125 Years, 125 Films (1889-2014)

125 years ago, film as we know it started to emerge. It was a timid thing, hesitantly making its way from humble experimentation to aesthetic storytelling. Over the past century, the medium has mutated and evolved, in a constant state of artistic flux: at once soulful and analytical, brash and beautiful, introspective and entertaining. Cinema harmoniously blends innumerable arts (acting, writing, photography, music, design, fashion, architecture, dance) in splendid synchronicity.

The following list is 125 of cinema's "best" films. These are the movies that engaged me emotionally, intellectually, and aesthetically - the 125 essentials. I challenge you to hunt them down and view them all. You won't be disappointed.  

- Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)
- Safety Last! (1923)
- The Battleship Potemkin (1925)
- The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
- The General (1926)
- Metropolis (1927)
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
- The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
- Un Chien Andalou (1929)

- All Quiet On the Western Front (1930)
- City Lights (1931)
- Frankenstein (1931)
- M (1931)
- King Kong (1933)
- The Goddess (1934)
- Gone With the Wind (1939)
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
- Stagecoach (1939)

- Fantasia (1940)
- The Great Dictator (1940)
- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
- Citizen Kane (1941)
- Sullivan's Travels (1941)
- Casablanca (1942)
- To Be or Not To Be (1942)
- Bicycle Thieves (1948)
- The Third Man (1949)

- Sunset Boulevard (1950)
- Rashomon (1950)
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
- Singin' in the Rain (1952)
- From Here to Eternity (1953)
- On the Waterfront (1954)
- Rear Window (1954)
- Seven Samurai (1954)
- The Night of the Hunter (1955)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
- Paths of Glory (1957)
- 12 Angry Men (1957)
- Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
- North by Northwest (1959)

- The Apartment (1960)
- Eyes Without A Face (1960)
- Psycho (1960)
- Spartacus (1960)
- The Hustler (1961)
- Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
- To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
- Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
- Persona (1966)
- The Graduate (1967)
- Rosemary's Baby (1968)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

- Patton (1970)
- A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- The French Connection (1971)
- The Godfather (1972)
- Don't Look Now (1973)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- Chinatown (1974)
- The Conversation (1974)
- The Godfather Part II (1974)
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
- Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
- Jaws (1975)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
- Taxi Driver (1976)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
- Eraserhead (1977)
- Star Wars (1977)
- The Deer Hunter (1978)
- Halloween (1978)
- Alien (1979)   

- The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Raging Bull (1980)
- The Shining (1980)
- The Thing (1982)
- The Right Stuff (1983)
- Ghostbusters (1984)
- Ran (1985)
- The Fly (1986)
- Full Metal Jacket (1987)
- The Vanishing (1988)
- Do the Right Thing (1989)

- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- A Few Good Men (1992)
- Reservoir Dogs (1992)
- Unforgiven (1992)
- Groundhog Day (1993)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Schindler's List (1993)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- 12 Monkeys (1995)
- The Thin Red Line (1998)
- The Usual Suspects (1998)
- American Beauty (1999)
- Audition (1999)
- The Insider (1999)

- Chicago (2002)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- Lost in Translation (2003)
- Oldboy (2003)
- The Aviator (2004)
- Downfall (2004)
- Children of Men (2006)
- The Departed (2006)
- Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
- Michael Clayton (2007)
- No Country for Old Men (2007)
- There Will Be Blood (2007)
- The Dark Knight (2008)
- Inglourious Basterds (2009)
- Up (2009)

- Inception (2010)
- Drive (2011)
- Argo (2012)
- Django Unchained (2012)
- The World's End (2013)
- 12 Years A Slave (2013)
- The Babadook (2014)
- Calvary (2014)
- Interstellar (2014)

Granted, there are some pretty fantastic movies not on this list (and certainly there are a few movies on here that aren't as amazing as I think they are), but this is nonetheless a fantastic start for anyone who wants to experience the awesomeness of cinema.