"...They [are] the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They're the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat "movie-literate."
102 Movies You Must See Before...
I've linked (to nothing right now) the ones I know I've seen:
2001: A Space Odyssey?
The 400 Blows?8 1/2
?
Aguirre, the Wrath of God?
Alien
All About Eve
Annie Hall?
Apocalypse Now?
Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
The Bicycle Thief?
The Big Sleep?
Blade Runner?
Blowup
Blue Velvet?
Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
Carrie
Casablanca?
Un Chien Andalou?
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
Chinatown?
Citizen Kane?
A Clockwork Orange?
The Crying Game
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie?
Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
Double Indemnity
Dr. Strangelove?
Duck Soup
Easy Rider?
The Empire Strikes Back?
The Exorcist
Fargo?
Fight Club?
Frankenstein
The General
The Godfather?
The Godfather, Part II?
Gone With the Wind
GoodFellas?
The Graduate?
Halloween
A Hard Day's Night
Intolerance
It's a Gift
It's a Wonderful Life?
Jaws
The Lady Eve
Lawrence of Arabia?
M?
Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
The Maltese Falcon?
The Manchurian Candidate?
Metropolis?
Modern Times
Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
Nashville?
The Night of the Hunter
Night of the Living Dead
North by Northwest?
Nosferatu
On the Waterfront?
Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past?
Persona
Pink Flamingos
Psycho?
Pulp Fiction?
Rashomon?
Rear Window?
Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
Schindler's List
The Searchers
The Seven Samurai?
Singin' in the Rain
Some Like It Hot?
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard?
Taxi Driver?
The Third Man?
Tokyo Story?
Touch of Evil?
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
Vertigo?
West Side Story?
The Wild Bunch?
The Wizard of Oz?
1313 quick reviews and impressions of every movie I've watched since 2002.