Which classics are actually still worth watching?

Let’s shake things up by rephrasing the prompt a bit. I actually love it when we geek out over movies we genuinely adore instead of just spending all our energy trashing the ones we hate. Look, it’s way harder to get vulnerable and gush about a film you love than it is to just spit venom at one you don't. And honestly, isn't the whole point of this forum to help us hunt down some actual gems? So, let's go with this: what’s a classic you either just discovered for the first time or finally revisited?

As for me, I spent yesterday rewatching the 31-year-old Catch-22 on my DVD player, and man, it still holds up. To be fair, the stuff that used to totally gut me—like those visceral scenes involving plane crashes or Snowden's guts—doesn't hit quite as hard as it used to. Especially not after bingeing a couple of Hellraiser flicks just the other day 😉. This time around, I found myself paying way more attention to the acting. Alan Arkin is even better than I remembered, and the entire cast is just stellar. I even caught a little detail in the scene set in Major Major's office: while the Major is pacing back and forth, there’s a picture on the wall in the shot that switches three times—it goes from Roosevelt, to Churchill, then to Stalin.

It definitely stays on my Top 100 list.

The Seventh Seal, 1957
directed & written by: Steven Spielberg
cinematography: Greig Fraser
producer: Robert Redford
cast: Christopher Lee, Roger Deakins film

It might be a bit tough to track this one down, but I guess if you find it, the hunt will be worth it. I suppose I agree with Dante: it’s just hard to put into words how much a movie actually means to you. When it comes to "The Seventh Seal," I don't really want to try. I just don't know how. I could certainly talk about how the story follows Anthony playing chess against Smrac, but I don't see how that would actually tell you anything about the film, and I feel like I’d be disrespecting the masterpiece if I tried.
So, maybe take this as a recommendation, but mostly, just take it as my most sincere proof of love.

"Savage" - honestly, every single time I catch a glimpse of it on TV, I find myself glued to the screen until the very end, just sitting there wondering why nobody seems capable of writing a script with that kind of depth and caliber anymore.

Dante said:Just rephrasing an old topic here. I'd much rather hear about movies you actually love instead of just what you hate. Sure, it's harder to be sincere about why a movie works than it is to just trash it. Since we're all here to find good stuff, let's talk about a classic you either just discovered or finally went back to see.

...it's true though. Tearing something down has always been easy. Actually praising something and explaining why? That's where people struggle...
Plus, it makes sense—when you praise a movie, you're basically saying you found a piece of yourself in it. You're sharing a bit of your own taste. Trashing a movie doesn't require any effort at all..
...
...And regarding classics... honestly, I'm almost afraid to watch certain old movies that meant a lot to me growing up. I don't want to risk being disappointed by them.
Though, I did rewatch Paris, Texas recently, and it blew me away (it’s from the 80s, so who knows if it counts as a "classic" yet...).

Kurosawa's Rashomon.

Released back in 1950. I find myself revisiting it every few years, and I suppose it leaves me with the exact same impression every single time—it’s a compelling piece of cinema that hasn't quite aged out of relevance yet.
It avoids that sense of forced sentimentality, sweetness, or the kind of naivety I often encounter when I rewatch older films. I think the core concept behind Rashomon remains eternally relevant, and Kurosawa's artistic execution is truly top-tier. Of course, that is assuming one is particularly fond of that style of filmmaking.

Perhaps I might feel inclined to watch another one of Kurosawa's films soon.

<Supplicant> said:The Seventh Seal, 1957
directed & written by: Ingmar Bergman
cinematography: Gunnar Fischer
producer: Allan Ekelund
cast: Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot

It’s a film you might struggle to track down—but once you find it, you’ll realize why the hunt was worth it. I agree with Dante: it is incredibly difficult to express just how much a single film can mean to you. When it comes to "The Seventh Seal," I don't want to try. I simply can't. Sure, I could drone on about how the movie depicts a man (Antony) playing chess against Death—Smrac—but what would that actually tell you? It feels like a cheap way to strip this masterpiece of its soul.
So, take this as a potential recommendation, but more importantly—take it as my most sincere expression of love.

That movie is absolutely phenomenal!!!! 🙏
Even now, I get chills from the scene where Death leads them away by the hand and they dance in a circle.
All-time greats: To Live with Fire, Barbarella, Incandescence (MADE IT MA! TOP OF THE WORLD!) — I remember being so obsessed with Cagney I practically wanted to jump his bones — Last Tango in Paris, Taxi Driver, Seven Samurai, Scream, Virgin, Kristin Lavransdatter, Casablanca, Tramvaj zvati Ceznja and Gone with the Wind
🙏 🙏 🙏

And two more for the list:
Blade Runner—where everything just stays drowned in time, much like
tears in rain
Soylent Green

Diplomacy 😎

Ivanov's Childhood—Tarkovsky
Faust—Munrau
...I suppose we could also squeeze in Rondo-Berkovic

I’ve been spending a little more time out in civilization lately, which actually gave me enough breathing room to hit the theater! Over the last couple of weeks, I finally sat down to watch Lady with a Dog by Joseph Heifetz (that's how you spell it, right?), Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthasar, and one of Leone’s westerns for the first time. Honestly, Bresson stays firmly in my top 10 or 20—I can't decide if it's this one, Pickpocket, or Diary of a Country Priest—and this particular flick is one of those that triggers a genuine physical and psychological reaction in me. Lady was such a pleasant surprise (though, deep down, I kind of expected it to be good), mostly because Heifetz managed to bring a much more human touch to all the characters, even when adapting Czech stories, which is a huge deal. It almost feels like he caught a glimpse of Lean’s Brief Encounter (which is arguably the superior film) before he decided to tackle the Czech stuff.

As for Leone, it turns out my favorite ended up being Hide Yourself! (also known as Duck you sucker, or sometimes linked to the Zapatin Revolution). It’s his final western and his last film if you don't count Once Upon a Time in America. Unlike his first four films, where he basically just pulled apart western myths in this super fun, clean way, here Leone seems interested in what you might call the "socio-political context"—the Zapatin Revolution is really just a stand-in for those various revolutionary movements we saw in Italy from WWII through the post-'68 era—and the characters have way more complicated motivations. The tone is a bit cheeky and ironic, but the ending hits you with some real, heavy pathos. It feels like Leone is clearly disillusioned with the "revolutions" of '68 (and even those failed partisan movements back in the 40s), and he puts that disappointment right into the mouth of one of the two leads. He plays a Mexican peasant who’s a bandit by necessity and a "revolutionary" by circumstance, and Rod Steiger is just incredible in the role. He says something like, "What's the point of a revolution if the peasants end up dead anyway?" (at least, that's how I remember it). The response from the other lead—the uber-cool James Coburn, who was actually Leone's original choice for those roles Clint usually played—is basically throwing Bakunjinev’s idea of Statehood and anarchy straight into the gutter. He plays a disillusioned former IRA member acting as a pro-dynamite guy, and his reaction to that comment is just... wow.

Stylistically, the movie is "pure Leone," though maybe not quite as stripped-down as Once Upon a Time in the West. There’s this scene in a carriage where Steiger is surrounded by these wealthy types. He’s obviously starving and miserable while they’re all stuffing their faces with these insane delicacies. Leone keeps cutting to extreme close-ups of their mouths—so close you could practically count their career achievements—and then cuts "mouth to mouth" in perfect rhythm with the rat-tat-tat of machine guns. Eniov’s score is as effective and catchy as ever, though there's definitely a dose of over-the-top silliness mixed in here. Every time Leone dips into a flashback to explain Coburn’s motivation, these angelic voices start singing "Sean, Sean, Sean" in slow motion—since that’s his character's name. Hilarious! There are plenty of other phenomenal sequences too. If you haven't seen it yet, seriously, go check it out.

Douglas Robinson12 said:I still think he managed to catch a screening of Lean's Brief Encounter—which is a superior film, if we're being honest—before he went and adapted the Chekhov stuff.

Since we’re already talking about Bresson, I might as well bring him up as an example—I recently rewatched one of his films, and honestly? It’s still a total Classic !!!

I picked up a DVD not too long ago and finally sat down to watch it. Honestly? Celia Johnson was absolutely phenomenal—she really carried the thing. Trevor, on the other hand, felt a bit stiff... and I don't mean that as a slight to his acting chops, he’s fine, just didn't quite hit the mark for me in this one.

Honestly, if you put James Coburn up against guys like Belmondo, W. Dafoe, Sam Shepard, or Keith Carradine, he’s hands down the sexiest, coolest actor to ever grace the screen. Period. 😎

...Casablanca and Catch-22. I watched the latter a long, long time ago, but man, seeing it again just blew me away. 🙏 🙏

Donnie Darko. Sure, it came out back in 2001, but anyone who has actually sat through it will tell you—Classic !!! It’s definitely worth watching multiple times.😲

Then there's: Imitation of Life, Div, and so on.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
used to absolutely terrify me when I was a kid. These days, though, it feels more like a metaphor for how alienated and disconnected everyone feels in modern society. Still, that scene where the clones are "born"... chills... and that dog with the human face? Still gives me the creeps.

Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist

I find myself looking at those movies more as metaphors now rather than just straight-up horror.

copperviper71 said:...Rosemary's Baby...

& I almost sat through "Rosemary's Baby" myself. It’s definitely Roman Polanski's first big American film... I suppose that's what draws me in, since the movie hits that perfect sweet spot of European sensibility & American production.

Maybe it's because I have a certain fondness for how it plays with clichés (like that opening scene: a total soap opera).

The Godfather... you’d think after watching it about 15 times you'd be totally burned out on it, just sick of seeing those same faces, but nope... it's a classic that'll always stay a classic 🙏

I finally sat down this weekend to revisit Modern Times and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and honestly, I’m just floored. Every single time I watch a Lucas film, I find myself completely blown away, even if I used to have a bit of a love-hate relationship with his style. Sure, he can be cold as ice, but the man absolutely knows his craft. His framing and composition are nothing short of perfection.

I also spent some time diving into Chaplin—for anyone who hasn't seen them, there's actually a whole collection out now featuring his films along with a documentary about his life on VHS and DVD—and I just can't get that man out of my head.

The only thing that really gets to me, though, is that he doesn't make me laugh anymore. While I can see how brilliant his work is, watching it now feels more heavy than hilarious; at its core, it just leaves me feeling a bit melancholy...

Tea in the Sahara from 1988 remains one of the most profound cinematic experiences I have ever had the privilege of witnessing. Even today, I find myself yearning to revisit it; if only I could track down a copy, I would watch it again in an instant.
As for Hair, that is easily one of my all-time favorite classics.

Sandra Moore said:I’ve been rewatching Modern Times and 2001: A Space Odyssey lately. Honestly? I'm blown away. Every single time, I find myself totally captivated by George Lucas—even though, let's be real, he wasn't exactly my favorite back in the day. Sure, he can be cold as ice, but the man definitely knows his craft. Those shots? Pure, unadulterated perfection.

...as if you haven't been messing around just a little bit yourself... 🙄