Must-see defining movies

What are the movies that a cineast really has to see, in order to understand the medium? The ones that define genres, transcend genres, define the art itself?

Maybe we can also add the reason why we deem them so-worthy. And is it possibly worth some kind of wiki entry? It would be great to have a lasting list! I found one for Cult Classics, but nothing for just-classic media.

I'm asking because I want to have a to-watch list for myself.

Here are a few for starters, just off the top of my head:

• Stalker (russian sci-fi from the communist era, decidedly slow and artsy)
• Cet obscur objet du désir (surrealist movie, I'm not sure if it's the most defining one though)
• Casablanca (one of the all-time love stories)
• Once upon a time in the west (finishing off while defining the spaghetti western)
• One of the Hitchcock movies, obviously
• Nosferatu (the ur-vampire movie)

The Godfather for mafia/crime films.

A Bay of Blood for slasher films. Some slasher films...

• The Gold Rush (comedy)
• The Jazz Singer (sound on film)
• The Robe (widescreen)
• Ben Hur (film scores)
• Natural Born Killers (modern-day film editing)
• Rashomon (non-linear storytelling)
• The Kentucky Fried Movie (spoofs)
• Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (animation)
• Eyes Without A Face and M (serial killers)
• I Am Curious (nudity/breaking of taboos)
• Horror Of Dracula and Peeping Tom (British horror)
• Deep Throat (porn chic)
• High Noon and The Searchers (revisionist Western)

and a very obscure one (I don't think it's on DVD yet)

• 84 Charlie Mo Pic (found footage)

edited 15th Feb '12 12:08:06 PM by Buscemi

Any film that I quote or reference I have to watch (especially if it's an older film). It hasn't steered me wrong yet.

edited 15th Feb '12 2:57:02 PM by Gvzbgul

• 81/2, Living in Oblivion and American Movie (filmmaking process).

edited 16th Feb '12 9:07:15 AM by HerrKman

Living In Oblivion was amusing.

• Children Of Men for dystopian films and science fiction.

• Fahrenheit 451, The Terminator, Blade Runner and Nineteen Eighty Four did dystopia better than the overrated Children of Men.

edited 17th Feb '12 2:41:48 PM by Buscemi

Buscemi, please go kill yourself

I second Children Of Men, sorry

Fahrenheit 451 the book was far better than Fahrenheit 451 the movie.

edited 17th Feb '12 11:49:42 PM by 0dd1

• Each and every Ingmar Bergman movie (for thoughtfulness, which isn't exactly a genre, but I don't know how to define it off the top of my head)
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (okay, just joking)
• Citizen Kane (?)
• Doctor Strangelove (?)

Schindler's List. To hammer home the sheer banality of man's inhumanity to man.

Empire of the Sun. To show that it is possible to survive in a world gone completely insane.

Restless Natives. To have a thoroughly good belly-laugh at the antics of the cutest highwaymen ever.

West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and The Sound Of Music for musicals.

edited 21st Feb '12 5:20:46 PM by Premonition45

The Sound Of Music for musicals

A New Hope or 2001ASpaceOdyssey or Dr Strangelove for Sci-fi

Lord Of The Rings for Fantasy

The Producers for Comedy

Psycho for Thrillers

The Thief And The Cobbler Recobbled or Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs for 2D Animation

Toy Story for CG animation

Avatar for 3D

Schindlers List for biopics

The Godfather for film-noir

Superman for Comic-Book movies

The Ten Commandments for religious epics

Boyz N The Hood for drama. That's pretty much the only one I can think of that hasn't been said.

edited 21st Feb '12 9:36:22 PM by wuggles

Gandhi for biopics.

How is The Godfather film noir? Something like Maltese Falcon or Chinatown for modern film noir would fit much better.

• Henry Portrait Of A Serial Killer for serial killer flicks
• Fantasia for stoner flicks
• i'm sure there's more.

Fantasia? I'd opt for Yellow Submarine instead. Maybe both would work.

Ring for Asian horror.

Zatoichi for samurai films

Akira for anime.

Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels for British gangster films.

The Italian Job or Oceans Eleven for heist films (personally I prefer the modern equivalent, Ronin, but that wasn't genre-defining in the same way as the others)

Lethal Weapon for buddy-cop films.

edited 24th Feb '12 4:25:58 PM by CaissasDeathAngel

Revenge Of The Sith for comedy

Kill Bill for splatter

Hoodwinked for CGI animation

Ninja Terminator for action drama

HA HA HA—No On that misguided note,with a far better example,...The Room for Comedy,maybe Plan 9 From Outer Space to while we're at it

Toy Story 3 for CGI animation

Okay okay The Godfather for gangster films.

Inception for Mind Screw s

Braveheart for Dan Browned

edited 25th Feb '12 7:54:22 PM by terlwyth

Did they actually claim that Brave Heart was supposed to be accurate though? I thought that was deliberate Artistic Licence for dramatic purposes.

Most movies in the National Film Registry, of course.

edited 26th Feb '12 11:36:16 AM by EgregiousEric