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).