Review of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is the first list of movies I've seen that focuses more on variety and worldwide appeal than finding the "best" movies of all time. I discovered the book just when the 2013 "10th Anniversary" (or 5th) edition came out. It is the first "extended revision" of the book and it features 50 films that weren't in the original edition, mainly due to advances in film restoration which have given new life to films that were considered lost or of poor quality.
There are a number of unofficial companion websites to the book (Filmsquish, Wikia, and Lists from Chip to name a few) that I recommend checking out for an even richer experience, but the meticulous research and several-paragraph descriptions put into each film in the book make it a fantastic shelf reference of the world's century-plus history of cinema. It's amazing that the editors have managed to neatly organize …
This is the first list of movies I've seen that focuses more on variety and worldwide appeal than finding the "best" movies of all time. I discovered the book just when the 2013 "10th Anniversary" (or 5th) edition came out. It is the first "extended revision" of the book and it features 50 films that weren't in the original edition, mainly due to advances in film restoration which have given new life to films that were considered lost or of poor quality.
There are a number of unofficial companion websites to the book (Filmsquish, Wikia, and Lists from Chip to name a few) that I recommend checking out for an even richer experience, but the meticulous research and several-paragraph descriptions put into each film in the book make it a fantastic shelf reference of the world's century-plus history of cinema. It's amazing that the editors have managed to neatly organize the introduction, checklist, and indices all in less than 1000 pages. No list is perfect (do we really have to watch 19 Hitchcock films?), but I've found this book to be the best place to start - I've seen several films on the list that had me going down my own rabbit hole of genres I didn't even realize existed.
One last personal note, I've made my own spreadsheet of films (influenced by this book) which I've documented here: zepfanman.com/mymovies