Image credit: Paramount Pictures, MGM, RKO Radio Pictures, Universal Pictures, United Artists, Hal Roach Studios, Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, Columbia Pictures
A story doesn't need to end with all the loose ends tied up to be memorable; sometimes, the open, unresolved, or downright tragic endings are the ones that stick with us the longest.
These classics, spanning various genres and decades, have withstood the test of time, their impact undiminished even as years roll into decades, much like a vintage wine that retains its complex flavors.
1. "Of Mice and Men" (1939) Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
During the Great Depression, two displaced migrant ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, move from place to place seeking employment, highlighting their dream of settling down on their own piece of land.
2. "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
A man refusing to conform to life in a rural prison, Luke Jackson, becomes a symbol of hope and resilience to the other inmates while battling with the prison authorities.
3. "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940) Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
During the Great Depression, the Joad family is forced off their farm in Oklahoma and travels to California in search of jobs, land, dignity, and a future.
4. "Chinatown" (1974) Rotten Tomatoes score: 99%
A private detective, Jake Gittes, becomes embroiled in a web of personal and political scandals when he is hired to investigate an adultery case in 1930s Los Angeles, leading to a complex plot involving water rights and corruption.
5. "On the Waterfront" (1954) Rotten Tomatoes score: 99%
An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman, Terry Malloy, struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, leading to a moral crisis and a fight against union corruption on the docks.
The life of Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy newspaper publisher, is examined after his death, with reporters trying to decipher the meaning behind his final word, "Rosebud."
7. "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
A troubled woman, Blanche DuBois, moves in with her sister, Stella, and her abusive husband, Stanley Kowalski, in New Orleans, leading to tension and conflict due to Blanche's delusions and past.
8. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%
An evening of drinking and socializing turns into a night of psychological warfare between a middle-aged couple, George and Martha, and their younger guests, Nick and Honey.
9. "The Godfather Part II" (1974) Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%
The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, telling the story of a young Vito Corleone growing up in Sicily and 1920s New York, and his son, Michael Corleone, navigating the family business in the 1950s.
10. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
A criminal, Randle McMurphy, pleads insanity to avoid labor duties in prison and is sent to a mental hospital. There, he rebels against the oppressive nurse Ratched and rallies up the scared patients.
11. "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
A troubled teenager, Jim Stark, moves to a new town and struggles with the pressures of fitting in, parental expectations, and forming new relationships, representing the social alienation of the 1950s American youth.
12. "The Elephant Man" (1980) Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in 19th century London, who is rescued from a freak show by Dr. Frederick Treves and shows London society that he is an intelligent, sensitive man.
13. "West Side Story" (1961) Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
A modern take on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," set in 1950s New York City, where a gang rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks complicates a secret romance between members of the opposing gangs.
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, focusing on his violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring but destroyed his life outside of it.
15. "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995) Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
A suicidal alcoholic, Ben Sanderson, decides to drink himself to death in Las Vegas, where he forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with a prostitute named Sera.
16. "Network" (1976) Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
A television network cynically exploits a mentally ill but enlightened former anchor's ravings and revelations about the media for its own profit.
17. "Gone with the Wind" (1939) Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, it tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, a headstrong Southern belle, her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes, and her tumultuous relationship with Rhett Butler.
18. "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
Based on the true story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, a young couple who embark on a crime spree during the Great Depression, robbing banks across the southern United States.
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran, Travis Bickle, works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where he becomes increasingly disturbed by the city's decadence and sleaze, leading him to attempt an assassination and rescue a teenage prostitute.
A young Texan named Joe Buck moves to New York City to work as a male prostitute. He befriends a sickly con man named Ratso Rizzo, and the two form an unlikely bond as they struggle to survive.
21. "East of Eden" (1955) Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
In a California farming valley in 1913, a wild adolescent rebels against his stern father, seeking approval and love, while dealing with his brother's favored status in the family.
22. "The Deer Hunter" (1978) Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
The film explores the impacts of the Vietnam War on the lives of people in a small industrial town, focusing on a group of friends and their experiences before, during, and after the war.
23. "Scarface" (1983) Rotten Tomatoes score: 79%
Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant, takes over a drug cartel in 1980s Miami with violence and greed but eventually faces serious consequences for his actions.
Set in post-World War II Brooklyn, the film centers on Sophie, a Polish immigrant and Holocaust survivor, who shares her tragic past with her lover, Nathan, and her neighbor, Stingo.
25. "The Great Gatsby" (1974) Rotten Tomatoes score: 41%
Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, a wealthy party-goer who pines for Nick's cousin, Daisy.
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