Casablanca
Gone with the Wind
On the Waterfront
ETA: Citizen Kane
I just don't have the desire to rent it either are they must see's?

Quoted: Casablanca - great plot; some people can't deal with B&W and dismiss it out of hand.  It's got good stuff for guys and chicks. GWTW - more of a chick flick as it centers on a Southern belle, but lots of stuff for the guys in there too.  War, doublecross, desperation, and redemption.  One of my favorites. I haven't seen On The Waterfront yet. Have you seen The Manchurian Candidate (the original, not the remake)?

Yes, pretty wierd seeing Angela Lansbury as the "manipulative" mom
ETA: waiting for the remake to make it to HBO

You can live a complete, fulfilling life without ever seeing Gone With the Wind (which I saw and don't remember a thing about it other than the yawning it inspired and the merciful Intermission) or Citizen Kane, one of the most critically overrated movies, ever.

Casablanca and On the Waterfront, though, are two you should have under your belt.

Citizen Kane doesn't seem so great today, but its cinematography at the time was groundbreaking, revolutionary. Nobody had ever used the film medium like Orson Welles did before, he was really a genius. It helps if you read about it or take a film appreciation class to understand why. And it was done by a 24 year old kid, too.  Welles's first film.

Gone With the Wind looks boring as hell.  Casablanca's just a great film.  Haven't seen On the Waterfront, either.

"It helps if you read about it or take a film appreciation class to understand why. And it was done by a 24 year old kid, too. Welles's first film."

Historically significant, no doubt, but in today's context not such great entertainment. One shouldn't necessarily have to take a class to understand a film's greatness. Plenty of amazing stuff being produced by young (and younger) first-timers now, too, but then, they have the benefit of far superior technology.

"Gone With The Wind" is the only movie from your list I don't own on DVD.  It's definitely a chick flick - and not a very flattering one at that - unless you want all your worst femal stereotypes reinforced.  Then again, I am yankee born and raised, and come from a decideldy working class background - the whole "southern elite" thing does nothing for me.

If you want to see a decent movie about Southerners caught up in the war, try "Shanandoah" (I probably spelled that wrong).

The others are must-sees.  "On the Waterfront" is just outstanding - and displays a knowledge of human psychology that too many sheltered Americans these days are ignorant of - but that we deal with every day here in Iraq.  You know a movie is timeless when its story can take place somewhere alse and in a different time, and remind me of things I see today.  The worst part of "On the Waterfront" is the hard to believe but typically Hollywood love story angle.  It is necessary to the plot, though, unlike some of the ones they squeeze in these days.

Casablanca is a great movie. Must see.

Quoted: Casablanca Gone with the Wind On the Waterfront ETA: Citizen Kane I just don't have the desire to rent it either are they must see's?

+1 on the Citizen Kane, but Gone With the Wind.....come on...what kind of southerner would I be???

You gotta see that one. Heck, if nothing else...do it to see an age old hottie...

Not a classic, but I have never seen Forrest Gump. Don't plan to either.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

Quoted: Not a classic, but I have never seen Forrest Gump. Don't plan to either.

but it has AR's and Hueys. It's a good movie if you ignore the hippies

Quoted: Quoted: Not a classic, but I have never seen Forrest Gump. Don't plan to either. but it has AR's and Hueys. It's a good movie if you ignore the hippies

Is it possible to ignore hippies?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Not a classic, but I have never seen Forrest Gump. Don't plan to either. but it has AR's and Hueys. It's a good movie if you ignore the hippies Is it possible to ignore hippies?

I try to. The hippies in Gump where pretty annoying. Thank god Forrest decked the most annoying one

I may be the only one who liked Citizen Kane (it wasn't as action packed as most fare bandied about here, though).

The use of ground breaking special effects in that movie puts it on par with say, the Matrix.

It was also shunned in its day, and not till later that it started gaining widespread acclaim.  Hearst, who was thinnly disguised as Kane, made sure that it would get bad reviews in his paper.  The drama surrounding the movie was almost as good as what was in the movie.  

Kane: You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man. Thatcher: Don't you think you are? Kane: I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.

Kane: You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years.

Kane: As Charles Foster Kane who owns eighty-two thousand, six hundred and thirty-four shares of public transit - you see, I do have a general idea of my holdings - I sympathize with you. Charles Foster Kane is a scoundrel. His paper should be run out of town. A committee should be formed to boycott him. You may, if you can form such a committee, put me down for a contribution of one thousand dollars.

And of course, the infamous play on the Hearst-ism:

Bernstein: "Girls delightful in Cuba. Stop. Could send you prose poems about scenery, but don't feel right spending your money. Stop. There is no war in Cuba, signed Wheeler." Any answer? Kane: Yes. "Dear Wheeler: you provide the prose poems. I'll provide the war."