103 Movies You Have To See or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Poll

[Kete]

We all have movies that we should have seen, but we've somehow missed.  Sometimes we know what those movies are, sometimes we don't.  The goal of this thread is to generate a list of all the movies that should be required viewing for life.  What movies do you need to see in order to be a well-rounded person?  What movies would we share with the aliens to let them know what this movie thing is all about.  What movies are you shocked to hear that someone has not seen?

These don't have to be the best movies (although sometimes they are).  They can be movies that made an impact society, they can be movies that changed your life, they can be movies that you still quote every day, or they can just be movies that you really liked to watch.

Here's how it works:

There are two phases.  Nomination phase, and Voting Phase.

Nomination Phase:
One nomination per person per session.
All nominations are considered, and once we receive 10 nominations, the poll will start.
You may nominate a series or a single movie.  Make sure it's clear what you mean.
There is no limit on how many times a movie can be nominated.
A new nomination session will begin once the previous poll begins.
*list of previous nominees*

Voting Phase:
The poll will last for 1 day.
Everyone gets 3 votes.
The top 3 movies will be immortalized on the Must Watch List

MUST WATCH LIST

1 - Star Wars: The Original Trilogy
2 - Monty Python And The Holy Grail
3 - Airplane!
4 - Seven Samurai
5 - Deep Throat
6 - Brazil
7 - Jaws
8 - Citizen Kane
9 - Blade Runner
10 - Toy Story
11 - The Godfather
12 - Raising Arizona
13 - Duck Soup
14 - Dr Strangelove
15 - Ghostbusters
16 - 2001: A Space Odyssey
17 - Apocalypse Now
18 - 12 Angry Men
19 - Blues Brothers
20 - The Shining
21 - Once Upon A Time In The West
22 - The Dark Knight
23 - The Third Man
24 - Blazing Saddles
25 - Casablanca
26 - The Wizard Of Oz
27 - The Matrix
28 - Fight Club
29 - The Bridge On The River Kwai
30 - King Kong (1933)
31 - Goldfinger
32 - Vertigo
33 - The Muppet Movie (1979)
34 - Goodfellas
35 - North By Northwest
36 - No Country For Old Men
37 - The Great Escape
38 - Shaun Of The Dead
39 - The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
40 - Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure
41 - Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
42 - Jurassic Park
43 - Rear Window
44 - The Bride Of Frankenstein
45 - Forbidden Planet
46 - It's A Wonderful Life
47 - A Clockwork Orange
48 - The Terminator
49 - Network
50 - Godzilla (1954)
51 - Back To The Future
52 - Raiders Of The Lost Ark
53 - John Carpenter's The Thing
54 - Beetlejuice
55 - Metropolis
56 - The Godfather Part II
57 - Superman
58 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit
59 - Fantasia
60 - Alien/Aliens
61 - Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
62 - Evil Dead II
63 - The African Queen
64 - The Maltese Falcon
65 - Singing In The Rain
66 - Psycho (1960)
67 - Pulp Fiction
68 - Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
69 - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
70 - Night Of The Living Dead
71 - The Incredibles
72 - Robocop
73 - The Exorcist
74 - Life Of Brian
75 - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
76 - The Princess Bride
77 - Patton
78 - Stand By Me
79 - Avatar
80 - Fitzcarraldo
81 - Terminator 2
82 - Le Voyage Dans La Lune
83 - MASH
84 - Gremlins
85 - Jason And The Argonauts (1963)
86 - The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
87 - Ferris Bueller's Day Off
88 - Memento
89 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
90 - Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
91 - Up
92 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
93 - Hedwig And The Angry Inch
94 - Charlie Chaplin's The Kid
95 - Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
96 - The Shawshank Redemption
97 - The Avengers
98 - Animal House
99 - Rocky
100 - Boogie Nights
101 - It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
102 - Anchorman
103 - The Big Lebowski

[Relaxing Dragon]

I suppose we could start by figuring out what, exactly, constitutes a "required watch". Does it have to be something that was really influential for movies in general, for its particular genre, for its particular year, or one that just happens to be really, really good (which I think should have a say in things, since great movies are, in the end, just that)? Or does it need to be one that falls into all of the above?

And speaking of genres, are they all to be represented equally? I mean, just because I think that Body Horror is a great field with some fantastic choices, does that mean it falls under the banner of "You've GOT to see that"? And I know there are several folks on this board who have a strong dislike of Gangster movies, which would make it tricky for a couple films that usually end up on such Best Movie Ever lists.

I'm just spitballing at the moment in an effort to stall as I come up with a list, of course *heads off to cherrypick from iCheck*

[Kete]

I just had a couple ideas of running it.

1) We could put the like buttons to use.  A movie is nominated by creating a reply.  One movie per reply.  You could even use this to make the case for the movie.  Then everyone who agrees can like it.  The list then consists of all the movies with the most likes.  The big downfall of this is artificially increasing everyone's like count.  You could easily bump your count by 20+ just by saying "Star Wars".

2) We could use the voting.  Once a week or so, we make a list of 10 nominees.  We spend a week voting on them, and the top few get added to the list.  The list wouldn't be in any particular order, just a list of movies you should see.  That way, a genre movie doesn't get forced off because people don't like it.  Once it makes the list, it stays on.

See the first post.

[Kete]

Star Wars

[Tripe]

The Empire Strikes Back

[D.B. Barnes]

The Phantom Menace

[goflyblind]

brazil

[goflyblind]

monty python and the holy grail

[D.B. Barnes]

Meet Dave

[Kete]

Star Wars

This was meant as a joke.  I don't know if this is the best method because of "like count" inflation and it would require me to constantly monitor the entire thread.

I think I'll start it off with the weekly poll idea.  Any complaints?

[wurwolf]

I giggled at DB's suggestion of Phantom Menace.

And I think a poll is probably the best way to go, although points to you, Kete, for creative use of the like system!

[goflyblind]

many complaints.

oh, you meant with regards to the thread. nevermind.

[Kete]

Okay, here's the rules:
One nomination per person. 
All nominations are considered, and once we receive 10 nominations, the poll will start.
The poll will last for 3 days (we should keep it moving quickly till we get a decent sized list started).
As Relaxing Dragon suggested, movies can be influential for movies in general, for its particular genre, for its particular year, or one that just happens to be really, really good.
Everyone gets 3 votes, and the top 3 movies will be immortalized on the Must Watch List (which I will add to the first post).
Future polls may have a theme or genre, but for now, any movie is game.

GO!
I'll start counting nominations after this post.

[wurwolf]

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Also I don't know if it would be too labor intensive, but what about like a bracket sort of thing or a vote off? Like collect groups of ten until you get to maybe 50 and then pool them to pick the best 25? I don't know, that might not be right. I'm just envisioning a scenario where a movie from one list of ten is way better than some movies on other lists, but then it might not be included because of the list it's on. I don't know if I'm making sense.

[Darth Geek]

Metropolis