What's Your Movie Canon?

[jeshyr]

Hello Hivemind!

Tody's challenge - list the top twenty(-ish) movies you think contain the most standard "assumed viewing" and cultural knowledge for somebody living in Australia today. The ones that people assume you saw, living up in a Western/English speaking country, and make jokes about and the ones which TV shows obliquely refer to without being clear what they're referring to.

Why? For viewing suggestions of movies I can watch with my lovely flatmate, known to some of you. She has pretty much no knowledge of the English-speaking movie "canon" and I keep realising more and more how limiting that is for somebody living here! Also, movies are fun and watching things with friends is fun and we can get them free from the local library because they're old, so they suit our budget. Also, my flatmate and I are not massively keen on horror or stuff with a bunch of sex or gore, so we're steering a bit towards "family-ish" movies. Which isn't to say we won't add adult rated stuff to the viewing list, just that it'd have to be even more culturally relevant to make the grade :).


Obviously, this is an INCREDIBLY subjective type of list and will vary wildly depending on almost everything, including what country you live in, your tastes, and when you were born... but the more folks share their ideas, the more I can see what comes up in everybody's lists.

We have already watched these:
- The Wizard of Oz
- The Princess Bride

Ones that I've thought of already, in absolutely no particular order, include:
- Back to the Future
- Gone With The Wind?
- ET
- Ghostbusters
- Home Alone?
- Neverending Story
- Labyrinth?

- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Star Wars 4, 5, 6
- Star Trek - which one(s)?

- Muppet Movie

- Fight Club
- The Matrix (probably just the first one?)

What sayeth you?

Comments

[batrachian]

For Trek movies, I suggest 2 (The Wrath of Khan), 4 (The Voyage Home, aka 'the one with the whales'), 8 (First Contact), and 11 (first Reboot). Also GalaxyQuest.

[splodgenoodles]

Er...you're getting a very personal list here...

From within my lifetime:

Apocalypse Now (although it's a violent war film. OTOH, it's based on Joseph Conrad's "Heart Of Darkness" which is considered to be a modernish classic about journeying into different worlds and how conquerors create themselves and lose themselves).
The Breakfast Club. (Harmless, and does nothing for me but seems to be important to a lot of other Gen Xers. Which also explains the rest of my list.)
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Muriel's Wedding.
Gallipolli (Australian classic, of the sort that explains much of the national consciousness).
Bliss
The Quiet Earth. (New Zealand Sci-fi)
Ruthless People.(comedy, with Bette Midler, Danny deVito and Judge Reinhart).
Raiders of the Lost Ark. (action adventure).
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Chinese, martial arts, epic. Bloody beautiful).
Serenity.
The Blues Brothers.
Wings of Desire. (Berlin, 1980's. An angel comes to earth and falls in love. Thus losing his wings).
Malcolm (made in Melbourne!).

Classics (ie - before I was born, or too small to know):

Once Upon A Time in America.(Modern Historical Epic. A fair bit of sex, and a rape scene. And violence. But excellent historical work.)
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.(Western.)
Enter The Dragon.(Bruce Lee! Martial Arts.)
Dr. Strangelove.(Peter Sellers - cold war madness).
The Return of the Pink Panther. (Peter Sellers - comedy).
Mon Oncle (Or anything by Jacques Tati. French, but general only incidental voices, mostly silent. Comedy, 1960's. Deals with the conflict of old and new in France. Amicable, loving humour. Gentle and quiet).

[niqaeli]

American born and mostly raised in the US, fwiw.

Well, it's not part of the larger movie canon, but it's part of the geek movie canon? I dunno if that matters to as well. Anyway, with that caveat: Real Genius.

Star Trek II, III, and IV, are the ones I'd say are most relevant to cultural context. (I never liked the Next Gen movies much. I do like the others -- yes, even V, it's terrible but I'm fond of it anyway -- but I wouldn't consider them as important to cultural context.)

[ysobel]

Speaking as a USian:

Star Trek 2 and 4, definitely; I have an irrational fondness for 3 because Saavik (and it does explain how we get from dead!Spock back to normal!Spock).

Ghostbusters and Labyrinth should definitely be thrown in there.

Indiana Jones, definitely Raiders of the Lost Ark, probably Last Crusade, but Temple of Doom is fairly skippable and also icky. (Crystal Skull is also skippable, but I think that's more recent than you're looking for.)

Disney movies? (e.g. Little Mermaid, Mulan, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, etc.)

Casablanca.

Alien, but that's horror.

Back to the Future

Lawrence of Arabia

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Possibly also Life of Brian if you're ok with Christian-religious satire.

Groundhog Day

Jurassic Park, maybe.

[thorfinn]

Skippy! Although probably only one episode, or maybe even just a youtube clip from an '80s/90s comedy sendup would do.

Amelie?

[azurelunatic]

The ones that are on my list that I haven't seen yet:

Casablanca
The Hunt for Red October
some James Bond or other

[dragonsally]

Sound Of Music, Fiddler On The Roof. Donnie Darko, Titanic.
Seven Little Australians. When I get out of my chair next I'll look at my stash and see if there are others not mentioned.

[tyger]

The Castle! Um. Mebe some Disney stuff, but she might have seen them already; they get translated a lot of places IIRC. I dunno, I don't really watch movies much. Maybe Fern Gully?

[sheramil]

(looks at the last five films he watched)

do you remember that sound Lurch used to make in "The Addams Family" while shaking his head?

[redcountess]

Hard to compress 100+ years of Western cinema in to 20 films, but I would suggest a Charlie Chaplin film, Wizard Of Oz, Gone With The Wind, The Dam Busters, Brief Encounter, An American In Paris, Singing In The Rain, The Great Escape, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, True Grit (the original), Bonnie and Clyde (very violent though, Jaws, Close Encounters, Star Wars original trilogy, ET (try to get the original versions of both), Mad Max 1 & 2, and Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert. That still leaves nearly another 20 years though.

[we_are_spc]

SShaw Shaynk Redemption. I dunno if that's too violent, but I think it's worth a watch. I've not watched it myself, but everyone says it's good.

Singing in the Rain, yes.
Show Boat, I think
Sound of Music, THe King and I, Fiddler on the roof, Airplane and Space Balls.

I think thgere might be more, but since I'm sort of a Brittish type, I'm not sure how well that would go for the British things. xd

-James

[belle_marmotte.livejournal.com]

Well as someone over 40 I'm going to go first with some good oldies that would be my 'must sees'
"It's a Wonderful Life'
'Brief Encounter'
'Cassablanca'
'Bringing Up Baby'
'To have and Have Not'
'The African Queen'
'Breakfast at Tiffany's'
'Gigi'
And definitely some Hitchcock especially
'Rear Window' , 'Vertigo', 'The Birds' and my fave 'North by North West'
The Graduate
There are so many more running through my mind but I have to take a quick nap before taking my kiddo for her vaccinations, so I may pop back and add more...

[ivy_hawthorne]

I am not much of a movie person, but I do sympathize with flatmate - I am a US citizen who grew up in Europe mostly, and I am often stumbling over weird cultural references which I "should" get and don't.

My best tool for this problem: Wikipedia. Wikipedia is great for cultural crud, and it's often faster to read the article on a thing - complete with notes on cultural influences etc - than it is to see the movie. This is also super great if you want to understand the cultural relevance of (say) a horror or war movie but don't like to watch horror or war movies.

This isn't to say that one shouldn't become movie literate, but sometimes it isn't worth sitting through all of a movie for the good five minutes all your friends quote, or whatever.

(derp - this is Feyandstrange - too derpy today to swap logins from my fanfic)