Oh, why not?
1928 – Wings: no
1928 – Sunrise: no (read the Wikipedia explanation on this)
1929 – The Broadway Melody: no
1930 – All Quiet on the Western Front: Seems that I’ve seen parts of it on TV, not enough to say yes
1931 – Cimarron: ditto
1932 – Grand Hotel: no
1933 – Cavalcade: no
1934 – It Happened One Night: No, and given its pedigree(Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay), I feel that I ought to. I’ve seen that famous clip with Claudette Colbert showing Clark Gable how to stop a car dozens of times.
1935 – Mutiny on the Bounty: Saw this on TV years ago, but wasn’t the movie experience I need to really appreciate the film. This isn’t knocking the film, just the environment in which I saw it.
1936 – The Great Ziegfeld: Don’t think so.
1937 – The Life of Emile Zola: no
1938 – You Can’t Take It With You: Seems that I started watching this on broadcast TV.
1939 – Gone With the Wind: Started to maybe three times. Can’t, or deep down, really don’t want to. Seems I’ve seen the burning of Atlanta scene a number of times though, including the first time it aired on network TV a couple decades back.
1940 – Rebecca: no.
1941 – How Green Was My Valley: no
1942 – Mrs. Miniver: no
1943 – Casablanca: Now this is a film I’ve seen, and more than once. It may not have been the first time, but I recall seeing this film outdoor near Rochester with my now-lost friend Debi. I did enjoy this tremendously.
1944 – Going My Way: Saw this on video. It’s OK. Don’t remember it that well, to tell the truth.
1945 – The Lost Weekend: No, but I really want to.
1946 – The Best Years of Our Lives: I did see this, on TV. Didn’t know anything about it except the title. Found it moving, but left me a tad melancholy.
1947 – Gentleman’s Agreement: No, or did I?
1948 – Hamlet: I recorded it at some point. Still haven’t watched it.
1949 – All the King’s Men: Don’t think so.
1950 – All About Eve: I started to, on broadcast TV, but never finished it.
1951 – An American in Paris: Seems that I’ve seen it on PBS or something, years ago. The musical numbers were great and still vivid in my mind, but the rest felt somehow lacking.
1952 – The Greatest Show on Earth: I’m sure I saw it on TV as a kid, but don’t remember enough to comment.
1953 – From Here to Eternity: I’m afraid not yet.
1954 – On the Waterfront: Saw this sometime this century on TV. Quite good. Always liked Lee J. Cobb.
1955 – Marty: not yet
1956 – Around the World in 80 Days: Feels like more TV fare from my childhood.
1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai: I don’t know that I’ve ever sat from beginning to end, but I’ve seen great chunks of it, enough to appreciate its greatness.
1958 – Gigi: On TV as a kid.
1959 – Ben-Hur: ditto, should probably see again.
1960 – The Apartment: parts, on broadcast TV.
1961 – West Side Story – OK, a movie I saw in the movie theater at the time it came out! Sure it’s a bit dated, but I LOVE this movie. I’ve probably mentioned it on this blog about a dozen times. I’m heavily versed how the musical differs from the movie (the strategic switch of Cool and Gee, Officer Krupke), the dubbing by Marni Nixon. The ending still gets to me. Did I mention that I’m rather fond of this film? Own on VHS and DVD. Have both the Broadway and movie albums.
1962 – Lawrence of Arabia: On TV at some point, but probably didn’t do it justice.
1963 – Tom Jones: no
1964 – My Fair Lady: On TV, enjoyed it well enough.
1965 – The Sound of Music: This movie I saw fairly recently. Much more substantial storyline than I had recalled. And I LOVE the music, even if it encourages Gwen Stefani.
1966 – A Man For All Seasons: Saw years ago, don’t remember much at all.
1967 – In the Heat of the Night: Oh, my. I’m not sure it’s a great film, but it spoke about race in a way that hadn’t seen seen much in American cinema. The slaps in the face were jaw-dropping at the time. Here’s a review that pretty well reflects my opinion.
1968 – Oliver!: Seen bits and pieces.
1969 – Midnight Cowboy: I saw this film four times the first year it came out. Has my favorite line that I use to this day, “I’m WALKING here!” Don’t know if it would still stand up for me, but seeing the clips has a visceral feeling of awe.
1970 – Patton: broadcast TV, didn’t see enough of it.
1971 – The French Connection: Did I see this in Poughkeepsie? (Sorry, line from the movie.) Saw it in the movie theater. Don’t know that it was a great film, but I got caught up in it anyway, especially the chase scene.
1972 – The Godfather: Seems that I was in Binghamton, but that my friends Carol & Jon, and my then-girlfriend Nona drove to Syracuse to see this film. Undoubtedly a masterful work, but along with seeing Catch-22 and A Clockwork Orange, got me off most movies rated R for violence for nearly a decade. It was the horse, the dance that Jimmy Caan does when he’s character’s killed, the keyhole. Haven’t seen the movie since, and I still have too vivid recollections.
1973 – The Sting: In the theater. It was a fun film (with one disturbing scene, I think), the camaraderie was great, the music was great.
1974 – The Godfather Part II: No, still haven’t seen it. I’m sure it’s great.
1975 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Saw it in a theater years after its release. Great movie.
1976 – Rocky: Saw this movie in Charlotte, NC with my mother. I think it was a bit violent for her, but she liked it. I liked it. A bit cornball, but it worked.
1977 – Annie Hall: Warrants its own post. Saw it four times in the theater. My touchstone movie.
1978 – The Deer Hunter: Was still avoiding the R-rated violence. Never saw.
1979 – Kramer vs. Kramer: I saw Dustin Hoffman on that Actor’s Studio show and he explained that the dialogue at the end was ad libbed. His performance and Meryl Streep’s kept this from soap opera. I felt the sense of frustration the Hoffman character felt. Saw in the theater.
1980 – Ordinary People: I remember liking it at the time, when I saw in the theater, as much for Mary Tyler Moore playing against type as anything. Depressing, though.
1981 – Chariots of Fire: I saw this in the theater the week after the movie won for Best Picture, with my girlfriend at the time, and her son, and we all felt “Is that all there is?” Pretty vistas weren’t enough. Here’s a case where high expectations probably ruined the film for me. I should probably watch it again.
1982 – Gandhi: Epic, moving, I thought at the time when I saw it in the theater, but I haven’t seen it since, and don’t specifically REMEMBER scenes, just feelings.
1983 – Terms of Endearment: Or as I am wont to call it, “Tears of Internment”. Actually, I probably liked the first half, when I saw it in the theater, but after that, pretty much hated it.
1984 – Amadeus: I liked it a lot at the time I saw it in the theater; didn’t care about the historical inaccuracies.
1985 – Out of Africa: Saw in the movie theater, thought it looked nice, but it never engaged me.
1986 – Platoon: Never saw, although I feel that I have.
1987 – The Last Emperor: Saw this in the movie theater and fell asleep. Maybe I was just tired.
1988 – Rain Man: I liked it when I saw it in the theater, thought that Tom Cruise was actually pretty good in it. Got into great debates about whether his character could change so much in a six-day car ride; I contended that it was plausible. Have the soundtrack; the first half includes great tunes I love, the second half standard soundtrack fare.
1989 – Driving Miss Daisy: Had real ambivalence about seeing Morgan Freeman’s “wise old black man” character as someone put it. It was good, but felt very stagy. Saw in a theater.
1990 – Dances With Wolves: I liked it in parts, but it was too long by about 30 minutes. In theater.
1991 – The Silence of the Lambs: Was visiting my parents and was watching HBO, started watching it, bailed.
1992 – Unforgiven: Ambivalent about seeing a western, but ended up liking this movie quite a bit. In the theater.
1993 – Schindler’s List -Oh, yeah. I did see this film in the theater. It’s a very good film. I will NEVER see this film again. I spent more time dissecting this film with the two people I saw it with than the film’s ample running time.
1994 – Forrest Gump: Talked about this here. Some of the others too, I see. The other thing about this movie is the soundtrack picked such the cliches (For What It’s Worth, Get Together) That said, I do own it – bought it used – for the songs that I didn’t own on CD.
1995 – Braveheart: Saw this on a huge screen at Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady, the place you’d want to see a film like this. Ultimately, though, there was at least one too many battle scenes. And that tortured messianic scene at the end – yuck. Made me know that I wouldn’t be seeing his films about Christ or the Amazon people, thank you.
1996 – The English Patient: My goodness, I forgot this won. I was bored to tears by this movie in the theater.
1997 – Titanic: A very schizo movie, part romance, part disaster film. Don’t know that I LIKED it when I saw it in the theater so much as admired the chutzpah of gambling big and pulling it off. Actually liked some of the incidental music, but I don’t expect to see this film again. Ever.
1998 – Shakespeare in Love: I liked it when I saw in the theater. Best picture? Maybe not.
1999 – American Beauty: I liked this one a lot at the time, when I saw it in the theater, but I’m not remembering why.
2000 – Gladiator: Didn’t see, wasn’t interested in seeing.
2001 – A Beautiful Mind: Liked it well enough when I saw it in the theater, but don’t imagine watching again soon.
2002 – Chicago: I was rather fond of it when I saw it in the theater. Occasionally very funny, and occasionally (as with the only woman probably innocent of the crime), somewhat poignant.
2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Saw the first LotR movie, thought it was fine, didn’t feel compelled to get through the other two. But then, I couldn’t get through 50 pages when I read The Hobbit, which I know to be grand treachery, but there it is.
2004 – Million Dollar Baby: This was the year Lydia was born. Really wanted to see this, but it just didn’t happen.
2005 – Crash: Lots of people HATE this movie, just HATE it. One of my office mates was going on about it recently, citing that it was just condescendingly telling us what we already know. Others hated it for the contrivance of the interlocking stories. For the former, I found that it rang true in my own life, the sibling thing, particularly – maybe Joe Biden should go see it – and for the latter, I was willing to accept the premise. Saw in the theater BEFORE the buzz.
And here’s my theory why Brokeback Mountain lost to Crash, which I, BTW, predicted: most Oscar voters saw it on DVD, where all that Western vista stuff might have been boring. To be honest, I was a little bored myself in the theater; the story didn’t really grab me until they got off the mountain, and Academy voters, with tons of films to view in a short time, might well have just given up on it.
