My boss's daughter (the same one with the blog) is at an age where she can watch most of the classic movies and wants more cultural literacy. What should she watch?
I think I may have developed a better sense of the Old Classics than the New Classics in the 10 years that I've been interested in watching movies. People really do still refer to the Old Classics. I also have a better sense of the New Classics of serious television than movies (for example Twin Peaks or Buffy).
I'm also not sure where your cutoff is, so I'll go with 1990-2005 (hard to say something's a classic immediately), and I'm getting a lot of help from Wikipedia. These are ones that kind of stand out in my mind as being referenced a lot. I've seen most but not all of these movies, but the remaining ones are on my Netflix queue for cultural literacy reasons.
Dances with Wolves Goodfellas Silence of the Lambs Schindler's List Forrest Gump Pulp Fiction (warning: very violent) Braveheart Fargo Titanic Good Will Hunting (warning: really boring) Life is Beautiful Saving Private Ryan Shakespeare in Love -or- Elizabeth (only necessary to watch one, although I happened to like both; the first is a comedy and the second is a serious drama) Fight Club American Beauty Sixth Sense Gladiator Donnie Darko Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Lord of the Rings Moulin Rouge! (that's a weird one and perhaps more about musical literacy than cinematic literacy) Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind Brokeback Mountain (warning: really boring)
I'm also not sure where your cutoff is, so I'll go with 1990-2005 (hard to say something's a classic immediately), and I'm getting a lot of help from Wikipedia. These are ones that kind of stand out in my mind as being referenced a lot. I've seen most but not all of these movies, but the remaining ones are on my Netflix queue for cultural literacy reasons.
Dances with Wolves
Goodfellas
Silence of the Lambs
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Pulp Fiction (warning: very violent)
Braveheart
Fargo
Titanic
Good Will Hunting (warning: really boring)
Life is Beautiful
Saving Private Ryan
Shakespeare in Love -or- Elizabeth (only necessary to watch one, although I happened to like both; the first is a comedy and the second is a serious drama)
Fight Club
American Beauty
Sixth Sense
Gladiator
Donnie Darko
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Lord of the Rings
Moulin Rouge! (that's a weird one and perhaps more about musical literacy than cinematic literacy)
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
Brokeback Mountain (warning: really boring)
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