I am currently maintaing a list of movies that I call "Essential Movies".

Composition of the List

This list tries to include all the movies that are mentioned in some best-movie-list, be it a critics-choice list, a famous list like AFI, a popular-choice list, or just about any reasonably compiled list. The philosophy is that if it has been included in some best movie list, then there must be something good about it. (however, it must be internationally recognized/popular, not just locally)

Both commercial mainstream popular and non-commercial non-mainstream art movies find place in the list, however, commercial films are not the focus here so many popular commercial films may not have been included.

Attempt has been made to include films from diverse genres, from different countries* and from all periods of time. And even reasonably good films are included. For these reasons, the list is somewhat lengthy.

To be noted is that the list also does not portray my subjective choice of movies, it just gives the "generally accepted" good movies.

I wanted to display the list sorted in something better than just alphabetical order, and since the IMDB's My Movies feature, where I maintain the list, provides sorting by IMDb ratings, it made sense to go for it. However, this does not mean that I consider the IMDb ratings as the perfect measure of a movie, though I do think that it is roughly relevant. And yes, the list is no way a pulloff of the IMDb Top 250, although that list was also considered in making this.

[*However, list consists of mostly American and European movies, though other countries are represented as well]

Purpose of the List, Possible Use

I wanted to make a list of movies that I wanted to make sure I have watched in my life. This is that list.

However, I think it can be useful to others as well. You can browse through the list and see which ones you have already seen, which ones you have not, and which ones you would like to. This list can serve as the list of good movies of all kinds, and might be helpful if you need to select a movie to see. Just make sure you check out the IMDb page of the movie linked here and see whether it is a movie of your type.

I, ofcourse, will be carrying a printout of this list when I make visits to the video-store to rent a movie.:-)

Suggestions, additions, criticisms, comments are more than welcome. Email me at grkhetan@yahoo.com gkhetan@usc.edu

I maintain the list in IMDB's My Movies feature, and below is the latest snapshot taken of that list. (Update: IMDB now allows lists to be made public: The current list can be accessed here)