50 Films To See Before You Die

50 Films to See Before You Die was a programme shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 22 July, 2006, to celebrate the relaunch of Film4 as a free-to-air channel available to digital terrestrial homes in the United Kingdom. It consisted of a countdown of, as the name suggests, a list of 50 films to see before you die, compiled by various film critics, experts and personalities. Each film was supposed to be "chosen as a paragon of a particular genre or style".

The list

 * 1) Apocalypse Now (1979)
 * 2) The Apartment (1960)
 * 3) City of God (2002)
 * 4) Chinatown (1974)
 * 5) Sexy Beast (2000)
 * 6) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
 * 7) North by Northwest (1959)
 * 8) À bout de souffle (1959)
 * 9) Donnie Darko (2001)
 * 10) Manhattan (1979)
 * 11) Alien (1979)
 * 12) Lost in Translation (2003)
 * 13) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
 * 14) Lagaan (2001)
 * 15) Pulp Fiction (1994)
 * 16) Touch of Evil (1958)
 * 17) Walkabout (1971)
 * 18) Black Narcissus (1947)
 * 19) Boyz N the Hood (1991)
 * 20) The Player (1992)
 * 21) Come and See (1985)
 * 22) Heavenly Creatures (1994)
 * 23) A Night at the Opera (1935)
 * 24) Erin Brockovich (2000)
 * 25) Trainspotting (1996)
 * 26) Hero (2002)
 * 27) The Breakfast Club (1985)
 * 28) Fanny and Alexander (1982)
 * 29) Pink Flamingos (1972)
 * 30) All About Eve (1950)
 * 31) Scarface (1983)
 * 32) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
 * 33) Three Colors: Blue (1993)
 * 34) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
 * 35) The Ladykillers (1955)
 * 36) Fight Club (1999)
 * 37) The Searchers (1956)
 * 38) Mulholland Drive (2001)
 * 39) The Ipcress File (1962)
 * 40) The King of Comedy (1983)
 * 41) Manhunter (1986)
 * 42) Dawn of the Dead (1978)
 * 43) Princess Mononoke (1997)
 * 44) Raising Arizona (1987)
 * 45) Cabaret (1972)
 * 46) This Sporting Life (1963)
 * 47) Brazil (1985)
 * 48) Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
 * 49) Secrets & Lies (1996)
 * 50) Badlands (1973)

Criticism
Many of the films included in the list are being shown on Film4 in upcoming weeks, and this was advertised prominently at the time of broadcasting. This suggests some amount of bias, especially considering such notable films as Citizen Kane (1941), The Godfather (1972), Taxi Driver (1976), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) and The Matrix (1999) were not included, but this may be because they are common films, and the countdown was of films which many people haven't seen. Another reason why people may argue that it was biased was because a lot of the films (e.g Trainspotting and Sexy Beast) were produced by Film4 Productions.