# Popular/acclaimed movies you've never seen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983 "2010-08-21T17:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/21 "2010-08-22T08:58:30Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > > [@Superhal](#): > > > > [imdb top 250.](http://www.imdb.com/chart/top) > > I’ve seen 203 of the 250. I haven’t seen: > > Schindler’s List \* > M \* > The Third Man > Das Boot \* > City Lights > Modern Times > Downfall > Cinema Paradiso \* > Braveheart \* > Rashômon > The Great Dictator > Rebecca > The Great Escape > Unforgiven > Oldboy > Touch of Evil > Princess Mononoke > Strangers On A Train > Donnie Darko > Notorious > The General > Platoon > The Lion King > The Big Sleep (I’ll be seeing this in a couple of weeks at a Noir retrospective) > Witness for the Prosecution > Wild Strawberries > Scarface > The Thing > Amores Perros \* > Grave of the Fireflies > Diabolique (I’ll be seeing it in a couple of weeks at a Henri-Georges Clouzot retrospective) > Nights of Cabiria > Ed Wood > Shadow of a Doubt (I’ll be seeing this in a couple of weeks at the Noir retrospective) > Rope > Brief Encounter > The Battle of Algiers > The 400 Blows > Duck Soup > Ikiru \* > All Quiet on the Western Front > La Strada > My Neighbor Totoro > The Adventures of Robin Hood > Changeling > Infernal Affairs The only one of those I have seen is the _Lion King_ and I have never heard of 3/4 of them so that makes me better at this game. I can’t name movies I don’t know exist which includes most movies. The reason I don’t know a lot about assorted movies is that I don’t need to. I am on my third DVD copy of _Titanic_ which some say is one of the best movies ever made. Pffttt, that is like saying Monet painted some pretty flowers or the Bible is an influential book. I have seen _Titanic_ literally several hundred times and climbing. If they can create the final piece of the trinity already formed on two sides by _Gone With the Wind_ and _Titanic_, they can just close Hollywood down because their job is done. Movie theaters can just leave them on infinite loop and Netflix can just have three big online buttons to choose from to make everyone’s life simpler. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/22 "2010-08-22T13:08:04Z")
I’ve never seen Casablanca, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, High Sierra, or The Maltese Falcon. But i’ve just bought a box set of all four, that’s my day sorted! ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/23 "2010-08-22T13:35:54Z")
Never saw _Avatar_. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/24 "2010-08-22T15:44:20Z")
Gone with the Wind, The Sting, Any of the Godfather movies, Good Fellas, Citizen Kane, The Sound of Music, Schindler’s List, The Pianist…it’s pathetic, really! ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/25 "2010-08-22T16:06:14Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Gone with the Wind, **The Sting** , Any of the Godfather movies, **Good Fellas** , Citizen Kane, The Sound of Music, Schindler’s List, The Pianist…it’s pathetic, really! Good God. Two of my favorite movies there. As for my list? Titanic is the big one. Lots of older movies, but that seems to be pretty common. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/26 "2010-08-22T16:58:35Z")
Until my 4-year-old daughter was born, I had never seen any Disney animated movie other than Toy Story. I had seen some of their live-action films, but nothing animated. I’ve since watched most of the Disney princess movies with my daughter, but there are still plenty of classics I’ve never seen: Lion King, 101 Dalmatians, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Bambi, Fantasia, and many others I’m sure I’m forgetting. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/27 "2010-08-22T19:03:13Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am on my third DVD copy of _Titanic_ which some say is one of the best movies ever made. I’d be one to say that. I love that movie, and it holds up. I saw it several times on first release, and saw it again recently, in the theater, and it was just as enthralling. > [@Superhal](#): > > **Equipoise** : Why do you own movies you never watched? Just curious, not trying to snark or anything. It’s a good question, and the answer is that hope springs eternal, I always assumed I would watch them. In 2001-2002 I started building up our DVD library to replace our hundreds of VHS movies. We could never have afforded all new DVDs, so I got them from ebay, Columbia House discounts, bargain/used DVD bins at stores, pre-owned copies at video stores and anywhere else I could find a bargain. Most of them were movies I/we’d seen and wanted them in our library. Many times I’d come across films I hadn’t seen but wanted to see, and so I’d buy them. The point was to build a library of movies I like/might like. I bought a lot of classic/acclaimed movies. But, the thing is, even with a home theater system, I prefer watching movies, especially classics, for the first time on a big screen, in a real theater. Retrospectives are wonderful things, and over the years I’ve been able to see movies like Citizen Kane, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon and Lawrence of Arabia in the theater, on the big screen, the way they were intended to be seen. It makes such a huge difference. So I hemmed and hawed and procrastinated and didn’t see those ones starred. I watched others that were on the IMDB 250 list at home, or the list would be a lot longer. I’m glad I procrastinated for the ones I mentioned, like Seven Samurai. > [@Superhal](#): > > Imho, you should watch Rashomon and Ikiru with a discussion group. It’s difficult to see the nuances without other people’s input. I just saw 8 big name Kurosawa films at the Siskel recently, it’s what got me to get a membership, but those had already played by the time I found out about the retrospective. I just bought 2 Kurosawa box sets, so now I have them on DVD, I just haven’t watched them yet. I have no way of getting hooked up with a discussion group, but I can see how they would be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/28 "2010-08-22T20:46:48Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > > [@Superhal](#): > > > > [imdb top 250.](http://www.imdb.com/chart/top) > > I’ve seen 203 of the 250. I’ve only seen 83 of them all the way through, plus another 30 or so I got bored of and never finished. Considering how many of the top movies I flat out dislike, I don’t see a reason to go out of my way to watch others that are rated highly at IMDB. ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/29 "2010-08-22T22:29:02Z")
Of the imdb top 20, I have **not** seen: Shawshank Redemption (#1) Godfather, Part II (# 3) Inception (#4) 12 Angry Men (#8) The Dark Knight (#11) The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (#13) Seven Samurai (#15) Fight Club (#18) City of God (#19) Never heard of this movie :o The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (#20) Browsing the rest of the 250, there are lots of movies I would like to see but just never got around to. One summer, my kid and I tried to check off all the top 25 movies on one of those AFI lists. It was in the days before Netflix so we were limited by what the local video rental place had on its shelves – especially sparse when we went looking for old classics like \*\*The African Queen \*\*and **All About Eve**. On the other hand, I’ve seen **Adventures in Babysitting** and \*\*Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure \*\*roughly 50x each. Can I trade up? ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/30 "2010-08-23T02:01:04Z")
Casablanca Citizen Kane It’s A Wonderful Life (other than brief snippets) Miracle on 37th Street Lawrence Of Arabia The English Patient Off the top of my currently inebriated mind. Oh yeah, haven’t seen Avatar either. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/31 "2010-08-23T03:00:14Z")
I bought the Matrix 3 times and Charlie’s Angels twice, both on vhs and dvd. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/32 "2010-08-23T15:50:51Z")
**Avatar** for one, but I’ve heard it’s due for an Omnimax release. I’ll probably see it there. Actually, I haven’t seen any of 2009’s Oscar winners or contenders. **Pulp Fiction** I’ve never seen either, but I just recently taped it off some movie channel. Some others: **Reservoir Dogs** **Fight Club** **The Right Stuff** **The Boondock Saints** although I did see the documentary about its delusional creator. **The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly** **Dirty Harry** **Die Hard** **Lethal Weapon** **The Dark Knight** or most any other comic book superhero crap. Hmmm, most of these seem to be soaked in testosterone. That could explain it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983/33 "2010-08-23T16:00:05Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > …Yeah, everyone remembers Rashomon differently… Homer Simpson: Yeah, it’s like that crappy Japanese movie you dragged me to see, _Rashomon_. Marge: You loved _Rashomon_! Homer: That’s not how I remember it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-acclaimed-movies-youve-never-seen/550983.md?page=1)