100 movies to see before you die

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100 Movies To See Before You Die
by The Yahoo! Movies Editorial Staff

Many movies are good, some are great, but only a select few can be called truly "essential." After heated discussions, long negotiations, and a shouting match or two, the staff at Yahoo! Movies has put together this list of the 100 films you must see before you die. To choose the titles for the list, we considered factors like historical importance and cultural impact. But we also selected films that we believe are the most thrilling, most dramatic, scariest, and funniest movies of all time. Some of these films you've seen, and some you may not have heard of, but we believe that each one is a timeless classic that you absolutely have to see.
editors_pickWHY YOU SHOULD SEE IT
(rollover where you see the icon for more information)
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12 Angry Men (1957)

Directed By: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall
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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Directed By: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
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The 400 Blows (1959)

Directed By: Francois Truffaut

Starring: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Patrick Auffay

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
8 ½ (1963)

Directed By: Federico Fellini

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee

A

*
The African Queen (1952)

Directed By: John Huston

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley
*
Alien (1979)

Directed By: Ridley Scott

Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright
*
All About Eve (1950)

Directed By: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders
*
Annie Hall (1977)

Directed By: Woody Allen

Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
*
Apocalypse Now (1979)

Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola

Starring: Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall

RolloverWhy You Should See It

B

*
The Battle of Algiers (1967)

Directed By: Gillo Pontecorvo

Starring: Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Brahim Haggiag

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
The Bicycle Thief (1948)

Directed By: Vittorio De Sica

Starring: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Blade Runner (1982)

Directed By: Ridley Scott

Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young
*
Blazing Saddles (1974)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens
*
Blow Up (1966)

Directed By: Michelangelo Antononi

Starring: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles
*
Blue Velvet (1986)

Directed By: David Lynch

Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Directed By: Arthur Penn

Starring: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard
*
Breathless (1960)

Directed By: Jean-Luc Godard

Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg
*
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Directed By: David Lean

Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins,
*
Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Directed By: Howard Hawks

Starring: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Directed By: George Roy Hill

Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross

C

*
Casablanca (1942)

Directed By: Michael Curtiz

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
*
Chinatown (1974)

Directed By: Roman Polanski

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
*
Citizen Kane (1941)

Directed By: Orson Welles

Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore
*
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Directed By: Ang Lee

Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang

D

*
Die Hard (1988)

Directed By: John McTiernan

Starring: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Do the Right Thing (1989)

Directed By: Spike Lee

Starring: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Double Indemnity (1944)

Directed By: Billy Wilder

Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
*
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Directed By: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
*
Duck Soup (1933)

Directed By: Leo McCarey

Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx

RolloverWhy You Should See It

E

*
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Dee Wallace Stone, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore
*
Enter the Dragon (1973)

Directed By: Robert Clouse

Starring: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly
*
The Exorcist (1973)

Directed By: William Friedkin

Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair,

F

*
Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)

Directed By: Amy Heckerling

Starring: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold,
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The French Connection (1971)

Directed By: William Friedkin

Starring: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider

G

*
The Godfather (1972)

Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola

Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan,
*
The Godfather, Part II (1974)

Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola

Starring: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
*
Goldfinger (1964)

Directed By: Guy Hamilton

Starring: Sean Connery, Honor Blackman

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1968)

Directed By: Sergio Leone

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
*
Goodfellas (1990)

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
*
The Graduate (1967)

Directed By: Mike Nichols

Starring: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross,
*
Grand Illusion (1938)

Directed By: Jean Renoir

Starring: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim
*
Groundhog Day (1993)

Directed By: Harold Ramis

Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott

H

*
A Hard Day's Night (1964)

Directed By: Richard Lester

Starring: The Beatles

RolloverWhy You Should See It

I

*
In the Mood For Love (2001)

Directed By: Wong Kar-Wai

Starring: Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung
*
It Happened One Night (1934)

Directed By: Frank Capra

Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert
*
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Directed By: Frank Capra

Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore

J

*
Jaws (1975)

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

RolloverWhy You Should See It

K

*
King Kong (1933)

Directed By: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Shoedsack

Starring: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong

L

*
The Lady Eve (1941)

Directed By: Preston Sturges

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn
*
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Directed By: David Lean

Starring: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn
*
The Lord of the Rings (2001,2002,2003)

Directed By: Peter Jackson

Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen

RolloverWhy You Should See It

M

*
M (1931)

Directed By: Fritz Lang

Starring: Peter Lorre, Theodor Loos, Otto Wernicke

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
M*A*S*H (1970)

Directed By: Robert Altman

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt
*
The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Directed By: John Huston

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet
*
The Matrix (1999)

Directed By: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss
*
Modern Times (1936)

Directed By: Charlie Chaplin

Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
*
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Directed By: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones

Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

N

*
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

Directed By: John Landis

Starring: John Belushi, Tim Matheson

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Network (1976)

Directed By: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch
*
Nosferatu (1922)

Directed By: F.W. Murnau

Starring: Max Schreck, Gustave Von Wagenheim, Greta Schroeder,

O

*
On the Waterfront (1954)

Directed By: Elia Kazan

Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
*
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Directed By: Milos Forman

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield

P

*
Paths of Glory (1958)

Directed By: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Princess Mononoke (1999)

Directed By: Hayao Miyazaki

Starring: Billy Crudup, Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver
*
Psycho (1960)

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh
*
Pulp Fiction (1994)

Directed By: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman

R

*
Raging Bull (1980)

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty-Gentile, Joe Pesci
*
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
*
Raise the Red Lantern (1992)

Directed By: Zhang Yimou

Starring: Gong Li, He Caifei, Cao Cuifeng
*
Rashomon (1951)

Directed By: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyo

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Rear Window (1954)

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr
*
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Directed By: Nicholas Ray

Starring: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo
*
Rocky (1976)

Directed By: John Avildsen

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young
*
Roman Holiday (1953)

Directed By: William Wyler

Starring: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert

S

*
Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Schindler's List (1993)

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes
*
The Searchers (1956)

Directed By: John Ford

Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles
*
Seven Samurai (1954)

Directed By: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio Inaba
*
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Directed By: Frank Darabont

Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
*
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Directed By: Jonathan Demme

Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn
*
Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Directed By: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelley

Starring: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds
*
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Directed By: David Hand

Starring: Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
Some Like It Hot (1959)

Directed By: Billy Wilder

Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
*
The Sound of Music (1965)

Directed By: Robert Wise

Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
*
Star Wars (1977)

Directed By: George Lucas

Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
*
Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Directed By: Billy Wilder

Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim

T

*
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Directed By: James Cameron

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton
*
The Third Man (1949)

Directed By: Carol Reed

Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
*
This is Spinal Tap (1984)

Directed By: Rob Reiner

Starring: Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest
*
Titanic (1997)

Directed By: James Cameron

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Directed By: Robert Mulligan

Starring: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford
*
Toy Story (1995)

Directed By: John Lasseter

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles

U

*
The Usual Suspects (1995)

Directed By: Bryan Singer

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne

RolloverWhy You Should See It

V

*
Vertigo (1958)

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak

RolloverWhy You Should See It

W

*
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

Directed By: Rob Reiner

Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher
*
Wild Strawberries (1957)

Directed By: Ingmar Bergman

Starring: Victor Sjostrom, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin
*
Wings of Desire (1988)

Directed By: Wim Wenders

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander
*
The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Directed By: Victor Fleming

Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger
*
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

Directed By: Pedro Almodovar

Starring: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas

RolloverWhy You Should See It
*
The World of Apu (1959)

Directed By: Satyajit Ray

Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Swampan Mukerjee,

Tell us your favorite film that's not on the list >>
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