Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Supposedly, this is Stephen Spielberg's list of movies that you 'have to see before you work with him.' Citation definitely needed, but it's an interesting list.

(UPDATE: It probably isn't Spielberg's list. And some of these movies are terrible. YMMV.)


1. 12 Angry Men
2. 2001
3. 400 Blows
4. 8 1/2
5. Adam's Rib
6. Alfie
7. Al Capone
8. All About Eve
9. All That Jazz
10. American In Paris
11. And Justice For All
12. Annie Hall
13. Apartment, The
14. Apocalypse Now
15. All the Presidents Men
16. Baby Doll
17. Bang the Drum Slowly
18. Barefoot In the Park
19. Battleship Potemkin
20. Belle De Jour
21. The Best Years Our Lives
22. Big Sleep, The
23. Bicycle Thieves
24. Big Chill, The
25. Birds, The
26. Body Heat
27. Bonnie & Clyde
28. Breakfast at Tiffany's
29. Breathless
30. Bridge Over the River Kwai
31. Brief Encounter
32. Bringing Up Baby
33. Bullitt
34. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
35. Cape Fear
36. Casablanca
37. Celebration, The
38. Champ, The
39. Charade
40. Chase, The
41. Les Enfants du Paradis
42. Chinatown
43. Citizen Kane
44. Clockwork Orange
45. Close Encounters
46. Come Back Little Sheba
47. Cool Hand Luke
48. Conversation, The
49. The Day the Earth Stood Still
50. The Days of Wine & Roses
51. Deer Hunter, The
52. Dog Day Afternoon
53. Double Indemnity
54. Doctor Zhivago
55. East of Eden
56. Exorcist,The
57. Face In The Crowd
58. Five Easy Pieces
59. Fly, The
60. French Connection
61. French Conn. 2
62. From Here to Eternity
63. Fugitive Kind, The
64. Gaslight
65. General, The
66. Gntlmn’s Agrmnt
67. Giant
68. Gone With/Wind
69. Grand Illusion
70. Great Escape, The
71. Godfather, The
72. Godfatherr II, The
73. Godfather III, The
74. Graduate, The
75. Grapes Of Wrath
76. Great Santini, The
77. Guess Who's…
78. Guns Of Navaronne
79. Heiress, The
80. High Noon
81. Hud
82. Hunter, The
83. Hustler, The
84. His Girl Friday
85. Holiday
86. I Confess
87. Immigrant, The
88. In A Lonely Place
89. In the Heat of the Night
90. Indiscretion/Wife
91. It Happened/Night
92. It's A Wonderful Life
93. Jdgmnt/Nuremberg
94. Julius Caesar
95. Kramer Vs. Kramer
96. Last Detail, The
97. Last Picture Show
98. Last Tango In Paris
99. Lawrence Of Arabia
100. Little Foxes, The
101. Lolita
102. Lonelyhearts
103. A Long Day's Journey into Night
104. Long Hot Summer
105. Lost In America
106. Lost Weekend
107. Love Story
108. M
109. The Magnificent Ambersons
110. The Magnificent Seven
111. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
112. The Manchurian Candidate
113. Marathon Man
114. Marty
115. Mean Streets
116. Men, The
117. Metropolis
118. Midnight Cowboy
119. Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
120. Misfits, The
121. Mississippi Burning
122. Missouri Breaks
123. Modern Romance
124. Modern Times
125. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
126. Mutiny on the Bounty
127. My Fair Lady
128. Nashville
129. National Velvet
130. Network
131. North By Northwest
132. Notorious
133. No Way To Treat A Lady
134. Odd Couple, The
135. On the Waterfront
136. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
137. One-Eyed Jacks
138. Ordinary People
139. Panic in Needle Park
140. Papillion
141. Party, The
142. Parallax View
143. Patton
144. Pawnbroker, The
145. Philadelphia Story
146. Public Enemy, The
147. Psycho
148. Quiet Man, The
149. Raging Bull
150. Rain People, The
151. Raintree County
152. Ramblin' Rose
153. Real Life
154. Rear Window
155. Rebel Without a Cause
156. Red River
157. Reflections in a Golden Eye
158. Requiem for a Heavyweight
159. Rosemary's Baby
160. Runaway Train
161. Safety Last
162. Sand Pebbles
163. Saturday Night Fever
164. Sayonara
165. Scarecrow
166. Scarface
167. Scent Of A Woman
168. Searchers, The
169. Serpico
170. Seven Samurai
171. Seventh Seal
172. Signal 7
173. Singin' In the Rain
174. Smiles of a Summer Night
175. Soldier In The Rain
176. Some Like It Hot
177. Sound Of Music
178. Splendor in the Grass
179. Stagecoach
180. Star Is Born
181. Star Wars
182. Streetcar/Desire
183. Suddenly Last…
184. Sullivan's Travels
185. Sunset Boulevard
186. Sweet Bird of Youth
187. Taxi Driver
188. Teahouse of the Autumn Moon
189. Tender Mercies
190. Third Man, The
191. Three Days of the Condor
192. To Kill A Mockingbird
193. Tootsie
194. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
195. Trip To Bountiful, A
196. Two Rode Together
197. Verdict, The
198. Vertigo
199. Viva Zapata
200. Wait Until Dark
201. West Side Story
202. White Christmas
203. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
204. Wild One, The
205. Wild River
206. Young Lions, The

Labels: learnings

1:16 PM

7 Comments:

I've only seen 104 of them. Guess that's why he's not returning my calls.

By  Lisa Hunter, at 1:38 PM  

127.

By  Alex Epstein, at 7:04 PM  

I miss the Thalia.

By  Lisa Hunter, at 12:31 AM  

Interesting that there doesn't seem to be many (if any) movies released in the last 20 years (30?) on the list.

By  Anonymous, at 1:31 AM  

The 70s were a golden age for film. No surprise that so many are from that decade.

By  Lisa Hunter, at 11:50 AM  

@ Mackey -- came on here to post EXACTLY that!

Was gonna say something cynical like -- you know, cause no good movies were made after the 70s.

These lists piss me off. Especially when the name "Spielberg" is attached. Anyone could have made this list. There's really nothing specific about it.

You want to see a movie lists that reflects someone's taste -- look at the lists Tarantino puts out.

This list only makes me think more and more that Spielberg is a dinosaur.

Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, American Beauty, Seven, Silence of the Lambs, The Fugitive, Sex lies and videotape -- I could go on and on with lists of great movies that have been made in the past 30 years.

Many of which have been more influential to film as we know it than 80% of the films on Spielberg's list.

By  James, at 3:04 PM  

I think the legitimacy of this list is irrelevant. I just think it is a really interesting collection of movies, regardless of who compiled it, a lot of which i have not yet seen.

I agree with James though, it is horribly dated. No Quentin Tarantino, no Terrence Malick as well? I've decided to work my through the list, week by week, movie by movie. I think as a 20 year old, a lot of people that fall within my 'generation' are hugely unwilling to reach back in time and watch the great movies from the past. Black and white repulses anyone under the age of 21 and movies that don't have people dying or having sex every 5 minutes with a computer generated robot in the background are deemed 'stupid'.
Hopefully this list can change things?


http://spielbergslist.blogspot.com/

By  Fletcher, at 9:53 PM  

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