Movies People Should be Forced to See

The accents in Charlie Wilson's War were so terrible I had to turn it off after five minutes even though I was very interested in the movie.

Troll 2

R2, I don’t know what that means but I don’t like it.

I can’t recall a single movie about the American Revolution that is remotely accurate and interesting.

Also drawing a blank on the civil war.

Why? Both have such good material.

R4 Does GWTW ring a bell?

Good one, R5.

How was All Quiet on the Western Front”?

Oh, oh, Game Change, showcasing the idiocy of Sarah Palin.

For my millennial friends, the crash movies:

I really liked “Too Big to Fail”. It seemed factually correct, as I recall, though some things were left out. One of which was when the Government guaranteed money market funds, thereby preventing a run on them that would have ended it all. I remember, because I was thinking of withdrawing my own MM funds at that time.

The Big Short was good, too.

Just to round it out, I also liked Rogue Trader, but don’t know it should be mandatory viewing. Maybe for extra credit.

Exodus and the Greatest Story Ever Told.

You don’t have to believe either, but it will help you to understand and appreciate 2000 years of Western art and literature.

I’ll add the Temptation of Christ. That was a great movie.

Hustler White

Leprechaun in The Hood also Showgirls

Judgement at Nuremberg

Requiem For A Dream

Dawson's 50-Load Weekend

For the amatuer BB bottom who's trying to learn.

R4

Ang Lee, Ride With The Devil (about the Civil War in the Midwest) is accurate and entertaining.

Jewel co-stars and she has “period appropriate dentistry”.

R7

Margin Call is the definitive “Financial Crisis” (that still hasn’t ended) movie of the time.

Even La Spacey doesn’t detract, and Demi is good.

“The Longest Day” for a white washed version of D-Day.

The Band of Brothers mini series seemed pretty good, too. It was based on real life in WWII.

I also liked the movie “Patton”.

Empire of the Sun, the Last Emperor, and Schindler’s List.

Paris is Burning so they don’t think Pose represents the period.

Schindler's List.

The Smartest Guys in the Room

Human Centipede

All Quiet on the Western Front is boring. Scratch it from the list.

All the Presidents Men

"Chappaquidick"

"Dunkirk"

And if we expand to television, the series': "The Thick of It", which appears to be even more applicable to the current state of UK politics than when it was first released.

Ditto "To Play the King", "The Politician's Wife" and "The State Within" (which explains the invasion of Iraq nicely).

Bridge of Spies (2017) was pretty good. It was about trading “spies” in Berlin during the Cold War.

"Chappaquidick" and "Dunkirk" were both boring, unfortunately. They didn’t have to be. Dunkirk, I know was fascinating.

Four of the Greats:

The Way We Were

The Prince of Tides

Bullets of Broadway

Best in Show

Pitch Perfect

Xanadu: a cautionary tale of what happens when 90% of film's budget is spent on coke.

"Vice," so more people can revile Cheney while he's still alive.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

Y’all are getting off track here. I was seeking movies of cultural interest or historical fact that people should watch if they are too lazy to read. And no, “A Christmas Moose Holiday” is not on the list.

The expanded versions of the 3 LotR movies.

No, no, no, R31! You’re worse than the Christmas Moose!

I like “It’s a Wonderful Life”, because I watched it with my nephew and he didn’t know things like what a bank run was; or VE Day; or VJ Day, a Zoot Suit; and so forth. The movie captures a lot of cultural things in the era and shows them in a way that is entertaining.

Reds explained a lot about that time period, and when she finds him is just so intense.

The Way Back. It’s about a group of men in Stalin’s Siberian Gulag who escape. It’s supposed to be based on a true story. They walk south seeking freedom. It’s light on history, but does touch on the era.

Santa Claus Conquers the Christmas Moose.

You’re a bad moose, R36. And I’m not watching your stupid movie.

Salo 120 days of Sodom

Man for All Seasons. Wordy movies can work. They can.

Indochine. A love triangle set in 1930s colonial Vietnam starring Catherine Deneuve and Vincent Perez.

The Live of Others about the Stasi monitoring the lives of people in East Berlin, tells about the horrors of life during the Cold War.

Argo.

Entertaining, and real history.

Yeah, but it was not very accurate history.

Claude Lanzmann's Shoah

Shindler's List

Alain Resnais's Night and Fog

Night and Fog definitely. Shoah is just too damn long. Playing for Time is excellent too though controversial, because Vanessa Redgrave played the lead.

What was Night and Fog?

Sounds misty.

Female Trouble

Buck never would have HAD to be forced to see Ordinary People!

"My Big Asshole 2"

Le ballon rouge 1956. I know we American kids were all forced to see it multiple times. It's not a narrative film - it's poetic. If everyone around the world saw a harmless movie like that we could all have a point of reference and use it to talk about anything.

Amadeus. No, not for the fictional rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, but for the otherwise accurate historical details about the period and, most importantly, as an introduction to appreciation of classical music and opera.

Yeah Amadeus is a good one. It also takes the stuffiness out of classical music.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Fail-Safe

Nothing John Waters did should be on this list.

I'll read actual books instead: thanks.

Gone With the Wind.

With the proviso that people are told that much is wicked fiction.

Abe Lincoln the Vampire Slayer.

R55, good boy, but this list is for people who know NOTHING. NOTHING. And will NEVER learn anything. ANYTHING!

Except through this list, hypothetically.

I loved Margin Call and watch it from time to time. The entire cast brought their A-game.

Some older ones for those who want to be both educated and enraged:

- Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price

- Food Inc.

- Inside Job

American Beauty, reminds people about the dangers of letting your life pass you by. We've got to keep some passion in our lives.

Terminator and Terminator 2. If we keep going with AI this is where we will end up.

The Bedford Incident

Twelve Angry Men

The Manchurian Candidate (original)

Bridge on the River Kwai

The Caine Mutiny

When I ate your asshole 3

“Born Yesterday” —-the 1950 version.

El Norte

It’s been ages since I’ve seen [italic] ”Citizen Kane” [/italic] it’s often described as one of the best movies ever made, but would it teach us anything today? I’m wondering if we can find similarities in things like, having a celebrity businessmen run for President? or a parallel to Rupert Murdock’s global influence through his media empire. Or would it just be entertainment.

TROG. Joan Crawford plays and ANTHROPOLOGIST! I shit you not.

She teaches Trog colors and shoots a hypo gun

I liked [italic] “ The Magnificent Ambersons” [/italic] It does have a message about how his Dad lost the family fortune in the depression. How the son’s pride and stubbornness self-sabotaged himself. About life’s reversals of fortune.

It might be too cerebral?

"Idiocracy," which started out as fiction but has now become a documentary.

Dr. Zhivago.

Lawrence of Arabia.

Das Boot.

The Tin Drum.