- Die Hard
- The Right Stuff
- Miller’s Crossing
- Henry V (Branagh version)
- Heat
These are gay. It is guy not gay.
This is the first movie thread where I have seen every movie.
These are my 5 movies every guy should see. I tried to offer a well balanced mix that would cover all major movie themes.
Heat (Pacino, Deniro, Val, Ashley Judd, action. ‘nuff said.)
Kelly’s Hero’s (War movie, great cast. Also, my favorite movie evar.)
Rudy (Football movie, underdog theme, true story, needs to be in here somewhere)
Day of the Dead (George Romero zombie masterpiece, covers the horror genre nicely.)
Blazin’ Saddles (Mel Brooks and it fills the western niche nicely)
How can Madd Maxx leave off Road Warrior? Doesn’t that go without saying?
Snatch
History of The World Part I
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Bull Durham
Bourne Identity
Wish I’d remembered that one.
Fine, poor Belushi:
The Godfather
The Godfather II
Kelly’s Heroes
Die Hard
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
My movies are getting no notice, therefore I must defend them. Here goes:
Sanjuro - Brynner? McQueen? Eastwood? Bronson? Coburn? Wayne? Sissies, all of 'em. Toshiro Mifune invented the badass, wandering warrior. When this dude shows up, you know someone is getting cut down.
Now, the character of Sanjuro isn’t necessarily the most fearsome that Mifune has played, but the movie is more accessible for people who haven’t really seen any samurai movies before. Sanjuro is scruffy, wisecracking, and crafty. He doesn’t seem especially dangerous at first glance, but then suddenly there are a bunch of bodies lying around. And what other character would have the sheer iron balls to answer “mulberry field” or “camellia” when asked his name? It’s also worth noting that Yojimbo, the previous movie with the same character, was remade as both A Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence - Oh look, it’s a cartoon. Must be for little kids, right? Well, this one has a cyborg cop, robot prostitute/serial killers, highly realistic art and animation, and a plot that will make your brain hurt for days.
Grave of the Fireflies - Another cartoon? Maybe this one will be easier to watch. Nope. This is the tale of a little boy and his baby sister, trying to survive in WWII Japan as the Allies are firebombing the crap out of it. If this movie doesn’t make you cry, you have no soul.
Schindler’s List - So you’re a Nazi businessman with a factory. All you have to do to get richer is keep doing what you’re doing, and don’t ask too many questions about what happens to the Jews when the Gestapo comes for them. What do you do? Well, if you’re Schindler you lie your ass off to the SS, pay them off, ply them with liquor, tell them you need little Jewish children to make bullets because they have small fingers but secretly sabotage all the ordnance so it can’t fire, and bankrupt yourself to keep as many Jews from getting gassed and burned as you can. Would there were more men like him.
Strange Days - Let’s see, you’ve got a weasely ex-cop con artist who is forced to grow a pair, you’ve got a tough-as-nails chick who drives a limo and pack heat, you’ve got a string of dead hookers and supremely twisted virtual reality snuff films, you’ve got a cover-up, and you’ve got some awesome car chases and fight scenes.
Yeah, so they aren’t movies to watch casually while chugging a brewski. They’re movies to give your worldview a good, thorough beatdown.
Good effort, but I have to say those choices are indefensible. Cartoons? Robot cartoons? For real? That’s about as far away from badass as it gets. Is there even any Black Sabbath in the soundtrack?
You tout another cartoon as one to make you cry, and then follow it up with Schindler’s List?
Strange Days is the only one of your five that I’ve seen. I quite enjoyed it, but it’s verging on too geeky to be a guy movie. It’s certainly closer to the right direction, which tells me you sort of have the right idea.
But really; cartoons? That’s just not going to cut it compared to fare like The Godfather or Die Hard. And Schindler’s List won’t stand a chance compared to Old Yeller or Brian’s Song.
Your five choices could be the greatest movies ever made, but they sure don’t sound like guy movies. One thing that guy movies don’t do, as a rule, is change your worldview. That could lead to unmanly things like talking about philosophy, or even worse, feelings.
Bah. This man will talk about whatever he damn well feels like.
I’ve seen a few of the movies on his list. There’s no Predator or even Batman in there. Sorry, sturmhauke.
Dude… these movies have a different sort of manly bonding theme than the rest of 'em, I think. 
You’re missing my point. Everyone else is choosing movies that are part of the Traditional American Guy Movie Canon - movies that Joe Blue Collar has either already seen or are similar to ones he has seen. I am choosing movies that are intended to show Joe something different, maybe make him a little uneasy.
Okay, I’m not a guy, but my brother and I have bonded many times over movies, so this is what we came up with:
- Sin City (We couldn’t believe this one wasn’t on anyone’s list! It’s so generous with the breasts, bullets, and blood!)
- Fight Club
- Predator
- Blazing Saddles
- Black Hawk Down
Breaking Away. Duh. Seriously.
Heat - " 'cause she’s got a GREAT ASS!!!"
Can I get a 2 for 1 : Heat/Ronin?
Smokey and the Bandit. Burt Reynolds at his Burtiest.
Deliverance, speaking of Burt
Papillon - Steve McQueen eats bugs
No doubt. I’m not sure how Strange Days is intended to do that, but I’m sure the other four could.
You’re missing his point, though. That’s not what the OP is looking for. Picking five movies that would challenge the preconceptions of the average Joe is, IMO, far less interesting. There is no struggle in boiling down such a list to the final five; any five challenging movies will do. As in:[ul][li]Pi[/li][li]Requiem for A Dream[/li][li]Donnie Darko[/li][li]Brazil[/li][li]Barton Fink[/ul]I’m perfectly happy with this list. Hell, I wouldn’t give it a second thought, much less be actually frustrated by the five movie limitation. And it only took me a minute or so to come up with it.[/li]
By contrast, the question in the OP made me really think. There were so many great movies I really wanted to put on my list, and cutting each one was a struggle. And I’m not happy with the final five I came up with. More precisely, I don’t think there is any list of five that I would be happy with.
That was the point of the OP. It’s not the list that is interesting, it’s the thought process surrounding how you pruned it down that is interesting, IMO.
On preview:
Great list, CaerieD. I suspect several reasons why Sin City (which I loved) isn’t on anybody’s list. First off, it’s comic-booky. Even worse is that it’s goth comic-booky. But the biggest reason is probably because while Carla Gugino titties rock the house, the titties everyone went to go see belonged to Jessica Alba. That makes it a cock-tease. And as for breasts in general, Sin City was anything but generous with them.
And sorry, mack, no two-fers.
I’m ashamed I didn’t think of Heat. Perfect movie for this.
In no particular order:
- Slapshot
- Blues Brothers
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
- Die Hard
- The Great Escape
This would have been easier if I could have picked 2 in each Guy sub-genre – War, Mafia, Sports, Action, Western, and Et cetera. Besides there being SIX major categories, it’s tough to chose Slapshot v. Major League, or Die Hard v. Predator, The Dirty Dozen v. Great Escape, Caddyshack v Blues Brothers, and Casino v. The Godfather, not to mention Ice Station Zebra, Guns of Navarrone, Animal House, Fight Club, My Name is Nobody, and so on.
Could we do five in each sub-genre. Please?
(I’m female, but I like classic Guy movies.)