Quest for 1001 Movies - Part 2

So I started with this little quest a  year ago and I haven't been that successful. I have started with 99 titles and since then I have only added 31 movies and that's even including the latest additions from 2012 edition. While I can't blame myself about it I'm glad that I have found this little quest interesting again, and hopefully I can really complete this the soonest time possible. Here are the additional titles that I have seen so far.

1. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
2. Psycho (1960)
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
4. The Graduate (1967)
5. The Shining (1980)
6. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1981)
7. Poltergeist (1982)
8. Die Hard (1988)
9. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
10. Pulp Fiction (1994)
11. Boogie Nights (1997)

14 more titles added as a supplementary for 2012 Edition and luckily I have seen 10 of it.

1. Shame (2011)
2. The Tree Of Life (2011)
3. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
4. Drive (2011)
5. War Horse (2011)
6. A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin) (2011)
7. Bridesmaids (2011)
8. The Descendants (2011)
9. Hugo (2011)
10. The Artist (2011)

With the movies above, I have come closer to my quest with only 973 movies left (that includes the 102 supplementary titles). Click here to see the complete list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

The Quest for '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2011 Edition)' - Part 1

            I started sorting out the list of 1001 films along with additional 88 titles (click here for the list of the 1001 films) and only 99 of them I have actually watched and most of them are from the years 90s and 2000s. I have started looking for these titles before but I didn't know what happened and I just completely lost track. So I visited my list again and so far I found 38 titles more which are saved on my hard drive and a couple of them in DVDs that I got on sale a few months ago.  Here are the movies that I have watched from the list so far. (descriptions for the rest of the titles will come soon)

1. A Trip To The Moon (1902) -  a black-and-white short film which can probably be considered as the father of all sci-fi movies. The film running time was just less then 15-mins but it felt like watching a full-length 90-min movie. The film was adapted from Jules Verne's Novel who also wrote Around The World in 80 Days and Journey To The Center Of The Earth. The film was directed by Georges Méliès whose life story was featured in Martin Scorcese's Oscar-nominated film Hugo. (Rating: 5/5)

2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - this Walt Disney's classic film doesn't need any description as no kids haven't heard or watched this all-time favorite animated film which I just recently found out as Adolf Hitler's favorite film. (Rating: 5/5)

3 Gone With the Wind (1939)
4 From Here to Eternity (1953)
5 The Godfather (1972)
6 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
7 Annie Hall (1977)
8 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
9 E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial (1982)
10 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
11 The Terminator (1984)
12 The Breakfast Club (1985)
13 Back to the Future (1985)
14 Aliens (1986)
15 Top Gun (1986)
16 Rain Man (1988)
17 Batman (1989)
18 Goodfellas (1990)
19 Edward Scissorhands (1990)
20 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
21 Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
22 Jurassic Park (1993)
23 Schindler's List (1993)
24 Forrest Gump (1994)
25 The Lion King (1994)
26 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
27 Casino (1995)
28 Toy Story (1995)
29 Braveheart (1995)
30 Seven (1995)
31 Independence Day (1996)
32 Scream (1996)
33 L.A. Confidential (1997)
34 Titanic (1997)
35 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
36 Ring (1998)
37 There's Something About Mary (1998)
38 The Blair Witch Project (1999)
39 Three Kings (1999)
40 Fight Club (1999)
41 Being John Malkovich (1999)
42 American Beauty (1999)
43 The Sixth Sense (1999)
44 The Matrix (1999)
45 Gladiator (2000)
46 Meet the Parents (2000)
47 Memento (2000)
48 Amelie (2001)
49 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
50 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
52 Gangs of New York (2002)
53 The Pianist (2002)
54 Chicago (2002)
55 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
56 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
57 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
58 Lost in Translation (2003)
59 The Passion of the Christ (2004)
60 Collateral (2004)
61 The Aviator (2004)
62 Million Dollar Baby (2004)
63 A Very Long Engagement (2004)
64 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
65 Crash (2005)
66 Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
67 The Prestige (2006)
68 United 93 (2006)
69 Children of Men (2006)
70 Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
71 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
72 Babel (2006)
73 The Queen (2006)
74 Apocalypto (2006)
75 The Departed (2006)
76 No Country for Old Men (2007)
77 Into the Wild (2007)
78 There Will Be Blood (2007)
79 Atonement (2007)
80 The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
81 Paranormal Activity (2007)
82 Wall-E (2008)
83 The Dark Knight (2008)
84 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
85 Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
86 Let the Right One In (2008)
87 The Hurt Locker (2008)
88 The Hangover (2009)
89 Precious (2009)
90 Avatar (2009)
91 Inglourious Basterds (2009)
92 District 9 (2009)
93 Monsters (2010)
94 Black Swan (2010)
95 Four Lions (2010)
96 The Social Network (2010)
97 Inception (2010)
98 The King's Speech (2010)
99 True Grit (2010)

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

I heard about this book a few years back and at first I thought it's impossible to watch all of these films listed because most of them are now hard to find until I read some sites and blogs online that there are actual people who were able to complete the list and some are almost done watching them so I thought I can just do the same. I can start this little quest of mine finishing all these films before dying. It may sound silly but I think it's a good motivation for me to hope to live for couple of years more, I guess. 

To those who haven't heard of it here is the little description of the book from Wikipedia.

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics. It is a part of a series designed and produced by Quintessence Editions, a London-based company, and published in English language versions by Cassell Illustrated (UK), ABC Books (the publishing division of Australian Broadcasting Corporation), and Barron's (USA). The first edition was published in 2003; the most recent edition was published in 2011. Contributors include Adrian Martin, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Richard Pena, David Stratton, and Margaret Pomeranz. 

The book is now on its 7th edition which includes latest films like The Hurt Locker, Avatar, and King's Speech. I don't have the actual list on this post but you can go to the website by clicking here to check it out.

The following are the cover of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Janet Leigh of 1960's Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho was featured on the book's first edition released in 2003.The film was nominated for four Oscars including Best Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock. The Apartment won the Best Film that year which is also included on this list and its director Billy Wilder named as Best Director. 

   Samuel L. Jackson featured in 2nd edition based from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in 1994. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars and went home with one for  Tarantino and Roger Avary for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Tarantino was also nominated for directing the film and three acting nomination for lead actor John Travolta, supporting actress Uma Thurman and Jackson for supporting actor. Forrest Gump which won the Best Film that year is also included on the list for this edition including the three other Best Picture nominees,The Shawshank Redemption, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Pulp Fiction. 

Jack Nicholson from the 1980's Stephen King Shining featured on 2006 edition. The film was not an Oscar-nominee but rather a Razzie finalist for director Stanley Kubrick and actress for Shelley Duval. However the film is certified fresh from Rottentomatoes.com with 88% approval rating from critics and rated as one of the top movies on imdb.com with 8.5 user rating. 

George Lucas' 1977 Star Wars character Darth Vader featured on the 2007 edition. The film was a major world-wide box office hit and was nominated for 11 Oscar and took home 5 awards including Best Visual Effects. Lucas was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay. After focusing on just writing two films from the first trilogy, Lucas returned to director seat after 22 years and completed the saga with another trilogy but only his first film and 1983 Return of the Jedi were included on the list.

Harrison Ford's alter ego Indiana Jones was featured in 2008 edition but the film can be no longer be found on the latest edition. 

One of the latest addition on the list is Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight for the 2009 edition. The film shattered tons of box-office records and ended up with $1 billion for world-wide box office gross. Heath Ledger's Joker character  was highly praised by critics and the fans of the film and won an acting award posthumously for the film, as Best Supporting Actor. 

James Cameron's 3D film Avatar was featured on 2010 edition. Cameron broke his record as being the highest grossing film which earned more $2.8 billion and took over Titanic's record. The film was nominated for 9 Oscar awards and won 3 including Visual Effects and Cinematography. The Hurt Locker which won the Best Film that year is one of the ten films added on the list for this edition along with surprised hits like The Hangover and District 9.

Natalie Portman's performance in Black Swan that earned her an Oscar trophy as Best Actress also landed her as the last year's edition cover for the book. The film was not just a box-office success but a critic's favorite as well and earned 5 Oscar nods including Best Director for Darren Aronofsky.