Many months ago I stumbled across the now fairly ubiquitous list of “102 Movies to see before you die”. I realized that every summer I have a fair amount of time with which to occupy myself absorbing key bits of culture but I typically lack the media. Since school hadn’t gotten out yet, I asked my good friend Sean to endowed me with the bits behind many of them (+). I have already seen a few (*). Before last week I’d seen 23. Eventually I’ll have 34. I’ve recently seen The Crying Game, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and 8 1/2, preceded by the unlisted True Romance, Reservoir Dogs, and Hiroshima Mon Amour.
* 2001: A Space Odyssey
+ The 400 Blows
* 8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Alien
All About Eve
Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
The Bicycle Thief
The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
+Blowup
Blue Velvet
+Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
Carrie
* Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
+ Chinatown
* Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
* The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
+ Do the Right Thing
* La Dolce Vita
Double Indemnity
* Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
* E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial
Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
* The Exorcist
Fargo
* Fight Club
Frankenstein
The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
+ Gone With the Wind
GoodFellas
* The Graduate
Halloween
A Hard Day’s Night
Intolerance
It’s a Gift
* It’s a Wonderful Life
Jaws
The Lady Eve
* Lawrence of Arabia
M
* Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
+ The Maltese Falcon
+ The Manchurian Candidate
* Metropolis
Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
The Night of the Hunter
+ Night of the Living Dead
+ North by Northwest
Nosferatu
On the Waterfront
+ Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
Pink Flamingos
Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
Rashomon
+Rear Window
+Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
+The Rules of the Game
Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
Schindler’s List
The Searchers
The Seven Samurai
Singin’ in the Rain
Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard
Taxi Driver
+The Third Man
Tokyo Story
Touch of Evil
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
*Vertigo
West Side Story
The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz