For whatever reason, over the past month, I’ve had about four separate people blast me for never having seen Top Gun. (Don’t worry, that will soon be remedied in an upcoming iteration of “Catching the Classics.”) And, while I understand that Top Gun is a popular and iconic movie, I really don’t think it’s THAT big of a shocker that I haven’t seen it. It came out five years before I was born; it’s not exactly a kids’ movie or a family film, per se, even though it is rated PG; and neither of my parents owned it. And, of course, by the time I was grown up, all the pop culture talk had hyped it up so much and spoiled some of the major plot points for me so that I wasn’t really interested in watching it.
In doing the “Catching the Classics” series, I’ve come across a lot of movies that, for some reason or another, I had never seen before. Something like Jurassic Park, which came out in my life time and is a sort of family-friendly adventure movie, is hard to excuse, I will admit. But, then there are movies like Unforgiven or The Green Mile, both of which — even though they were released in my lifetime — are rated R. And, as I’ve discussed on the show before, I’m not a fan of dark, violent, brutal, R-rated movies, for the most part. While I enjoyed both films, they’re not the kind that I seek out in my day-to-day movie-watching experience. (Which is a good reason for doing the “Catching the Classics.”) Similarly, The Godfather, while iconic, is rated R and came out decades before I was born. Even my dad had never seen it up until maybe 10 years ago, and even he thought it was overrated. So, why would I have seen it? (Before doing CtC, that is.)
Anyway, because of all this, I wanted to put together a list of 10 movies that are actual classics that I feel like everyone has to have seen by now. (And by “everyone,” I mean your run-of-the-mill middle-class American audiences.) These are movies that — unlike many films on the IMDB Top 250 List or the AFI Top 100 List — are approachable, family friendly and seemingly on TV all the time.
This isn’t necessarily to say that these movies are perfect or even high-quality. But they’re beloved, for sure. Cult classics, family favorites, and movie marathons kind of stuff.
These are the movies that, if you haven’t seen them by now, you probably have less of an excuse than I have for never watching Top Gun.
And, FYI: You’ll note that I cheated on a few of these entries.
#10: The Sound of Music
Granted, I’ve only ever seen this movie once, but it’s a classic that I know ABC Family or a similar channel used to play every Easter. It’s a long one, yes, made even longer by all the incessant commercials. But, again, I would be surprised if a friend or coworker told me they’d never seen it. Everyone knows “My Favorite Things” and “The Sound of Music” (the song), so that means most people have probably seen the movie at some point in their lives. Plus, it’s from 1965, so that means that even your 60-something coworker has probably seen it, too. And besides, who doesn’t love watching an adorable Austrian family escape the Nazis through the power of song… and some nuns who know how to disable cars?
#9: The Karate Kid (1984)
I feel like I’ve seen this movie on TV several times. It’s so iconic that they remade it in the 2000s with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. Everyone knows Mr. Miyagi, the crane kick and “wax on, wax off,” which is unfortunate, because it’s made everyone believe that you can learn martial arts by doing household chores. And, as someone who trained in martial arts for like 8 years, I can tell you: no, that’s not how it works. YOU. DO. NOT. LEARN. TO. BLOCK. BY. PAINTING. A. FENCE. I get that Mr. Miyagi was trying to help Daniel build muscle memory; and while painting fences and waxing cars may be similar movements, as my instructor used to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. *Perfect* practice makes perfect.” Meaning that if you want to have accurate muscle memory of the technique, you need to actually learn how to do the technique… not something similar to it. Anyway, sorry, I had to get on my soapbox for a second, but I’d be surprised if someone hadn’t seen this movie, given how accessible and pervasive it is.
#8: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
This is another movie that, yes, while it was based on existing source material, has also been remade. It’s full of iconic songs and other very weird but memorable scenes, some of which have become memes. Plus, I feel like they used to play it on ABC Family all the time, so I don’t know how someone — especially if they’re close to my age — could’ve avoided it.
#7: Either of the good Indiana Jones movies
Between the star power of Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, I don’t know why anyone who was alive in 1981 didn’t see Raiders of the Lost Ark when it came out. And, then in 1989, when they added Sean Connery to the roster for The Last Crusade… how could anyone have missed these movies? Even I, who wasn’t alive when either of them came out, had seen each multiple times before I was in high school. Not only have they been on TV a lot as part of Indiana Jones movie marathons, especially when The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out in 2008… but I feel like the video cassettes were everywhere back when VCRs were a thing. And, of course anyone over 18 who’s somehow escaped seeing them up to this point can just watch them on Netflix or Amazon Prime, which has made them even more accessible.
#6: The Princess Bride
About five years ago now, when I was working at another job, we found out that one of our coworkers had never seen this movie. Of course, my work-friends and I all gave her a hard time, and one of us lent it to her so she could finally watch it. From what I recall, she enjoyed it, but didn’t think it was as good as we all had told her it was. But, for me, I can’t remember how old I was the first time I watched The Princess Bride. It’s a movie that, for many millennials and Gen-Xers, is so integral in our movie-watching lives; and, for myself, I have no idea how that came to be. Did my parents own it that we watched it on video? Did I see it on TV at some point? I’m sure it’s some combination of the two, but I genuinely don’t remember how or when or why I first saw this movie. I know it’s been on TV, and of course I think it’s made the rounds on Netflix at some point recently, but seemingly everyone I know has seen this movie, and I don’t know how. Was it just on TV all the time in the early 90s, and I don’t quite remember it? Or did everyone who was alive in 1987 go see in the theaters, buy it on video and then watch it with their kids when it came out? Who knows? But, it’s mega-popular, and people quote it all the time. So for someone to have not seen it is inconceivable! (Are you proud of me for how long I waited to do that joke?)
#5: Any of the Back to the Future movies
If you’ve had access to cable TV any time in the last 20 years, you’ve seen any or all of these movies. They are impossible to escape given how often ABC Family or TNT or whatever channel(s) show movie marathons of all three back-to-back-to-back. It’s so well-known that it’s becoming the shorthand for certain time travel concepts in other movies and TV shows like Avengers: Endgame or The Flash. Unlike The Terminator, which I’ve still never seen, this is a family-friendly time travel movie. So, how anyone over 14 hasn’t seen it is beyond me.
#4: The Wizard of Oz
As someone who is from Kansas, I cannot tell you how many times people have quoted this movie to me. “You’re not in Kansas anymore.” Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. Another classic movie that, given how old it is, I don’t know how people would’ve escaped seeing it on TV at some point. Even people in nursing homes nowadays may have seen it in the theaters when it first came out. This one hasn’t been on TV nearly to the same degree as the BTTF trilogy, but I feel like it’s a movie that if your family didn’t own it on video, your grandparents or aunts or uncles or friends probably did. So, someone who’s never seen it is as scary as flying monkeys and violent trees. Say a person reached 18 and still had never seen The Wizard of Oz. Given how pervasive it is in the cultural zeitgeist, I can’t see how they wouldn’t have checked it out as an adult just to see what all the fuss was about. (In the same way that I had to watch The Godfather, because it’s a ~classic~.)
#3: A Christmas Story
You all know why this is on the list, don’t you? Because of that frickin’ movie marathon every year on TBS. Really, I feel like movie marathons are sometimes more responsible for giving a movie ‘classic’ status — or at the very least, ‘cult classic’ status — than a movie’s actual quality. (It’s A Wonderful Life is another example of this.) I guarantee you more people between the ages of 20 and 40 have seen this than Unforgiven or Princess Mononoke, both of which are actually good movies. But, again, it comes down to how approachable and accessible a movie is, and not necessarily how good it is. Put a light, fun, holiday-themed movie on TV for 24 hours straight every year since 1997, and everyone will watch it at some point.
#2: Any animated Disney movie
Granted, this is one of those entries where I cheated, as it’s not an individual movie or even a movie series. This is a list of almost 60 separate films going back to 1937. But, there are people out there who don’t really like or watch Disney movies, or animated movies at all for that matter. I remember a few years ago, I was talking to my former editor, and he mentioned how he’d never seen The Lion King or Beauty & The Beast or basically any Disney movie from the last 35 years. Now, I have since clarified with him that he HAS seen some older ones — Bambi, The Jungle Book, etc. But while those are classics, the movies of the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999) are high-quality films that’d be pretty hard to miss, IMO. But, there’s a stigma out there (and granted, it seems to be lessening in recent years) that animated movies are only for kids and families. If you’re a Baby Boomer and you don’t have kids or grandkids, why would you watch Ralph Breaks the Internet or The Princess and the Frog? But, just because they’re animated and “for kids” doesn’t mean they’re not good. I’m an adult with no children or even nieces and nephews, and I still went to go see Moana in the theater. And, I had a great time! I’m sure there’s not many people out there who haven’t seen *a* Disney movie, but given how much I watched them as a kid, how much I still watch them, how pervasive they are in pop culture, and how accessible they’ve been on TV and now on Netflix… how could people possibly have not seen even just one?!
#1: Any of the Star Wars movies
So, I can think of three people I’ve encountered in my adult life who have never or only recently watched Star Wars movies. And, no, none of them are kids.
One is a family friend who’s in his 60s now and doesn’t really go to a lot of movies. Still, he would’ve been in his 20s when Star Wars came out in 1977… but he told me, when The Force Awakens came out a few years ago, that he went to see it DESPITE NEVER HAVING SEEN ANY OF THE OTHER STAR WARS MOVIES?!!?!? Then again, at least he’s seen one.
About five years ago, when I was still living in Kansas and went to visit my best friend, we were figuring out what we were going to watch for a movie night. Her roommate, whom I was also sort-of friends with, overheard our discussion and made a comment about how she’d never seen Star Wars. Any of them. My jaw hit the floor.
And then, as I was writing this, I was chatting with a former coworker (the one who’d lent out The Princess Bride to our other coworker) about this post, and he reminded me that *another* one of my former coworkers still hasn’t seen Star Wars. (This is NOT the same one who hadn’t seen TPB, though.) I did a verbal double-take. “What?! Did you just say she’s never seen Star Wars?” And he reminded me that we’d already had this conversation with her years ago, when I still worked there. “You must’ve blotted it from your memory,” he said, because he knows how outraged I was about it.
Granted, I say this as someone who grew up with two sets of the Star Wars 1995 VHS collection, all sorts of action figures and — once The Phantom Menace came out in 1999 — bed sheets and pillow cases and even more action figures. Like, I shit you not, I had seen every movie in the original trilogy about a half-dozen times each before my first day of kindergarten! I literally do not remember watching any of those movies for the first time, that’s how young I was. (I imagine we’ll talk about this more when The Rise of Skywalker comes out.)
I mean, if people told me they’d never seen The Godfather or Shawshank Redemption or Citizen Kane or Casablanca, I’d kind of understand. The first two are more modern classics, sure, but they’re dark, violent and rated R. And while Citizen Kane and Casablanca are iconic in terms of Old Hollywood and movie tropes and whatnot, I get that not everyone my age grew up with parents who liked old movies. (Gone With The Wind was another one I watched a lot as a kid. My parents are weird.)
But, if you tell me that you’ve never seen any Star Wars movie — which is not only mega-iconic but there are movie marathons of them on TV all the time — you better be an immigrant or Amish or something, because otherwise, you’ve definitely lost cool points in my eyes. (And, who knows, maybe that doesn’t bother you.)
Some Final Thoughts
I realize, of course, that this is subjective. While I think it’s ridiculous if someone hasn’t seen The Wizard of Oz, others will think it’s insane that I’ve never seen Top Gun. Perhaps they grew up in a home where their mom or dad loved Top Gun and had it on VHS, and they’d seen it 20 times before they were in high school; and maybe they didn’t grow up with cable TV like I did, so they never saw the marathons of A Christmas Story or Back to the Future on TV. Maybe.
Our experiences will differ, obviously. What is a classic in my eyes might be a “I’ve heard people talk about it before but I’ve never bothered to watch it” kind of film for you. And, vice versa. Hence why I’m doing the “Catching the Classics” series.
Of course, I can understand why, if people have gone so long without seeing it, they might not ever want to. With some of these CtC episodes, I’m finding out that watching a movie where plot points and character reveals have been ruined for you by cultural osmosis can be a disappointing or underwhelming experience. “I don’t get why people love this so much. What’s the big deal?” My reaction to watching Se7en for the first time wasn’t so different from my former coworker’s when she first saw The Princess Bride.
And, I certainly understand that not everyone has the time or inclination to seek out these missed classics the way I have. But, if you do have the time and energy, you should… if only so you can maybe better understand the people around you and what is is about these movies that they love so much.
And, in the case of Top Gun, I’m assuming it’s the shirtless volleyball.