Before adding to this ... film cornucopia, quick check to ensure itomnivore hasn't drowned in the flood?

Perhaps you could list some of the other good threads we've had, in case I've missed some of them?

^^^ Agreed.

To add a few:

2001 and Lawrence of Arabia, specifically if you ever get the opportunity to see them in 70mm cinerama (they play them like that every year here in Seattle, lucky us), as it will blow your mind in a way 3d never will.

Also, check out Where Eagle's Dare for the absolute best damned men-on-a-mission movie ever made. It's seriously one of the coolest WW2 flicks you'll ever see, they spend an hour infiltrating the Nazi base in the alps and setting up parts of their escape, and then the last hour is the escape, where you see all the pieces of the plan meticulously falling into place.

In the World War II vein:

From Here to Eternity
The Caine Mutiny
Thin Red Line
Tora Tora Tora

Regarding A Bridge Too Far, I agree, it's insanely impressive on a technical level but doesn't quite work narratively. That's the feeling I get with a lot of the older "historical" WW2 films. As a military buff it's interesting, but there's just a real lack of story thru-line that distances you.

Tora Tora Tora is another interesting case, because it's literally more like a big budget National Geographic special than an actual movie, there's basically no "characters" or "character storylines" of any kind, it's just rattling off historical events/quotes. Then for Pearl Harbor they tried to add that stuff in to help dramatize it and swing WAAAAY too far in the opposite direction.

^^ Network is a great time and totally rewatchable, though you are correct about most of those

Also:

The Evil Dead
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Trainspotting
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Rocky Horror is essential, without it you miss out on 70% of the "fun with the kinky kids" phase of your 20's.