Like most teachers, I am often asked by students to recommend books and films, either related to psychology or of general interest.. Over the years I have developed a personal list of "Ten Books I think every college student should read" and "Ten Films I think every college student should see".  Obviously there are more than ten important books and films, and my list changes often, depending on my mood, the political climate, and what I have read and seen recently myself. And these are not necessarily my own favorite books and films, just those I think are particularly important for college students to expose themselves to. 

 I actually have several lists here: one of books for psychology majors, one of books for any college student, and one for films.  I make a personal list of books to read over my Christmas and Summer breaks, and I have included a list of the more interesting books that I have read during the last couple of years. {I should note that I have left off books like the Bible and the Koran, since I don't think these best-sellers need any help from me}. Books marked with an asterisk are required in a course offered in the Psychology Major at PUC. Where possible I have included links to actual reviews of the books (mostly from Amazon.com). 

I also have a link to a site about banned books. I find few things more obscene or dangerous than the banning or burning of books. I think that all of us who have enjoyed the privileges of education have a responsibility to help our communities increase their respect for the free expression of ideas, and the tolerance of diversity. Whenever possible, Read Banned Books!

Please feel free to email me if you have any comments on these books, or suggestions as to books I should consider reading on my next break (afulton@puc.edu)

• Banned Books
• Ten Books Every Psychology Major Should Read
• Ten Books Every College Student Should Read
• Bill Clinton's Top Ten Books
• Best of What I Have Been Reading Lately (2004)
• Best of What I Have Been Reading Lately (2002-03)
• Best of What I Read in the Summer of 2001
• Most Interesting Books I have read in the last Ten Years or so
• Ten Films Every College Student Should See
• Ten of My Favorite Films
• Ten Recent Films I have Enjoyed

 

Banned Books
I like to read banned books, and I think college students should read banned books too. Of course all ideas are not created equal, and many ideas deserve to be criticized, condemned and attacked. But banning books in an attempt to control thought is antithetical to the virtues and values of a liberal education and society, and more dangerous than any subversive idea could possibly be. Most of the books banned somewhere in this country express liberating insights that challenge the status quo, but even if they do not, a banned book is a threat to us all.

Here are some links to pages about banned books and censorship.

• Muggles for Harry Potter! Muggles for Harry Potter are people who believe that it is wrong to ban the use of great books -- like those about Harry Potter -- in classrooms and school libraries because some parents object to their content. Some people are offended by the fact that Harry and his friends use witchcraft. Others believe the books are too violent. But restricting the use of books that kids want to read violates their First Amendment rights and helps produce an illiterate society.
• Banned Books on-line A special exhibit of books that have been the objects of censorship or censorship attempts ... ranging from Ulysses to Little Red Riding Hood.
• Most Frequently Banned Books of the 90's  The fifty books that were most frequently challenged in schools and public libraries in the United States between 1990 and 1992.
• Banned Books and Ideas Works that have either been banned or censored, or that discuss, analyze, or imply some form of censorship.
• Banned Books and Censorship Resources The following resources will help you learn more about book banning in particular and the many forms of censorship in general.

Ten Books Every Psychology Major Should Read:

• The Denial of Death, by Ernest Becker* (Psychology of Personality)
• The Mismeasure of Man, by Stephen J. Gould* (Psychological Testing)
• Love's Executioner, by Irvin Yalom
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, by Oliver Sacks* (Physiological Psychology)
• Principles of Psychology, by William James 
• Civilization & Its Discontents, by Sigmund Freud* (Psychology of Religion)
• Walden Two, by B. F. Skinner* (Psychology of Learning & Cognition)
• Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
• Obedience to Authority, by Stanley Milgram* (General Psychology)
• The Freud/Jung Letters, edited by William McGuire* (Psychology of Personality)
 

Ten Books Every College Student Should Read:

• Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
• Why We Can't Wait, by Martin Luther King, Jr
• The Sacred Canopy, by Peter Berger
• My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok
• Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
• Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
• The Politics of Jesus, by John Howard Yoder
• The Power & The Glory, by Graham Greene
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
• Actual Innocence : Five Days to Execution and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted   by Jim Dwyer, Peter Neufeld Barry Scheck 

Bill Clinton's Top Ten Books en Books:  According to http://www.shelterbelt.com/BOOKS/lifetime.html, these are President Clinton's favorite books (some good ones here, though I am not sure about *Living History*).

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
• The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker.
• Parting the Waters: America in the King Years
• 1954-1963 by Taylor Branch.
• Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
• Lincoln by David Herbert Donald.
• The Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot.
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
• The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-First Century by David Fromkin.
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
• The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes by Seamus Heaney.
• King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.
• The Imitation of Chris by Thomas a Kempis.
• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.
• The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to
• Historical Analysis by Carroll Quigley.
• Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics by Reinhold Niebuhr.
• The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron.
• Politics as a Vocation by Max Weber.
• You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe.
• Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright.
• The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats by William Butler Yeats.

The Best of What I have been reading lately (for fun, 2004)

• Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
• Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker by James McManus
• Cole Porter: A Biography by William McBrien
• The Cobra Event by Richard Preston
• My Life by Bill Clinton
• Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward
• Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke
• Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
• The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander
• Pompeii: A Novel by ROBERT HARRIS
• Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing by William Irwin
• Taking Charge  by Michael R. Beschloss
• Reaching for Glory : Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965 by Michael R. Beschloss
• In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert S. McNamara
• 100 Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings by E. E. Cummings
• Open: Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black by John Feinstein
• The Buying of the President 2004 : Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers--and What They Expect in Return by Charles Lewis
• The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies by Richard Hamblyn
  

  
  

   

The Best of What I have been reading lately (for fun, 2002 & 2003)

• RICHARD II  by William Shakespeare 
• HENRY IV PART 1 by William Shakespeare,
• HENRY IV PART 2  by William Shakespeare,
• The Life of Henry V by William Shakespeare,
• Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III by William Shakespeare
• The Tragedy of Richard the Third by William Shakespeare (Three years ago I read John Norwich's book Shakespeare's Kings : The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages : 1337-1485  and really enjoyed it, but had not read all of the History Plays. Since then I have wanted to read them all in order, and this summer I was able to do it (since I didn't teach any summer school for the first time in a long time). I read each play, and watched a video version of it. Of course Richard III is a masterpiece, but the other ones hold up pretty well too (not so much the Henry VIs). I found the series particularly apropos as the news of the California Recall election unfolded during the summer of 2003. Bad things happen when folks attempt to seize illegitimate power).
• The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir, B. Alison Weir
• Shakespeare's Kings : The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages : 1337-1485 by John Julius Norwich (I read this again after reading all of the plays - got even more out of it this time around)
• Paris 1919 by Margaret Olwen Macmillan (So much of the news in the last decade seem to be re-playing events from the end of WWI - when I saw this title at a bookstore in Vancouver during WPA, I knew I wanted to read it this summer. Macmillan helps put the dozens of people and issues that shaped the 20th (and, apparently, 21st) century.
• Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson (I always get a kick out of Franklin, and I enjoyed this biography, even though Isaacson uses Old Ben to justify modern Yuppy-ism (or is he using Yuppy-ism to gloss over Franklin's weaknesses?).
• Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky (We need to hear more from Chomsky - now more than ever)
• A Brotherhood of Valor: The Common Soldiers of the Stonewall Brigade, & the Iron Brigade by Jeffry D. Wert
• The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at Nasa by Diane Vaughan
• Movies and Mental Illness  by Danny Wedding
• Jennifer Government: A Novel -- by Max Barry;
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) -- by J. K. Rowling (I was 4th in line to read this book in my house, and I still had it finished less than 10 days after it was released. I still like #3 the best, but this is a close second. To warm up, I read the previous 4, and I am more amazed than ever that anyone could think these stories are dangerous or anti-Christian. They may not quite hit the mark of high literature, but they are pretty good stories, and I could do worse than to have my kids be a little  like Harry, Hermione and Ron).
• Gone for Soldiers: A Novel of the Mexican War by Jeff M. Shaara (I am something of a sucker for historical novels, and I like all of Shaara's books - though none quite as good as his Dad's. If anything I would have liked to have had a little more of this one - most of the characters seem touched on only lightly - and I thought there would be more back story to the relationships introduced in *Killer Angels*. Still, very interesting to read the summer after the invasion of Iraq - it seems thoughtful Americans had serious doubts about the invasion of Mexico too).
• The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare.
• Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live -- by Tom Shales (Another one of the inside looks at the entertainment industry that I like to read from time to time; these stories are fun - especially for those old enough to remember the first year. Shales seems a little apologetic for the rather egotistical Lorne Michaels).
• Outsider in Amsterdam by Janwillem Van De Wetering (This is the first in a really good mystery series set in Amsterdam. The two detectives are observers of and participants in the human condition, with a somewhat Buddhist detachment. I have read 5 of the books in this series - see 4 more below - and have a few more on my shelf to read when I get the odd free weekend).
• Tumbleweed by Janwillem Van De Wetering 
• Corpse on the Dike by Janwillem Van De Wetering 
• Death of a Hawker by Janwillem Van De Wetering
• The Japanese Corpse by Janwillem Van De Wetering
• The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark A. Noll (A group of PUC faculty read this book over a couple of weeks in the Summer of 2002. The book raises some interesting questions, but frankly I got a lot more from listening to my colleagues free associate to it than from Noll himself. Noll reminded me of a lot of the academic Evangelicals I met at Fuller - almost desperate to legitimate themselves intellectually).
• Rise to Rebellion by Jeff M.Shaara (This book and the one below are Shaara's take on the American Revolution. He is a bit too eager to re-revise the Founding Fathers that he does not deal enough with the real flaws - but still very interesting stuff).
• The Glorious Cause: A Novel of the American Revolution -- by Jeffrey M. Shaara
• March Violets (Penguin Crime Monthly) by Philip Kerr (This and the two below are detective stories set in Germany, before and during the Nazi period - riveting).
• The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr
• A German Requiem by Philip Kerr 
• Auto Focus: The Murder of Bob Crane -- by Robert Graysmith

   

The Best of What I have been reading lately (for fun, 2001)

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (For some reason, to some extent this was a summer of re-reading some books from high school. I can't add anything to the volumes that has been written about this - except to plead with those who want to ban this book to think again - or perhaps for the first time)
• To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee (Another re-read of a classic - actually my family and I listened to a marvelous narration of it on a car trip to Los Angeles. I had remembered how much I admired Atticus Finch from high school, but I had forgotten - or never realized - how gripping her portray of community life in a small southern town was. I wish I were Atticus Finch, but now I also wish I lived in his town as well).
• Great Escape  by Paul Brickhill (I had never read the book before, but of course I saw the film as a kid, and have a tradition of watching the video every few years. Aside from the over-emphasis on Americans, and Steve McQueen's motorcycle daring-do, the film seems to have stayed close to the book. I enjoyed reading it.).
• Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon (I had also never read this book before, though I had seen the film several times. Both the political and psychological dimensions are fascinating).
• Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I have read the novels and some of the stories, but this is the first time I have read all of the short stories in order. Holmes' method is interesting, and his personality is rich and complex. Psychology students could find far less beneficial ways of spending their time than reading Holmes).
• Enemy at the gates: the battle for Stalingrad by William Craig (Much more informative about the Battle for Stalingrad than in the film that came out last year. Americans tend to ignore the millions of Russians who died in WWII).
• Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong (This was my favorite book of the year; partly because I read it on the beach in Maui, but mostly because it is beautifully written, gives a fascinating glimpse of life in China at the turn of the century, and is just a good mystery. I can't wait for his next book).
• The Metaphysical Club : A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand (This is a great book - it ties together the social history of the 19th century that provided the context for much of 20th century thought. In particular it explores and explains the impact of the two cataclysmic events of the 19th century - the American Civil War and the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species. I wish I could require every one of our History & Systems students to read this book).
• Without Sanctuary : Lynching Photography in America by James Allen (Editor), et al (This is a horrifying book - so much so that I can't say much more about it.).
• Strange Fruit : Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights by David Margolick (If you do read the book I list above, read this one too; and then listen to Holiday's recording of *Strange Fruit*.).
• The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (This is a lovely story about the OED - kind of like *Longitude* - the kind of book I love to run into).
• The Devil's Candy : The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood by Julie Salamon (A great inside view of the making of a big Hollywood film. I loved Wolf's book *The Bonfire of the Vanities*, and looked forward eagerly to the film. The movie was one of the worst films of the 1980s - Salmon's book tells us why).
• Final Cut : Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists by Steven Bach (Another great inside view of the making of a big Hollywood film - this one not just bad, but so expensive it has become a symbol of self-indulgent excess).
• The Dispossessed : An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin (I haven't read Le Guin in a long time, and had forgotten how nice it was.
• Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose (I started out watching the Mini-series on HBO, then decided to read the book - I wound up reading each chapter in the book right after its corresponding episode aired on TV. Ambrose is a little too non-critical of American policy, but he tells a great story (I loved his book on D-Day).
• Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (This is a great book - should be required reading for the current residents of the White House. Ehrenreich illuminates the bone-crushing, soul-numbing conditions of the working class in America, and how the game of American Capitalism is rigged to prevent most working people from recognizing, organizing and exercising their power).
  
  
  

The Best of What I have been reading lately (for fun, 2000)

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)  by J. K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)  by J. K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J. K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4)  by J. K. Rowling (Clear away the marketing blitz and the propaganda of the book-burners and read these stories for yourself. They may not make it to the level of Tolkien and Lewis, but they are wonderful stories for young and old alike, that highlight the virtues of tolerance, diversity and the courage to be yourself and do the right thing, regardless of the "compact majority".  I was the last one in my house to read these books - I read most of them on our Yellowstone trip this summer -  and now I am the one who is impatiently waiting for Book 5.
• Actual Innocence : Five Days to Execution and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted   by Jim Dwyer, Peter Neufeld Barry Scheck (This has become one of my favorite non-fiction books of all time, and will eventually be moved to my "Top Ten" list. Scheck and company do a wonderful job of clearly and convincingly explaining the multiple problems with the criminal justice system as they tell the story of American citizens who came terrifyingly close to being killed by the state even though they were actually innocent. Junk science, ambitious and unethical prosecutors, incompetent and unethical defense attorneys, faulty human memory and institutional racism all contribute. An absolute must read for any informed citizen.
• Longitude : The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel (This is the kind of book-reading experience that I love. A couple of  years ago I had never heard of the book, stumbled upon it while browsing at Barnes & Noble one afternoon, and read half of it sitting in one of their comfy chairs while my kids were prowling the children's section. I did not get back to it until last spring, when I made an honest man of myself my buying it and bringing it home. It is a another combination story of science and human intrigue, nicely told. I am not an expert in this field, and came away still wishing I knew more about the technical details, but it is an easy and delightful read).
• Flu : The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It by Gina Bari Kolata (When my grandmother was 15 her  mother died in the great influenza pandemic of 1918 - for two days they had to live with her dead body in a small Brooklyn apartment because the overwhelmed county morgue had no one to remove it. Until recently I thought this was a rather unique family story, until I began to read more about the pandemic. Kolata gives a very readable account of the event, and the scientific detective story and competition to answer still puzzling questions).
• Fire in the Valley : The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine. (Like a lot of people I got interested in this book after seeing the TNT movie based on it. It is a fascinating story, catching the excitement, idealism, and intrigue of the birth of the personal computer industry. Particularly interesting in light of recent re-birth of Apple, and legal challenges facing Microsoft. Better than the somewhat cheesy movie).
• Shakespeare's Kings : The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages : 1337-1485 by John Julius Norwich (I have enjoyed several of Shakespeare's historical plays since high school, but have to admit that I never quite got the Kings and Chronology straight  - who can tell the difference between Richard II and Henry III? Norwich's book does a nice job of summarizing the history of each King - often using the same sources consulted by Shakespeare - and then summarizing Shakespeare's treatment, allowing the reader to get a feel for just how often the Bard uses his poetic license).
• The Missing World : A Novel by Margot Livesey (This is the first novel I have read by this author, but it won't be the last. The Amazon.com review calls her "an artist of alluring unease" - I think that captures it. This is in the tradition of psychological suspense - I think I found it while ding research for my Psychology of Learning and Memory course.
• A Man in Full : A Novel by Tom Wolfe (I love Tom Wolfe books; The Right Stuff is fantastic, and the The Bonfire of the Vanities is classic. This is not as good as those, but even so I did not feel my investment in its 727 pages wasted - though you would definitely need some long lazy summer days to get through it.)
• Duel : Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America   by  Thomas Fleming (It was particularly interesting to finsih this while living through what must certainly go down as the most fiercely contested presidential election in American history. More than once I have thought that a duel at 20 paces might be a better way to resolve the problem than some I have heard suggested. Surprisingly to me, Thomas Jefferson comes off as the real bad guy in Flemming's reading of the political controversies that ultimately lead to Hamilton and Butt's deadly duel).
     
  
  
  

 

General Interest Books I have read over the last ten years or so (just some of my favorites)

• The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson (I really enjoyed these three novels, which are as much about Martian geology - er, areology -, human sociology and Terran ecology as they are about science fiction and colonization of Mars.
• The Civil War Trilogy : Gods and Generals, The Killer Angels, The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara/Michael Shaara (My family and I spent a day at Gettysburg in the summer of 1999, and it was a real thrill to finish off this trilogy while looking out at Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top. These novels deserve their reputation for giving a sense of what the Civil War, and the men who fought it, were like. Note: While I believe these books are fairly accurate, they are novels, not history books).
• One Hell of a Gamble by Aleksandr Fursenko & Timothy Naftali. (Fascinating story of the Cuban Missile Crisis, informed by documents only recently available since the break-up of the Soviet Union).
• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. (Though he does tend to labor his point a bit, I found Diamond's explanation of world history - including the political and economic dominance of European/Western societies - interesting).
• Summer For the Gods by Edward Larson (Larson gives a more accurate, and relevant, account of the Scopes Monkey Trial then you may have gotten from reading Inherit the Wind in high school. For those who are interested in more information in the ACLU {of which I am a "card-carrying member") see aclu.org).
• All Too Human by George Stephanopoulos (Not a great book, but an interesting perspective on the Clinton Administration. Stephanopoulos is a little too willing to excuse his own mistakes and faults, and a little too eager to run away from traditional democratic positions).
• The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. (An enthusiastic defense of Darwinian evolution that may make some Creation Scientists cringe. If you have ever wondered how a Darwinian would respond to all of those arguments from design, you will find the answer here).
• And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts
• The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes
• Wonderful Life, by Stephen Jay Gould
• Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion, by Gary Taubes
• T. rex And The Crater of Doom, by Walter Alvarez
• The Great Dinosaur Extinction Controversy by Charles Officer, Jake Page
• The Neandertal Man, by James Shreeve
• The Creationists, by Ron Numbers
• The Origin of Satan, by Elaine Pagels
• Complexity, by M. Mitchell Waldrop
• Paul: The Mind of the Apostle, by A. N. Wilson
• Passing and the Fictions of Identity, edited by Elaine Ginsberg
• Deadly Feasts: Tracking the Secretes of a Terrifying New Plague, by Richard Rhodes
• The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
• Full House, by Stephen Jay Gould
• Suits Me by Diane Wood Middlebrook
• A Man on the Moon by Andrew L. Chaikin.
• The Choice by Bob Woodward
• New Critical Approaches to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway Edited by Jackson J. Benson
• Face to Face : The Changing State of Racism Across America by Jim Waller
   

Ten Films Every College Student Should See

These are not necessarily my all-time favorite movies - though I like all of them a lot. These are films that I think a thoughtful college student should make sure they see sometime soon.

• Ordinary People
• 12 Angry Men
• Boyz N The Hood
• Do The Right Thing
• Schindler's List
• Fiddler on the Roof
• Annie Hall
• The Graduate
• Secrets and Lies
• Death of a Salesman (Note: There are several great versions of this classic American play; I like the Dustin Hoffman version best)

Ten of my Favorite Films
 These are some of my all-time favorite movies (not my "Ten Best" - since again that changes by my mood and what I have seen recently and what I happen to remember; there are a lot of great movies). Some of them are violent or disturbing in some way, so anyone considering them may want to investigate them a bit further to judge whether it is their cup of tea. I find them all to be in some important way instructive or illuminating about the human condition. [Links provided to online reviews where I could find them].

• Chinatown
• The Godfather
• Fargo
• The Usual Suspects
• Some Like It Hot
• Double Indemnity
• The Shawshank Redemption 
• Gettysburg
• Vertigo
• Casablanca
• The Quiet Man (this is actually my wife's favorite movie, but I'll make room for one of hers on my list) 

Recent Films I have Really Enjoyed
These are recent films that I liked a lot, but either have not yet stood the test of time for greatness, or are more in the way of quality entertainment than deep commentary and illustration of the human condition. I don't get a chance to update this page that often, so it may go out of date - this list covers the last two or three years, as of 9/04.

• The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
• Fahrenheit 9/11
• Collateral
• The Cooler
• 21 Grams
• In America
• Adaptation
• Mystic River 
• American Splendor
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World 
• Thirteen
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Kill Bill: Vol. 2
• Kill Bill: Vol. 1
• Super Size Me
• Finding Nemo
• Lost in Translation
• Dirty Pretty Things
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
• Shrek
• Traffic
• Memento
• Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings
• American Beauty
• A Mighty Wind