Jim Emerson - 102 Movies You Must See

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"These are the movies I just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They’re the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat ‘movie-literate.’ I hope these movies are experiences we can all assume we share….This isn’t like Roger Ebert’s ‘Great Movies’ series. It’s not my idea of The Best Movies Ever Made (that would be a different list, though there’s some overlap here), or limited to my personal favorites or my estimation of the most important or influential films…. I tried to represent key examples of all important genres, movie stars, directors, historical movements, and so on—like an overview of the 20th century in 101 movies. Yes, there are many more I’d like to add, but remember, this is only a primer. How many have you seen?" —Jim Emerson

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  1. 1.
    8 1/2 - Criterion Collection

    Drag me to re-order


  2. 2.

  3. 3.
    2001 - A Space Odyssey
    by Stanley Kubrick

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  4. 4.
    Aguirre, the Wrath of God
    by Werner Herzog

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  5. 5.
    Alien
    by Ridley Scott

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  6. 6.
    All About Eve
    by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

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  7. 7.
    Annie Hall

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  8. 8.
    Apocalypse Now

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  9. 9.
    Bambi (Two-Disc Special Edition)
    by David Hand

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  10. 10.
    Battleship Potemkin
    by Grigori Aleksandrov

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  11. 11.
    The Best Years of Our Lives
    by William Wyler

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  12. 12.
    The Big Red One

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  13. 13.
    The Bicycle Thief
    by Vittorio De Sica

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  14. 14.
    The Big Sleep (Snap case)
    by Howard Hawks

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  15. 15.
    Blade Runner
    by Ridley Scott

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  16. 16.
    Blow Up
    by Michelangelo Antonioni

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  17. 17.
    Blue Velvet
    by David Lynch

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  18. 18.
    Bonnie and Clyde
    by Arthur Penn

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  19. 19.
    Breathless

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  20. 20.
    Bringing Up Baby (Two-Disc Special Edition)
    by Howard Hawks

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  21. 21.
    Carrie (Special Edition)
    by Brian De Palma

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  22. 22.
    Casablanca
    by Michael Curtiz

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  23. 23.
    Un Chien Andalou

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  24. 24.
    Children of Paradise
    by Marcel Carné

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  25. 25.
    Chinatown

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  26. 26.
    Citizen Kane
    by Orson Welles

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  27. 27.
    A Clockwork Orange
    by Stanley Kubrick

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  28. 28.
    The Crying Game
    by Neil Jordan

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  29. 29.
    The Day the Earth Stood Still

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  30. 30.
    Days of Heaven
    by Terrence Malick

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  31. 31.
    Dirty Harry

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  32. 32.

  33. 33.
    La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
    by Federico Fellini

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  34. 35.
    Double Indemnity
    by Billy Wilder

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  35. 37.
    Duck Soup
    by Leo McCarey

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  36. 38.
    E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (Full Screen Collector's Edition)
    by Steven Spielberg

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  37. 39.
    Easy Rider

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  38. 40.

  39. 41.
    The Exorcist
    by William Friedkin

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  40. 42.
    Fargo
    by Joel Coen

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  41. 43.
    Fight Club (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
    by David Fincher

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  42. 44.
    The General
    by Clyde Bruckman

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  43. 45.
    The Godfather (Widescreen Edition)
    by Francis Ford Coppola

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  44. 46.
    The Godfather, Part II (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
    by Francis Ford Coppola

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  45. 47.
    Gone With the Wind (Two-Disc Special Edition)
    by George Cukor

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  46. 48.
    Goodfellas
    by Martin Scorsese

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  47. 49.
    The Graduate
    by Mike Nichols

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  48. 50.
    Halloween

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This is a community list. You can contribute, edit, or help maintain it by adding it to your lists.
Created by kelm00 on Jun 24, 2006.
 

Comments

allisoncm
Los Angeles

. — 4 weeks ago

the 1937 A Star is Born is WAY better.


keach
Rockingham County

Half-Informed — 21 weeks ago

50% done and counting… I’m pretty sure that makes me half-informed about movies.


Untitled — 27 weeks ago

where is raging bull


Melissa B.
Oklahoma City

A Star is Born — 39 weeks ago

The 1937 “A Star is Born” was listed here, but according to the source list, it is supposed to be the 1954 Judy Garland version, so I changed it.


crimeandpunishment
Steinbach

Night of the Living Dead — 48 weeks ago

I assume that this should be the Romero version, not the remake.


Perlle
East Hampton

All About Eve — 1 year ago

Had been deleted, but I added it back to the list.


David Mihalcik
Wheaton

actually, more correct to call it 'RogerEbert.com's list' — 2 years ago

Jim Emerson (Ebert’s protoge?) wrote this list, as far as I can tell.

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/4392/


rangutan
München

A Brilliant Movie list! — 2 years ago

I have only seen about half of these movies but recognise titles I did not want to see personally but also many “definitive” movies of history which ALL students of cinema should see before they start get loud in the industry!

Thanks! A very very great list…

Rudi


Perlle
East Hampton

Also... — 2 years ago

Psycho was on the list twice and Bambi had been left off.


Perlle
East Hampton

Untitled — 2 years ago

For some reason this list had quite a few movies without a picture when there is one available—and widely used by others. I substituted the better choices where the selection was incorrect.