500 Free Movies Online

Fiction

• Night of the Living Dead – Free – George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is the urtext of the modern zombie movie. (1968)
• M – Free – Classic film directed by Fritz Lang, with Peter Lorre. About the search for a child murderer in Berlin, (1931)
• Rashomon – Free – Akira Kurosawa’s classic film that introduced Japanese cinema to the West. (1950)
• Reefer Madness – Free – Arguably the most unintentionally hilarious “anti-drug” exploitation film. (1936)
• Shame – Free – Produced by Roger Corman and starring William Shatner. Mystery film about a man sent into a southern town to stir up race riots. (1962)
• Slacker – Free – Richard Linklater’s Gen-X, generation defining indie film. (1991)
• Solaris – Part 1 – Part 2 – Andrei Tarkovsky’s meditative psychodrama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the planet Solaris. (1972)
• Stalker – Free: Part 1 – Part 2 – Legendary science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. (1979)
• Strike – Free – Sergei Eisenstein’s first feature film and an indicator of the brilliant films to follow. (1925)
• The Little Shop of Horrors – Free – Directed by Roger Corman with Jack Nicholson. (1960)
• The Stranger – Free – Directed by Orson Welles and starring Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young. This was Orson Welles’ only major box office success. Alternative version on Archive.org. (1946)
• The Street Fighter – Free – One of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite karate films. (1974)
• The Wild Ride – Free – A cult classic that features Jack Nicholson playing a rebellious punk in one of his first roles. Find alternate version at Archive.org (1960)
• The 39 Steps – Free – One of Alfred Hitchcock’s first hits. British thriller is based on novel with same name by John Buchan. (1935)
• Tuileries – Free – A short twisted film by Joel and Ethan Coen. Stars Steve Buscemi and takes place in Paris. (2006)
• Vampyr – Free – This horror film was Carl Theodor Dreyer’s follow-up to The Passion of Joan of Arc, and his first “talkie.” (1932)
• Waiting for Godot – Free – Performances of Waiting for Godot directed by none other than Samuel Beckett himself. (1985)

Silent Films

• Battleship Potemkin – Free – Directed by the great Russian director, Sergei Eisenstein. One of the most influential propaganda films of all time. Alternative version here. (1925)
• City Lights – Free – The funny and moving tale of a tramp who falls in love with a blind girl, City Lights is one of Charlie Chaplin’s greatest works. A silent film released two years after the arrival of “talkies,” it was nevertheless a huge popular and critical success.  Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky all placed City Lights on their list of the ten greatest films ever made. (1931)
• Film – Free – The only film project by Samuel Beckett. It stars an older Buster Keaton, and happens to be silent, though shot in 1965.
• L’Arrivée D’un Train En Gare De La Ciotat – Free – One of the most famous early silent films shot by Auguste and Louis Lumière. (1895)
• La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc – Free – Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti, this film is considered a masterpiece from the silent era. (1928)
• Metropolis – Free – Fritz Lang’s silent sci-fi classic. The shorter version. (1927)
• Modern Times – Free – Comedy film featuring Charlie Chaplin, in his Little Tramp character, offers commentary on modern industrialized world and the dismal employment conditions of the Great Depression. (1936)
• Nosferatu – Free – German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau. An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. (1922)
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Free – This silent film directed by Robert Wiene is considered one of the most influential German Expressionist films and perhaps one of the greatest horror movies of all time. (1920)
• The General – Free – Orson Welles said that Buster Keaton’s The General is “the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made. Alternate version here (1926)
• The Gold Rush – Free – Charlie Chaplin wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Gold Rush. Chaplin repeatedly said that this is the film he most wanted to be remembered for. (1925)
• The Great Train Robbery – Free – Early western film by Edwin S. Porter. A landmark in narrative filmmaking (1903)
• The Birth of a Nation – Free – Directed by DW Griffith. A landmark work in film history (1915) with racist undertones. (1915)
• The Kid – Free – This was Charlie Chaplin’s first full-length film as a director, and it is still considered one of his best. (1921)
• The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog – Free – One of Hitchcock’s silent classics. A landlady suspects her lodger is a murderer killing women around London. (1927)
• Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la lune – Free – French black & white silent sci-fi film loosely based on two novels: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells. (1902)
• Un Chien Andalou – Free – Salvador Dali and Louis Bunuel’s short, silent surrealist film. (1929)

Documentaries

• A To Zeppelin: The Story Of Led Zeppelin – Free (US audiences only) –  Chronicles the band’s history, from their 1968 formation to their reign as 1970s hard-rock giants, with rare photographs, archival footage, and interviews. (2004)
• A Brief History of Time – Free – Errol Morris’ documentary on Stephen Hawking. He called it “one of the most beautiful films I ever shot.” (1992)
• Annie Leibovitz – Life Through a Lens – Free – A documentary from the esteemed American Masters series. (2008)
• Buena Vista Social Club – Free – Ry Cooder’s outstanding look at the traditional Cuban music scene in 1999. (Limited to US audiences.)
• Dark Side of the Moon – Free – William Karel satirizes the notion that Stanley Kubrick was behind the great moon landing hoax. (2002)
• David Bowie: The Story of Ziggy Stardust – Free – Film tells the story of how Bowie arrived at one of the most iconic creations in the history of pop music. The songs, the hairstyles, the fashion, etc. (2012)
• Day of the Fight – Free – The first film shot by Stanley Kubrick, focusing on the middleweight boxer Walter Cartier. (1950)
• Fellini: A Director’s Notebook – Free – Federico Fellini introduces himself to America in experimental documentary aired on TV. (1969)
• Life in a Day – Video – Film captures for future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010. Executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.
• Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii – Free – Director’s cut. Features Pink Floyd performing six songs in the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy. (1972)
• Portrait Werner Herzog – Free – A German production directed by Herzog himself, Portrait Werner Herzog shows the director in his homeland, in Munich. (1986)
• SuperSize Me – Free – Morgan Spurlock’s documentary on fast food in America. (2004)