Last night, I watched a movie, Super Troopers that I had quite enjoyed when I saw it a few years back on the big screen. A couple weeks ago when I found the flick on sale at Best Buy, I snapped it up, thinking that it would entertain me as it had when I first watched it. Only last night, it left me cold. And while I did laugh a few times, I was generally bored with the feature. I had a similar experience with Spaceballs a movie I loved when the first time I saw it.
I am fascinated that certain movies that we once enjoyed just don’t hold up for a second viewing. A few days ago, a friend and I noted that while as kids, we both loved Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as adults, we found it interminable.
Perhaps it’s that while some children’s movies (e.g., The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King) have characters and themes which resonate for adults as well as kids, some children’s movies are just that, movies for children. I highly doubt that I would have enjoyed Ice Age: The Meltdown as much as I had, had I not gone to see it with the second eldest PatriotNieceWest. A few years back, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing 102 Dalmations with her and her cousin (the third eldest PatriotNieceWest).
So it seems it’s our circumstances at the time we see a movie which effect how we enjoy it as much as how we relate to the film’s content itself. A movie which we enjoyed as a child leaves us a cold as an adult. But, if we see that same flick with a beloved niece, nephew or godchild, we have entirely different experience. Similarly, a movie which leaves us cold when we first see it moves us when, for some reason, we see it again. (I experienced this with the Matrix, finding the movie off-putting the first time I saw it, yet when I won a free DVD at a party, I watched it again and was thoroughly captivated.)
Edmund Burke wrote that, “Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect.” It seems this applies to moviegoing as well as politics.
Saw Exorcism of Emily Rose, at night, in the theater, with a ridiculous number of screaming teenagers, and was scared out of my mind. Couldn’t walk into my closet without first turning on the light for weeks. Watched it again (as I’m a glutton for punishment) yesterday, during the day, in my own living room. And by golly! I wasn’t skeeeeerrrrred!!! Funny how those outside influences affect us. Very good post and analogy.
Try reading Super Troopers.
It was a book required for one of my brother’s leadership classes at The Citadel.
I think the reason we find some movies are good at the theater and not as good at home is that some are just not stayers. For some unknown reason we can watch certain films and the 40 foot scren and those we are with in the theater share something. But then at home it is not the same. Case in point was when I seen Edge of 17 I had to have it and when I got a copy it just did not have the effect at home on tv like in the theater. But I can still watch The Searchers time and time again cause it has what it takes
After seeing movies in historic movie palaces and other fine venues, I can barely watch movies at home anymore. I think the presentation of the film is an important factor as well. It won’t make a bad film good (I utterly LOATHED Super Troopers after I saw it in theaters), but consider a film such as Lawrence of Arabia, specifically the scene in which Lawrence sees a small figure in the desert. I saw the film in 70mm twice, and the shot just doesn’t play as well on TV. A poor presentation may cause a film to fall flat with a viewer who, under other circumstances, might have enjoyed it more.
Movies are much less scary at home on television than in the theater, at least my kids never hide behind the couch at home even for the very same movie.
Some movies, obviously, take better advantage of the big screen and THX than others (I’m glad to have seen “Hero” in the theater, for example) but re-watchability has to be a story issue, doesn’t it? Not that “good” stories stay good or “bad” stories don’t hold up, but certain sorts of stories don’t rely on the unknown to pull the audience through to the end.
Sometimes the movie can be ruined if while you’re walking into the theater you overhear someone walking out say what happens, like knowing the end of the book. Other stories, just by the way they are told, are entertaining every single time, even when you know them nearly by heart. Say… The Princess Bride. Just like some books (Lois Bujold is my favorite example of an author I can re-read over and over.)
For those of you who have children available so you’ve got an excuse to watch kid movies… a real surprise, if you haven’t watched it, is “The Emperor’s New Groove.” Seriously.
And sometimes it’s where we are (physically and psychically) that makes the difference. Back in 1975 me and another American took a South African, an Austrian and a German to a rented remote farmhouse in Wales for Christmas. And lo and behold, when we turned on the TV while we were making Christmas dinner: The Wizard of OZ, a movie that the German and Austrian had never seen. It has always been a great movie ever since.
I disagree with your current feelings toward Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I still love everything about that movie, especially the music.