Taxi Driver (Hulu; US only)
Directed by Martin Scorsese

What can I say about Taxi Driver? If you haven’t seen it, it’s a cultural touchstone — watch it.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Hulu; US only)
Directed by Sergio Leone

For me, this is the pinnacle of the Leone style: the gigantic close-ups, the glacial show-downs, the deep perspective photography. Inglorious Basterds opening obviously owes a debt to this film’s early interrogation scene.

Seeing it in on the big-screen without all these commercials is a zillion times better, but watching classics in butchered form also has its charms. I saw plenty of Hitchcock, Kubrick and Scorsese on VHS and still loved them.

The first two installments of Leone’s Man With No Name trilogy, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, are also on Hulu.

The Elephant Man (Hulu; US only)
Directed by David Lynch
Watch the trailer

Bonus pick for the serious film geeks, The Auteurs has three Luis Buñuel films available.