Wump! Unforgiven is one of my all time favs, as is Groundhog Day. What good choices.
L.A. Confidential (also mentioned above) is within the 20 year limiit and Boogie Nights. (Same year). I think all four of these will be classics.
Repo Man, while a cult favorite (Plate O Shrimp), is not going to make the must see list.
I think that some of the American films people will be watching as long as there are films will be
Blade Runner
Pulp Fiction
Schindler’s List
Saving Private Ryan
All four are standouts in their respective genres. One can argue whether or not they are “great films,” but they are the ones which I think later viewers will still enjoy.
If I could drop the “American” qualifier and add some films which might or might not make the first list, I’d add
Ran
Cinema Paradiso
A Fish Called Wanda
Memento
One thing I think undergirds most “American classics” is wish fulfillment, so I’d add:
Working Girl (underrated, I think)
Pretty Woman (not a film I like very much, but it’s already achieved a sort of classic status)
Field of Dreams (ditto)
Sadly, I agree that Titanic probably will be classic for at least a while. It’s one of a special class of movie that’s all heart, no head (forgive the alliteration): a mechanical, manipulative, mawkish mess.
The first 25 minutes of Shaving Ryan’s Privates actually deserves to be a classic, but (as is typical of Spielberg) as soon as the characters start talking the thing turns into a 4-M special. The man has a heart of goo, and he’s richly rewarded because so much of the American public does, too (it’s certainly one of our strengths as a nation, but it just as certainly undercuts our art).
No one has mentioned Road House?? C’mon, Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch (nekkid), Sam Elliott…BEN GAZZARA! Sure, It ain’t shakespeare, but you watch it…you know you watch it Like a car wreck you watch it everytime you stumble upon it. And if that don’t make it a classic, I don’t know what does…
“When Harry Met Sally” definitely holds up as the best romantic comedy of the recent past, IMHO
The Breakfast Club
Airplane(Does that count, timewise?)
Was The Elephant Man an American film? If so, I’ll nominate that one.
Yup, Elephant Man is an American flick. Produced by Mel Brooks, no less!
Odd that nobody’s mentioned Blue Velvet yet…
Blue Velvet
Mel Brooks? Mel Brooks of Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs Mel Brooks produced a David Lynch film? That has got to be one of the most unlikely producer/director pairings I can think of, not to mention the subject matter of the film being associated with Mel Brooks. I wonder how that happened.
When I saw the OP, I approached it in terms of ‘American’ Classic - either films of a genre perfected by American cinema, or films that broke ground in terms of the American psyche.
In terms of the first category, that would have to be The Usual Suspects. The crime genre is one that American film-makers do particularly well (GoodFellas, Casino, The Godfather(s), LA Confidential, etc, etc). I’ve seen it countless times, and it still keeps me enthralled. Brilliant characterizations; crisp, clever narration & dialogue; a collection of some of the most versatile actors around, and a construction leading to one of the biggest cinematic “aaaahhhhhs” in memory.
As far as the second category goes, and as much as I am not really a fan of his films in general, it has to Platoon. Despite the fact that Oliver Stone has disappeared into his own personal delusions, perhaps never to return, his bigscreen debut made it OK in the US to discuss and confront the Vietnam legacy. Witness the many pretenders in it’s wake: Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, Tour of Duty (yeah, yeah, I know - TV show, but it just illustrates the point), Bat21, and all those terrible Rambo movies. While it certainly didn’t inspire quality follow-ups, it did make the subject presentable in the popular media and the public consciousness. Apocalypse Now did predate it, but the commentary on the madness of war kinda diverted any discussion on the common experience of Vietnam. Still a good movie though.
Plus, I gotta disqualify Full Metal Jacket on the traditional nitpicky grounds of book-to-film transfers. Based as it is on Gustav Hasford’s brilliant novel “The Short Timers”, Kubrick over-reached himself in his attempt to staple his own message over the much bleaker one conveyed in Hasford’s book.
Honorable mentions go to Clerks, the hands-down best piece of independent filmmaking in at least the last 20 years, as well as Schindler’s List, which could easily replace about 70% of the history taught in schools.
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**The Wonder Boys.
Almost Famous. **
Or at least I would hope those two would be considered for the list.
What, exactly, makes a “classic”? Good box office? Then say goodbye to “Citizen Kane”. Quality? Who the hell can define that?
If you’re simply guessing at which movies people will be watching 20 years from now, I would tend to lean away from a technical milestone like Titanic, since the special effects 20 years from now are likely going to make current special effects look amateurish and dull.
I think you can make a case that a “classic” is a movie that is supremely excellent in one of its aspects. Slippery, eh? But any movie that is inarguably a classic has a quality to it that it displays better than most any other movie.
These are some rules that I can think of, along with examples that follow the rule from both the ‘classic’ and ‘contemporary’ eras:
GENRE. **Singin’ in the Rain, LA Confidential. ** (Some genres reach their heights during different periods of time. I can’t put any contemporary musical on this list and look myself in the mirror, nor can I come up with a quality classic crime drama that quite measures up to LA Confidential. In the same way I think the mobster movie reached its absolute heights with **Godfather 1 and 2 **and Goodfellas.)
ANIMATION. **Snow White **(or any from Disney at the height of his powers), ** Toy Story 1 and 2 **.
REVOLUTIONARY. Bonnie and Clyde, Pulp Fiction. (By ‘revolutionary’, I mean a movie that catered to Hollywood’s radical elements and still made a lot of box office. Bonnie and Clyde was a trailblazer in showing gruesome on-screen violence. While it shares that with Pulp Fiction, the latter movie is more noted for the independent film revolution of the mid-90’s that it embodied.
ACTION. **Robin Hood, Raiders of the Lost Ark. **
And, of course, there are movies that don’t fit this or any other ‘rule’ that I can dream up.
THE RIGHT STUFF?
I also have to add to the “me-too” factor on The Usual Suspects and L.A. Confidential. Both are well-written, the camera work was dead-on, and the stories were extremely captivating. (To me, at least.)
I would also like to submit Braveheart. I know this was a blockbuster film, and it’s also the kind of film that you have to see in the theater. (It just doesn’t play as well on my little tiny tv!) It was exciting, sad, funny, and inspiring, and I think it could probably qualify as one of the best movies of all time. (totally IMHO) (And if for some reason if this is not an American made movie, I’m heading for the hills of MPSIMS!)
Oh, and you can’t forget that awesome epic, “Chairman of the Board” with Carrot Top! 
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