Films that Define Occidental (Western) Culture

How this Web page came about is a little complicated. I have a friend who grew up in Poland. We were chatting one day, and I happened to make a reference to the film Easy Rider. I was horrified to learn that my friend had never seen this movie. I probed further and discovered that she had not seen lots of films which, I believe, are necessary to understand Occidental (Western) culture. Of course I was then obliged to make a list for her of these defining movies. This is the list I came up with (about ten of the films I list are really important); obviously others will think up different lists.

What I find interesting is that most of my choices fall within a ten year period.

• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Dr. Strangelove (1964)
• The Pink Panther (1964)
• Fist Full of Dollars (1964)
• Plague of the Zombies (1966)
• Valley of the Dolls (1967)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Barbarella (1968)
• Easy Rider (1969)
• Alice's Restaurant (1969)
• The French Connection (1971)
• Dirty Harry (1971)
• Steelyard Blues (1972)
• Zardoz (1974)
• Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
• Star Wars (1977)
• Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979)
• Evil Dead (1982)

Original Zardoz image: Gudis