<p>The summer before our kids left for school, we made them watch Animal House and Ferris Bueller and laughed our heads off. I don’t have the good, classic movie tastes that many of you do, alas.</p>
<p>I interpreted this thread as iconic school-themed movies (so Breakfast Club would fit, too). Not good movies in general.</p>
<p>We’ve always loved classic films and my kids know many of them; they get “I Love Lucy” too, so maybe we’re all stuck in the past :). I’d add “Singing in the Rain” to any list of iconic films. My kids have introduced it to their college friends and they’ve all loved it (nothing not to love).</p>
<p>@ Lergnom in #7 - “Gun Crazy” gets a huge “YES!” from me. I am a big John Dall fan and that was his best performance.</p>
<p>And if we’re talking about icons, we have to include Fred Astaire’s films. My favorites are his wonderful 1930s movies with Ginger. Somehow the dancing has not aged one minute, even though these movies are creeping up on the 80-year mark. But I would probably start the kids of today with “The Band Wagon” and “Funny Face.” In “Funny Face” they can get two icons at once: Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn (and Kay Thompson if they either love the “Eloise” books or just might enjoy a lesser-known icon).</p>
<p>Not mentioned so far: Some Like it Hot, Groundhog Day, Big, Mrs Doubtfire, Beetlejuice, The Exorcist, The Birds, The Great Escape.</p>
<p>Another fairly obscure one is “Kings Row,” in which Ronald Reagan spoke the iconic line “Where’s the rest of me?” He used the same line as the title of his autobiography, written before he was president.</p>
<p>It’s a wonderful film and, though I never liked him as a President, he made me believe in him as the character and as an actor. Really! The movie deals with incest, class differences, mental illness, etc. in a typically veiled 1940s way, but demonstrates how compellingly those issues could be presented, even when so much was not permitted to be shown outright.</p>
<p>Sunset Boulevard
The Searchers
Dirty Harry
Taxi Driver</p>
<p>Maybe my kids are the exception, but their favorite actors are Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Katherine Hepburn. D has seen every movie Marilyn Monroe ever made. S and I just saw the original (pre-Raymond Burr) Godzilla (Gojira) and Forbidden Planet as a double-feature at the local indie theater.</p>
<p>Arsenic and Old Lace, North by Northwest, Harvey, and Bringing Up Baby are favorites in our house. S said Mr. Smith Goes to Washington taught him more about American politics than all of middle school social studies.</p>
<p>Don’t forget The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Citizen Kane of course. And everyone should see a John Wayne movie or two. The Great Dictator, as a talkie Charlie Chaplin, is accessible and still relevant.</p>
<p>I would add Brokeback Mountain to the list. Also, The Right Stuff.</p>
<p>Rocky, and maybe, An Officer and a Gentleman</p>
<p>The Graduate</p>
<p><em>furiously writes down all movies</em></p>
<p>I WILL WATCH ALL OF THESE. </p>
<p>(Might take me a semester…)</p>
<p>
I totally disagree with this. Do you think no one should read a novel or a poem written before 1990? Movies are just as a legitimate an art form and it’s part of cultural literacy to have a passing acquaintance with the classics.</p>
<p>As for the suggestion to see Shakespeare on film.</p>
<p>My first suggestion would be the wonderful Much Ado About Nothing. I’d choose Joss Whedon’s new version and pair it with the New York Theater Festivals 1970s version that was on TV which has wonderful keystone cops sequences.</p>
<p>You also could watch the Zeferelli version of Romeo and Juliet and pair it with the iconic West Side Story.</p>
<p>For John Wayne movies I’d highly recommend The Searchers. It’s been voted the greatest Western of all time. And for directors of westerns it doesn’t get better than John Ford. Actualy my favorite movie of his is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance it has John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin and is about how truth gets transformed by myth.</p>
<p>Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, That Touch of Mink and all those other Doris Day/Rock Hudson/Cary Grant Movies. The male/female dynamic in these movies is classic. Some things never change!</p>
<p>Like HImom, I’ve never seen most of the movies recommended here. I’m not a big movie watcher, don’t like violent movies. My D has seen The Breakfast Club because a character in some TV show or movie talked about how great it was. She has seen Monty Python/Mel Brooks movies, and is a big fan of the Matrix and Lord of the Rings movies.</p>
<p>We’ve never had network TV/cable at our house. As DS was getting ready to go off to college, I realized he had never actually seen Star Trek (shows or the movies). In an effort to make sure he was not a complete social dunce, we had him watch season 1 of the original series and the first few movies. For a STEM nerd, figured that was de rigeur.</p>
<p>I made a reference to something from Raiders of the Lost Ark few days ago and DD, HS soph, had no idea what I was talking about. Add to the list. Bad mom.</p>
<p>Harold and Maude. </p>
<p>My D’s saw “Some like it Hot” ages ago and loved it (I think they were around 12 years old). That Jack Lemmon…</p>
<p>D1 has gotten into some real oldies, especially musicals with Nelson Eddy, Howard Kiel, etc.</p>
<p>
Quick save! My family made sure I was well rehearsed in Star Trek. The summer before I left, I fell in love with Star Trek. :)</p>
<p>Saving Private Ryan. My personal John Wayne favorite, In Harms Way. The second, recent version of True Grit.</p>
<p>I haven’t read through this entire thread, and I’m not claiming it’s a great movie, but it was funny when recently a group of us “older” people were talking about John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever, and a 19 year old had never heard of it.</p>
<p>“To Kill a Mockingbird”</p>
<p>And how could I have forgotten Patton, The Wild Bunch and Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid?</p>