"You NEVER saw...?!"

Everyone has different ideas of what constitutes a “must-see” movie. Sometimes it's determined by generation, other times by gender. Some films appeal to a wide range of tastes while others appeal to more specific audiences. Some movies are universal, standing the test of time to be accepted by any age, gender, or social class as Something Great.

I'm no film geek, but I'm working hard to change that. My whole life has been a struggle to see what my peers have seen, and I'm always a few steps behind. As a kid my parents were very selective about what they took me to see, and we've never had cable. As an adult with a strong appreciation for every featurette, commentary, and deleted scene DVDs offer, I'm realizing films I've “seen” on broadcast television were pale shadows of themselves, and I may need to revisit some someday. I had friends with cable, and eventually we got a VCR, and of course by the time I was a teenager I was getting out to the theaters on my own. By then, the damage was already done. I had missed some major motion pictures, and as it was found it hard to keep up with all the new ones coming out each week.

I watch anywhere from 4-6 DVDs a week, and my Netflix queue is constantly at the 500 maximum, with a list of another 100 or so titles on my harddrive that I add in when I have room. I've been watching movies at this pace since last June, and after a year people still come up with movies about which they'll incredulously ask me, “You NEVER saw ________?!” Reactions vary from group to group, of course. While office friends were shocked to learn I only recently saw Goonies, friends at a BBQ last week scoffed that Goonies wasn't “must-see” and went on to list everything from Spaghetti Westerns to Blacula to Boys n the Hood. “What did you DO with your life? I know you weren't goin' out...” asked one friend.

Tastes vary, and it is arguable between different groups what constitutes a must-see movie. I'm a man on a possibly impossible mission. How many movies have I missed? How many come out on cable stations or DVD? How many come out in theaters each week, mainstream or art? It's tough to keep up even at the rate I'm going, and reading a spoof in Mad Magazine and faking jacks about seeing a film isn't going to cut it like it did back in third grade. I can't list every movie I've seen in the theater, seen in general, seen this past year, or haven't seen at all. But I can offer a sliver, a glimpse into one of MCF's deepest, darkest secrets:

”You just saw these films in the past YEAR?!”

The Lost Boys
Citizen Kane
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
It's a Wonderful Life
Rear Window
High Noon
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Platoon
Goonies
Young Guns
Young Guns II
Seven Samurai
The Magnificent Seven
The Towering Inferno
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Rain Man
Full Metal Jacket
An American Tail
Top Gun
Days of Thunder
Scarface
Barbarella
Flight of the Navigator
Excalibur


”Wow....so what are some of the bigger movies still on your list to see?”

Boys n the Hood
Serpico
Gone with the Wind
Mad Max
The Road Warrior
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Dirty Harry(and its four sequels)
First Blood(and its sequels)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
A Fistful of Dollars
Field of Dreams
The Dirty Dozen
Bullitt
Porky's(and sequels)
North by Northwest
Patton
Gandhi
Legend
The Neverending Story
Rebel Without a Cause
On the Waterfront
Ghost
Dirty Dancing
Pretty Woman


”Unbelievable, especially if this is only a fraction of what you haven't seen. So what movies did you see in the theater as a kid? What were some of the first films you went to see on your own?”

The Secret of NIMH
Annie
E.T.
Return of the Jedi
Gremlins
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Transformers: The Movie
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
*Batteries Not Included
Navy SEALS
JFK
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Rocketeer

*****

::Phew:: I wanted to get that off my chest for some time now. Admitting I have a problem is the first step. Just as a point of reference, I was born in 1974 so I have an excuse for missing some of these movies, but not all. It would be impossible to list all the movies I have seen, so I stopped that list around my teenage years. If it had aliens or superheroes though, there's a good chance I've seen it.

This is not a meme, but in hindsight I see my three categories are ones that others could take a crack at, if they so choose. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to watching the special behind-the-scenes featurettes on Species III...