Classic (Or Popular; Or Hit) Movies You've Never Seen

I forgot about the No.8 film on the link in BigSleeper's post: Dr. Zhivago. I do a lot of crosswords, and the characters' names are frequent clues -- at least they were in Eugene Maleska's day (I think). So I should see it, but I can never seem to find the 3+ hours it takes to watch the thing. And honestly, how did that become one of the highest grossing films all time? It takes major patience to sit through something for 197 minutes.
Some others:
Sound of Music - 174
Gone with the Wind - 226
The Ten Commandments - 220
Titanic - 194

All in the top 10. They make Star Wars (121) seem like an episode of Law & Order.

 

If you have seen the first 30 minutes of Wedding Crashers you have seen all that needs to be seen. It is all downhill from there.

Big Lebowski is THE most overrated film of the last 20 years.

 

I don't know how a cult classic becomes overrated.

 

Have never watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off from start to finish.

 

One I always mention in these discussions (and everyone's shocked):

2001.

Don't care. Don't give a rat's ass.

 

. . . and BTW, screw the top-grossers, in terms of broad film education. Too much
pandering, knuckledragging crap on that list.

Hardly regard the AFI as gospel, but that list is a vastly-superior launch point.

 

First of all, Casablanca and Some Like it Hot are must-sees, for totally different reasons.

I'm also surprised by the number of people who have listed All the President's Men. Really? I thought that was like our poster movie.

My list, from IMDb:
1. 9.1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
4. 8.9 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo., Il (1966)
6. 8.9 Pulp Fiction (1994)
8. 8.8 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
10. 8.8 12 Angry Men (1957)
15. 8.7 Goodfellas (1990)
16. 8.7 Rear Window (1954)
19. 8.7 C'era una volta il West (1968)
21. 8.7 The Usual Suspects (1994)
22. 8.7 Fight Club (1999)
23. 8.7 Psycho (1960)
28. 8.6 North by Northwest (1959)
30. 8.6 The Matrix (1999)
33. 8.6 Se7en (1995)
36. 8.5 Apocalypse Now (1979)
37. 8.5 Taxi Driver (1976)
39. 8.5 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
40. 8.5 American History X (1998)
41. 8.5 Vertigo (1958)
42. 8.5 Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
43. 8.5 Paths of Glory (1957)
45. 8.5 M (1931)
47. 8.5 The Departed (2006)
49. 8.5 Double Indemnity (1944)
50. 8.5 Alien (1979)
52. 8.5 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
54. 8.4 The Third Man (1949)
56. 8.4 The Shining (1980)
58. 8.4 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
59. 8.4 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
63. 8.4 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
64. 8.4 L.A. Confidential (1997)
65. 8.4 Aliens (1986)
66. 8.4 The Wrestler (2008)
68. 8.4 Requiem for a Dream (2000)
71. 8.4 Reservoir Dogs (1992)
72. 8.4 City Lights (1931)
73. 8.4 The Maltese Falcon (1941)
75. 8.4 Raging Bull (1980)
76. 8.4 All About Eve (1950)
77. 8.4 Metropolis (1927)
79. 8.3 Modern Times (1936)
80. 8.3 Rebecca (1940)
85. 8.3 The Elephant Man (1980)
89. 8.3 Sin City (2005)
91. 8.3 The Great Escape (1963)
92. 8.3 No Country for Old Men (2007)
93. 8.3 Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. 8.3 Touch of Evil (1958)
96. 8.3 Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
97. 8.3 Hotel Rwanda (2004)
99. 8.3 The Great Dictator (1940)

I'm not big on boxing movies (which means I have seen no Rockys), not big on war movies (or anything that has massive amounts of blood, like boxing movies) and not big on most movies made in the 90s. Such as the Matrix. Or the Big Lebowski.

 

#12 and #16 are Hollywood-genre classics. but if you're not crazy about that kind of thing, you'll live.

#30, #54 and #57 are film-history landmarks, and are indeed must-sees.

While it doesn't age particularly-well, #37 is educational as a read on the nation's
post-WWII mindset.

The last half of #44 is required viewing for everybody (including those who will be
thrilled to see where those involved with Duck Soup got the inspiration for the setting for the final nine minutes).

#82 dates horribly, excepting the fact it contains another great James Dean performance.

MAKE ME sit through #73. I dare you.

 

I already had to read that book. Made me want to claw my eyes out AND kill both Catherine and Heathcliff by about page 50. I'm pretty sure my high school English teacher just assigned that book as a means of torture.

 

I'd sit through the Semaphore Version of #73.

Then, I might see Julius Caesar on an Aldis Lamp or the smoke-signal version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

 

Because I can think of a very large number of people I knew in college and afterward who think it is THE greatest piece of film making they have ever seen.

 

There is something weird that happens when something is designated a cult classic. People who generally are among the first to discover the item as a quality, if unheralded, piece of film making (this also applies to music, etc) have no expectation to meet. They watch, find that it's pretty damn good, and are completely satisfied. Because let's face it, we all like to discover good things that no one else has -- movies, bands, stores, restaurants, even places in nature. They feel like our discovered gems. After so many people do this with a movie, these people have a kind of shared movie existence, someone catches on, and it gets the "Cult Classic" title.
So then the same people walk around trying to spread the word to friends: "Oh, man, this movie, it's the BEST." It might be a recommendation to watch the movie, it might just be idiotic rambling. The point is, the word is out. Then a whole new group of people set out to watch it, knowing little about except their friends know it's only the best movie ever, and now they have an expectation. If the movie meets the viewer's expectation, they join the cult. If not, the viewer finds the cult incredibly annoying.
What makes a cult classic overrated is not the number of people hyping it, but the intensity with which people do hype it. Once you call something a Cult Classic, that's it. It's either got to be fucking fantastic for a new viewer, or it will flop under the weight of expectation. A Christmas Story is a great example. I saw that before the TNT marathon/merchandising days, maybe seven years after it came out. I had zero expectations for it, and it was funny as hell. The few others who I knew had seen it also found it ridiculously funny. I would argue it became a cult classic, then made that rare jump to being a classic, period. Now it's only the BEST XMAS MOVIE EVAR. Hey, the movie hasn't changed. But what people expect when they see it certainly has.