Heineken's Essentials

[Heineken Skywalker]

Are you worried that the Movie Police will someday be knocking down your door and dragging you away because you own the entire POLICE ACADEMY series on DVD, but have never seen CASABLANCA?? Maybe you've never watched a silent film? Have no idea who Akira Kurosawa was? Maybe you never venture outside of the "New Releases" section at your local video store. If any of these are true about you, maybe you need to expand your movie viewing horizons.

If you're a regular visitor to this site, whether you actually post or not, you lurkers, then I'm going to assume you're fairly serious about film.
So, what I'm going to attempt to do in this thread is, from time to time, list a few movies that I feel are "essentials" for every true film fan to see. Some of the movies I list will be movies I love, some will be movies I thought were just "okay". This isn't going to be a list of my all time favorite movies or anything like that. Just what I feel are movies you should all see to help you be a well-rounded film fan. Usually when a "classic" movie I'd heard about for years turns out to not be as fantastic as I'd hoped, I'm still glad I saw it, at least from a "movie history" point of view.
I will try to touch on movies from all genres and I would hope that most of you will be open-minded enough to rent at least a few movies from genres & maybe other decades, than what you normally do. What I want to do is list movies that most people have at least heard of, even if they've never seen it. So, don't expect too much "fringe" or "niche" cinema.
Why am I doing this? Because I care about each and every one of you and it makes me sad to hear the 16 year old video clerk recommending only the latest blockbusters, but having no idea about any film that was made before he was born. Who're you going to trust more? Your Uncle Heineken, who has only your best interest at heart, or the video store clerk who is pushing CATWOMAN because the store ordered too many copies? ;D

First up, let's go way back with 10 "essential" movies that were released pre-1940. How many of these have you seen?

1. THE GOLD RUSH (1925) Charlie Chaplin diggin' for gold!
2. DRACULA (1931) Bela Lugosi as the quintessential bloodsucker!
3. FRANKENSTEIN (1931) Boris Karloff in platform boots, a ton of makeup and no dialogue still manages to give a great performance.
4. FREAKS (1932) From Tod Browning, the director of DRACULA. It's, well, it's freaky!
5. KING KONG (1933) Kong goes ape for Fay Wray and bites The Big Apple!
6. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) Monster meets girl monster and he speaks!
7. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) Hey kids! The first full length animated feature. Even before FINDING NEMO!
8. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) Errol Flynn steals from the rich and gives to the poor.
9. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) Civil war epic with a very cool Clark Gable and a bratty, but stunning Vivien Leigh.
10. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) The STAR WARS of it's time. 'Nuff said.

Hope I've inspired at least one or two of you to rent some of those "old movies" starring some of those "dead movie stars" you've always heard about. Till next time.

[LivingDeadGirl]

Ok, Uncle Heinie....here's the ones I've seen...I'll work on the rest.

2. DRACULA
3. FRANKENSTEIN
5. KING KONG
6. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
7. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
8. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
9. GONE WITH THE WIND
10. THE WIZARD OF OZ

Hey, 8 out of 10...do I get one of those shiny gold stars?? ;D

[Termination]

The MP are knocking at me door, I can hear them, I know its them cause I've only seen Gone With The Wind & The Wizard Of Oz.

2/10

Maybe once ya get to the 50's & beyond, I may have seen some more of ya Essentials cause I barely looth classics & color has nothing to do with it.

[Pulpmariachi]

Gotta go see The Gold Rush. So 9/10 for me. Thank you TCM.

[Phoenix]

I've seen them all except Bride of Frankenstein.

I have it on DVD too! Just haven't ever gotten around to watching it . I find it interesting though you find THREE universal monster movies 'essentials.'

[Heineken Skywalker]

termination said:

Maybe once ya get to the 50's & beyond, I may have seen some more of ya Essentials cause I barely looth classics & color has nothing to do with it.

Barely looth? What's that?
You've got a lot of catching up to do, Term.
And the plan isn't to just pick 10 movies from each decade. That's just how I decided to kick things off.
No gold stars for 8/10, LDG. Maybe aluminum. ;D
Good show, Pulp! And you're one of the youngest members of this board. Hey Termination, ya gonna let this kid show you up??

phoenix said:

I find it interesting though you find THREE universal monster movies 'essentials.'

Oh, those three, absolutely. Believe me, there are lots of Universal monster movies, I don't consider essentials, though.
Now, go see BRIDE! Most people like it even more than the original.

[Termination]

heinekenskywalker said:

Barely looth? What's that?

Bad grammer is what that is.
Loath

heinekenskywalker said:

You've got a lot of catching up to do, Term.

Yeah, if ya count all, well most, titles released from 1900-1970. ;D

heinekenskywalker said:

Hey Termination, ya gonna let this kid show you up??

We'll see. Even though "classics" are not my favorite type of films to watch, I'll probably copy & paste you're picks sinse you've categorized them as "Essentials" & I know you have a good taste in movies from all genres & from all time periods, I think its safe to say, I'll be caught up.

[LivingDeadGirl]

No gold stars for 8/10, LDG. Maybe aluminum.

Well, I'll take what I can get....

[Bartwald]

One aluminium for me, too, please! Haven't seen Freaks or Bride Of Frankenstein.

[Quorthon]

heinekenskywalker said:

1. THE GOLD RUSH (1925) Charlie Chaplin diggin' for gold!
2. DRACULA (1931) Bela Lugosi as the quintessential bloodsucker!
3. FRANKENSTEIN (1931) Boris Karloff in platform boots, a ton of makeup and no dialogue still manages to give a great performance.
4. FREAKS (1932) From Tod Browning, the director of DRACULA. It's, well, it's freaky!
5. KING KONG (1933) Kong goes ape for Fay Wray and bites The Big Apple!
6. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) Monster meets girl monster and he speaks!
7. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) Hey kids! The first full length animated feature. Even before FINDING NEMO!
8. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) Errol Flynn steals from the rich and gives to the poor.
9. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) Civil war epic with a very cool Clark Gable and a bratty, but stunning Vivien Leigh.
10. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) The STAR WARS of it's time. 'Nuff said.

No
Yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
yes

*Ahem* Just why did you skip the 20's? Nosferatu, man! The 60's better have both Psycho and Night of the Living Dead!! Or else I'm not watching these other two!!

[LivingDeadGirl]

Nosferatu, man!
THAT'S a great one!!

[spacer]

heinekenskywalker said:

1. THE GOLD RUSH (1925) Charlie Chaplin diggin' for gold!
2. DRACULA (1931) Bela Lugosi as the quintessential bloodsucker!
3. FRANKENSTEIN (1931) Boris Karloff in platform boots, a ton of makeup and no dialogue still manages to give a great performance.
4. FREAKS (1932) From Tod Browning, the director of DRACULA. It's, well, it's freaky!
5. KING KONG (1933) Kong goes ape for Fay Wray and bites The Big Apple!
6. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) Monster meets girl monster and he speaks!
7. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) Hey kids! The first full length animated feature. Even before FINDING NEMO!
8. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) Errol Flynn steals from the rich and gives to the poor.
9. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) Civil war epic with a very cool Clark Gable and a bratty, but stunning Vivien Leigh.
10. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) The STAR WARS of it's time. 'Nuff said.

No/Unknown
Yes
yes
No
yes
yes
yes
Yes
sort of
yes
But I saw them soooo looooong ago

A gold medal of wisdom for the guard of movie tradition and sentinel of classic cinema:
Heineken Skywalker.
A very good idea indeed.

[Heineken Skywalker]

*Ahem* Just why did you skip the 20's? Nosferatu, man! The 60's better have both Psycho and Night of the Living Dead!! Or else I'm not watching these other two!!

I didn't exactly skip the 20's. THE GOLD RUSH (1925). And I didn't want to turn this into a horrorfest either, with several horror/monster movies already on the list.
Like I mentioned earlier, this isn't exactly a list of my all time favorite movies. Just movies that I feel are essential movie viewing.
I'll get back to silent movies eventually.
Some movies will appear more than once as they will qualify for various different lists.
And more than likely, the next list will not be just another decade of movies.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Okay, since it's now been about two weeks since I posted the first list of "essentials" and everyone has already rushed out and rented whatever they hadn't seen before, er, right everyone?
I think it's time to post the next batch of movies I feel everyone should see.
For the record, I've seen every movie that I post in any of these lists. And I reiterate, just because it's listed, doesn't mean that it's one of my all time favorites. Though I probably will have at least "somewhat liked" most of them.
For this next list, I completely ripped off IMDB's latest poll as it was an idea I was toying with anyway.
These are the top 10 of AFI's (American Film Institute's) top 100 movies. They're listed according to AFI's ranking. How many have you seen?

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941) Is it really the greatest American film ever made? You decide.
2. CASABLANCA (1942) "Play it, Sam." "Here's looking at you, kid." "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." "We'll always have Paris."
You know all the famous quotes, now see the movie.
3. THE GODFATHER (1972) Brando, Pacino, Duvall & Caan. A cast you can't refuse.
4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) That's two recommendations now. Gotta count for something, right?
5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) The kind of epic that begs to be seen on a big screen. The bigger the better.
6. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) See GONE W/ THE WIND above.
7. THE GRADUATE (1967) Just one word. Plastics.
8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) Are you a contender or a bum?
9. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993) Let me guess. Everyone's seen at least this one, right?
10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) Gene Kelly sings in the rain, but it's Donald O'Connor who makes 'em laugh.

There you have it. AFI's top ten movies of all time. What, no STAR WARS?? (It's #15)
BTW, if you want to see the entire list of 100 movies, plus all their other wacky lists, click here:
www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/100yearslist.aspx

Thanks for all the feedback so far, folks. and I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am.

[Bartwald]

Damn! Still no 10/10! Haven't seen Lawrence Of Arabia and On The Waterfront. I'm counting Citizen Kane as "seen" even though when we were trying to watch it with spacer lately we both fell asleep.