(in no particular order, as selected by film teacher, aficionado, and former AB film classifier Richard Davies)
The Godfather I and II (really one long, conjoined film) (1972-1974)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Casablanca (1942)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
All About Eve (1950)
Psycho (1960)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Graduate (1967)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
King Kong (1933)
The Third Man (1949)
Fantasia (1950)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
A Hard Day`s Night (1964)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
North by Northwest (1959)
Annie Hall (1977)
La Dolce Vita (1961)
War and Peace (1964-1967)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Jaws (1975)
Persona (1966)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest (1976)
American Graffiti (1973)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Nashville (1975)
Schindler`s List (1993)
Blow-Up (1966)
Wings of Desire (1988)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
The Verdict (1982)
High Noon (1952)
Klute (1971)
A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven (1946)
Rear Window (1954)
Network (1976)
Patton (1970)
Hamlet (1948)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
……………………
late additions:
12 Angry Men (1957)
Ran (1985)
The dangers of watching nothing but Netflix: How many of the above are in their system? Subscribers are kidding themselves if they really think they are getting great or classic movies on Netflix with their limited/limiting offers.
Most of my choices were from the 1940s to 1970s. My list ends in 1993. I don’t know that there’s anything after that I’d consider a bona-fide classic in the traditional/lasting/old-skool sense of the word after that date.
Foreignly-speaking, Fellini, Antonioni, Bergman, Wenders, Bondarchuk, Lester, Reed, Olivier, Powell/Pressburger, Kurosawa, and Kubrick made the list.