COOL STUFF

Yahoo's 100 Movies to See Before You Die List Fully Unveiled

by Alex Billington
March 23, 2009
Source: Yahoo

Yahoo debuted their own list of 100 Movies to See Before You Die today, which is both a gimmick for getting visitors and a good list worth mentioning. The last list that we put up that garnered quite a heated response was EW's 25 Greatest Active Film Directors. But let's get right into this, because I expect some interesting discussions to arise about Yahoo's picks. "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."

They go on to say that to choose these 100 movies, they "considered factors like historical importance and cultural impact." Obviously important, but "we also selected films that we believe are the most thrilling, most dramatic, scariest, and funniest movies of all time." They really do have some great picks on here, so instead of posting the entire list below, I'll mention a few key picks and point you over to their site where you can find the complete list of movies organized alphabetically. Read on for some of my thoughts.

Since I'm a big fan of sci-fi, let's look at some of their sci-fi picks: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Blade Runner, Dr. Strangelove, The Matrix, Star Wars (not Empire Strikes Back), and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but then again, this isn't a list about sci-fi movies. While they've also got a lot of my own favorite classics like The Bicycle Thief and The Graduate as well as the usual greats that top IMDb and AFI's lists, they've got some other greats like Goldfinger, Jaws, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Animal House, Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, Toy Story, and The Usual Suspects.

However, as is always the case with these kinds of lists, it's not about what is on them, but what is not on them. The problem is that in choosing only 100 movies, they had to leave out a few big hitters, that is unfortunately going to happen. And while they do put a lot of historically classic films on here, I think there are a few that I might argue aren't that important anymore (like Bringing Up Baby or Double Indemnity or Wild Strawberries maybe?). Potentially they could replace a few of those with other important and timeless classics that were left off. Either way, this is still a very good list, and I plan to go through it myself.

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