Flight of the Phoenix, the original B&W one from the 50s

Fantastically atmospheric, you can feel the tension all the way through the film

Trying to come up with a few that aren't on the list:

Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) - Just a beautifully touching film, with a unique style and a great cameo of Peter Falk as himself. Much better than the English Language remake (City of Angels)

Come and See (Idi i smotri) - Hard to watch, but an incredible portrayal of the horrors of war. Not a feel-good film at all. But an amazing feat of filmmaking.

My Dinner With Andre - It's ironic that the movie that Roger Ebert referred to as "entirely devoid of clichés" has become a cliché. I'm not sure how well it's aged for modern audiences, but I first saw it in the 80's, have seen it at least a dozen times since, and it still really gets to me. I empathize heavily with both characters in the way that they search for meaning in life, and I could listen to Andre Gregory tell stories all day.

Stop Making Sense - A stellar concert documentary. The first time I saw it was a midnight screening where the audience got up and danced through the whole movie. David Byrne is hypnotic.

The Decline of Western Civilization - Amazing look at the Los Angeles punk rock scene of the early 80's

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - A classic stage-to-screen adaptation. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton chew the scenery for a few hours while their guests Sandy Dennis and George Segal try to make sense of it all. Amazing acting, great cinematography that really leverages the closeup. A must-see.

The Lion in Winter - Sort of a medieval version of the above with Peter O' Toole and Katherine Hepburn. Also see a young Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton put on stellar performances. Like Virginia Woolf above, this is acting with a capital A.

The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville) - A unique animation style and a unique story. A really fun watch.

Blade Runner

1917. Not just a great war movie, but also a cinematic masterpiece.

Mary and Max.

Requiem for a Dream. But probably only watch it once.

Predestination [2014]

Movies made outside of the US. United-statesians underestimate too much on other countries' productions. There's many great movies made outside of Hollywood that you can find if you search.

A suggestion that I can give is Netflix's Brazilian film Just Another Christmas, where a guy who hates Christmas gets on a time curse and he keeps waking up on each year's next Christmas eve, his life keeps changing before his eyes and at the end he learns a valuable lesson. I've seen it being compared to Click, not sure though.

Baraka

Ben Hur

Forrest Gump

Ivan's Childhood; although all of Tarkovsky's oeuvre is worth it.

Once were warriors

So many great movies listed here, but only one kiwi movie; Once Were Warriors. Unless you count Lord of the Rings, which was indeed made here, but not really exactly a kiwi movie. Here's a few I reckon are worth checking out, a mix of comedy, fantasy, sci-fi and biopic, with at least one film from each of the last 5 decades;

• Goodbye Pork Pie (the 1981 original, I haven't seen the 2017 remake Pork Pie directed by his son)
• Came A Hot Friday (1985, so underrated compared to the one above)
• The Quiet Earth (1985, based on the 1981 novel of the same name)
• The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988, epically weird, in a Fisher King kind of way)
• Heavenly Creatures (1994, Peter Jackson's first "serious" film, after his splatter comedies Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Braindead. Trivia: I'm in this for about 3 seconds ...)
• Whale Rider (2002)
• The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
• Eagle vs. Shark (2007)
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
• The Dead Lands (2014, notable for being entirely in Te Reo Māori, and featuring some mean Māori martials arts)
• The Dark Horse (2014)
• Muru (2022, loosely based on the events of the 2008 Operation 8 raids)
• Ka Whawhai Tonu (2024, also has a lot of Te Reo spoken)