I've probably seen a hundred thousand references to the novel 1984 by now, that I can tell you most of the plot, and the key points that have been parodied or referenced in thousands of places.  I've got a copy of the book still sitting unread on my bookshelf.  There must be at least a dozen other works I can think of that fall into the same category:

Rear Window
The Manchurian Candidate
Cool Hand Luke
Easy Rider
The Lion King

I've seen these now, but only after years of seeing them referenced:

Casablanca
Bonnie and Clyde
The Deer Hunter
The Birds
North By Northwest
Gone with the Wind
The Graduate

I saw The Graduate probably 15 years ago now (the others more recently) but only because I'd seen it parodied a thousand times even by that point in my life.  I sought it out precisely for that reason. I remember my senior year in high school my English teacher covered movies at the end of the semester to ride things out (and because as he pointed out, we all watch them and no one ever teaches you even the most basics of the art form).  I was the only student in the classroom who had seen the movie, yet I'm sure everyone in the classroom was familiar with key scenes that have been referenced (such as the "are you trying to seduce me" scene).

Anyone else have examples they'd like to cite?

Catch-22
Kramer vs Kramer
Easy Rider (Get your motor runnin'...)
Dr. Stangelove-well, I started to watch this but... :-\\
Citizen Kane
Sunset Boulevard ("I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Demille.")
Taxi Driver



I'll probably list more later.



Cat

Catch-22
Kramer vs Kramer
Easy Rider (Get your motor runnin'...)
Dr. Stangelove-well, I started to watch this but... :-\\
Citizen Kane
Sunset Boulevard ("I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Demille.")
Taxi Driver



I'll probably list more later.



Cat



Catch-22 I saw in college, otherwise that would have made my list... but all of those are really heavily referenced.

Scarface.  I never saw the whole movie, but I know it pretty well.  Tony Montana's line "Say hello to my little friend" is legendary!

Scarface also produced one of the best soundtrack hits of the 80s:  'Rush Rush' by Debbie Harry

Zoolander from all of the references and lines that I hear people quote.

From parodies:

LOTR
Star Wars
Harry Potter
Titanic

I've never seen LOTR or Titanic and only half of the HP and SW series.

Ant

From parodies:

LOTR
Star Wars
Harry Potter
Titanic

I've never seen LOTR or Titanic and only half of the HP and SW series.

Ant


you're not missing much by skipping Titanic... what long drawn out piece of dreck that was.  no idea why I bothered catching it on cable..

I almost would have preferred if I had stopped after the first LOTR movie... the other two didn't do as much for me.  I think they could have cut a lot of stuff out of those movies and they would have been way more enjoyable for people who aren't hard core LOTR fans.

Citizen Kane
Sunset Boulevard ("I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Demille.")


The animated TV series "Tiny Toon Adventures" did parodies of Citizen Kane and Sunset Boulevard back in the early 90s:

"Citizen Max":
http://www.tv.com/tiny-toon-adventures/citizen-max/episode/54155/summary.html?tag=ep_list;ep_title;21


"Sepulveda Boulevard":
http://www.tv.com/tiny-toon-adventures/sepulveda-boulevard/episode/54210/summary.html?tag=ep_list;ep_title;11

Watched Pinky & The Brain tonight, and caught "Mouse of La Mancha" another book I'm familiar with despite having never read it "Man of La Mancha"

Never seen The Godfather, Citizen Cane or The Blues Brothers.

Star Wars, probably the most parodied and have never seen the film

Scarface.  I never saw the whole movie, but I know it pretty well.  Tony Montana's line "Say hello to my little friend" is legendary!

Scarface also produced one of the best soundtrack hits of the 80s:  'Rush Rush' by Debbie Harry

Everyother word in scar face was fu**k, I thought it should have said THE FUC**ing end at the end of the movie

Everyother word in scar face was fu**k, I thought it should have said THE FUC**ing end at the end of the movie


I just watched Glengarry Glenn Ross the other day, and Susan could overhear it from the next room over and she thought the same thing about that movie near the end.

Strangely enough, both movies have Al Pacino in them. 

And up until last week, Glengarry Glenn Ross was a movie I knew from parodies despite having never seen it.  Alec Baldwin has a fantastic speech in the beginning that is frequently parodied.  And Jack Lemon's character is the model used for Gil on the Simpsons. 

I just watched Glengarry Glenn Ross the other day, and Susan could overhear it from the next room over and she thought the same thing about that movie near the end.


So she'd probably not appreciate your cranking up of the following two mixes:

Glengarry Glen Ross: Glengarry Mix
Glengarry Glen Ross: Ultimate Abuse Mix

The funny thing is that if anyone in the real estate industry (or behind the underwriting desk of the investment banks, when presented with a pile of CDOs) had been blessed the copper-tin-testicularity to say "These leads are sh*bleep*t.  They couldn't buy a fr*bzzt*ing toaster!  They're broke!  They're deadbeats!", we could have avoided the whole subprime/Alt-A mess and the ensuing damage to the banking system.  Too late now, but it's telling that a movie Glengarry Glen Ross told us everything we really needed to know about the business of mortgage origination.

Catch-22 I saw in college, otherwise that would have made my list... but all of those are really heavily referenced.


Haven't seen it, but know it well...used the term in high school, and the girl I said it to said, "Catch-22?  is that like 69?"
Hmmm...well, lemme think about that...NO!  :D
I knew a lot about Cats before actually having the opportunity to see the musical for free..and it was worth every penny  ;)