Ok, so, I'll be going to USC in about a month for their film program. Specifically, their Critical Studies program. And I figure, there are certain movies I need to see and know about if I don't want to be laughed off campus. So about a month ago I got Blockbuster's Total Access program - 3 movies at a time. Since then, it's been a marathon of watching either movies I've never seen, or ones I needed to watch again. Now I've decided to keep a running list of the movies I've seen and, possibly, what I thought of them. Why? Because I can. And because, considering the site, I thought some of you might be able to suggest some films that I may be missing, or get in on the discussion. So here's my list of watched films in the marathon thus far:

The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
Memento
Snatch
Being John Malkovich
Goodfellas
Letters from Iwo Jima
Scarface
Unforgiven
Seven
The Machinist
Good Night, and Good Luck
Die Hard
The Matador
Requiem for a Dream
Dark City
The Last King of Scotland
The Big Lebowski
Flags of Our Fathers
28 Days Later
*Edit* Apocalypto

That is not the order I watched them in, and I swear I'm missing some, but that's so far. On deck I have:

Heat (I'll be watching this today)
Seven Samurai
Pulp Fiction
Equilibrium
Downfall
City of God
A Scanner Darkly
The Aviator
Traffic
Catch Me If You Can
The Crying Game
L.A. Confidential

And that's just the top of my massive Queue (I have about 80 titles total). My goal is to watch as many titles in that queue as humanly possible. That means at least two movies a day (I have been falling behind, admittedly, as even my ardent love of film can't stand up to that much time in front of a screen).

So, I'll be updating this list, and I'll probably put up mini-reviews as well.

Again, suggestions for films that are, in your opinions, "musts" would be greatly appreciated.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Cinematical,

Whoa. Is that your first time watching all of those?

There's a ton of "must see" movies that I haven't seen yet either. Haven't seen the Godfather and have all of them on DVD. My parents don't feel like getting Netflix and I have no credit card...and the local video store sucks. I'm about to start bit torrenting everything.

But for a few suggestions I would say(in rough chronological order)


Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Metropolis
Nosferatu
Bicycle Thieves/The Bicycle Thief
The Maltese Falcon
Vertigo
Rear Window
Spellbound
8 1/2
Gojira
Sergio Leone's Man With No Name trilogy
Once Upon a Time in the West
Dr. Strangelove
Eraserhead
The Elephant Man
Once Upon a Time in America

Escape from New York
Halloween
To Catch a Thief
The Dreamers (Eva Green)
Bonnie and Clyde
Sabatour
Dial "M" for Murder
The Fog
Airport
Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Try to see, if you haven't already:

12 Monkeys
Brazil
Edward Scissorhands
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Waking Ned Devine


That's a nice variety of the bizarre and unusual

I'm so far behind on film watching. My netflix queue is 220 long.

It's not my first time for all of them - I've seen bits, parts, clips of many of them, or seen them entirely and just not quite remembered. But yes, ashamedly, many great films a have not (or had not) seen. Thankfully, though, with this marathon I'll be able to correct that!

I just got 2 more movies yesterday by turning in 2 mailed ones to a blockbuster store (seriously, that is a very nice feature). So, the next two that I'll be watching will be Mean Creek and Mulholland Dr. I'm looking forward to both.

What did all of you think of The Machinist? That was one of the more recent films I watched. I thought it was incredible, primarily due to Christian Bale's commitment to the role. Seriously, after having first watched Batman Begins, seeing him like that was shocking. I honestly can't think of any other actor that gets that engrossed in a character - to go to the point of starving (and nearly dying from it).

I didn't make it all the way through Machinist. I dont remember why. I think I got distracted. Anyway its interesting to see how fit and muscular he is in American Psycho and Equilibrium.

And Mulholland Drive is most likely my #1 of all time. Make sure you give it the attention it deserves...I mean if you are tired and distracted you won't get the right perspective of the film at all. And I would strongly suggest not immediately going to IMDB or other internet source to help you with the film...it really reduces your enjoyment and experience. Mulholland Drive is an amazing mental journey, and you wouldn't want to spoil it with shortcuts.

I just watched Mulholland Drive.

Chris, not in any way to offend you, but I didn't think much of the film. I made sure to give it the time and attention it deserves, but I'm personally not a fan of Lynch's surrealist touch.

The film has, however, made me think, which I like. I think I understand some of it (and I'm sure there's still much more to understand), and I also think that it's the kind of film that cannot be corralled into a single interpretation. So, while I did not like the film, I can understand how others might. I now also want to see some of Lynch's earlier works (especially Eraserhead - the synopsis I read reminded me slightly of The Fifth Child, which is a thoroughly chilling and engrossing book).

Of course, my opinion of Mulholland Drive may indeed change, just as my opinion of Requiem for a Dream has changed. When I first saw Requiem, I wasn't too enamorred, but the more time has gone on and the more I've thought about it, the more I've come to understand the film. I wouldn't say I like it, but I most definately respect it.

Next up: Mean Creek.

I need to watch Edward Scissorhands and 12 Monkeys again. I saw both on TV, so not in the best condition.

Cinematical, USC's CS Division didn't send you a list of required watching?

They sent us Screenwriters one...it's effin' huge.

No, they haven't. It may be the difference between Undergrad and Grad. You would think CS division woul, of all divisions, send a required watching list. But if they do, I'm pretty sure I'll catch just about every one of the required films on their list .

I haven't gotten one for MFA Production either.

Though, I had done some scouring before and come across previous lists that people had posted. The compiled list is well over 200 titles, including narratives, documentaries and TV shows. Cinematical, do you want a copy?

Absolutely.

Actually, that was something I was lacking: documentaries. Anybody got suggestions for must see docs?

quote:

Originally posted by Cinematical:
Actually, that was something I was lacking: documentaries. Anybody got suggestions for must see docs?

Night And Fog is a classic.

Heart of Darkness, the doc on the making of Apocalypse Now, is pretty intense.

quote:

Originally posted by Cinematical:
Anybody got suggestions for must see docs?

Step Into Liguid
Dust to Glory (both Dana Brown films)
Incident at Loch Ness (more of a mockumentary, but still brilliant)
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
Farther Than The Eye Can See
Born Rich
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
March of the Penguins
Nanook of the North
The Fog of War
Roger & Me
Touching the Void
An Inconvenient Truth
Capturing the Friedmans
Hell's Highway
Woodstock
To Be and To Have
The War Game

And the complete series of Planet Earth.

To name a few.

Here's the documentary list my division sent me.

The Sorrow and the Pity
Harlan County, USA
Dogtown and Z Boys
My Architect
Triumph of the Will
Hoop Dreams
Roger and Me
Super Size Me
Grey Gardens
Gimme Shelter
Crumb
Spellbound
Capturing the Friedmans
Riding Giants
The War Room
Don't Look Back
Brother's Keeper
What the Bleep Do We Know?
The Thin Blue Line
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control
The Kid Stays in the Picture
Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser
Control Room
The Celluloid Closet
Sans Soleil
Poto and Cabengo.


The list has 175 films and 15 series.

Ouch.

Here's the compiled non-documentary list I've gathered (Jayimess' list is exactly the same as what I have). Like I said, this has come from a couple different sources and there's a few of them I have absolutely never heard of/can't seem to find anywhere, so whoever originally typed it up may have made a mistake. Aside from that, enjoy!

FEATURES:
 A Hard Day's Night
 African Queen
 Alexander Nevsky
 Alice in the Cities
 Alien
 All About Eve
 All the King’s Men
 Amadeus
 American Friend, The
 American in Paris, An
 American Grafitti
 Andre Rublev
 Annie Hall
 Apartment, The
 Apocalypse Now
 Apu Trilogy, The
 Ashes and Diamonds
 Atalante, L'
 Band of Outsiders
 Band Wagon, The
 Barton Fink
 Battle of Algiers
 Being John Malkovich
 Best Years of Our Lives, The
 Bicycle Thief, The
 Big Lebowski, The
 Birth of a Nation
 Black Orpheus
 Blade Runner
 Blow-Up
 Blue
 Blue Velvet
 Bob le Flambeur
 Bonnie and Clyde
 Boyz 'n the Hood
 Breathless
 Bronenosets Potyomkin
 Brother from Another Planet
 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il
 Burn
 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
 Carrie
 Casablanca
 Casino
 Chariots of Fire
 Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis)
 China Syndrome, The
 Chinatown
 Cinema Paradiso
 Citizen Kane
 Clueless
 Coal Miner's Daughter
 Conformist, The
 Contempt
 Conversation, The
 Cool Hand Luke
 Cranes are Flying, The
 Crimes And Misdemeanors
 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
 Cul-de-sac
 Day for Night
 DeCameron
 Deep End, The
 Dekalog
 Dersu Uzala
 Diner
 Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The
 D.O.A. (1950)
 Do The Right Thing
 Dog Day Afternoon
 Donnie Darko
 Double Indemnity
 Dr. Strangelove
 Down by Law
 Duck Soup
 Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
 8 ½
 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
 Exorcist, The
 Fallen Idol, The
 Ferris Bueller's Day Off
 Fight Club
 Fish Called Wanda, A
 Five Easy Pieces
 Force of Evil
 400 Blows, The
 Gandhi
 General, The
 Godfather, The (I & II)
 Gold Rush
 Gone With the Wind
 Goya in Bordeaux
 Graduate, The
 Grand Illusion
 Grapes of Wrath, The
 Groundhog Day
 Harlan County
 High and Low
 High Noon
 His Girl Friday
 House of Sand and Fog
 Hunchback of Notre Dame
 Husbands
 Informer, The
 It Happened One Night
 Jaws
 JFK
 Jules and Jim
 King of Marvin Gardens, The
 Kramer Vs. Kramer
 La Jetée
 La Strada
 Lady Eve, The
 Last Emperor, The
 Last Picture Show, The
 Last Tango in Paris
 Lavender Hill Mob
 L'Avventura
 Lawrence of Arabia
 Le Boucher
 Le Samouraï
 Letter from an Unknown Woman
 Letzte Mann, Der
 Like Water for Chocolate
 Los Olidados
 Man for All Seasons, A
 Manhattan
 Man of Aran
 Marriage of Maria Braun, The
 Mash
 Matewan
 Matrix, The
 Memento
 Midnight Cowboy
 Miller's Crossing
 Missing
 Modern Times
 Mother and the Wh*re, The -(gotta love message board filtering)
 Morocco
 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
 Mulholland Drive
 Nashville
 Network
 Night Moves
 Night of the Falling Stars
 Ninotchka
 North by Northwest
 Notorious
 Official Story, An
 On the Waterfront
 Once Upon a Time in the West
 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
 Out of the Past
 Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, La
 Paths of Glory
 Patton
 Persona
 Pi
 Point Blank
 Point of Order
 Producers, The
 Pulp Fiction
 Queen Margot
 Raging Bull
 Ran
 Rashomon
 Rear Window
 Red
 Red Balloon, The
 Repo Man
 Rules of the Game
 Safe
 Searchers, The
 Seven Samurai
 Seventh Seal, The
 Shadows
 Shanghai Express
 Shock Corridor
 Shoot the Piano Player
 Silence of the Lambs
 Some Like it Hot
 Stagecoach
 Star is Born, A (1937)
 Star Wars
 Stranger Than Paradise
 Sullivan's Travels
 Sunset Boulevard
 Talk to Her
 Thelma and Louise
 Third Man, The
 Tin Drum, The
 Tootsie
 Touch of Evil
 Traffic
 Treasure of Sierra Madre, The
 Triumph of the Will
 Trouble in Paradise
 2001 - A Space Odyssey
 Two for the Road
 Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The
 Unbearable Lightness of Being, The
 Underworld U.S.A.
 Under Fire (1983)
 Unforgiven
 Verdict, The
 Vertigo
 White
 Wild Bunch, The
 Wild Strawberries
 Wizard of Oz, The
 Written on the Wind
 Woman in the Dunes
 You Can Count on Me

TV:
 Six Feet Under
 The Sopranos
 Sex and the City
 Freaks and Geeks
 All in the Family
 MASH
 Seinfeld
 24
 Arrested Development
 Gilmore Girls
 Good Times
 The Wonder Years
 The Shield
 The Wire
 The Office