(God, all movie stars should look like Gable and Harlow! That's why I get bored with modern movies -- I grew up on stuff like the two of them in Red Dust!)
Well, once again, Yvonne Teh threw down the gauntlet and inspired me to post in response.
This time it was in relation to her 100 Movies post.
At first, I thought it would be hard to list my 100 movies but then I had to cut stuff off to whittle it down to a simple 100!
My only criterion was the lasting effect of the film on my consciousness (like, wow, man).
By that, I mean that films that I once had a strong emotional reaction to (Breaking the Waves, or Superman Returns, for example), or films that I once loved but now didn't like as much (Howard's End, Wings of Desire, Dazed and Confused), or at all (Platoon, Aliens, E.T.), were out of consideration altogether.
So, with that in mind, here is my list of the 100 films that are the building blocks of my soul in many ways OR films that suddenly made me rethink what I liked and why (perhaps leading into new genres) OR my "go-to" flicks that have yet to not entertain me (see if you can figure out which ones are which!):
A Hard Day's Night 1964
Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein 1948
After The Thin Man 1936
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 1974
American Graffiti 1973
An American in Paris 1951
Animal House 1978
Annie Hall 1977
At the Earth's Core 1976
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls 1970
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw 1976
Bombshell 1933
Bottle Rocket 1996
Breaking Away 1979
Bugsy Malone 1976
Cat People 1942
China Seas 1935
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 1968
Chungking Express 1994
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
Destroy All Monsters 1968
Dinner at Eight 1933
Dog Day Afternoon 1975
Dracula 1931
Dracula A.D. 1972 1972
Fast Times at Ridgemont High 1982
Five Easy Pieces 1970
Frankenstein 1931
Glengarry Glen Ross 1992
Godzilla 1954
Godzilla vs. Mothra 1962
Horror of Dracula 1958
House of Frankenstein 1944
How Green Was My Valley 1941
I Wanna Hold Your Hand 1978
Ikiru 1952
In the Mood for Love 2000
King Kong 1933
King Kong Escapes 1967
King Kong vs. Godzilla 1962
Libeled Lady 1936
Manhattan 1979
Mean Streets 1973
Meet Me in St. Louis 1944
Midnight Cowboy 1969
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939
On the Town 1949
Peking Opera Blues 1986
Race with the Devil 1975
Raging Bull 1980
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
Raising Arizona 1987
Red Beard 1965
Red Dust 1932
Sanjuro 1962
Seven Samurai 1954
Shadow of the Thin Man 1941
Shanghai Triad 1995
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger 1977
Singin' in the Rain 1952
Stalag 17 1953
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 1982
Star Wars 1977
Starstruck 1982
Superman: The Movie 1978
Taxi Driver 1976
The 400 Blows 1959
The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938
The Big Lebowski 1998
The Bride of Frakenstein 1935
The Chinese Feast 1995
The Curse of the Cat People 1944
The Day The Earth Stood Still 1951
The Empire Strikes Back 1980
The Exorcist 1973
The Food of the Gods 1976
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad 1974
The Graduate 1967
The Grapes of Wrath 1940
The King of Marvin Gardens 1972
The Last Detail 1973
The Last Temptation of Christ 1988
The Man Who Fell to Earth 1976
The Mummy 1931
The Return of the Jedi 1983
The Scent of Green Papaya 1993
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution 1976
The Seventh Victim 1943
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad 1958
The Thin Man 1934
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964
The Year of Living Dangerously 1982
Time After Time 1979
To Live 1994
Walkabout 1971
Whistle Down the Wind 1961
Wish You Were Here 1987
Withnail and I 1987
Yellow Submarine 1968
Yojimbo 1961
(While most people think of 1977 as the year of Star Wars --- which I still do too -- for me, it was the year of Ray Harryhausen's last masterpiece in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, which my grandfather -- a projectionist in the 1930s -- liked more than Star Wars. The poster still gives me chills!)
