Classic Movie List
We have a much loved family tradition, with my parents and my brother’s family, of gathering together every Sunday evening for dinner and a movie. We range in age from 17 to 89, so finding a movie that is suitable and enjoyable to everyone is sometimes a challenge. Last summer, after a Sunday meal on our deck, we sat, enjoying the sunset and compiling a list of classic movies that we would all enjoy watching together.
I was inspired in this idea by a lecture given by a friend, who is a film professor, many years ago. He asserted that there are certain films that everyone should see, as they are part of our “cultural literacy”. Our guiding framework for the list was to finish the statement, “In their lifetime, everyone should see ______________”.
As we brainstormed, we tried to think of a wide variety of movie genres: drama, comedy, romance, mystery, western, musical, etc. I insisted that there be a silent film on the list, so we could see the progression of movies through the years. Since we are a wide variety of ages, we were able to draw from many years of movie viewing for our list. We kept our list pretty family-friendly (at least for teens and up, and many suitable for younger kids). We eliminated any movie we thought was important, but people objected to. For instance, most of us thought The Godfather should be on the list, but an equal number said it was too violent and they wouldn’t watch it. We also deliberately left off the list movies which we thought were classics, but that we’d all seen many times, such as The Sound of Music. We considered actors and actresses (Robert Redford, Grace Kelly), directors (Alfred Hitchcock), teams (Astaire and Rogers, Abbott and Costello), series (The Thin Man, Lord of the Rings), etc. We were surprised at how many movies we put on the list which none of us had ever seen, like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
In the end, we created a list of 48 classic movies! On the list, you’ll find such classics as:
Rainman
Twelve Angry Men
Casablanca
The Great Escape
Singing in the Rain
Back to the Future
Rear Window
We listed them all out on separate squares of paper and put all the squares in a small box. Each Sunday evening, five people draw a movie title from the box, and then we vote on which one we want to watch that night. We’ve improved our cultural literacy and had great, family fun in the process! The discussion after the movie and the ability to reference them to each other has been a valuable part of our classic movie nights.
I’ve listed all 48 of the movies on our list out for you. Simply print the list and cut them apart to create your own drawing papers for your own movie nights! Enjoy!
