Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

Jim Emerson, critic of film, writes that his list of movies forms a basic curriculum of film:

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 remember 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.

As if that wasn’t snooty enough, eh? Well, here’s the list, which thanks to Jason Kottke is turning into a meme. I’ve bolded the movies I’ve seen:

“2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) Stanley Kubrick
“The 400 Blows” (1959) Francois Truffaut
“8 1/2″ (1963) Federico Fellini
“Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972) Werner Herzog
“Alien” (1979) Ridley Scott
“All About Eve” (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
“Annie Hall” (1977) Woody Allen
“Apocalypse Now” (1979) Francis Ford Coppola
“Bambi” (1942) Disney
“The Battleship Potemkin” (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
“The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) William Wyler
“The Big Red One” (1980) Samuel Fuller
“The Bicycle Thief” (1949) Vittorio De Sica
“The Big Sleep” (1946) Howard Hawks
“Blade Runner” (1982) Ridley Scott
“Blowup” (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
“Blue Velvet” (1986) David Lynch
“Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) Arthur Penn
“Breathless” (1959) Jean-Luc Godard
“Bringing Up Baby” (1938) Howard Hawks
“Carrie” (1975) Brian DePalma
“Casablanca” (1942) Michael Curtiz
“Un Chien Andalou” (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
“Children of Paradise” / “Les Enfants du Paradis” (1945) Marcel Carne
“Chinatown” (1974) Roman Polanski
“Citizen Kane” (1941) Orson Welles
“A Clockwork Orange” (1971) Stanley Kubrick
“The Crying Game” (1992) Neil Jordan
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) Robert Wise
“Days of Heaven” (1978) Terence Malick
“Dirty Harry” (1971) Don Siegel
“The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” (1972) Luis Bunuel
“Do the Right Thing” (1989 Spike Lee
“La Dolce Vita” (1960) Federico Fellini
“Double Indemnity” (1944) Billy Wilder
“Dr. Strangelove” (1964) Stanley Kubrick
“Duck Soup” (1933) Leo McCarey
“E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) Steven Spielberg
“Easy Rider” (1969) Dennis Hopper
“The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) Irvin Kershner
“The Exorcist” (1973) William Friedkin
“Fargo” (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
“Fight Club” (1999) David Fincher
“Frankenstein” (1931) James Whale
“The General” (1927) Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
“The Godfather,” “The Godfather, Part II” (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
“Gone With the Wind” (1939) Victor Fleming
“GoodFellas” (1990) Martin Scorsese
“The Graduate” (1967) Mike Nichols
“Halloween” (1978) John Carpenter
“A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) Richard Lester
“Intolerance” (1916) D.W. Griffith
“It’s a Gift” (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
“It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) Frank Capra
“Jaws” (1975) Steven Spielberg
“The Lady Eve” (1941) Preston Sturges
“Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) David Lean
“M” (1931) Fritz Lang
“Mad Max 2″ / “The Road Warrior” (1981) George Miller
“The Maltese Falcon” (1941) John Huston
“The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) John Frankenheimer
“Metropolis” (1926) Fritz Lang
“Modern Times” (1936) Charles Chaplin
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
“Nashville” (1975) Robert Altman
“The Night of the Hunter” (1955) Charles Laughton
“Night of the Living Dead” (1968) George Romero
“North by Northwest” (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
“Nosferatu” (1922) F.W. Murnau
“On the Waterfront” (1954) Elia Kazan
“Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) Sergio Leone
“Out of the Past” (1947) Jacques Tournier
“Persona” (1966) Ingmar Bergman
“Pink Flamingos” (1972) John Waters
“Psycho” (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
“Pulp Fiction” (1994) Quentin Tarantino
“Rashomon” (1950) Akira Kurosawa
“Rear Window” (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
“Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) Nicholas Ray
“Red River” (1948) Howard Hawks
“Repulsion” (1965) Roman Polanski
“The Rules of the Game” (1939) Jean Renoir
“Scarface” (1932) Howard Hawks
“The Scarlet Empress” (1934) Josef von Sternberg
“Schindler’s List” (1993) Steven Spielberg
“The Searchers” (1956) John Ford
“The Seven Samurai” (1954) Akira Kurosawa
“Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
“Some Like It Hot” (1959) Billy Wilder
“A Star Is Born” (1954) George Cukor
“A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) Elia Kazan
“Sunset Boulevard” (1950) Billy Wilder
“Taxi Driver” (1976) Martin Scorsese
“The Third Man” (1949) Carol Reed
“Tokyo Story” (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
“Touch of Evil” (1958) Orson Welles
“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) John Huston
“Trouble in Paradise” (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
“Vertigo” (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
“West Side Story” (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
“The Wild Bunch” (1969) Sam Peckinpah
“The Wizard of Oz” (1939) Victor Fleming

I have to question the authority of a list like this, however. Covering movies from 1916 to 1999 ignores the last 7 years of film, which have included such classics as LOTR, City of God, Memento, Sin City, and even Kill Bill. Also, it seems like Jim Emerson is trying to hard for statistical relevance by choosing so many older movies. Statistically, to be fair, he should choose movies with an average production date of 1958; his ends up being 1959, as if for each movie in the 70s he picked one in the 40s.

6 Responses to '100 + 2 Best Movies Ever?'

1. cibbuano said:

   on April 27th, 2006 at 4:57 pm

   still, it’s a good list of movies to sit back and reflect on. I love ‘Once upon a time in the west’… so slow, so satisfying… the mood…

2. Dossy Shiobara said:

   on April 28th, 2006 at 12:38 pm

   Based on Jim’s criteria … I think the list is fair. Can you really name a movie produced in the last 7 years that isn’t just a derivative work of one or more movies that are already on his list?

   That’s the challenge that ought to be the meme for this data.

3. Sam said:

   on April 29th, 2006 at 10:43 am

   Mad Max 2? What the hell?

4. digital quality » Blog Archive » Movie Literacy 102 said:

   on April 29th, 2006 at 9:17 pm

   […] Fine, i give. I don’t usually post these kind of me-too, MySpace bulletin, meme things, but i kinda like this one. Film critic Jim Emerson says you don’t know movies unless you’ve seen his list of 102 films he pulled from the 20th century [via Elliot Back < via kottke.org]. Supposedly the list is the minimum curriculum to be “somewhat movie-literate.” Somewhat? Though the list was created in 1999 and so only included movies made up until then, i think there are plenty of movies not on the list that are “common cultural currency.” I also think there have been plenty since that are essential. But maybe that’s because i’m illiterate. Let’s see how i score (i’ve seen the bolded ones): […]

5. forum cinema said:

   on May 15th, 2006 at 8:18 am

   Great list. I am from France and of course I have more French films than you in my own list but I left a lot of North American too… that’s the way it is. Would love to post more italian, japanese, indian, spanish, brasilian etc… films.

   If you want to see my list you can go at :
   lesfilms.cineastes.com (with pictures) you can vote for the 5 best movies ever of the 1st century (1895-1995)

   Cheers,

   Baptiste

6. Hello said:

   on June 5th, 2006 at 10:24 pm

   I’m only 23 and I’ve seen alot of those older ones, including the ones you’ve seen. I do agree, though that those lists are so bias as to the year they were made. But try to be open minded and watch some of these….

   Alien
   Apocolypse Now
   The Day the Earth Stood Still
   The Exorcist (i personally didn’t like it, but alot of horror fans do.)
   Gone With The Wind
   Halloween
   It’s a Wonderful Life
   Jaws
   Manchurian Candidate
   Night of the Living Dead
   Psycho(do not miss this one)
   Rear Window
   Schindler’s List
   Vertigo
   Westside Story

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