# Movies that truly stood the test of time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 17, 2005, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748 "2005-04-17T08:45:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/41 "2005-04-20T00:05:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And you people who said **Pitch Black** – are you serious!!! I _hated_ that movie, so my personal opinion inclines me against it, but even so, I don’t see anything that makesd it a “classic” Anyone who said Pitch Black, I would suggest the original Alien instead. ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/42 "2005-04-20T01:21:15Z")
> [@bclouse](#): > > **A Christmas Story** - it’s not a super old movie but I think it’s timeless. I can’t image it ever going out of style. Best example so far. I think it helps that it’s a period piece, which also helps _Raiders_. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/43 "2005-04-20T01:34:16Z")
Two of my favorites… The 1951 version of _Scrooge_ with Alastair Sim _Bullit_ with Steve McQueen ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/44 "2005-04-20T01:40:47Z")
> [@bclouse](#): > > **A Christmas Story** - it’s not a super old movie but I think it’s timeless. I can’t image it ever going out of style. FARKAS!!! I gotta second this. This movie captures everything perfectly and I have to second **Raiders of the Lost Ark**. Superb in every sense…especially the music. **Radio Days** is wonderfully nostalgic and silly. I think this is a classic and it is the best Woody Allen film because he is only the voice over. Yay! **Three Musketeers** The Michael York version and **The Four Musketeers.** are classics. Though I would love to see a better remake than the crap that Disney put out a few years back. Can’t get enough swashbuckling. **Robin Hood** with the original Man in Tights, Errol Flynn. **His Girl Friday** with Cary Grant and Roslyn Russell. Their comedic timing and the insane plot line are.absolutely.perfect.bar.none. _“Diabetes! I shoulda known better than to hire somebody with a disease!”_ **Office Space** Just captures it all perfectly. There was another movie I was watching the other day that I can’t remember what it was right now and all I could think was, " This is perfect…a classic." ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/45 "2005-04-20T01:47:20Z")
**Princes Bride** **Man from Snowy River** **Lion in the Winter** **Galdiator** **Best in Show** Gets funnier and more true to it all every time I watch it. and possibly **Blowin’ in the Wind** ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/46 "2005-04-20T02:33:16Z")
> [@Balle\_M](#): > > _Bullit_ with Steve McQueen I like McQueen, and I’d like to agree with this, but I can’t. The chase seen is still heart-pounding, but the story is, at this point, pure cliche. (The fact that it’s a cliche because every other rogue cop movie has stolen from it is irrelevent; it’s still predictible.) A good film, but not timeless. How about _Cool Hand Luke_, _Hud_, and _The Hustler_ for a Newman triple feature of timeless films. “What we got here…is a failure to communicate.” I suspect _Arsenic and Old Lace_ will remain hilarious for years to come. “Charge!” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/47 "2005-04-20T02:38:38Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > . . . old movies (pre-1980) . . . Well, gee, thanks for making me feel old. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/48 "2005-04-20T17:49:54Z")
**Night of the Living Dead**. **The Thin Man**. Neither of them require any handicap nor excuses. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/49 "2005-04-20T19:10:40Z")
I think **The Blues Brothers** should make this list. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/50 "2005-04-20T19:14:51Z")
Someone just mentioned **The Thin Man** in the not-timeless thread, largely because of the portrayal of constant drinking. And c’mon, if that was real hooch they were throwing back, they’d be face down in the gutter by the third reel. Still a great movie. Stranger On A Train, I gotta disagree on **The Hustler**. I haven’t been able to find an old-style pool hall like the one at the beginning and end of that movie, and I’ve looked. I don’t know if places like that ever really existed, but now all the billiard halls are places like Jillian’s, with a bar and music playing, but no serious pool-hall vibe. And Fast Eddie and Fats are shooting straight pool, which almost no one plays anymore. Also still a great movie. And how odd that you would mention **Wages of Fear** , I just saw that for the first time a couple weeks ago. (I remember catching the American remake, _Sorcerer_, on cable several times when I was pretty young.) It’s timeless in its setting, desperate men in desperate circumstances and all that, but I think filmmaking style has moved on. All of the suspense sequences are done in such a way that you’re forced to accept the characters explanations of what’s going on. Like the scene where they have to back the truck out to the edge of the wooden platform to get around the switchback. It’s never shot in such a way that you can really see the maneuvering involved, but Yves Montand says it and it must be so. A modern movie wouldn’t do that. Action and suspense sequences are so highly coreographed now that we can see exactly what situations the characters are up against. Whether that’s for better or worse is still an open question. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/51 "2005-04-20T19:25:30Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > I made a list of what I thought were the 50 most important Hollywood films, and I believe they all will stand the test of time. I would post the list here, but it is quite long and would overwhelm the thread. I had posted it before, but the hamsters have lost it. Here you go, **Liberal** : [“The 50 Most Important Hollywood Films (Spoilers)”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=131159) ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748/52 "2005-04-20T20:03:10Z")
My childrens list (age 5 and 6) \*\*Wizard of Oz Robinhood (Flynn) Star Wars Toy Story. The Kid (Charlie Chaplin)\*\* My List \*\*The Godfather films (I and II) Lawrence of Arabia Appocalypse Now Das Boot Citizen Kane Cassablanca Duck Soup \*\*(Tell me when Rufus T Firefly’s sings his plans for his administartion don’t sound familar ) \*\* A Christmas Carol Raiders of the lost Ark\*\* honourable mentions that need more time \*\*Se7en Pulp Fiction\*\* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-truly-stood-the-test-of-time/299748.md?page=2)