Films I Feel You Need To See Before You Die
by amanda_mauno | created - 12 Oct 2013 | updated - 10 Aug 2016 | PublicA list of films I have seen that has either moved me or changed me in some way or another that I would really recommend to others. I will only mention one film in a series if it is a part of one.
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1. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 427,715 | Gross: $51.97M
2. Elizabeth (1998)
R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, History
The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
Director: Shekhar Kapur | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson, Paul Fox
Votes: 105,069 | Gross: $30.08M
3. Atonement (2007)
R | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan
Votes: 299,653 | Gross: $50.93M
4. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
PG | 136 min | Drama, Romance
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the title opposites.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, James Fleet, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 125,637 | Gross: $43.18M
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
PG-13 | 178 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean
Votes: 2,005,676 | Gross: $315.54M
6. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine
Votes: 1,547,225 | Gross: $130.74M
A very interesting story about a young police woman and a locked up psychopat trying to solve a case.
7. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
R | 136 min | Crime, Sci-Fi
In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Votes: 880,868 | Gross: $6.21M
Funny, scary, interesting, violent, and crazy. Everything about this film is perfect. The music is just amazing and the acting is just top noch. The story is interesting and the setting is amazing. Very inspiring.
8. Thor (2011)
PG-13 | 115 min | Action, Fantasy
The powerful but arrogant god Thor is cast out of Asgard to live amongst humans in Midgard (Earth), where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston
Votes: 899,746 | Gross: $181.03M
I fell in love with Loki the fist moment you see him on screen and he really breaks your heart. It's dramatic, action-filled, funny, sad, moving and interesting. Almost never boring. Makes you really want to see the other films. I intantly wanted to see the Avengers and can't wait to see Thor: The Dark World. Amazing acting from everyone.
9. Miss Austen Regrets (2007 TV Movie)
TV-G | 90 min | Biography, Drama, History
In the later years of her life, as she's approaching the age of forty, the novelist Jane Austen helps her niece find a husband.
Director: Jeremy Lovering | Stars: Samuel Roukin, Olivia Williams, Greta Scacchi, Imogen Poots
Votes: 3,601
A film about Jane Austen, that is just as good as other films from this period, with a lot of these films being based on her novels. Funny, sweet, dramatic, romantic, moving and interesting. Great acting and visuals are amazing.
10. Orions belte (1985)
PG | 87 min | Action, Thriller
A group of seamen from Norway find a Soviet listening station and they become targets for both America and Russia. Another cold war takes place.
Directors: Ola Solum, Tristan de Vere Cole | Stars: Helge Jordal, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Hans Ola Sørlie, Kjersti Holmen
Votes: 2,171
One of the greatest Norwegian films. Music and visuals are breathtaking. Impressive, scary, intense, violent, moving and sad.
11. Peter Pan (2003)
PG | 113 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
The Darling family children receive a visit from Peter Pan, who takes them to Never Never Land where an ongoing war with the evil Pirate Captain Hook is taking place.
Director: P.J. Hogan | Stars: Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs, Olivia Williams, Lynn Redgrave
Votes: 80,124 | Gross: $48.46M
A live-acton adaption very close to the story of Peter Pan. The visuals and music is breathtaking. Leaves me crying every time.
12. Alice in Wonderland (1951)
G | 75 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Alice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.
Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Jack Kinney | Stars: Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway
Votes: 153,935 | Gross: $1.07M
A strange, unusual, funny and interesting film based on works by Lewis Carroll.
13. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
The solitary life of an artificial man - who was incompletely constructed and has scissors for hands - is upended when he is taken in by a suburban family.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall
Votes: 523,553 | Gross: $56.36M
A sweet story about an experiment: a man with hands made of scissors. A very interesting film, were you will really fall in love with Edward.
14. The Patriot (2000)
R | 165 min | Action, Drama, History
Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murders his son.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs
Votes: 293,358 | Gross: $113.33M
Great acting and story. A tad bit too long. Very moving. A great war film.
15. War Horse (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A young farm boy enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. His hopeful journey takes him out of England and onto the front lines as the war rages on.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch
Votes: 165,543 | Gross: $79.88M
One of the best films about a horse I have seen. great acting, music, visuals and the horses are amazing. I cried int he end.
16. Caligula (1979)
Unrated | 156 min | Drama, History
A dramatization of the ascent to Caesar and subsequent reign of Caligula, one of the most notorious leaders of ancient Rome. We see his ambition, his scheming, his perversion and decadence, his brutality and his lunacy.
Director: Tinto Brass | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole, Helen Mirren, Teresa Ann Savoy
Votes: 38,338 | Gross: $23.44M
A crazy, obcene and facinating story about the raise and fall of the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula. Great use of music and acting is great. Sometimes the editing is weird and some scenes can be a bit unnessesarry but it is quite accurate. If if had to be more accurate, they could have made it into a four part mini series.
17. Pulp Fiction (1994)
R | 154 min | Crime, Drama
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis
Votes: 2,218,227 | Gross: $107.93M
A black comedy that takes you on a journey of three different stories. Great acting, set up and music.
18. Love Actually (2003)
R | 135 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
Director: Richard Curtis | Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney
Votes: 531,322 | Gross: $59.70M
A sweet story about different relationships weeks before Christmas.
19. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
G | 75 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
After being snubbed by the royal family, a malevolent fairy places a curse on a princess which only a prince can break, along with the help of three good fairies.
Directors: Les Clark, Clyde Geronimi, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton Luske | Stars: Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton
Votes: 160,788 | Gross: $51.60M
One of the greatest Disney classics inspired by the fairy tale from Charles Perrault and the music of Tchaikovsky.
20. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
R | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.
Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Gerry Robert Byrne
Votes: 1,077,320 | Gross: $34.40M
An intense, sweet, funny and sad story about a couple who really don't belong together and ow they play with their minds.
21. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
PG | 152 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Richard Harris
Votes: 855,534 | Gross: $317.58M
The first film out of 8 about the young wizard. The first film is a great introduction to more awesomeness and magic.
22. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
R | 153 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent
Votes: 1,582,705 | Gross: $120.54M
A great twist in history in a funny, interesting and darkly violent way. Great use of music and set up.
23. Titanic (1997)
PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Votes: 1,279,277 | Gross: $659.33M
A classic about the romantic relationship of two unfortunate wictims of the Titanic dissaster. I alwyas cry in the end, love the music, costumes, visuals and acting. A bit long.
24. Miss Potter (2006)
PG | 88 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", and her struggle for love, happiness, and success.
Director: Chris Noonan | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson, Barbara Flynn
Votes: 32,007 | Gross: $2.98M
A sweet little film about the children's literature writer Beatrix Potter. Potter has always meant so much for me and a film like this gives you a little taste of her life writing stories and painting.
25. If.... (1968)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama
In this allegorical story, a revolution led by pupil Mick Travis takes place at an old established private school in England.
Director: Lindsay Anderson | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan
Votes: 25,178
Moving, funny, silly, intense, weird and inspiring About a young boy at a public school in England and how he breaks rules to make himself heard. Great imagery, acting, set up and music.
26. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Approved | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
Votes: 192,035
A classic that is silly, funny, sweet and moving.
27. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
G | 91 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A deformed bell-ringer must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancer.
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Stars: Demi Moore, Jason Alexander, Mary Kay Bergman, Corey Burton
Votes: 171,566 | Gross: $100.14M
One of the greatest Diney classics. A great hero and heroine, amazing music and a great story. A creepy but interesting villain. So complex and dark, but also really funny and entertaining. Never boring.
28. Evilenko (2003)
Not Rated | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A disgraced communist schoolteacher in Kyiv becomes a brutal, unfeeling serial killer. Based on the crimes of Andrei Chikatilo.
Director: David Grieco | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Marton Csokas, Ronald Pickup, Ruby Kammer
Votes: 3,539
A sad story about a sad man who rapes, kills and eats children and young women. Very depressive, but also interesting in so many ways. Always makes me cry. Amazing music as well.
29. Lincoln (2012)
PG-13 | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
As the Civil War rages on, U.S President Abraham Lincoln struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on his decision to emancipate the slaves.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Votes: 272,522 | Gross: $182.21M
Great acting, but can be a bit boring sometimes, but the ending moves me to tears.
30. Ben-Hur (1959)
G | 212 min | Adventure, Drama
After a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet
Votes: 253,507 | Gross: $74.70M
It's long but it's interesting. A great adventure and a real classic.
31. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Robin Hood decides to fight back as an outlaw when faced with the tyranny of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Director: Kevin Reynolds | Stars: Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater
Votes: 208,278 | Gross: $165.50M
Adventure about Robin Hood, but it's really all about Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham!
32. Finding Neverland (2004)
PG | 106 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The story of Sir J.M. Barrie's friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Radha Mitchell
Votes: 211,996 | Gross: $51.68M
Inspiring film about J.M. Barrie and how he came to write about Peter Pan. A mix of fantasy and reality. Very touching.
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
R | 133 min | Drama
In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
Votes: 1,071,726 | Gross: $112.00M
An amazing film with amazing characters. There is also humour, and Jack Nicholson is just amazing.
34. Long Ago, Tomorrow (1971)
GP | 110 min | Drama, Romance
Bruce Pritchard is paralyzed in a soccer game, rejected by his family, and placed in a nursing home. Angry and depressed, he finds hope with a nurse. Can Bruce find a life outside the home?
Director: Bryan Forbes | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Nanette Newman, Georgia Brown, Bernard Lee
Votes: 671
One of the most moving, romantic, sweet and saddest love stories I have heard or seen before. About two dissabled people who find love.
35. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Votes: 719,012 | Gross: $56.95M
36. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody
Votes: 885,975 | Gross: $59.10M
37. The Secret Garden (1993)
G | 101 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
A young, recently-orphaned girl is sent to England after living in India all of her life. Once there, she begins to explore her new, seemingly-isolated surroundings, and its secrets.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Kate Maberly, Maggie Smith, Heydon Prowse, Andrew Knott
Votes: 44,443 | Gross: $31.18M
38. Midnight in Paris (2011)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Kurt Fuller
Votes: 449,713 | Gross: $56.82M
39. Briar Patch (2002)
R | 103 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A woman becomes immersed in a brutal love triangle when an unwelcomed admirer kills her abusive husband even though she's already having an affair.
Director: Zev Berman | Stars: Dominique Swain, Henry Thomas, Arie Verveen, James Urbaniak
Votes: 1,425
40. Valmont (1989)
R | 137 min | Drama, Romance
France before 1789: When a widow hears that her lover is to marry her cousin's daughter, she asks the playboy Valmont to take the girl's virginity. But first she bets him, with her body as prize, to seduce a virtuous, young, married woman.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Meg Tilly, Fairuza Balk
Votes: 14,289 | Gross: $1.13M
41. Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
PG-13 | 100 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.
Director: Peter Webber | Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt
Votes: 82,636 | Gross: $11.63M
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