There are more ways to watch movies from the comfort of your home than ever, but which classic films are still not available to stream in the UK?
With the rise of streaming platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+ and Apple TV+ now a regular part of many people’s lives, there are also specialist subscription services like Shudder for horror fans and Mubi for the arthouse crowd.
Alongside the likes of BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s online service, which are free for UK residents, there is also a large archive of films to stream for subscribers via Sky Go and NOW TV. But despite all these options, there are still plenty of films that slip through the cracks and appear on none of the streaming services.
Among them are Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed trilogy of Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Often considered among the best superhero movies ever made, the three Christian Bale-led films are not on any of the streaming options in the UK, although they can be rented or bought digitally through the likes of Sky Store, Apple TV, YouTube and Google Play.
One of Nolan’s other most celebrated films, 2006’s The Prestige, is also absent from streaming. The mystery surrounds the story of two magicians – played by Bale and Hugh Jackman – whose intense rivalry leads them on a lifelong battle for supremacy, with deadly consequences. Also starring Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall and David Bowie, the film has to be bought or rented on digital or physical formats to be watched legally in the UK.
Other classic films missing from all streaming platforms are David Fincher’s edgy serial killer thriller Se7en, with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, as well as fellow ‘90s crime drama American History X, which stars Edward Norton as a recently reformed leader of a neo-Nazi white supremacy gang.
Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For A Dream, a head-spinning 2000 psychological drama about four Coney Island residents struggling with drug addiction, is another that cannot be accessed via streaming, as is 1994’s Leon: The Professional, Luc Besson’s beloved 1994 thriller about a hitman who reluctantly takes in 12-year-old Matilda, played by a young Natalie Portman.
Among films of an older vintage, Francis Ford Coppola’s immense Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now (1979) is not on streaming. Following Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard down the river into Cambodia, the film encounters Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz, who is rumoured to have gone insane with tyrannical power.
Milos Forman’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is also off the streaming table. The film about the travails of Jack Nicholson’s petty criminal who fakes insanity to serve time in a mental institution rather than prison, is one of only three films to have won all five major Oscars – Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay (the others being It Happened One Night and The Silence Of The Lambs).
Legendary directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick are also not well supported by the streaming services. The former’s films, such as Psycho (1960) and North By Northwest (1959) are not available other than to buy or rent, and nor are the latter’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Dr. Strangelove (1964).
While film fans have never had more to choose from as they settle in for a movie night, there are still countless classics that remain elusive, no matter how many subscriptions your household has dished out for.
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