so what movies heavily influenced movies that came after it, whether it be a new technology created, the way the filmmaking process is done, the look of a genre, style, pacing, etc...?

i am not talking about changing EVERY movie since, but certain little or big things that left an indelible impression that when you watch a particular movie you know some element came from this other movie before.

i know i am just thinking short term here, but:

The Matrix (look, bullet time)
Star Wars (sci-fi genre in general)
Citizen Kane (out of sequence story-telling)
Reservoir Dogs (out of sequence pacing, style)
Jaws (summer blockbuster)
Jurassic Park (cgi)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (whatever Fincher did with Brad Pitt's face and body)
Toy Story (computer animation)
Avatar (new 3D)
Lord of the Rings Trilogy (motion capture with Gollum)

Saving Private Ryan (Saturated, shaky-cam look for action sequences. Not just for the look of following war movies, but many action movies have used it's style. You could also say it's responsible for allowing more battlefield-carnage to occur onscreen)

I'd put Terminator 2 ahead of Jurassic Park for cgi.

The Blair Witch Project - the beginning of cheaply-made "money-grab" horror flicks.

Rocky - the beginning of "rags to riches" sports movies (and perhaps "movie montages" as well)

One that came to my mind is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (ushered in animated films)

The Matrix didn't really change movies. Sure, there were a lot of rip-offs and parodies for a couple years, but that's died down to nothing.

I was about to say that it might also have originated the "Let's-kill-everyone-and-the-camera" ending that populates so many of their endings nowdays. But Monty Python/Holy Grail might have something to say about that.

Metropolis
Rashomon
Shadows
The Battle Of Algiers
2001
The Wild Bunch
Psycho
Breathless
Battleship Potemkin
Nanook Of The North
Nashville
Tron
L'Avventura
A Streetcar Named Desire
Easy Rider
Un Chien Andalou
Bicycle Thieves
The Jazz Singer
The Birth of a Nation
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari

Deep Throat: One of the first pornographic films to feature a plot, character development and

The German Expressionists.

'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari'
'Der Golem'
'Faust'
'Metropolis'
'M'
'The Man Who Laughs'
etc.

What does "out of sequence pacing" mean?

Pulp Fiction.

its not told from begining to end. if you've ever seen anything tarantino does, thats what it means

So it is exactly the same as "out of sequence story-telling" as he listed for Citizen Kane.

You should check out Kubrick's The Killing

I would argue that the two most influential movies on cinema today are Star Wars and Annie Hall.

My picks:

Lumiere films: Birth of Realism

Meliese films: Birth of Formalism

The Great Train Robbery: First hit "narative film"

Birth of a Nation: Pioneering in its action montage editting and cross cutting

Blackmail: I pick this instead of the Jazz Singer because the Jazz Singer sucks. This first British talky from Hitchcock uses inovative sound design

Citizen Kane: What can I say

Roshoman: Influential as one of the first foriegn films to be a INTERNATIONAL HIT. It, like Kane, is probably one of the best examples of experimental narative formal structure

L'aventura: First hit "poetic film"

2001: Hugely ambitious film with big ideas that was a big budget H'wood film AND a big hit

Jaws: Changed H'wood forever, First Big Blockbuster

This was very influential in regards to "the look" and tone of police procedurals in both the television and feature film mediums.

First thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread title. We've had to endure nearly 20 years' worth of countless movies that want to be Pulp Fiction, but aren't.

Also: Pulp Fiction is now almost a 20-year-old movie? Jesus.

Blade Runner - the old noir look in Sci Fi has been imitated endlessly since its release but never equaled.

It popularized it, but Spielberg stole it from Elem Klimov who used it in Idi i Smotri (Come and See).

Bonnie and Clyde-the film most responsible for the creation of the ratings system. If you consider ratings an influence on films.

http://scoresheet.tripod.com/paper.html

Prokofiev pretty much created the template for the modern classical film score.