🎬spike lee's essential list, where i'd start

he hands this out first day at nyu, 95 films on the actual list. these are the 25 i'd watch first. his words on the picks, not mine on the order

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Casablanca

everyone's already seen this one and it's still good. start here if you need proof this list isn't homework

Some Like It Hot

Rashomon

that unreliable-narrator structure every movie since has stolen. still holds

Rear Window

North by Northwest

cary grant running from a crop duster in a suit. thats the whole pitch and it works

On the Waterfront

brando's cab scene. the one everyone quotes but it still lands cold every time

Breathless

8 1/2

if you're ever going to make a film about making a film, watch this first so you skip a whole stage of embarrassment

Dr. Strangelove

Bonnie and Clyde

that ending changed what studios thought they could get away with

The Conformist

The Godfather

yes, obviously. watch it again anyway like it's the first time

Mean Streets

Chinatown

the last line. do not look it up beforehand, I'm serious

The Godfather: Part II

Badlands

sissy spacek's narration is doing half the movie's work and you don't notice until the second watch

Days of Heaven

Raging Bull

de niro gained the weight for real and it's in every frame of the back half

Ran

Killer of Sheep

shot on weekends for basically no money. you can feel it, and that's the whole point

Boyz n the Hood

Daughters of the Dust

added when lee updated the list after people (rightly) called out that only one woman director was on it. best pick of that batch

The Piano

City of God

forget the plot for a second, the editing alone is a masterclass

In the Heat of the Night

last one I added, still working through the list myself honestly

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