Movies I Haven't Seen (and May Never See)

This represents a break from what I have usually blogged about to date, but it's a young blog, and anyway, I need to stop thinking about work and my research. (I'll get back to all of that soon.) Being who I am, though, I can't help throwing in the academic angle. So here is an irrelevant post.

I think the idea of cultural literacy is more or less dead, since it has typically been used as a proxy for arguing that Americans (or Western Civilization, more generally) should all embrace and adhere to a standard canon of all the great works of art. Many would include movies in discussions of the canon, and certainly my friends and colleagues often do.

I’ve often felt left out of the conversation when it comes to certain movies that of course everyone has seen (except me). I know enough about them to nod in vague agreement or to cover by saying something like, “I’ve heard that the director…” whatever seems appropriate to say at that point.

But it is time to come clean. This list could change, if someone insists I must see one of these. But that has happened before and I have resisted, mainly through lethargy or a reluctance to watch a three-hour epic. But go ahead—make a case. Or share your own list.

8-1/2

A Separation

Alien

Alien 3

Alien Resurrection

Aliens

An Officer and a Gentleman

Beauty and the Beast (any version)

Ben-Hur

Blade Runner

Dawn of the Dead

Django Unchained

Exorcist

Friday the 13^th (any of them)

Frozen

Full Metal Jacket

Gandhi

Hateful Eight

Home Alone
Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Jurassic World

Kramer vs. Kramer

Lawrence of Arabia

Life of Pi

Lord of the Rings (the whole trilogy)

Malcolm X

Million Dollar Baby

No Country for Old Men (but I read the book)

Once Upon a Time in the West

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Paranormal Activity

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Scarface (I did see the 1931 version)

Seven Samurai

Shawshank Redemption

Slumdog Millionaire
The Aviator

The 400 Blows

The Help

The Lion King

The Passion of the Christ

The Pianist

The Professional

The Revenant

The Twilight Saga

There Will be Blood

Top Gun

Whiplash (even though my son is a drummer at the same high school where the director attended)

Wolf of Wall Street

Yojimbo