60 Films to Represent All Genres
Submitted by lukeprog on Sun, 07/04/2004 - 11:02
Tags:
- The best movie of a genre or style was not always chosen because another movie is a better representative of the subject or the best film in the subject is already representing another subject. For example, Terminator 2 represents the action genre because it has better and more action than arguably better movies like Mad Max 2 and the original Terminator, and Die Hard is representing another subject. Beauty and the Beast may not be the best animated film, but it is the best of the last years of traditional animation when it looked the best. I don't care for Titanic, but it does represent the genre well and there aren't any disaster-flick 'masterpieces.'
- Comedy:
- General, The (1927) – silent comedy
- Bringing Up Baby (1938) – screwball comedy
- All About Eve (1950) – showbiz comedy
- Some Like It Hot (1959) – comedy of errors, farce
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974) – parody
- National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) – sex comedy, anarchic comedy
- Annie Hall (1977) - sophisticated comedy
- Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - black comedy
- Drama:
- Chinatown (1974) – detective
- Maltese Falcon, The (1941) – mystery
- Double Indemnity (1944) – film noir
- Memento (2000) – post-noir, reverse chronology
- To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) – courtroom drama
- Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) – prison
- One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) – insane asylum
- Godfather, The (1972) - gangster
- Taxi Driver (1976) – solitude, assassin
- Die Hard (1988) – hostages, terrorism
- Pulp Fiction – crime, nontraditional narrative form
- Citizen Kane (1941) – expressionistic, flashback
- Blue Velvet (1986) – surrealist
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – art film
- Birth of a Nation (1915) - controverial, slavery
- Deliverance (1972) – sexual abuse
- It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) – message, Christmas
- Network (1976) – showbiz drama
- 12 Angry Men (1957) – single time and place
- American Graffiti (1973) – coming of agee
- Do the Right Thing (1989) – urban drama
- Thelma & Louise – road, buddy
- American Beauty (1999) - family drama
- Beauty and the Beast (1991) – animated
- Sound of Music, The (1965) - musical
- Epic/Adventure/War/Western:
- Unforgiven (1992) - western
- Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The (1966) - spaghetti western
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982) – adventure, treasure hunt
- Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938) - swashbuckler
- Gone With the Wind (1939) – civilian side of war
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962) – war epic
- Saving Private Ryan – combat
- Schindler's List (1993) - biopic, holocaust
- Ben-Hur (1959) – religious epic
- Titanic (1997) - disaster, sea adventure
- King Kong (1933) - monster, island
- Sci-Fi/Fantasy:
- Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) – sword-and-sorcery
- Wizard of Oz, The (1939) – fantasy world
- Alien (1979) – sci-fi horror
- Star Wars (1977) – space adventure
- Matrix, The (1999) - alternate reality, future dystopia
- Terminator 2 (1991) – action, time travel
- Romance:
- Brief Encounter (1946) - romance
- Casablanca (1942) – war romance
- African Queen, The (1951) - battle-of-the-sexes
- When Harry Met Sally (1989) - romantic comedy
- Thriller/Horror:
- Rear Window (1954) – thriller, psychological thriller
- Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) – political thriller
- North By Northwest (1959) - spy
- Psycho (1960) - slasher
- Exorcist, The (1973) - supernatural horror
- Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) - serial killer
great list!
thanks! I really should update it sometime, though.