Confessions of a Fickle Movie Lover
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
My new mantra is it’s never too late to learn. For someone who writes a screenwriting blog, my list of classics watched is pretty short. Of AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies list, there are about 27 films I still haven’t seen. What’s worse, two of those are on the top ten (Lawrence of Arabia (5), I’m so sorry). Maybe it’s because I’ve never had the time, or the fact that some of these films were difficult to track down in suburban Maryland (I don’t remember the Video Knights having a copy of number 86: Mutiny on the Bounty) either way I’ve missed too many great films. Of course, some of these classics I’ve slept through, but we won’t talk about my narcolepsy in this column.
I plan to change this sorry record in the next few months. For example, last night I rented #30, Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Watching it I realized again how great a character actor Bogart is, how wonderfully adept Walter Huston is at playing an old prospector, and how strong Walter’s son John Huston is at telling an exceptionally compelling story.
It’s not like I don’t watch and enjoy a lot of movies. In fact, I don’t agree with all one hundred movies on the list. Does The Sound of Music really belong up there at number fifty-five? Sure, the songs are great, but I’m not exactly a von Trapp fan. And is Tootsie (62), starring a cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman, really a better movie than Stagecoach (63), which inspired Orson Welles as he directed Citizen Kane (1)? And what is fifties nostalgia-fest American Graffiti (77) doing on the list? Is it really a better movie than Chaplin’s masterpiece, Modern Times (81)?
OK, I’m done complaining. But suffice it to say, there are many classic movies I have yet to catch, whether or not I think they belong on the list. And this is not the worst assignment I’ve ever had.
Now that I spilled some of the movies I have not seen, what classics have you not watched? Why?
There are a TON I haven’t watched… Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia are among the ones I actually want to see.
For the record, I must be like the only person in the world who hated Citizen Kane. SO BORING. (But maybe I should rewatch it now that I’m older? Ugh.)
I have similar thoughts about being a writer who hasn’t read all of the classics. At the same time, there are SO many good new books coming out that I WANT to read. So I think I just need to make an effort to shuffle some classics into my queue every now and then. Like when I read Jane Eyre last year and loved it!
Yes, I feel the same way about the classics. I have a guilty secret, and it’s that I haven’t read Jane Eyre. Please don’t tell anyone, although it’s probably an open secret because it’s on the internet. This year I promise that will change by the way!
There’s a lot of movies I haven’t seen, lot of books I haven’t read. Don’t really believe in a heaven but if we do go somewhere for all eternity, maybe I’ll get around to them eventually.
But… I did get to see the remastered Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen once, although I had to go about 200 miles to see it. In 70mm. If you ever get that chance, take it. It’s not like today’s filmmaking. And it’s completely brilliant.
And, btw, I will be out in LA for a while so if your iO sketch show goes up again in March or whenever, feel free to drop me an email and let me know. Would be fun to see.