Movie people I need your help

[tsakshaug]

A friend of mine is teaching a class on popular culture in the 1900's and wants a list of movies for each decade that is a good representation of that decade. Be careful, here, American Graffitti was about the early 60's but done in the 70's. That does not count. A good example for the 60's is the Graduate or Easy Rider.
A short list:
30's The Great Dictator
40's State Fair
50's Rebel with out a cause, The day the Earth stood Still
60's Green Berets, the Graduate, Easy Rider, The Blob, West Side Story
70's Saturday Night Fever, Coma, The Warriors, Deer Hunter, Deliverence
80's Hunt for Red october, Big Chill, Fame,
90's Wall Street, Pulp Fiction, Bonfire of the Vanities.

Any ideas?

[meegbear]

1. try here ...

http://www.imdb.com

look up movies here ... it's a LARGE database, so he should find a lot of stuff there.

[tsakshaug]

3. Thanks but...

What do you think?
Would you add or subtract something from this list?

[King Bush II]

2. hmmm

citizen kane and casablanca for 40's
Dr strangelove for 50's

[tsakshaug]

5. how could I forget?

Thanks! Good old Slim Pickins!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. But Dr. Strangelove

was made in 1964 or thereabouts.

[proud patriot]

4. The Breakfast Club and Bill and Teds excellent Adv. for the eighties

:hi:

[tsakshaug]

7. yes!

Was fast times at ridgemont high an 80's?

[tjdee]

11. I think so--and Pretty in Pink!

Pretty in Pink is funny because it's got "cool" kids wearing "cool" 80's clothes, and "alternative" kids in "alternative" clothes.

Also, they can get a look at what computers used to look like(where Blaine "introduces" himself to Andi).

[tsakshaug]

18. Brat pack flicks

Should there be a need for more than one?

[Kamika]

6. red dawn

rambo3 and rocky 3 and 4 for the 80s

[curse10]

37. I was totally going to suggest red dawn!

:-)

[Boudicea]

8. What about Grapes of Wrath for the 30's

While I love The Great Dictator and think Chaplin was brilliant, I think GOW tells an American story, if that's what you're looking for.

[tsakshaug]

9. I agree

Was this produced in that time?
I don't know if he wants to limit it to US only films.
Blue Angel would go with the 40"s?

[tjdee]

10. Wall Street is better for 80's, no? Also the Wild Ones?

Wall Street, to me, is so Reagan America...

What about the Wild Ones for the 1950's? Marlon Brando and those jeans, oy! The motorcycles! 50's chic!

[tsakshaug]

12. this works

Wild Ones and Easy Rider in one big movie extravaganza!

Wall Street 80's or 90's. I agree it is very 80's

[TheBlob]

13. "The Blob" came out in 1958

not the '60's.

;-)

I'd also add the McCarthy era, paranoia classic "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" (1956).

Excellent choice on "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951) too!

[tsakshaug]

17. oops

sorry to make that mistake!
Most of this list was written after several beers with my brother. so we may be off a bit

[smallprint]

14. for the 80s

subtract big chill -- it's about the sixties-- don't need any more of that rehash

subtract wall street (1987) from 90s, add to 80s

add one of the following: rambo, flashdance, breakfast club


also for the 90s: three kings, slacker (or reality bites), boyz in the hood

[GOPisEvil]

15. Concrete Jungle...was that late 50's?

Racial tension of that era was depicted well, I thought. Plus, Sidney Poitier. :-)

[tsakshaug]

23. how about

Blackboard Jungle.
Rock around the clock as the opening track?
here I am giving myself suggestions

[GOPisEvil]

26. Thanks...that's what I meant!

*sheepish, embarrassed grin*

[Dissenting_Prole]

16. 1940's.....Citizen Kane

eom

[soleft]

20. 1940's - Made in the 70's

Julia
Yanks
1941

[soleft]

19. 70's

Goodbye Girl
California Suite
Airport
Heroes
Thank God Its Friday
Rocky
All the PResident's Men
Unmarried Woman
Gloria
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Dog Day Afternoon
French Connection
The Exorcist
Klute
The Poseidan Adventure
Earthquake
Towering Inferno
Live and Let Die
Taxi Driver
Bad News Bears
Midnight Express
Jaws
China Syndrome
Shampoo
Kramer Vs. Kramer
Private Benjamin
Foul Play
Ten

[tsakshaug]

22. that was the 70's

more bad movies than any other time?
I never saw an unmarried woman, my wife had it in another decade. To think I saw most of these at the drive-in

[slappypan]

21. let's see

70s: Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Nashville, Chinatown, Blazing Saddles

80s: Road Warrior, The King of Comedy, Desperately Seeking Susan, Raising Arizona

90s: Short Cuts, Fargo, Thelma and Louise

[tsakshaug]

24. never saw short cuts

was it good?
when I start seeing other suggestions I get more ideas.
Has somene mentioned Clerks?

Repo man for the 80's?

[slappypan]

28. short cuts

Short Cuts seems to capture 90s anomie quite accurately. Clerks is a great example of 90s low-budget filmmaking and the trend towards all-out outrageous vulgarity that started with Blazing Saddles in the 70s and continues on through today. I think you need a Spike Lee film for the 90s, how about Do the Right Thing?

[tsakshaug]

31. good point

Was do the right thing Lee's first or later movie?
was Mars Blackman in it?
Sorry to show my ignorance about many films after 1980

[Chovexani]

39. Not sure but

I think "She's Gotta Have It" was Spike Lee's first film.

Not an expert though, so don't quote me on that.

[supernova]

25. My picks

40s: Philadelphia Story

50: Blackboard Jungle, Rebel Without a Cause

60s: Midnight Cowboy, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

70s: Shampoo, Shaft, Love Story, Saturday Night Fever, All the President's Men. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (movie done in the 90s, but this is definitely 70s period.)

80s: Agree with everbody's choices. Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, etc. Would also add ET since it became a global phenomenon.

90s: Add the documentary Dot.com, about the speedy rise and fall of an internet company.

[tsakshaug]

27. great list

might be difficult to show midnight cowboy in a school, but parts could be shown.

[supernova]

29. Same for FaLiLV

LOL! That's some rough sh*t in that book, and don't all come from the drugs!

Johnny Depp does a hilarious dead-on impersonation of HST.

[tsakshaug]

30. Read the books

never did see the movie (nor for that matter where the buffalo roam

[supernova]

32. Where the Buffalo Roam

is awful. It shows the limits of Bill Murray's talents. Fear and Loathing OTOH is a masterpiece. It's like watching an illustrated version of the book. Trippy!

[vi5]

33. Fast Times for the 80's is a must...or Breakfast Club

Both distill the experience of that decade to it's purest form.

I would also add Midnight Cowboy to the 70's and Night of the Living Dead for the 70's (or was that 60's?).

[Kat45]

34. Annie Hall is an excellent snapshot of the seventies

and it came out in the late seventies.

[tarkus]

35. Clerks is perfect for the early 90s grunge/ slacker culture.

[mitchum]

36. "Dog Day Afternoon" should be added to the 70s movies...

the bank hostages and the watching crowd really do capture the feeling of the time.

[NashVegas]

38. Look, I Know this is Obnoxious, But ...

If your friend signed on to teach this class, shouldn't he/she feel comfortable enough with their own ability to pick a master list on their own?

[Individualist]

40. 50's

On The Beach
Peyton Place
A Streetcar Named Desire
War of the Worlds
An American in Paris

[Chovexani]

41. Good list

The only thing I would possibly add is Philadelphia to the 90's.

[Catherine Vincent]

42. What about those black exploitation movies in the 70's?

After the original Shaft, came Superfly, The Mac, Dolemite, Cleopatra Jones, etc.

Those were corny movies.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

43. I can give you some 80s ones

80s:
The Goonies
The Breakfast Club
Ferris Bueller's Day Off

90s:
The Sandlot
A League of Their Own

[Kathy in Cambridge]

44. 1940s: Gentleman's Agreement 1950s: 12 Angry Men

Most of these movies either capture the time period or have a somewhat left-wing slant.

30s: The Women (about modern women in the 30s)
All Quiet on the Western Front (WW I)
Scarface (gangster genre from the era)
Of Mice and Men (about The Depression)

40s: All About Eve (about ambition)
Adam's Rib (about women's equality and marriage) starring Hepburn/Tracey
Best Years of Our Life (an amputee returning from WWII)
Gentleman's Agreement (about anti-semitism in '40s America) starring Greg Peck :loveya:
And, of course, Casablanca

50s:
12 Angry Men (EXCELLENT movie-about criminal justice and perceptions) starring Henry Fonda
Rebel Without a Cause (youth movement)
On the Waterfront (corruption in urban America)
Night of the Hunter-film noir and Robert Mitchum at their best

60s:
To Kill A Mockingbird (movie about racism during the rise of the Civil Rights movement)
Manchurian Candidate (ultimate Cold War flick)
Dr. Strangelove (another Cold War flick)
The Graduate
Easy Rider
Midnight Cowboy

70s:
The Godfather
Mean Streets (snapshot of dying Little Italy in the late 60s/early 70s)
All the Presidents Men (Watergate)
Network
Apocalypse Now
The Deer Hunter

80s:
Wall Street (GREED)
A Brat Pack Movie (take your pick)
Working Girl (comedy about trying to get ahead)
Something Wild (touches on hypocrisy of yuppie ways)
Flashdance

90s:
Pulp Fiction
American Beauty
Goodfellas
The Player

I would include some foreign films too-I can definitely help you with that! I took tons of film classes in college.

[Toby109]

45. That's a great list

n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

48. All About Eve

was made in 1950.

I don't think these have been mentioned. Or if they have, they deserve to be mentioned again.

1930s:

It Happened One Night--a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) is forced to hitchhike with a newspaper reporter (Clark Gable) after her purse is stolen

Maedchen in Uniform: German film about a brutal girls' school, foreshadowing the rise of Nazism

The Laurel and Hardy and Marx Brothers comedies were mostly made in the 1930s and offer glimpses of life in that decade

1940s:

I second "The Best Years of Our Lives"


1950s:

The Three Faces of Eve--1950s housewife who's a multiple personality

A Face in the Crowd--Andy Griffith as a country singer who becomes a rightwing broadcaster

One of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies to illustrate the teasing but inhibited sexual mores of the time

1960s:

Seven Days in May: right-wing generals plot a coup against a president they consider "soft on communism"

A Hard Day's Night
The Knack--two British comedies that capture "swinging London"

One of the lush romantic costume dramas: Dr. Zhivago, Far from the Madding Crowd, Ryan's Daughter, Romeo and Juliet, and ...damn, I know there were others.

Y'all seem to be doing fine on the 1970s-1990s.

[DoctorBombay]

46. 1980s- The Big Chill

The perfect 80s movie, also it transcends decades by reliving the 60s somewhat.

You can replace The Hunt for Red October with it, since Hunt was released in 1990.

[DS1]

49. 80s - Rambo - First Blood Part II

Go back to Vietnam and kick some ass, because it makes the country feel better about itself. One man army against commie oppression/big government, etc, etc.

[lpbk2713]

50. Two Classics for the 1950's

High Noon --- Gary Cooper & Grace Kelly with a great supporting cast. One of the first "Adult Westerns". Classic.

Also, Bridge on the River Kwai --- Alec Guiness, Bill Holden. Great story. Great cinematography.