Raging Bull
Year Released: 1980 Raging Bull stars a young Robert De Niro as a boxer rising up through the ranks, who falls in love along his way. Unfortunately, he has some issues expressing his feelings properly which sends him into a downward spiral that inevitably ruins chunks of his life.
The film holds a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes out of 69 reviews. Director Martin Scorcese won a Golden Globe for his work on the movie, which also won two Academy Awards — Best Actor for De Niro and Best Editing.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Year Released: 1968 Hollywood legend Stanley Kubrick wrote, directed, and produced this 1968 epic sci-fi film, which is commonly referred to as one of the best and most influential movies of all time. In fact, The Moving Arts Film journal called it the single best film in movie history in 2010. In the early 90’s, it was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress.
Upon its initial release, the film kind of flopped at the box office, leaving the production company in the red by around $800,000. But it was re-released a number of times over the years, including in 1977, 2001, and 2017, which were all much more profitable than the original. 2001: A Space Odyssey was nominated for four Academy Awards and won one, in the category of Best Special Visual Effects.
The Wages of Fear
Year Released: 1953 This French-Italian film is based on the French Novel Le salaire de la peur, which roughly translates to “the salary of fear.” It was hailed by critics everywhere when it debuted in the 1950’s and became the 4th highest earning film of the year in France.
The Wages of Fear earned a number of awards around the time of its release, including the Golden Bear Award at the 1953 Berlin Film Festival, and the 1954 BAFTA Award for Best Film.
It Happened One Night
Year Released: 1934 This screwball comedy follows a recently married spoiled heiress who gets entangled with a newspaper reporter who happens to fall in love with her. The film was directed and co-produced by Frank Capra and was welcomed by stunning reviews upon its release.
It Happened One Night is one of just three films to ever win all five of the major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The only two other films to ever pull that off have been The Silence of the Lambs and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
The Gold Rush
Year Released: 1925 One of Charlie Chaplin’s many famous films that he wrote, produced, and directed; The Gold Rush first came out in the middle of the 1920s. The film combines comedy with some very real struggles being faced by workers across America, which made it hugely popular.
Chaplin himself has said more than once that if he could be remembered for one film, this would be it. It was nominated for multiple Academy Awards: Best Music and Best Sound Recording.