re: 3 movies to capture the thrill of cinema?

I have thought a lot about this since last night, and I haven't picked 3 movies, yet. I have thought about the different types of movies you should show.

1. Spielberg. You're going to have to pick one of his movies because he basically created the summer blockbuster and had such a feel for the zeitgeist from the 70s through the 90s. He is a master technical director without relying on being too artsy fartsy, while having that ability to project Americana. I'm leaning Jurassic Park, but Jaws, Close Encounters, ET, Raiders, etc. are all valid picks in their own way.

2. I think a thriller or a comedy should be picked. These 2 genres really show the guttural reactions that movies can create. I lean thriller over comedy because comedies work better in theaters due to the effects of the group creating the thrill more than the movie. A thriller can be quite introverted in its effects and relies on nothing more than the content itself. You have a wide range from more horror films like Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Zodiac (You can insert a lot of Fincher here), The Thing...to political thrillers like The Conversation, All the President's Men, JFK, Zero Dark Thirty, The Hunt for Red October, Sicario, etc. to spy thrillers like Three Days of the Condor, Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy, North by Northwest, The Lives of Others, etc.

3. I think a lighter-subversive movie (up to and including dark comedies) should be picked. I think you can replace the comedy from 2 here pretty well. You don't need to go all Crying Game or Happiness or anything. Something more light-hearted and funny like I Heart Huckabees, Dr. Strangelove, Starship Troopers, Rushmore, Dazed and Confused, Princess Bride, Hudsucker Proxy, etc. If you want, you can go a little darker with a Scream, Brazil, or In Bruges, etc.

Limiting it to 3 really does take away options. You have to kind of combine genres to cover the most ground. You're going to likely have to cull certain genres (like pure horror or foreign) and movies that are great but unenjoyable to watch (like a Stalker). I'm still thinking of the 3 best movies to capture cinema.