(Photo by Warner Bros)
Warner Bros: 100 Years, 100 Essential Movies
Warner Bros. turns 100! To celebrate, we’ve partnered with the studio (along with our friends at Vudu) and dug through their iconic library, checked behind the matte paintings on the soundstages, and even rummaged through the water tower (Yakko certainly has a fascinating collection of film negatives) to select the 100 essential Warner Bros. movies!
The films date back to the early days of cinema and are listed here beginning with the most recent release. The earliest film included is the 1938 swashbuckler The Adventures of Robin Hood. The 1940s are Bogie and Best Pictures: Casablanca, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
In the 1950s, we see Marlon Brando redefine acting in A Streetcar Name Desire, one of the best of the creature feature era (Them!), and the finest among Alfred Hitchcock’s works (Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder).
The 1960s were a decade of cultural revolution, and Warners was the first major studio to embrace it, starting with 1967’s iconic Bonnie & Clyde before 2001: A Space Odyssey redefined what was cinematically possible the next year.
In the New Hollywood era of the 1970s, where creative expression was absolute, Warners sought to work with the rising generation, including Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets), William Friedkin (The Exorcist), and Terrence Malick (Badlands). This gave Warner Bros. the longstanding reputation as the most director-friendly major studio; Kubrick worked with them for decades, aas have Scorsese (later directing GoodFellas and winning Best Picture for The Departed), Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry, Unforgiven), and, until recently, Christopher Nolan.
Cult and pop culture fandom as we know it started during the 1980s, and the WB logo felt inescapable across Batman, Blade Runner, Gremlins, Beetlejuice, The NeverEnding Story, and The Goonies. Warner Bros. would re-up their commitment to this space in the 2000s with the dominating duo of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. In between, we just got some stuff like The Shawshank Redemption, Seven, L.A. Confidential, The Matrix, and Space Jam. Would this list even count if there were no Looney Tunes on it?
2008’s The Dark Knight still remains the comic book movie to beat, and it’s just one example of the abundant Nolan/Warners partnership that once yielded Interstellar and Inception. 2015 saw two series revitalizations: Mad Max: Fury Road and Creed. 2017’s Wonder Woman is a jewel of DC Comics superhero movies, and that same year, Paddington 2 was momentarily the best-reviewed movie ever on Rotten Tomatoes.
Rent or purchase any of the 100 essential Warner Bros. movies on Vudu, and celebrate a century of the most beloved entertainment ever! —Alex Vo
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