Read this article till the end to find out what best classic movies on Netflix. Movies have seen enormous changes for decades, with thousands of movies being made with improving effects and quality. But despite these advancements, once in a while we do crave some old goodie that we enjoy while reminiscing. So your wish is our command!
We are here with the list of twenty classic movies on Netflix that you can enjoy either alone or with your family and friends. The streaming service comprises some best classic movies, be it rom com like She Gotta Have It or sci-fi ones like Blade Runner, horror movies like The Evil Dead among others.
30. Bonnie and Clyde
- Year: 1967
- Director: Arthur Penn
- Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman
- Genre: Drama
- Rating: R
The Other Side of the Wind is as gaudy and perplexing as its title, but it rises with the power of its movement, whistling above its bounds. Orson Welles creates a jazz melody by channelling the wind through his self-induced studio stupor.
The moment when Netflix released the making-of documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead to go with this film was the best for the streaming juggernaut. It contains a lengthy, incomplete Welles description of what he considers “divine accidents.”
Several decades after it was shot, his final film was released thanks to Netflix’s generosity. Some of his best works (where God resides) were the result of these mishaps, such as the egg breaking in Touch of Evil.
29. The Other Side of the Wind
- Year: 2018
- Director: Orson Welles
- Stars: John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Random, Susan Strasberg, Oja Kodar
- Genre: Drama
- Rating: R
The Other Side of the Wind soars with the force of its movement whistling beyond its limitations yet being as garish and puzzling as its title. Orson Welles channels the wind through his self-inflicted studio torpor and discovers an organic melody, or rather, jazz.
The best moment for the streaming giant was when Netflix published the making-of documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead to go with this movie. It has a gigantic and unfinished Welles describing what he terms “divine accidents.”
This was his final movie, published several decades after its shooting as Netflix opened their coffers to him. These accidents were responsible for some of his oeuvre’s best aspects (wherein God resides), like the shattering of the egg in Touch of Evil.
28. Starship Troopers
- Year: 1997
- Director: Paul Verhoeven
- Stars: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Clancy Brown, Neil Patrick Harris
- Genre: Sci-fi
- Rating: R
Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers is a gleaming agitprop after-school special and gross-out bacchanalia that takes pleasure in the extreme violence it doles out in big spurts—but then berates itself for having so much fun with something so terrible.
The story of a group of extremely attractive upper-middle-class white teens who get their cherries popped and then ground into hamburger inside the abattoir of interstellar war is told by shiny adults Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Nina Meyers, Jake Busey, and Neil Patrick Harris.
Verhoeven cruises through the various tones of bellicose filmmaking: hawkish propaganda, gritty action set pieces, and thrilling adventure sequences.
27. Heat
- Year: 1995
- Director: Michael Mann
- Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
- Genre: Thriller, crime drama
- Rating: R
Michael Mann’s masterwork about the L.A. crime scene should be viewed for the first time with an open mind, and then it should be examined in great detail, with all of its component parts being dissected to ascertain how they ultimately came together to make such a carefully designed work of narrative.
Anything in between would rarely do credit to this vast (yet taut) epic. Almost every crime drama has explored the idea of the cop and the robber being on opposite sides of the same coin in some form, but Mann succeeds to make the dichotomy’s pinnacle.
Mann brings to a close his earlier tight, focused work by executing with surgical precision an amazingly pure vision of a vast, pompous, and larger-than-life crime thriller.
26. Reservoir Dogs
- Year: 1992
- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Edward Bunker, Quentin Tarantino
- Genre: Thriller, crime drama
- Rating: R
The release of Reservoir Dogs at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival not only started the career of one Quentin Tarantino but also a distinct American indie subgenre replete with severe violence, foul language, nonlinear storytelling, and a chosen soundtrack.
Many have tried, but none of his imitators have been able to match the visual and auditory poetry at work in Tarantino’s body of work, particularly his magnum opus Pulp Fiction, whose 1994 release attracted new fans who returned to learn about the fallout from Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink and Mr. White’s failed diamond heist (but not the heist itself). Here’s where it all started.
25. The Jerk
- Year: 1979
- Director: Carl Reiner
- Stars: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Catlin Adams, Mabel King, Richard Ward, Dick Anthony Williams, Jackie Mason, Bill Macy, M. Emmet Walsh
- Genre: Comedy
- Rating: R
Co-writer/star Steve Martin and director Carl Reiner make it clear early on in the film how willing they are to deviate from any established narrative convention in favor of whichever joke pushes the envelope of irreverence and extreme silliness. Steve Martin is going to elicit our attention with a melodramatic series of flashbacks about the tragic existence of his character when he says, “I was born a poor Black child.”
Following that, no matter what episodic hijinks Nevan—Martin’s homage to painfully self-aware idiots everywhere—finds himself in, these plot lines are just utilized as justifications to stuff as many clumsy gags as possible. Since The Jerk doesn’t always imitate a certain genre or a well-known figure, it’s difficult to call it a parody.
24. Groundhog Day
- Year: 1993
- Director: Harold Ramis
- Stars: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky
- Genre: Comedy
- Rating: PG
A self-centered weatherman finds himself stuck reliving February 2 over and over again and discovers unanticipated profundity. In a more traditional movie, love would have solved the chronological problem, but in this one, TV star Phil (Murray) must strive to become the best version of himself.
Inspiring some obsessive fans, such as one man who “calculated,” down to the day, the number of decades Murray spent on February 2, Groundhog Day doesn’t just make audiences laugh; it leaves audiences more moved than they ever expected. Whether it’s a Hollywood comedy challenging middle-class Americans to shake themselves out of their middle-class torpor or a meditation on our unattainable ideas of perfection.
23. Rocky
- Year: 1975
- Director: John G. Avildsen
- Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith
- Rating: PG
Even if it may seem obvious now, Sylvester Stallone’s portrayal of Rocky Balboa must rank among his most enduring roles from the 1970s. Looking back to the first movie serves as a reminder of the series’ modest and low-fi beginnings as well as of the post-Vietnam funk that Americans experienced in terms of their economy and spirituality.
An upbeat movie hero amid a depressing decade was Sylvester Stallone’s affable, goofy bum with no real prospects who is abruptly pushed into a million-dollar fight with the superstar champion of the world. Brilliant supporting performances by Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Talia Shire add new dimensions to the cliches of trainer, opponent, and ringgirl by revealing a depth of insecurity, sensitivity, and egotism that goes beyond any cliché.
22. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- Year: 1986
- Director: John Hughes
- Stars: Matthew Broderick, Jeffrey Jones, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck, Jennifer Grey, Edie McClurg
- Genre: Comedy
- Rating: PG-13
In addition to establishing Matthew Broderick as a legitimate star, John Hughes’ zeitgeist-y, fourth wall-busting hymn to wealthy, entitled Suburban youth vs. Killjoy Authority provided us a chillingly prescient insight into Charlie Sheen’s future in an admittedly humorous bit role. With the exception of Breakfast Club, Hughes’ decade of teen-focused films set in the Chicago region have fared best with Bueller, and without all the tortured pretentiousness.
21. Donnie Brasco
- Year:1997
- Director: Mike Newell
- Stars: Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, James Russo, Anne Heche
- Genre: Thriller, crime drama
- Rating: R
Donnie Brasco, directed by Mike Newell, is credited for inventing the gangster film genre by fusing it with the undercover cop film and centering on the Bonannos, one of the mafia’s Five Families in New York City in the 1970s. As the covert Donnie Brasco, Johnny Depp gives a commanding performance in the starring role, wrestling with a moral conundrum.
20. Léon: The Professional
- Director: Luc Besson
- Writer: Luc Besson
- Cast: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Danny Aiello
- Duration: 1h 50min
- IMDb Rating: 8.6
The story of the film is about a young girl named Mathilda who has been familiar with the ugly truth of her family. Her father keeps drugs for corrupt police officials and is an abuser while her mother does not care about her.
Leon happens to work for Tony, the mobster as a hired hitman. One day when Stansfield, a DEA agent kills Mathilda’s family, she joins hands with Leon to learn the business and take revenge for her parent’s death.
19. Apocalypse Now
- Director: Francis Coppola
- Writer: John Milius, Francis Coppola
- Cast: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishburne, Dennis Hopper
- Duration: 2h 27min
- IMDb Rating: 8.5
This classic film is about a U.S army official Willard sent to Vietnam to fulfill a mission. In the war-affected country, Willard is supposed to find the Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz and kill him.
But what looks easy is not. Will Willard be able to fulfill the task appointed to him when becomes Kurtz hostage? Well, to find out watch this classic make!
18. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Writer: Lawrence Kasdan
- Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott
- Duration: 1h 55min
- IMDb Rating: 8.4
The premise of the film is based on an archaeologist named Indiana Jones who sets on the venture across Egypt and Nepal to find the biblical artifact named The Ark of the Covenant which has the power to the existence of humans.
But in the way, he will have to face the Nazis who are also in search of the artifact and it will be interesting to see who eventually will get the hands-on hidden gem.
17. Taxi Driver
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Writer: Paul Schrader
- Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris, Peter Boyle
- Duration: 1h 53min
- IMDb Rating: 8.3
This Columbia Pictures make is yet another cult classic film. The story of the taxi driver is about a man named Travis Bickle who is alone and suffers from insomnia and happens to take up the job of a cab driver in New York City.
He did his job mostly through the night, slowly going away from reality and dreaming to make the city filth free. And when he happens to meet Betsy, a campaign worker he plans to save the world by abducting a presidential candidate and ultimately directing the focus to save a young prostitute named Iris.
16. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Director: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
- Writer: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
- Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
- Duration: 1h 31min
- IMDb Rating: 8.2
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a film about British leader King Arthur of Camelot who is in search of some faithful supporters for the Knights of the Round Table. The king along with his knights sets out on a quest to rediscover The Holy Grail.
But in their journey, they have to face a lot of challenges from a three-headed giant, a persistent Black Knight, a house of virgins, the Castle Anthrax, a killer rabbit, and Frenchmen.
15. Blade Runner
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Writer: Hampton Fancher, David Peoples
- Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
- Duration: 1h 57min
- IMDb Rating: 8.1
This sci-fi action story is about Rick Deckard who leaves his job as a policeman but is forced by his boss to continue as a Replicant Hunter. Thus he is then appointed as an agent for a special mission that involves removing four escaped Replicants who have returned to earth.
And as he dives into the mission and investigates deeper, he falls in love with a Replicant girl named Rachel. Will he be able to accomplish his task without getting distracted?
14. Dances With Wolves
- Director: Kevin Costner
- Writer: Michael Blake
- Cast: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney Grant
- Duration: 3h 1min
- IMDb Rating: 8.1
After being highly influenced by the simple lifestyle of the local Sioux tribe, Lt. John Dunbar, a Civil War solid decides to give up his profession and be a part of them. And after observing him, they name Dances With Wolves.
After entering the group, he develops feelings for a white girl who was raised in the tribe. But as the troop of soldiers begins to advance in the region, it is up to him to decide what will be the next move and how to safeguard the people who welcomed him as their own.
13. Life of Brian
- Director: Terry Jones
- Writer: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
- Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
- Duration: 1h 34min
- IMDb Rating: 8.1
Monty Python’s Life of Brian is the classic tale about Brian who gets born in a stable next to where Jesus Christ was born and eventually gets mistaken to be a Messiah. To reunite with Judith he embarks on a journey to get rid of the followers due to his teachings by opting for misadventures.
12. Rain Man
- Director: Barry Levinson
- Writer: Barry Morrow, Ronald Bass
- Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino
- Duration: 2h 13min
- IMDb Rating: 8
Rain Man happens to be the only movie so far to have won both Academy Award and Golden Bear for Best Picture. Dustin Hoffman also received a nomination for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. It also grossed huge profits at the box office and became a major hit.
Among the best classic films out there, Rain Man is the story of Charlie Babbitt who returns to his home after he learns that his estranged father is no more. The car dealer upon reaching Cincinnati finds that he has an elder brother Raymond who is autistic and the wealth of his dad is left at the mental hospital where the latter lives.
And attracted by the fortune, Charlie shifts Raymond out and takes him to Los Angeles, unknown that the journey will change both their lives completely.
11. My Fair Lady
- Director: George Cukor
- Writer: Alan Jay Lerner
- Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper, Jeremy Brett
- Duration: 2h 50min
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
Well, how can we miss this classic film from the list! My Fair Lady is the story about a young lovely girl named Eliza Doolittle who takes lessons of speech from phonetic expert Henry Higgins so that she could qualify and brighten up her career prospects in the high-class society.
The two develop an unlikely pair and clashed most of the time and this union gets threatened by Freddy Eynsford-Hil, a high-class suitor.
Read More: The Best Thrillers on Netflix To Watch Right Now
10. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
- Director: Lasse Hallström
- Writer: Peter Hedges
- Cast: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, John C. Reilly
- Duration: 1h 58min
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
The premise sees a young man with many responsibilities named Gilbert Grape who lives in a small town. He has a mother named Bonnie with so much weight that she is unable to leave the house and a mentally challenged younger brother named Arnie who always ends up in trouble.
To make ends meet, he works at the grocery store and is seeing a local girl named Betty. But when a new girl named Becky enters his life, he gets trapped in the confusion between his love for Becky and the responsibility of his mother and mentally impaired brother.
9. Awakenings
- Director: Penny Marshall
- Writer: Steven Zaillian
- Cast: Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, John Heard, Julie Kavner, Penelope Ann Miller, Max von Sydow
- Duration: 2h 1min
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
The film is about a doctor named Dr. Malcolm Sayer who happens to have found the cure for an epidemic that caused several people who survived the outbreak to once again live their life. When the drug is administered to catatonic patients, they awaken after many years in a new era and time.
And now this rebirth will be more complicated than anticipated as they know nothing about the present time and have to try to fit into the norms.
8. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
- Director: Mel Stuart
- Writer: Roald Dahl
- Cast: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear, Denise Nickerson, Leonard Stone, Julie Dawn Cole, Paris Themmen, Dodo Denney
- Duration: 1h 40min
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
How can we forget this one? Among the only classic films that very 90s kids grew up watching and fanaticizing. The dream of every child is to get into the dreamy factory with chocolate fountains and unlimited sweets!
The story is about the owner of the chocolate factory, Willy Wonka who allows 5 lucky children to enter the factory and get a lifetime of sweets if they find the golden ticket in the wrapper.
Charlie, a sweet boy from a poor family, dreams to go there and tries very hard to get the ticket. Finally, he manages to get one and along with the other four children enters the magical factory and it is to see whether he can survive till the very end.
7. White Christmas
- Director: Michael Curtiz
- Writer: Norman Krasna, Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
- Cast: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger
- Duration: 2hrs
- IMDb Rating: 7.6
The list is incomplete without a Christmas classic. And so we have White Christmas for you!
The story sees singer duo Bob Wallace and Phil Davis save the Haynes sisters named Judy and Betty and eventually join them to perform a Christmas act in rural Vermont. There, they meet a world war II boy’s commander Gen. Waverly who tells them that he Innis failing and is facing financial troubles.
To help revive General’s losing business, the four decide to do their bit in this fun-filled journey!
6. The Piano
- Director: Jane Campion
- Writer: Jane Campion
- Cast: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin, Kerry Walker, Genevieve Lemon
- Duration: 2h 1min
- IMDb Rating: 7.5
The Piano managed to bag eight Oscar nominations out of which it won three. They were for Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. Truly a classic that we had to add to the list.
The story is about a mute woman named Ada who has a young daughter named Flora. The two along with their belongings and a prize piano are sent to New Zealand from Scotland for Ada to marry a rich landowner. In the arranged marriage, everything was as she had imagined it to be. He happens to have sold her piano to their neighbor named George.
And George proposes to Ada that the only way she could get back her beloved piano back was by teaching him the piano lessons. Eventually, they bond well and this leads to some life changes that impact their lives.
5. Total Recall
- Director: Paul Verhoeven
- Writer: Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Gary Goldman
- Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox
- Duration: 1h 53min
- IMDb Rating: 7.5
Set in the year 2084, this science fiction is all that you gotta watch. The story is about a construction worker Douglas Quaid who dreams to visit Mars which now happens to be colonized.
He then visits a company named Rekall which puts pseudo memories into the human brain that creates the experience of visiting Mars, without actually traveling there. but when the process is performed on Douglas Quaid, he learns that his life is a false memory and the ones who put it inside him want to kill him.
4. Labyrinth
- Director: Jim Henson
- Writer: Terry Jones
- Cast: David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly
- Duration: 1h 41min
- IMDb Rating: 7.3
Labyrinth was among the popular kids’ musical fantasy movies in the late 80s that to date keeps us in awe because it made the mythical world appear real with magnificent star power and good effects.
The story sees a 16 years old sister named Sarah forced to babysit her younger step-brother Toby when her father and stepmother are out. Frustrated with the nonstop crying of the baby, she wished for him to be taken to the Goblin King Jareth.
And to her surprise, her wish was accepted and Toby was taken by Goblin King Jareth to his castle in the Goblin City. The place is in the middle of a labyrinth. Thus, Sarah now has got limited time to solve the labyrinth and bring back her brother in time.
3. Public Enemies
- Director: Michael Mann
- Writer: Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman, Michael Mann
- Cast: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Stephen Lang
- Duration: 2h 20min
- IMDb Rating: 7
John Dillinger is the robber in the depression era. The people of America like his personality and charm, specifically the downtrodden. But this is not the case with J. Edgar Hoover who wants to catch the outlaw.
So he declares Dillinger to be the first Public Enemy Number One and appoints Melvin Purvis, his top agent to get hold of the fugitive, be it dead or alive.
2. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
- Director: Kevin Reynolds
- Writer: Pen Densham, John Watson
- Cast: Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Alan Rickman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
- Duration: 2h 23min
- IMDb Rating: 6.9
The story is about Robin of Locksley who breaks free from the jail in Jerusalem with the aid of a fellow mate named Azeem. He then travels back to his home in England only to find that his father is dead.
The one behind the killing is the sheriff of Nottingham. Robin and Azeem then unite with fugitives Will Scarlett and Little John to stop the evil sheriff and save the empire.
1. She’s Gotta Have It
- Director: Spike Lee
- Writer: Spike Lee
- Cast: Tracy Camilla Johns, Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Raye Dowell
- Duration: 1h 28min
- IMDb Rating: 6.7
The romantic comedy, She’s Gotta Have It is about a young black woman named Nola Darling who is confused as to what kind of men to date and then decides to date three men at the same time. All the three are different. One is a rich brat while the other is a stable but overprotective guy and the last one is a geek with a heart of gold.
All three men possess their uniqueness and qualities, and it becomes confusing for Nola to choose from three male lovers.
We hope that the list we have given you will make you feel nostalgic about the good old days and that you enjoy streaming them soon. Other classic films are available on Netflix, but these are just our recommendations for you. So, wait for no further and choose the one with which you would like to relive your old days or experience them for the first time if you haven’t already!
