From The Wire to Game of Thrones, HBO has undoubtedly produced some of the best TV shows of all time, and each and every one of their prolific productions is available for streaming on their streaming service HBO Max. To keep up with competition like Netflix, HBO Max is continuing to create a lot more original content as well. However, new content isn’t what people are always looking for; sometimes, it’s the classics films that they want.
That is also a department where HBO Max shines bright, as they have a massive collection of classic movies that is bound to leave even the most hardcore cinephile impressed. From King Kong to Casablanca, their collection consists of films from all genres and all decades. A full list of classics that HBO Max has in store would be too large to be compiled here, so it’s important to spotlight the standouts, using IMDb as a reference.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) – 7.8/10
Films and TV shows tend to romanticize and glamorize criminal activities and outlaws, and one of the earliest examples of this was the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, centered around a criminal couple who operated in the 1930s. The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde immortalized their life story through a movie that was more violent than most modern action films. The heavy and graphic way the film depicted violence was unheard of at that time, making it fairly revolutionary.
King Kong (1933) – 7.9/10
King Kong is one of the most iconic creations of contemporary pop culture, and he even has his own cinematic universe in form of the MonsterVerse, which has been a massive success so far. 1933’s King Kong is where it all started. CGI was not a thing back then, and yet filmmakers managed to make a film about a giant ape rampaging across New York City only through the use of clever techniques like stop-motion animation. King Kong isn’t just a great film on its own merits but also a landmark in filmmaking, serving as a great example of how far technology has come.
Stagecoach (1939) – 7.9/10
No list about classic movies would be complete without a western, and Stagecoach marked the blockbuster breakout of John Wayne, one of the most legendary actors of his generation. A four-time Oscar winner, director John Ford is in a league of his own as well, and he brings his all to Stagecoach.
Featuring some breathtaking stunts, the film is about a group of people from various backgrounds on a stagecoach traveling to a common destination with the danger of being attacked by a group of Apaches looming on the horizon.
The Wizard of Oz (1939) – 8/10
1939 was a great year for director Victor Fleming, as it saw the release of two of the most acclaimed films in American history – Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, both of which Fleming directed. The songs, the visuals, the merry characters such as the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Woodman, would all go on to become cultural icons. The story of Dorothy, her strange friends, and their journey across the yellow brick road to the fantasy world of Oz is one for the ages.
Citizen Kane (1941) – 8.1/10
Orson Welles changed cinema forever when he made his debut with Citizen Kane in 1941, which he directed, produced, co-wrote and of course, played the lead part in. The character of Charles Foster Kane is one larger than life, and the film follows him from his early days to his rise as a business magnate and his death.
The cinematography, editing, and screenplay of Citizen Kane are often cited by critics for being the reason as to why the film is so special, further supported by the fact that it is one of the very few films with a perfect 100 score on Metacritic.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)- 8.3/10
The evolution of space as a whole in movies, whether about dangerous aliens or lost astronauts, has been nothing short of exciting. And at the forefront of this was Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the most influential sci-fi movies of all time. The film relies on imagery and music instead of dialogue to deliver an avant-garde experience like no other, which also means it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s also fascinating to see how people back in 1968 envisioned what space technology would look like in 2001.
The Great Dictator (1940) – 8.4/10
One of the most accessible Charlie Chaplin comedies ever made, The Great Dictator is a daring political satire where Chaplin pokes fun at Hitler, the Nazis, and every controversial thing in between. In his first sound film, Chaplin plays both the main protagonist as an amnesiac barber and also the main antagonist Adenoid Hynkelm the “Phooey of Tomainia” (a parody of Hitler). The barber is a humorous man of good heart, and Hynkelm is everything but. When they are each mistaken for being the other, hilarious chaos ensues.
Casablanca (1942) – 8.5/10
Regarded as one of the best romance movies of all time, Casablanca hails from the Golden Age of Hollywood and is one of the most iconic productions of that era. A WW2 film made during WW2, the film stars Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, a business owner in the city of Casablanca, and Ingrid Bergman as Rick’s former lover Ilsa Lund.
Things between the two of them didn’t end on a good note, and to make matters more awkward she returns without notice with her husband asking for Rick’s help in escaping the country.
Seven Samurai (1954) – 8.6/10
HBO Max has a number of fantastic classic foreign films in its collection too, Seven Samurai being the most acclaimed of them all. With a solid 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, there’s no doubt that it ranks among legendary director Akira Kurosawa’s best films, and it was even named the greatest foreign-language film of all time by BBC. Set in the Sengoku period of Japan, this epic revolves around a group of seven samurais who are hired by a village to protect them against a group of bandits.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – 8.7/10
In the history of the Academy Awards, only three films have won in all the five major categories, (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of them. With Jack Nicholson in the lead – who himself is the most Oscar-nominated (male) actor in history – it is about a criminal who is transferred into a mental institution. While there, he wreaks havoc and chaos with his fellow inmates and makes an enemy out of the head nurse who stands for nothing but strict discipline.
