Citizen Kane, Star Wars, The Sopranos, Deadwood--everyone has seen those movies and shows, right? After all, they're classics. But sometimes catching up with the classics just...uh...doesn't happen. Sometimes, we have big, gaping holes in our list of Movies Watched or TV Shows Marathoned.
This is your place to confess. (Or to brag. Whatever!) What great--or "great"--movie or show haven't you seen? Are you embarrassed about your cinematic lacunae, or do you just not care?
You might find the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies list a useful brain-teaser if you know you haven't seen all of the greats, but can't remember the name of that Kurosawa flick people are always going on about. Entertainment Weekly also did a series last year on the 100 All-Time Greatest Films and TV Shows.
I'll even get the ball rolling by admitting that I've only seen about 5 minutes of It's a Wonderful Life.
What about you?
Oh this is going to be an embarrassing thread for me. Somehow I missed out on a LOT. Particularly where movies are concerned. Star Wars, the Godfather are the big ones. Also Apocalypse Now, pretty much any war movie now that I think of it, LITERALLY ANY western, a lot of old school movie musicals (West Side Story!), a bunch of sci-fi (2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes). Also never seen Sleepless in Seattle the whole way through.
ReplyDeleteI did use to feel guilty about this but not anymore. All those that sunbunny listed, I've never seen either (except I do love Sleepless in Seattle, lol!). Same thing with TV shows, music and books. Like in school, I almost lost my taste for reading (and I love reading!) after reading some classics that we had to read for class.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I find life too short to oblige myself to sit through a movie that I'm not attracted to at all just because it's a classic or because it's on a top 100 list. Also, I'm from Québec, so I have the culture stuff from here, other francophone stuff, and all English language cultural stuff to deal with. It's definitely a plus and I love having access to all this culture, but it also makes it even more daunting to watch, read and listen to all the classics!
Mad Men. Haven't seen a single episode. Don't know why,I'm sure it's good but I'm okay without it.
ReplyDeleteSopranos. Made it trough one episode, then I gave up. It's not the violence, I've seen much worse on various shows. It just didn't appeal to me. I was sad about James Gandolfini dying last year, cause I've seen his film work and it was good. So, yeah I know it's a good show, it's just not for me.
Oddly, there are very few movies or television shows that I feel I should watch, but have never seen. Especially now with the streaming services, it is so easy to watch anything.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it is books. My list of books that I eventually want to read is enormous and grows almost daily. There are books on that list (ahem, War and Peace) that I swear I will read one day, even though in the deepest, secret part of my soul I know I never will.
The other big difference for me is that once I start a book, I must finish it. It may take me years (and some have), but I will eventually get through it. I do not have this compulsion with movies or television. I will watch a series for years (Bones and Grey's are two examples), but then walk away, only occasionally looking back. Weird, huh?
I'm like Chris, there are few shows or movies I haven't see but when it comes to books my to read list is like ten Padaleckis long.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the top hundred movies, I guess I can boast a little -- except for the really early ones, I've seen nearly all of them, including Citizen Kane which I didn't care much for, and I own copies of maybe twenty movies on the list. Casablanca and On the Waterfront are my two favorite classic old movies, Singin' in the Rain is my favorite musical, and Blade Runner my favorite sci-fi movie. I've refused to sit through Raging Bull and Apocalypse Now, though, and there are a few I watched only once a long time ago, like the westerns The Searchers and Shane.
ReplyDeleteI'm maybe not so good with the TV shows because I don't care for most sitcoms, soaps, procedurals and reality shows. I've seen all the sci-fi shows, of course.
Despite my love of books, I haven't read enough of the classics. But I'm okay with that. ChrisB, I actually did read a couple of hundred pages of War and Peace and decided I just didn't care enough to continue with it.
sunbunny, you haven't seen Star Wars???
I used to feel guilty about the classic movies and shows I haven't watched...but no more. There's only so much time in the day, after all, and I've found that I have to make sure I take my allotted media time for something that I'll be sure to enjoy. Not that I don't experiment sometimes, but I don't want to waste that hour and a half watching something that I'll regret later.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I really need to watch The Producers.
As per the AFI list, I've seen every movie except for The General. I was a hardcore film nerd in my teenage years so I thought I needed to check out the "best" movies at one point or another. FWIW, I do think there are better movies that should've been on that list. The reversal is also true: there are some movies on that list that I don't think deserve the "best" tag. Taste being subjective and all that.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, there are many shows I've never watched both old (Cheers) and new (Castle). I'm not stressed about that, though, because there are a LOT of other shows I do watch and enjoy.
Went down the AFI 100 list and was surprised that I have seen damn near all of them. Many I forgot about. Only a few that I would watch again or over and over. Mostly Hitchcock. The thrill of watching a well oiled machine run or hearing a Mozart symphony I guess.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen an ounce of Mad Men, Walking Dead, or Game Of Thrones. Episode attrition there. If I don't get into a show at the start, I'm too lazy to catch up if it's a couple of seasons in. So I'm in major water cooler chat exile there.
I took two semesters of Russian lit. All Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. All of it. I read and read and read except in the shower, lost contact with friends, and still didn't finish everything.
I'm really sparse on the ancient classics. No Iliad. No Odyssey. No Inferno. Did read Paradise Lost though. And Paradise Regained!
Billie - Nope! :)
ReplyDeleteAs far as TV shows, there are some I haven't seen Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, the Sopranos, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire, but none that I really want to see, you know?
I'm bad with books, too, because I tend to just reread my favorites over and over. I've never read Ulysses (although there it sits on my shelf, glaring at me), I've never read any of the Russian greats (although I don't think I want to).
I've never seen ET, and I've never seen Avatar. And I never will. I did realise recently, though, that if I want to see all the old musicals, which I do, that isn't magically going to happen, so I'm now taking steps to get through them.
ReplyDeleteAs for my book TBR list, I keep adding ones at the top, and the bottom gets further and further out of sight. I dread to think what's down there. Dragons, probably.