What To Watch
11 Classic Movies to Watch on Netflix
From White Christmas to She’s Gotta Have It, brush up on your film history with these first-rate movies.
July 30, 2022
Classic Old Movies on Netflix - Netflix Tudum
There’s nothing wrong with a new release. But sometimes you want to watch something tried and true, a film beloved by multiple generations — one that you know won’t disappoint. That’s why we’ve put together a list of classic movies starring some of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors. Brush up on your film history, or at least rest easy knowing you’re about to watch a quality, enduring piece of cinema.
White Christmas
It doesn’t have to be winter to have a White Christmas. Cue up the holiday classic starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, and watch them team up to save a failing Vermont inn.
The Professionals
Based on the 1964 novel A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O’Rourke, The Professionals, featuring Burt Lancaster, is a beloved Western about four adventurers hired by a Texas millionaire to rescue his wife who’s been kidnapped by a notorious Mexican bandit — or so it appears.
Bonnie and Clyde
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty star as the ill-fated bank robbers in this 1960s crime drama based on the real-life couple.
The Dirty Dozen
Robert Aldrich directed this World War II story based on the 1965 bestseller by E. M. Nathanson about a real-life group of soldiers in WWII. A dozen prisoners are offered amnesty if they take part in a dangerous mission to France, with a sprawling ensemble cast that includes Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, John Cassavetes, Jim Brown, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Clint Walker and Robert Webber.
Dirty Harry
Clint Eastwood’s titular character was first introduced in this thriller, which sees the San Francisco cop hunting a sniper serial killer.
Taxi Driver
One of Martin Scorsese’s earliest masterpieces stars Robert De Niro as PTSD-afflicted New York City cabbie Travis Bickle. Written by Paul Schrader, the film also stars Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris and Albert Brooks.
Apocalypse Now Redux
Francis Ford Coppola recut his Vietnam War classic in 2001, resulting in this extra-long epic that added 49 minutes of footage to the already 2.5-hour film. Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper star in the film, which was inspired by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness and follows a group of soldiers on a special mission to take down a renegade officer in Cambodia.
Blade Runner: Theatrical Cut
Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi drama imagines a dystopian 2019 Los Angeles (its sequel, Blade Runner 2049, was released in 2017, 35 years after the original and two years before its proposed future). Harrison Ford stars as humankind’s reluctant savior, a cop who begrudgingly agrees to hunt down rogue synthetic humans called replicants.
She's Gotta Have It
Every list of classic films needs a Spike Lee joint, like this sexy black-and-white comedy that launched the legendary filmmaker’s career. Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) is a Brooklyn artist juggling three men in a story so timeless, Lee himself adapted the story for the Netflix series of the same name.
Full Metal Jacket
Another Vietnam War epic, Full Metal Jacket was Stanley Kubrick’s final film before his death. It stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D’Onofrio and others as Marines in training who later fought in Vietnam.
When Harry Met Sally
Not to be hyperbolic, but Nora Ephron’s Oscar-nominated classic is one of the most perfect movies to ever exist. Over 12 years (OK, actually 96 minutes), Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) evolve from acquaintances with a mutual dislike for each other to best friends who are — finally! — completely besotted with one another.
Christmas Movies To Stream This Holiday Season
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