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So my daughter's 18 and off to university next weekend.

It kind of takes me back to when I was a teenager to 20s and watched loads of great films in the 1980s which I still look back on now with great affection. Here's a list in no particular order of ranking.

These are films my daughter mostly hasn't seen and probably she should do, because they're great. (Even the crap ones.)

What about you? What are the films you want your children to know about?

Back to the Future, 1, 2 and 3
Predator
Terminator, Terminator 2
Alien, Aliens, Alien 3
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Die Hard, Die Hard 2
Ghostbusters
Indiana Jones 1, 2 and 3
Gremlins
Beetlejuice
The Princess Bride
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Trading Places
The Lost Boys
The Blues Brothers
The Naked Gun
Robocop
Airplane, Airplane 2
Wargames
Romancing the Stone
Mad Max, Mad Max 2
The Thing

Maybe some of the Mel Brooks titles? Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, etc.?

Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Doug McClure films.

I think the hard part is to separate movies that you liked, or are even important to you, from the movies that really stand the test of time. I mean, 18 year olds today have a completely different set of shared movies than I did. Look at a movie like Chasing Amy, which was fresh and hilarious at the time, but seems painfully dated now.

When I went to college, Pixar was still making proof of concept shorts, whereas today a freshman would probably have seen damn near all of them.

Looking at movies that predate my adolescence, I'd suggest the following:
Star Wars
Blazing Saddles
Casablanca
Wizard of Oz
The Godfather
Silence of the Lambs
When Harry Met Sally

Oh, also The Last Starfighter. Cracking bit of SciFi!

Things that I'd shortlist from before 2000?

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Aliens
Beetlejuice
Blazing Saddles
Fight Club
Kill Bill
The Matrix
Predator
The Princess Bride
The Terminator

Newer?

Sucker Punch
Tropic Thunder
MCU Anthology

Excellent list, KK - very similar to mine.

Aliens
Barry Lyndon
Ten Commandments
Gone With The Wind
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Godzilla (1954)
Mothra (1961)
Red Beard
Jurassic Park
The Thing
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
Conan the Barbarian
Predator
Terminator 2
Road Warrior
Fury Road
Blade Runner
Blade Runner 2049
The Three Musketeers (1973) + Milady's Revenge
Ghostbusters
Dawn of the Dead
The Shining
Phantasm
Master and Commander
RoboCop
Starship Troopers
Dredd

I recently made The Boy (who is 12) watch The Blues Brothers. It’s basically a who’s who of R&B/Gospel/Blues music, blended with some of the best comedians of the time, splashed liberally with car chases and explosions, topped off with Princess Leia with a flamethrower.

He might have been more interested in the action, but at least he was exposed to the culture hidden in it.

Over the summer we made him watch To Kill a Mockingbird, which is my mom’s favorite movie. Still a classic, with themes just as relevant to today, but “boring” according to my son.

I don't have kids, but I did somewhat similar sci-fi catching-up with my wife, so couple of my titles from this genre (limited to pre 2000):

Forbidden Planet,
Logan's Run,
Time Machine (1960 version)
2001/2010,
Planet of the Apes (original),
Clockwork Orange,
Aliens saga (including Jeunet - a fine journey through movie language and special effects evolution),
Predator (first only)
Enemy Mine,
Blade Runner,
Abyss,
Starship Troopers (as a part of "the most 40K like films", along Aliens and Event Horizon),
12 Monkeys,
Fifth Element,
CUBE,
Delicatessen,
La Cité des enfants perdus
GitS and Akira,

and out of genre but equally important Nightmare Before Chrismas

If I was dictator for a day, everyone would watch The Apple.

Especially the children!

That dictator for a day scenario is pretty interesting. Can you imagine the cultural and social impact of everyone watching the same movie at the same time?

Erm, everybody so far forgot to mention the pure genius of Louis de Funes and Bud Spencer & Terence Hill movies. These movies are also more suitable for children anyway due to lack of horror and violence.

Funny enough, it was precisely the fact that the movies I loved so much had horror elements that made me love them so much, while more “gentle” films just faded from my memory. T2 is maybe the perfect children’s film IMO.

Eraserhead.

The original Godzilla, the B&W one. Better yet, Gojira, if you can find it. Everyone should see the nuclear metaphor in all it's horror and glory. The Day After, a 80's made-for-TV movie about the aftermath of a nuclear war, is also a must-see.

Saving Private Ryan, to see the brutality of war as well as the importance of fighting for a good cause.

At the very least, Star Wars IV. It's become such an ingrained part of the culture. I'd also recommend Star Trek II as a good 'short' version of the whole ST universe.

Likewise, The Matrix. Avoid any rumors of sequels at all costs.

Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Cleopatra, to cover the classics. Something by Charlie Chaplain or Buster Keaton as well, from the silent era. Regrettably, I'm not as familiar with that period as I feel I should be.

Something by Kubrick. Either 2001 or A Clockwork Orange. Both have strong messages that should not be ignored. Perhaps Catch 22 as well.

Forbidden Planet is surprisingly deep for a 1950s era sci-fi flick, on top of being quite entertaining.

 Manchu wrote:
That dictator for a day scenario is pretty interesting. Can you imagine the cultural and social impact of everyone watching the same movie at the same time?

What about everyone listening to the same radio play, like, say, War of the Worlds?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Vulcan wrote:
A Clockwork Orange. Both have strong messages that should not be ignored

Yeah, but for children?!?

Maybe follow that up with something "light" like Last Exit to Brooklyn or LvT's Nymphomaniac? or Mother?

I recommend every kid is forced to watch Requiem for a Dream when they turn 13. Whole movie.

Lets see how into drugs they get after that.

Star Wars 4-6
Princess Bride
Monty Python ATHG
The Marvel collection
Mel Brooks everything
Matrix
Leslie Nielsen stuff
Billy Madison/Happy Gilmore/Wedding Singer
Galaxy Quest (aka the best Star Trek movie ever made)
Jurassic Park
American Pie
Jay and Silent Bob (especially Mallrats and Dogma)

Some of these are obviously age-dependent.

It's important not to force movies on kids. They sometimes just pull away. I found it's better to watch for yourself. They will eventually want to check out what you are watching. Just watching Young Frankenstein got my son to check out all of Mel Brooks films. I do have to get Princess Bride.

Krull is one of my daughter's favorite movies. My wife yelled at me for showing her that movie at age 4, then reduced her to tears by showing her the live action Charlotte's Web. Guess what my daughter's name is, btw?


When she's a bit older, we're having a LOTR marathon. As it stands, my wife insists that she's not old enough to watch Prisoner of Azkaban

Watership Down.

Harvey

Bringing Up Baby

The Mission

Loads of great films there people have thought of which I had forgotten about!

Maybe we should do this for TV programmes too, though they are less international.

That said, nearly all the films mentioned are US or US/UK co-productions.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Killers
Hard Boiled
Spartacus
The Ten Commandments
Susperia
Night of the Living Dead
Animal Farm
Lord of the Flies
Apocalypse Now
Watership Down

There, one messed up kid coming up!

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Loads of great films there people have thought of which I had forgotten about!

Maybe we should do this for TV programmes too, though they are less international.

That said, nearly all the films mentioned are US or US/UK co-productions.

One of the reason for that is cultural imperialism of US/UK cinematography, and the other is that most dakkanauts are US/UK based and if, e.g. I would list Polish or Czech movies, most dakkanauts would not know what am I talking about, leading to little or none discussion at all.

Here' a few:

Starwas the original theatre release - NOT THE REMASTERED WITH EXTRA SCENES.

Watership Down

Plague Dogs

Studio Ghibli Films - I'd strongly recommend ones like Laputa, Nausicaa, Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies*; etc.. basically everything)
I'd also say a lot of the early Anime back when it was focused on action and war and adventure - Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Record of Lodoss War etc...

Lion King (Disney at its absolute best!)

Anything that Ray Harryhausen worked on - eg Clash of the Titans, One Million Years B.C, various original Sinbad films (far better pirate/adventure than that drunk Depp chap).

Lucas Arts films - The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Witches, Muppets Christmas Carol, Muppets Treasure Island.

A lot of early sci-if back when models were used - so Last Starfighter, Dune, etc...



*one of those "watch it once and never again its super sad" films that is very worth watching

Those are all great films, but my vote is for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Dumb & Dumber, Airplane, Ghostbusters (original) and National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Pointer5 wrote:
It's important not to force movies on kids.

You sure about that?

The Brave Little Toaster!! I forgot about that one

Oh and the original Land Before Time films!

The Dark Crystal
Robin Hood (the Errol Flynn one)
LoTR trilogy

Wow.... I guess we probably ought to be prefacing these with a timeframe. I've got an 8 and a 5 year old.... so many of these films would cause nightmares for a week, or assure they'd cry most of the night.

I mean Watership Down? That's a terrifying, grotesque movie! Great, sure, but really hard to watch.

And Grave of the Fireflies? Yikes.