American classic movie recommendations
# Million Dollar Baby
Year: 2004 | Country: CH
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter
Synopsis
Despondent over a painful estrangement from his daughter, trainer Frankie Dunn isn't prepared for boxer Maggie Fitzgerald to enter his life. But Maggie's determined to go pro and to convince Dunn and his cohort to help her.
# The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Year: 2001 | Country: NZ
Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Ian Holm
Synopsis
Young hobbit Frodo Baggins, after inheriting a mysterious ring from his uncle Bilbo, must leave his home in order to keep it from falling into the hands of its evil creator. Along the way, a fellowship is formed to protect the ringbearer and make sure that the ring arrives at its final destination: Mt. Doom, the only place where it can be destroyed.
# Edward Scissorhands
Year: 1990 | Country: US
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker
Synopsis
A small suburban town receives a visit from a castaway unfinished science experiment named Edward.
# Jurassic Park
Year: 1993 | Country: US
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck
Synopsis
A wealthy entrepreneur secretly creates a theme park featuring living dinosaurs drawn from prehistoric DNA. Before opening day, he invites a team of experts and his two eager grandchildren to experience the park and help calm anxious investors. However, the park is anything but amusing as the security systems go off-line and the dinosaurs escape.
# Saving Private Ryan
Year: 1998 | Country: United States of America
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Vin Diesel, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper
Synopsis
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating
# Titanic
Year: 1997 | Country: US
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane
Synopsis
101-year-old Rose recalls her voyage on the Titanic, from its departure to its sinking on April 15, 1912.
# Rocky
Year: 1976 | Country: US
Director: John G. Avildsen
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith
Synopsis
An uneducated collector for a Philadelphia loan shark is given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fight against the world heavyweight boxing champion.
# The Terminator
Year: 1984 | Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen
Synopsis
In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgen
# The Dark Knight
Year: 2008 | Country: GB
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Synopsis
Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as the Joker.
# 12 Angry Men
Year: 1957 | Country: United States of America
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall
Synopsis
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and sh
# Forrest Gump
Year: 1994 | Country: United States of America
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field
Synopsis
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has
# The Shawshank Redemption
Year: 1994 | Country: United States of America
Director: Frank Darabont
Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, Clancy Brown, Mark Rolston
Synopsis
Framed in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amora
# Heat
Year: 1995 | Country: US
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore
Synopsis
Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and respects the ability and the dedication of the other even though they are aware their cat-and-mouse game may end in violence.
# Schindler's List
Year: 1993 | Country: United States of America
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall
Synopsis
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
# The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Year: 1966 | Country: United States of America, Italy, Spain, Germany
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli
Synopsis
While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox contai
# E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Year: 1982 | Country: US
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton, Peter Coyote, Dee Wallace
Synopsis
An alien is left behind on Earth and saved by the 10-year-old Elliot who decides to keep him hidden in his home. While a task force hunts for the extra-terrestrial, Elliot, his brother, and his little sister Gertie form an emotional bond with their new friend, and try to help him find his way home.
# One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Year: 1975 | Country: US
Director: Miloš Forman
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Brad Dourif, Louise Fletcher, Danny DeVito, William Redfield
Synopsis
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs the ward.
# Gone with the Wind
Year: 1939 | Country: US
Director: Victor Fleming
Cast: Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, Hattie McDaniel
Synopsis
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
# Once Upon a Time in America
Year: 1984 | Country: US
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Tuesday Weld
Synopsis
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
# Jaws
Year: 1975 | Country: US
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton
Synopsis
When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled hunter embark on a desperate quest to destroy the beast before it strikes again.
# The Shining
Year: 1980 | Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson
Synopsis
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prep
# It's a Wonderful Life
Year: 1946 | Country: US
Director: Frank Capra
Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers
Synopsis
A holiday favourite for generations... George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.
# The Gold Rush
Year: 1925 | Country: US
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite
Synopsis
A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.
# GoodFellas
Year: 1990 | Country: US
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino
Synopsis
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
# Once Upon a Time in the West
Year: 1968 | Country: IT
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti
Synopsis
As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.
# Pulp Fiction
Year: 1994 | Country: United States of America
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames
Synopsis
A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that i
# Rear Window
Year: 1954 | Country: US
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr
Synopsis
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
# Blade Runner
Year: 1982 | Country: US
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh
Synopsis
In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.
# Casablanca
Year: 1943 | Country: US
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt
Synopsis
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
# Some Like It Hot
Year: 1959 | Country: United States of America
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast:
Synopsis
Two musicians witness a mob hit and struggle to find a way out of the city before they are found by the gangsters. Their only opportunity is to join an all-girl band as they leave on a tour. To make t
# Raging Bull
Year: 1980 | Country: United States of America
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast:
Synopsis
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
# Taxi Driver
Year: 1976 | Country: United States of America
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle
Synopsis
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feed his urge for violent action.
# Apocalypse Now
Year: 1979 | Country: US
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Albert Hall, Frederic Forrest, Laurence Fishburne
Synopsis
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
# The Godfather
Year: 1972 | Country: United States of America
Director:
Cast:
Synopsis
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his y
# Vertigo
Year: 1958 | Country: US
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones
Synopsis
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.