Netflix doesn’t have a robust selection of films from before the year 2000, and even fewer flicks that were made before 1990. One of the reasons why is because Netflix is reliant on outside studios for movies that were filmed any time before the streamer started making its own stories. And the older films aren’t always a priority.
That doesn’t mean Netflix has completely ignored the history of the medium. There are still a handful of truly great movies on Netflix, including recent additions Blade Runner: The Final Cut, When We Were Kings, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. You can find those films and more among the best classic movies on Netflix right now.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982)
Hollywood’s love affair with the works of science fiction author Philip K. Dick first took flight in director Ridley Scott‘s seminal cult classic Blade Runner. Just one year removed from playing Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harrison Ford stepped out of the shadow of that role and from Han Solo when he portrayed Rick Deckard, a cynical ex-LAPD officer in the then future year of 2019.
Deckard is a blade runner, a bounty hunter whose targets are replicants, human-like androids who rebel against their programing. Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Pris (Daryl Hannah), Leon Kowalski (Brion James), and Zhora Salome (Joanna Cassidy) haven’t just gone rogue, they can almost pass as human. As Deckard investigates their whereabouts, he comes face-to-face with evidence that some replicants may be even more human than he is.
Watch Blade Runner: The Final Cut on Netflix.
When We Were Kings (1996)
The 50th anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman passed in 2024, but the 30th anniversary of the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings will arrive in 2026. Leon Gast spent just over two decades piecing together this film, which captures the events leading to one of the most famous boxing matches of all time.
It’s an incredible look back at Ali and Foreman in their prime, as well as their dueling narratives at the time. The Rumble in the Jungle is famous for what happened when those two met in the ring, but the stories — and the familiar faces of celebrities, including James Brown and B.B. King — surrounding that event are just as fascinating decades later.
Watch When We Were Kings on Netflix.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989)
The late Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder were one hell of a comedy duo during their four films together from 1976 to 1991. Their penultimate flick was See No Evil, Hear No Evil, which cast Pryor as a blind man named Wally and Wilder as Dave, who is deaf. They work together at a small shop, and they help each other compensate for their disabilities.
Wally and Dave find themselves in danger when a stranger is murdered in their shop, and neither man witnessed the crime directly. When the cops believe that Dave and Wally are responsible for the murder, they have to evade law enforcement officers and the killer, Eve (Joan Severance), as well as her henchman, Kirgo (Kevin Spacey).
Watch See No Evil, Hear No Evil on Netflix.
Apollo 13 (1995)
Tom Hanks is the last performer to win Best Actor back-to-back at the Oscars for his leading roles in Philadelphia and Forest Gump. He probably should have had a three-peat for Apollo 13, director Ron Howard’s meticulously crafted drama about a real-life disaster in space.
Commander Jim Lovell (Hanks) leads his Apollo 13 team, Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise (Bill Paxton), on a mission to land on the moon. When their ship experiences a major malfunction and begins leaking oxygen, White Team Flight Director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) and the rest of NASA attempt to bring the trio safely home. But without the navigation systems, Lovell and his men don’t have much room to make any mistakes.
Watch Apollo 13 on Netflix.
Schindler’s List (1993)
Before he became an action icon, Liam Neeson was nominated for Best Actor for his turn as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. This World War II drama is based on the true story of Schindler’s experiences, including his status as a war profiteer and a member of the Nazi party.
But as Schindler’s eyes are opened to the atrocities of the Holocaust, he and his right-hand man, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), focus on saving as many Jewish lives as possible. It’s an endeavor that drains Schindler’s fortunes and forces him to make difficult choices that come to define him.
Watch Schindler’s List on Netflix.
Awakenings (1990)
Robin Williams shows off his dramatic chops in Awakenings, a drama based on the book by Oliver Sacks. Williams plays Malcolm Sayer, a doctor at a New York hospital in 1960 who is treating patients who contracted encephalitis lethargica nearly three decades beforehand. Although their illness is far from understood, Sayer correctly deduces that the drug L-DOPA may bring them out of their decades of slumber.
To everyone’s astonishment, the first test subject, Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), comes out of his catatonic state fully awake and eager to pick up the pieces of his life. It’s a miracle that gives Lowe the chance to find a romantic connection with Paula (Penelope Ann Miller), the daughter of another patient. But as more victims are awakened from their comas, Lowe and Sayer learn that their treatment isn’t the cure they believed it to be.
Watch Awakenings on Netflix.
