301 Movies You Shouldn't Miss

There are a lot of great movies out there. Here is a list I compiled that comprises first the American Film Institutes 100 Greatest Films and then 201 additional movies with a strong message or an inspirational theme. All genres are covered, but most of these movies would be considered classic (Pre-year 2000) Items in red are ones that I have completed so far.

1. The Great Escape ( 1963)

2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ( 1969)

3. Dirty Harry (1974)

4. Bull Durham ( 1989)

5. The Apartment ( 1960)

6. The Shootist

7. Hoosiers

8. Last of the Mohicans

9. North by Northwest

10. The Godfather

11. The Godfather II

12. Scarface

13. The Adventures of Robin Hood

14. The African Queen

15. All About Eve

16. All Quiet on the Western Front

17. An American in Paris

18. Annie Hall

19. Apocalypse Now

20. Ben-Hur

21. The Best Years of Our Lives

22. The Big Sleep

23. Blade Runner

24. Bonnie and Clyde

25. Bride of Frankenstein

26. The Bridge on the River Kwai

27. Bringing Up Baby

28. Casablanca

29. Chinatown

30. Citizen Kane

31. City Lights

32. Dr Strangelove- Jan 2021

33. Double Indemnity

34. Duck Soup

35. The Empire Strikes Back

36. E.T.

37. Easy Rider

38. Fantasia

39. 42nd Street

40. Gone With the Wind

41. The Graduate

42. Grapes of Wrath

43. High Noon

44. His Girl Friday

45. It Happened One Night

46. It’s a Wonderful Life

47. Jaws

48. King Kong

49. The Lady Eve

50. Lawrence of Arabia

51. Letter from An Unknown Woman

52. The Magnificent Ambersons

53. The Maltese Falcon

54. Meet Me in St Louis

55. Midnight Cowboy

56. Mr Smith Goes to Washington

57. My Darling Clementine

58. Nashville

59. A Night at the Opera

60. The Night of the Hunter

61. Ninotchka

62. Notorious

63. On the Waterfront

64. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

65. Out of the Past

66. Paths of Glory

67. The Philadelphia Story

68. Psycho

69. Pulp Fiction

70. The Quiet Man-Feb 2021

71. Raging Bull

72. Rear Window

73. Rebecca

74. Rebel Without A Cause

75. Schindlers List

76. Red River

77. Roman Holiday

78. The Searchers

79. Shane

80. Shawshank Redemption

81. Singin in the Rain

82. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

83. Some Like It Hot

84. Stagecoach

85. A Star is Born (1954)

86. Star Wars

87. A Streetcar Named Desire

88. Sunset Boulevard

89. Taxi Driver

90. The Third Man

91. To Kill a Mockingbird

92. Top Hat

93. Touch of Evil

94. The Treasure of Sierra Madre

95. Trouble in Paradise ( 1932)

96. 2001: A Space Odyssey

97. Vertigo

98. West Side Story

99. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

100. The Wild Bunch

101. The Wizard of Oz

102. Wuthering Heights-Feb 2021

103. Yankee Doodle Dandy

104. Adams Rib

105. Alien

106. American Graffiti

107. The Asphalt Jungle

108. The Awful Truth

109. The Bad and The Beautiful

110. Bad Day at Black Rock

111. Badlands

112. The Bank Dick

113. The Big Heat

114. Blue Velvet

115. Brazil

116. Cabaret

117. Camille

118. Cat People

119. A Clockwork Orange

120. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

121. The Conversation

122. Cool Hand Luke

123. Days of Heaven

124. The Deer Hunter

125. Dodsworth-Feb 2021

126. Don’t Look Now

127. Dracula

128. The Exorcist

129. Fargo

130. Five Easy Pieces

131. Frankenstein

132. The French Connection

133. From Here to Eternity

134. Goodfellas

135. Gun Crazy

136. The Heiress

137. How Green Was My Valley

138. The Hustler

139. I Am a Fugitive From the Chain Gang

140. In A Lonely Place

141. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

142. It’s a Gift

143. The Jazz Singer

144. Jezebel

145. The Killers

146. Kiss Me Deadly

147. The Last Picture Show

148. Laura

149. Little Caesar

150. The Lost Weekend

151. The Manchurian Candidate

152. Manhattan

153. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

154. McCabe and Mrs Miller

155. Mean Streets

156. Mildred Pierce

157. Mr. Deeds Goes To Town

158. Murder My Sweet

159. Mutiny on the Bounty

160. My Fair Lady

161. My Man Godfrey

162. Network

163. Now, Voyager

164. Only Angels Have Wings

165. The Ox-Bow Incident

166. Pinocchio

167. A Place in the Sun

168. Platoon

169. The Postman Always Rings Twice

170. The Public Enemy

171. Queen Christina

172. Raiders of the Lost Ark

173. The Red Shoes

174. Romeo And Juliet

175. A Room with A View

176. Rosemary’s Baby

177. Scarface: Shame of a Nation (1930)

178. Shadow of a Doubt

179. She Done Him Wrong

180. Silence of the Lambs

181. The Sound of Music

182. Splendor in the Grass

183. Strangers on a Train

184. Sullivan’s Travels

185. Sweet Smell of Success

186. Swing Time

187. The Terminator

188. The Thin Man

189. The 39 Steps

190. To Be or Not To Be

191. To Have or Have Not

192. Tootsie

193. 12 Angry Men

194. Unforgiven

195. White Heat

196. Winchester 73

197. Written on the Wind

198. Airplane

199. All The Kings Men

200. Amadeus

201. American Beauty

202. Arsenic and Old Lace

203. Atlantic City

204. Bambi

205. Beauty and the Beast

206. Being There

207. The Birds

208. Bus Stop

209. Cabin in the Sky

210. Crimes and Misdemeanors

211. Dark Victory

212. The Day the Earth Stood Still

213. Deliverance

214. Dinner at Eight

215. East of Eden

216. Enter the Dragon

217. Field of Dreams

218. Rudy

219. Glory

220. True Grit

221. Chariots of Fire

222. Bullitt

223. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

224. Dead Poets Society

225. The Searchers

226. Pride of the Yankees

227. Saving Private Ryan

228. Seven Samurai

229. Old Yeller

230. Dr. No

231. Jeremiah Johnson

232. A River Runs Through It

233. Gentleman’s Agreement

234. Billy Budd

235. Do The Right Thing

236. Meet John Doe

237. Gods and Generals

238. A Lion in the Winter

239. Henry V

240. Passion of the Christ

241. Groundhog Day

242. Top Gun

243. Swingers

244. The Longest Day

245. Grumpy Old Men

246. Road to Morocco

247. Lethal Weapon

248. The Man Who Would be King

249. 48 Hours

250. The Defiant Ones

251. Silverstreak

252. Gandhi

253. The Iron Giant

254. Malcolm X

255. Cinderella Man

256. The Right Stuff

257. Braveheart

258. Spartacus

259. Mississippi Burning

260. Remember the Titans

261. The Bourne Identity

262. Rocky

263. Apollo 13

264. The Karate Kid

265. The Sting

266. Schindlers List

267. All the Presidents Men

268. Patton

269. Lord of the Rings

270. The Gangs of New York

271. Fight Club

272. Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark

273. A Raisin in the Sun

274. The Natural

275. Ghostbusters

276. The Misfits-Feb 2021

277. The Father of the Bride (original)

278. The Road to Perdition

279. The Pursuit of Happyness

280. Parenthood

281. Boyz in the Hood

282. Finding Nemo

283. Paper Moon

284. My Life ( Michael Keaton)

285. Legends of the Fall

286. Tombstone

287. When We Were Kings

288. Boondock Saints

289. The Green Mile

290. Kingdom of Heaven

291. Master and Commander

292. Gran Torino

293. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

294. Gettysburg

295. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

296. The Patriot

297. Lord Jim

298. Lillies of the Field

299. 300

300. Forrest Gump

301. Things to Come-Feb 2021