If you’re cutting back on streaming services in October, there are still plenty of places you can look for your movies. Each month, YouTube offers users a free (ad-supported) library of films to stream, ranging from the obscure to all-time classics.
Here are the seven best movies you can watch for free on YouTube in October.
“All the President’s Men”
“All the President’s Men” is a miracle of a movie. The film, directed by Alan J. Pakula and written by William Goldman, stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during their history-changing Watergate investigation. One could call the film realistic to a fault, taking audiences through every tedious step of the minutiae that make great investigative journalism — the endless phone calls, the guarded conversations, the monetary paper trails.
But one would be wrong. In this realism, Pakula builds something in between a documentary and a thriller, giving this newspaper-set political drama an intense and engaging energy. “All the President’s Men” relates one of the most significant American stories of all time (when the film was released, less than four years in the past) in a manner that grants it as much mystery and intrigue as the best whodunnit.
This speaks to a lot of moving pieces: Pakula’s direction, Goldman’s screenplay, Gordon Willis’ cinematography and Redford and Hoffman’s dual lead performances. It’s been said a lot in the weeks since his passing that Redford displays some of film’s strongest “phone acting” in “All the President’s Men,” with the actor making a meal out of lengthy landline conversations as the frame rests squarely on his visage. It’s a testament to how utterly compelling Redford was as a screen presence. If watching him juggle phone calls is this entertaining, you have to imagine you’d have a decent enough time watching him read the phone book.
“Army of Darkness”
The trailer for “Send Help,” Sam Raimi’s upcoming feature starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien released Tuesday, reminding fans of the heyday of the horror-comedy filmmaker. “Send Help” will release nearly 17 years after “Drag Me To Hell,” the last time Raimi lent his singular voice to an original film (in the meantime, he made “Oz the Great and Powerful” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” to keep himself busy). Of course, Raimi’s iconic “Spider-Man” trilogy proves that he can fit excellently into IP — but the loss of his own feature ventures remains profound.
Films like “Army of Darkness” are a reminder of how wonderful Raimi is when working in his own sandbox. Here, the director (writing the screenplay with his brother Ivan Raimi) follows up on his “Evil Dead” series in an utterly bizarre fashion, throwing his chainsaw-handed protagonist into the Middle Ages as he battles a horde of the undead. The sequel leans far more into humor than horror, bringing the “Evil Dead” trilogy to a hilarious and unexpected conclusion. At the same time, it keeps the mean streak that makes Raimi films (particularly his horror ventures) so exhilarating — and that makes “Send Help” a hopeful return to form.
“Die Hard with a Vengeance”
“Die Hard with a Vengeance” may be one of the most ideal movies to watch on YouTube for free — a movie that feels just as destined for lazy cable rewatches as it does for movie theater screenings. The film sees Bruce Willis’ John McClane team up with Samuel L. Jackson’s Zeus Carver as the pair attempts to solve puzzles across New York City set up by a terrorist (played by Jeremy Irons). The film is high-energy and endlessly fun, with Willis and Jackson making a tremendous on-screen pair. It’s hard for any action movie to live up to the perfection of “Die Hard,” but “With a Vengeance” gets pretty close.
“Legally Blonde”
“Legally Blonde” is, full stop, one of the finest comedies of the early 2000s. Reese Witherspoon stars as Elle Woods, a recently-dumped sorority girl who, after being told she’s not serious enough for her ex-boyfriend, proves she has what it takes to make it through Harvard Law School (what, like it’s hard?).
Witherspoon’s performance in the film is an absolute knockout, playing Elle with excellent comic chops and deep empathy. Based on the novel of the same name by Amanda Brown, the screenplay from Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith is both amusing and crowd-pleasing, brought to life extraordinarily by Witherspoon. The film has been reiterated upon through sequel, musical and, soon, prequel TV series. Though the necessity of some of these re-adaptations can be debated, it’s not hard to see why people keep returning to this film.
“Signs”
“Signs” marks one of the spookier entries you can watch on YouTube for free this October, with the service housing M. Night Shyamalan’s follow-up to “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable.” The movie is, like many Shyamalan endeavors, fairly controversial, with some deriding the ultimate narrative of this mash-up of faith and extra-terrestrial horror.
While “Signs” may be far from perfect, it’s even farther from being a flop. Shyamalan’s seemingly endless well of earnestness lends itself well to this interstellar thriller, which uses an alien invasion to prompt a grieving man’s exploration of his once-boundless faith.
I still remember a young version of myself stumbling upon the scene from “Signs” where an alien makes a brief appearance in home video TV footage. At the time, I found the scene truly terrifying, a horrific moment that almost seemed too natural to come from a movie. What I did not anticipate until I watched the film was just how emotionally moving I would find “Signs” to be.
“Unforgiven”
1992’s “Unforgiven” is the first of two Best Picture winners helmed by Clint Eastwood, and a fascinating addition to the actor-turned-director’s filmography. The movie, which stars Eastwood himself, serves as a deconstruction of the Western films that launched the actor’s career — it essentially plays as a coda to the “Man with No Name” trilogy Eastwood starred in. The director delivers a terrific performance in his own film, with outstanding supporting turns from Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. It’s a deserved Best Picture winner, and a thought-provoking entry in the actor/director’s middle career.
“The Verdict”
A struggling, over-the-hill, alcoholic lawyer takes on a long-shot case and, in the process, saves his soul. The building blocks of “The Verdict” are incredibly traditional and have been seen in plenty of films since. Yet when your story is directed by Sidney Lumet, written by David Mamet and led by Paul Newman, “traditional” hardly matters. This trio, alongside a stellar supporting cast of Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden and James Mason, makes “The Verdict” a lasting classic of the legal drama genre. Newman’s highly emotive performance is moving and profound, standing among the finest turns in his career — and with a filmography like his, that’s really saying something.
