It’s that time of year again when our Facebook news feed gets bombarded with what people’s New Year's resolution is going to be. Most include going to the gym more, quitting drinking/smoking, working on a promotion, or being a better person. There are those who just want to be happier, which I think is a good and modest resolution. However, one of my teachers had once told us that he just makes a list of movies that he wants to watch over the coming year. He said that he does this because larger resolutions are difficult to complete and it takes up a lot of time. The reason why he makes a list of movies is because he believes that movies are able to teach us about human nature and what people were thinking at a specific time. Normally, he makes a list of at least 25 movies and then watches as many as he can during the year. After hearing him say this I started to make a list of movies that I had always wanted to watch or movies that I felt were iconic. Here is my compiled list of either iconic, well-made or popular movies. The list will be in the order of when they came out. I think that it is important to watch both old and new movies, because as much as some of us hate to admit it, we can learn some things from older generations. I will not be putting what movies have triggers, so please be safe.
Here are my top 50 movies that I think are worth watching:
- “The Wizard of Oz” (1939)
- “The Great Dictator” (1940)
- “Citizen Kane” (1941)
- “Singing In The Rain” (1952)
- “Psycho” (1960)
- “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” (1961)
- “Mary Poppins” (1964)
- “Clockwork Orange” (1971)
- “The Godfather” (1972)
- “Rocky” (1976)
- “Star Wars” (1977-2015)
- “Alien” (1979)
- “The Shining” (1980)
- “Blade Runner” (1982)
- “The Breakfast Club” (1985)
- “The Princess Bride” (1987)
- “Dead Poets Society” (1989)
- “Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
- “Jurassic Park” (1993)
- “Schindler’s List” (1993)
- “Forest Gump” (1994)
- “Pulp Fiction” (1994)
- “The Truman Show” (1998)
- “Saving Private Ryan” (1998)
- “The Matrix” (1999)
- “The Sixth Sense” (1999)
- "Zoolander" (2001)
- “Harry Potter” (2001-2011)
- “V For Vendetta” (2005)
- “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006)
- “The Dark Knight” (2008)
- “Tropic Thunder” (2008)
- “Inglorious Basterds” (2009)
- “Mr. Nobody” (2009)
- “The King's Speech” (2010)
- “Burlesque” (2010)
- “Black Swan” (2010)
- “The Help” (2011)
- “The Artist” (2011)
- “Sinister” (2012)
- “Les Miserables” (2012)
- “Django Unchained” (2012)
- “The Avengers” (2012)
- “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012)
- “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013)
- “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” (2013)
- “Interstellar” (2014)
- “Zero Motivation” (2014)
- “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015)
- “The Martian” (2015)
Some of these movies will make you laugh, cry, and get angry or excited. I chose these movies because I found something in all of them that I think people can learn from. Some have to do with humanity and others are just to watch for enjoyment or to finally understand that line that people keep rephrasing. Happy New Year!
