Fifty Movies

[valarltd]

I want my children to have a working cinematic vocabulary, one not limited to the latest animated release.

So, my challenge to you, faithful readers, is name 5 movies you consider essential, and are appropriate for ages 8 and up.

Star Wars, Star Trek and Indiana Jones are covered.

On our planned viewing list:
Frankenstein (Karloff)
Dracula (Lugosi)
Young Frankenstein
Robin Hood (Flynn)
Captain Blood
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Metropolis
Singing in the Rain

Comments

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

My sense of appropriate and essential is screwed, I leave the deciding up to you:

Blade Runner
Baron Munchausen*
The Fisher King
The Gods Must Be Crazy*
...I'm stuck here because everything else is absolutely not really appropriate... I didn't watch movies until I left home (other than Star Wars and the Killing Fields and maybe a couple others) as it was not allowed.
Ghost in the Shell, if you deem it appropriate, yeah.

*these are probably just fine for 8 and up. The Gods Must Be Crazy is just brilliant and bizarre (it's about a little Aboriginal tribe coping with the arrival of a glass cola bottle from high above (dropped from a bush plane) and their attempts to take it to the end of the world to give it back to the Gods).

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

Dead Poet's Society
Good Morning Vietnam
Ghandi
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (funniest thing ever when you're 12!)
Princess Bride

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

Oh, and make them read "The Outsiders" and then let them watch the movie. :)

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Phantom of the Opera (Chaney)
The Wizard of Oz
The Sound of Music
The Music Man
The King and I
The Last Starfigher
Tron

At least one movie each by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, The Mark Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello.

Not necessarily at age 8, you should be sure they see at least one Alfred Hitchcock movie other than Psycho (I'd probably choose Rear Window, but North by Northwest or The Man Who Knew Too Much would also be good).

I'd also make sure they've seen at least one John Wayne movie. Better still would be two: One Western and one non-Western. Off the top of my head I'd recommend El Dorado and Hatari!; Rio Bravo and Donovan's Reef would also be good choices.

If they've seen the recent remakes of The Italian Job or Ocean's Eleven, they should also see the originals.

I'm sure as soon as I shut this I'll think of something else, but that should keep you busy for a while.

[amberleewriter.livejournal.com]

Citizen Kane is on every list for a reason. More shots are copied from this (and The Seventh Seal by Bergman) than almost any other movie in history). It broke new ground in almost every aspect.

Lawrence of Arabia is, IMHO, the greatest film ever made. Lean's mastery of color, composition, and editing in this film are second to none (with the possible exception of Bridge Over the River Kwai, another Lean production).

Gone With The Wind is, perhaps, the most perfectly cast movie ever. Having read the novel before seeing the movie it was as if everyone walked right out of the pages and onto the screen. Not only that, but it is an excellent way to discuss the "war between the states," issues of slavery and reconstruction, and gender issues (the typing of strong, independent women as whores) in the US.

I recommend anything of Charlie Chaplin (particularly one of his "Tramp" movies) because of the iconic nature of the character. However, I also suggest The Great Dictator. Not only is it an interesting movie, but the issues of dictatorship and the fact that the main character is clearly modeled on Hitler gives lots of things for discussion after viewing.

The Birth of a Nation is another film which should be on a must see list. Not only was it technically innovative for the time, but it also deals with white supremacism and glorifies the KKK (it was based on Thomas Dixon's novel The Clansman). Given that this country still struggles with the legacy of slavery this film gives yet more ways to discuss history, viewpoint, and film making in context with US history and social development.


I'm pretty sure all of these meet the 8 and up requirement. There are lots of films I would offer up if the low age were a bit higher. I tend to fall on a rather conservative scale where other people's kids are concerned because I have no idea about the home environment or maturity level involved. ^_^ Example: The Usual Suspects (unreliable narrator), Highlander, (ground breaking editing which is now industry standard), Apocalypse Now (take your pick of just about anything for this one), and watching "genre" types in order to see the development and reinterpretation of said (Maltese Falcon followed by Chinatown followed by L.A. Confidential to discuss/see the development of Film Noir) would all be on a short list. I might also suggest things like moving historically through Sci-fi or Westerns. The Great Train Robbery, The Magnificent Seven (BTW, watching the original Japanese movie, Shichi no Samurai first is an interesting comparison as well), The Good the Bad and the Ugly (the pinnacle of the "spaghetti western," Shane, Unforgiven, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Brokeback Mountain (and throwing in Westworld and Blazing Saddles for a hoot) all give really interesting views of the Western and how it is continually reinterpreted over time (not to mention the fact that all of those movies are classics which are referenced in later films over and over again). Then there's the "mob" film and the whole "biopic" tradition. And I personally think that everyone should see everything Akira Kurosawa ever filmed.

Have fun!

[lisichance.livejournal.com]

Princess Bride
O Brother Where Art Thou
I second Blade Runner
Kiki's Delivery Service
Clash of the Titans (for the cheese factor and the pegasus. When I watched it, I was probably 8 or 9 and dad had me tell him the correct version of each Greek myth they used).

I told my husband about your challenge (since he's not on LJ but is quite a movie aficionado) and this is what he came up with:
Time Bandits
Dark Crystal
Labyrinth
Knight's Tale
7th Samurai (Akira Kurosawa version) or Ran


Of course, I'm a huge (closet) fan of musicals, even the movie versions, and for those I'd recommend:
Pirates of Penzance
Fiddler on the Roof
My Fair Lady
Man of LaMancha
Phantom of the Opera

Two others of my favorites, Tank Girl and V for Vendetta may not exactly be appropriate for 8 year olds.

[amberleewriter.livejournal.com]

Rear Window would be good as a choice because you can also slide it into a "film noir" theme. My other choice of his would be Vertigo because he did some innovative camera and editing work in that one.

The John Wayne movie I love and is never on lists is The Quiet Man. Totally age 8 appropriate and one of the best boxing/fight scenes ever. ^_^

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

I've never seen Vertigo, even though I suppose I really should have. *edits Netflix queue*

The Quiet Man totally slipped my mind, but that would be a good one to see. (And not just because I think any excuse to watch Maureen O'Hara is a good one.) Which reminds me: They need to see the original The Parent Trap!!!!

[idadebeautreux.livejournal.com]

Of course, subject to your discretion, but here are some of my favorites:

Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon
The Sting
Pride and Prejudice (Firth/Ehle version)
Love Actually
Stargate
Kagemusha (although Akira Kurosawa's more popular films would probably be good, too)
1776
A Christmas Story
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
White Christmas

Some others that are probably not-so-appropriate would be Shakespeare in Love, Office Space, and The Shawshank Redemption.

[idadebeautreux.livejournal.com]

Ah, it occurs to me that the f-bomb gets dropped quite a few times in Love Actually, and two of the characters meet while working as porn actors, so that might be slightly less than appropriate, too!

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

I TOTALLY read this wrong thinking :8 and under: so when you recced The Fisher King, I was freaking out...

It is, however, one of my favorite movies of all time. Not sure how old H will need to be before I make her watch it.

[itsirtou.livejournal.com]

Definately seconding The King and I. I'm thinking maybe My Fair Lady and are Some Like It Hot and 2001: A Space Odyssey appropriate for kids? I can't remember.

[kitsap_charles]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind — original cut only. The various "special" editions are Spielberg second-guessing himself, and (IMNSHO) are decidedly inferior in that they sacrifice pacing for "Ooh! Aah!" special effects.

If you're going to pick one Marx Brothers film, it has to be Duck Soup, for pretty much the same reason that the one Charlie Chaplin film has to be The Great Dictator: to stimulate discussion of more serious political topics.

Both Some Like It Hot and 2001 are kid-appropriate, and both will bear re-watching when the over-8's become over-13's.

The Christopher Reeve Superman and Brad Bird's The Iron Giant. The former because ol' Supes is the iconic American hero, and the latter not only because of the Giant's last line but its evocation of 1950's red-scare paranoia.

Examine the development of stop-motion animation via almost any Ray Harryhausen film (Clash of the Titans is probably his best, but don't overlook the Sinbad movies and those Saturday afternoon monster-movie specials, It Came From Beneath The Sea and Earth Versus The Flying Saucers), and then move to Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and all of the Wallace and Grommit oeuvre.

Compare and contrast The Great Escape with Chicken Run to explore the difference between parody and homage.

[latetocomics.livejournal.com]

We always like the movie Holes and Sandlot. but classics...how about Cleopatra with Liz Taylor, or the movie Giant? did anyone mention Romancing the Stone movies? I always liked How to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable, Lauren Becall, and Marilyn Monroe.

I know Cutthroat Island isn't a classic, but it was a fun movie.

We always loved the Charlie Chan detective movies and all of the Sherlock Holmes movies, with Jeremy Brett. May not be what you were looking for though.

[twinkelbelpeach.livejournal.com]

'Bringing Up Baby' starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and a tiger.
Another good Cary Grant movie is 'Gunga Din.'

[nbrooks.livejournal.com]

Copying some already mentioned, but these are my favorites from around 8+ for me:

Gone with the Wind
The Sound of Music
The Princess Bride
Highlander (1, no sequels)
Willow
Amadeus


And of course, The Wizard of Oz. But who hasn't seen that already?

[kc-anathema.livejournal.com]

I think I might steal some of the suggestions above later, and most of the ones I might've suggested are already listed. I assume that various Shakespeare flicks will be introduced to 'em later, so I humbly offer the following five:

Bedknobs and Broomsticks
The Maltese Falcon
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Last Unicorn
And any Muppet flick, of course.

[synamontwist.livejournal.com]

Darby O Gill and the Little People.((the Black Carriage pretty much scared the shit out of me and still does.))
Mr Smith Goes to Washington((to show how its SUPOSED to be.))

.....for that matter all the Capra films for the same reason.

Poltergeist...one of the scariest films ever...and NO ONE DIES!

Princiss Mononoke
Swept Away
Howls Moving Castle

Where the Red Fern Grows
Sgt York
Old Yeller
The Quiet Man


Thats all that jumped to mind.

Huggs

Kes

The D-Man checks in

[(Anonymous)]

The Inspector General (1949) -- Danny Kaye, Walter Slezak, Barbara Bates
Against All Flags (1952) -- Errol Flynn, Maureen O'Hara, Anthony Quinn
The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) -- Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, James Mason
The Conqueror (1956) -- John Wayne, Susan Hayward
The War Lord (1965) -- Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth

A wide spectrum of time periods.
Good stories all.

[cyren-2132.livejournal.com]

Clearly, I'm coming very late to this, but I spent the last week or so thinking about movies I enjoyed as a kid (with 2 notable exceptions) and still enjoy today.

Topper Returns
What's Up Doc?
When I was a kid I watched these with my family and just couldn't get over the fact that they were "old movies!" But I'm glad I was made to watch them then, because I love them now, but they're not anything I would just pick up off the shelf if I hadn't seen them before.

Willow
E.T. (theatrical release)
Flight of the Navigator

Oh, and The Absent Minded Professor and The Shaggy Dog were always on my favorite lists as well. Apparently I had less hang-ups about them being old.