Movies everyone needs to watch at least once
 

There's popular movies that people don't go see because of what it's about or who's in it, then there's the movie's that ********** and people don't give it the credit it deserves, and then there are the movie's nobody has heard of but people should watch. Whether they are laugh out loud funny, or political statements that make you think, or cinematic works of art. So write down movies you think people should watch at least once for whatever reason.

I will start off by saying everyone needs to watch "The Court Jester," starring Angela Lansbery, Danny Kaye, and the Mrs. Banks from Mary Poppins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr8hPi93xZQ

Good thread. I nominate the following..

The Shawshank Redemption.
Amelie
Cinema Paradiso
Black Swan
Lawrence Of Arabia.

All IMO works of cinematic art and all with a moral or something to think about.

Alien. A beautiful looking film with a fantastically simple premise. Enjoyably terrifying and claustrophobic. The set design and the design for the xenomorph have a beauty to them which is seldom rivalled, even 30 years later. I know a lot of people who haven't seen it or gave it a chance simply because it's a science fiction film but it's so much more than that.

'Lawn Dogs' Sam Rockwell in outstanding form and Mischa Barton when she was a fantastic child actor of unlimited potential in a modern day fable of forgotten innocence and small town prejudice.

'Gone Baby Gone' Almost impossible to think this came from the same source as 'Shitter Island', Ben Affleck's treatment of the material, regional authenticity, perfect casting and gut wrenchingly ambiguous ending leaves the audience asking the final question. What would I do?

'The Thin Red Line', much less of a war film and more a poetic study into the nature of man contrasted against the beauty of Guadalcanal.

Agreed, there is something ethereal about that film. And to think, one of the stars used to be in Game On!

I'd nomiate:

Brick: Awesome performance by Joseph Gordon Levitt, and truly rivetting. I also love the way the world in the film seems to have its own language.

The Machinist: Again, awesome performance by Bale, the cinematography gives the film a dirty, washed out quality, which is kind of inkeeping with the emotional state of Trevor Reznik.

Oldboy: Awesome story, great character in Oh Dae Su, as well as the female lead, and a squirm inducing finale.

Audition: Shit scariest foreign language film I've ever seen.

Inside (2007): Just really over the top in terms of tension, scares and viscera.

I agree with just about every suggestion so far, so I'll just add;

Buried
El Mariachi
Memento
Texas Chain Saw Massacre

And if I think of more, I'll add them.

Gone Baby Gone
 

Great film and boy wasn't Shutter Island feckin dreadful. As obvious to me as the Sixth Sense.
I love Kevin Bacon and 2 films he did that are not really well known or mainstream are Stir of Echoes and Murder in the First (in which Christian Slater proves he can act. It is such a waste of talent all the crap films he is in.)

I agree wholeheartedly with Stir of Echoes. Really shit me up.

In fact, I am going to add The Ring (remake), cuz everything about it creeped me out, though I dare say I will upset a lot of people here.

Oh, and The Thing. Still probably the scariest horror film I have ever seen.

Les Diaboliques should also get a mention for being 50+ years old and still able to shock!

Anyone mention The Orphanage?

A Tale of Two Sisters: one of the best psychological horrors ever made.

Love Exposure: a four hour epic from Japan about boy meets girl. Except the girl is an angry lesbian who hates all men except for Kurt Cobain and Jesus. Oh, and the guy is the "King of the Perverts" who specialises in up-skirt photography and first meets the girl while dressed in drag, hence her attraction to him. A crazy, brilliant film.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to suggest why these should be watched. You'll just have to take my word for it

Dolls (Beat Takeshi)
Robocop
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (original, of course)
Rope
Fight Club
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Dead Man's Shoes
Happiness
Requiem for a Dream (those last two probably only the once!)

There are plenty more, of course, but I have errands to run and chores to be sorted...