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What movies have you not seen, to your shame?

By Eric Robinette | Wednesday, January 30, 2008, 11:04 AM

My GO! Editor Mandy Gambrell recently regaled me with an amusing story that she had admitted she hadn’t seen …

… well, I’ll let her tell the story if she wants to, but let’s just say the fact that she hadn’t seen a certain movie from the 80s about the need for speed with a lot of jet planes caused quite a bit of consternation.

So I thought it would be fun to ask: What movie or movies are you ashamed to admit you have never seen?

Every one of us has at least a few examples of films that, if we admit we’ve never seen then, will prompt lots of bulging eyes, dropped jaws and incredulous exclamations. Why, everyone in the free world has seen (Movie X) except for us, it seems.

As incredible as it may sound, contrary to popular belief, I have not seen every movie known to man. In fact, I sheepishly admit there’s quite a few missed titles on my list that might cost me my film critics’ badge, if there were such a thing.

So I began to scour some lists to remind myself of what I have missed. Since the Oscars are coming up, I thought I’d start with the list of Best Picture winners. Here are the ones I haven’t laid eyes on yet.

Wings

Broadway Melody

All Quiet on the Western Front

Cimarron

Grand Hotel

Cavalcade

The Great Zeigfeld

The Life of Emile Zola

You Can’t Take it With You

Marty

Tom Jones

A Man for All Seasons

In the Heat of the Night

Midnight Cowboy

The Sting

Ordinary People

Out of Africa

And, just to embarrass myself even more, here are a few other notable titles I’ve never managed to catch.

Intolerance

Wild Strawberries

8 1/2

Repulsion

Cool Hand Luke

Enter the Dragon

Serpico

Suspiria

Day for Night

Breathless

Now, allow me to explain myself after the jump:

Now, before you get all riled up in cries of “You call yourself a film critic,” let me state that I actually consider all these absences an advantage, not a disadvantage. Sure, I wish I could be like so many critics I admire who’ve seen every classic multiple times.

On the other hand, not seeing these films means I have a lot to discover - and a lot to look forward to. I bet there are a lot of critics out there who would love to be able to see Midnight Cowboy or 8 1/2 for the first time.

Sometimes I’m awaiting a good opportunity to see these movies in theaters. For some ungodly reason, I never managed to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when I was a child, so I never got around to the movie until its last theatrical issue in 1993. At that time, I didn’t have a choice - the movie wasn’t available on video for years.

Another factor at play here is that I actually have a lot of these titles in my collection, like Ordinary People and All Quiet on the Western Front and You Can’t Take It With You. One of the quirks of being a movie buff is that we’re so busy collecting and recording movies is that we never get around to - you know, actually watching the darn things.

But I’ve done my part, so now it’s your turn to fess up. What movies have you not seen that seemingly everyone else on the planet has? And help me out a little - which of the movies that I’ve not seen should I prioritize?

Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Ask the Audience

Comments

By Kim

February 5, 2008 1:09 PM | Link to this

Interesting topic! Gosh - there are lots for me. I am another one that tends to collect movies without watching them - just like I collect fabric without sewing it - ha! I finally saw “A Christmas Story” last year - never had seen that one. I am missing some of the same films, but have caught many of those - especially “The Sting”, which I LOVE and have watched multiple times, along with Sundance. Redford and Newman were magic together for me! I still need to see “Cool Hand Luke” (I only recently found out that “What we have here is a failure to communicate” was a line from that movie - zoinks!) and “Midnight Cowboy.” I’ve also never seen “Psycho”, though much of it is like public consciousness. So many movies…so little time…

By Hillary

January 31, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this

Until a few years ago I didn’t recall ever seeing “It’s A Wonderful Life” and I’ve never actually watched “A Christmas Story”. As for regular movies, I’ve never seen any of the Monty Python movies… (On a side note, I’m now really glad that I finally watched “It’s A Wonderful Life,” because I do love it)

By SRCputt

January 31, 2008 9:35 AM | Link to this

Eric, your top priority on your list, in my opinion, should be Day for Night, an absolute valentine to moviemaking. Allie, I’ll pledge to see Chinatown soon, but you need to pledge to see Sunset Blvd. I’d say Lawrence, but unfortunately if you haven’t seen it on a movie screen, you haven’t seen it. (Hey Eric, what movies NEED to be seen on a screen is a future topic) And Allie, I would definitely wait to see Harold and Maude, easily the most overrated film on your list.

By TJ

January 31, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this

Never seen ET either or Jaws or quite a few of Steven Speilburg’s work. Not by intention, just never really got around to seeing one.

By margo

January 31, 2008 2:47 AM | Link to this

I’m sad to report I’ve never seen “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Taxi Driver.” Love all those actors and still hope to see both films someday.

By Allie D

January 31, 2008 2:33 AM | Link to this

SRC — I command thee to make Chinatown the next movie you watch. For reals. No one should have that one of off their list. No one. :)

By SRCputt

January 30, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this

Keying off the IMDb list of greatest movies, I will list as unseen The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Once Upon a Time in the West, Paths of Glory, The Third Man, Chinatown, and The Lives of Others as my misses from IMDb’s top 50. And sadly, I haven’t seen City Lights either.

By Kelle

January 30, 2008 1:40 PM | Link to this

Great topic! I too have an embarassing list and I am a movie nut. Another interesting list would be how many movies (DVDs or VHSs) someone owns. I think I could rival about anyone. I’ve never seen many of the older, classic movies like The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The African Queen,The Graduate and many more. I’ve also never seen Life is Beautiful or many of the Oscar nominated films for 2007.

By Welsh Ex-Pat

January 30, 2008 1:03 PM | Link to this

The one big movie from my childhood/youth that I have never seen (and actively avoid ever watching) is “ET”!

By Allie D.

January 30, 2008 12:33 PM | Link to this

You know, I was starting to go down your list, nodding my head, not feeling so bad myself because I hadn’t seen many of those films either. And then: “In the Heat of the Night???” “Out of Africa??” “Cool Hand Luke????” Dude… I saw “Luke” and “Night” in my film crit class in high school. Those are compulsory viewing! I’m kidding around with you, of course. I have no room to talk. I’ve seen a few of the others on your list, like Serpico, Ordinary People, and Enter the Dragon, but some of your titles are westerns, and I have to admit that I’m lacking severely in that genre. Anyway, here is my even more embarrassing than yours list: Lawrence of Arabia, City Lights, A Street Car Named Desire, Sunset Blvd, To Kill a Mockingbird, Double Indemnity, Das Boot, Notorious, Harold and Maude, the original King Kong, MASH, The Wild Bunch, The French Connection. There are many many others, but I figure I’ll stop embarrassing myself now. A lot of these were on my Netflix queue, but I canceled my membership. So when I get it running again, I’ll get back to playing catch-up. :)
 

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