I missed out on many classics, and this book has given me a starting point from which to explore, and it gave me a small boost to know that I’d already seen 19 of the 100 analyzed here. I’ll admit that 19% is a sad little number compared to those of several people I know, but I suppose it’s reassuring that I’m not a complete cultural idiot.

For the record, these are the 34 movies that looked compelling enough to rent:

The 400 Blows
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Belle de Jour
Broken Blossoms
City Lights
Days of Heaven
Do the Right Thing
Dracula
Freaks
Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
Exterminating Angel
Gates of Heaven
The General
A Hard Day’s Night
Hoop Dreams
JFK
It’s a Wonderful Life
La Dolce Vita
Metropolis
My Darling Clementine
Night of the Hunter
Pandora’s Box
Diary of a Lost Girl
Passion of Joan of Arc
Red Shoes
Peeping Tom
Seventh Seal
Some Like it Hot
Sunset Blvd.
Swing Time
Taxi Driver
The “Up” Documentaries
Woman in the Dunes

One thing I found odd: Ebert states that if one hasn’t seen “Some Like it Hot,” they should hear the curtain line for themselves, then he gives it away 11 pages later while reviewing “Sunset Blvd.” Um, hello? Editor go sleepy?

This may turn into goal #27 (watch these movies by the end of the year, assuming availability).