I was thinking about this thread: here and started to wonder what Great Movies out there would you not want to watch?
The example that comes to mind immediately is D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, one of the most racist movies I know. I am perfectly willing to accept that it pioneered many of the techniques for movie telling, but I have no desire to see the film.
Anyone else have thoughts on this?
Well, to cite a very recent example: LotR:RotK (nor LotR:TTT). The first film was a complete dissappointment. To keep what fond memories I had of reading the books way back when, I decided to not see the others.
Yes, it won 11 Oscars, and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to think that I put it in the came “class” as that 11 Oscar suck-fest “Titanic,” so I won’t argue with those that do like the series.
How do you know it is racist if you’ve never seen it? Ever heard of Jud Suss?
Or better yet, who gives a damn? Refusing to watch a particular movie because it is depressing or racist or whatnot seems to me to be utterly pointless and asinine.
Good point. A much better reason is that they’re generally not worth the time spent on them. If you always ask, “Is this movie worth two hours of my time?” and answer honestly, the answer will almost always be know. I do much of my “movie watching” in front of a computer keyboard – improves the experience enormously.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ll hate Forrest Gump if I ever see it, so I’m actively avoiding it.
Hmm… maybe because the NAACP, as well as most movie historians, describe the movie as a paen of praise for the KKK protecting whites from the evils of rule by blacks? Because every review I’ve ever read of the film comments about the racist adgenda behind it? An Example Because there was a great deal of fuss and bother raised 3 years ago when The American Film Institute included it on it’s list of 100 greatest films. Just maybe all that might give one a reason to label the film racist. Just maybe.
I’ve also never read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, nor Mein Kampf, but feel reasonably safe is accepting that they are also racist tracts.
And actually, I’ve never heard of Jus Suss. By the way who or what is Jud Suss?
May I ask why you’re sure you’ll hate the movie? Not looking to change your mind, just curious what your reasons are.
While I doubt it fits the definition of “critically acclaimed,” I’ll mention it anyway.
I have no interest in seeing “The Passion.” Not because of the subject matter, but the violence has been described as so extreme – Roger Ebert called it the most violent movie he’s ever seen, and one blogger (sorry, I can’t remember his name) called it the 3rd most violent, behind “Evil Dead 2” and “Dead Alive.”
Mind you, I’m not being screedy about violence in general, or about gore. But from the descriptions I’ve read, I’m not going to subject myself to two hours of flayings, beatings, whippings and other forms of torture.
The Matrix. Any of them.
I already know everything about it by occaisonally crawling out from beneath my rock.
Well, personally I wouldn’t read Mein Kampf because it’s not only racist, but also very poorly written, so I’ve heard.
OTOH, I’d actually be interested in Seeing “Birth of a Nation” despite it’s racist content because it is a well made film.
http://www.usmbooks.com/jud_suss.html
Birth of a Nation is Disney compared to that movie.
From my recollection of Birth of a Nation (it has been about 10 years) it was about 3/4 a Civil-War era melodrama on the order of Gone with the Wind. The rest of it is a portrayal of the KKK as a force for Southern liberation, mostly from Northern carpetbaggers. I recall only two racist scenes: One in which a black man tries to take advantage of a white woman (and is chased off by the heroic Klansman) and another showing the Reconstruction-era state legislature as a bunch of lazy do-nothing blacks. Frankly, these sort of images of blacks were not uncommon at the time or decades thereafter from Hollywood.l
The weird thing about it is that the blacks are portrayed by obvious white guys in blackface. In a way, it seemed less bad to me than seeing someone like Stepin Fetchit in a movie.
I don’t particularly like Tom Hanks for starters. Mostly, the things I’ve heard people say about it lead me to believe that it’s not something I’ll really like.
That’s pretty accurate, yes.
Well, Griffith would have refused to work with real blacks because of his upbringing, but that doesn’t make the film itself racist. Remember that Birth of a Nation came from the same man who wrote and directed Intolerance and Broken Blossoms, two of the great anti-racist movies of the 1910s.
I’ve seen Birth of a Nation, as part of a college film class. If I recall correctly, there were real black people in it, as background characters and extras, but all the black main characters were played by white actors in blackface.
The best regarded movie (according to IMDB) that I will probably never see is The Empire Strikes Back. I saw Star Wars when it was originally released and enjoyed it but had no great desire to see what happened to Luke Skywalker and never saw the next 2. By the time the prequels came out I had kids who dragged me along to them. I didn’t particularly like either.
In fact looking at the top rated 250 the only English language movies other than that that I haven’t seen are Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2, Monster’s Inc and Lost In Translation but now that I know I will see all these.
I have an irrational prejudice against Scent of a Woman: I don’t want to see a movie named after the way someone smells.
And speaking of Pacino, there are lots of critically acclaimed Mob movies (including but certianly not limited to the Godfathers) that I am in no hurry to see because gangsters just don’t really turn me on that much.
Ok, so my wife gets a hold of the American Film Industry’s (AFI) list of 100 greatest movies, and just has to see them all because, I dunno, we need to be cultured or something. Anyway, she makes a list on a spreadsheet for quick reference and quizzes everyone (me, family, friends, even strangers are not safe) about which movies they have seen.
Then what do we do? We go and buy a Blockbuster franchise. No, that would have been cheaper; what we did was rent a movie a week to finish the list, only we don’t always want to see an AFI 100 film, so we rent Sleepless in Seattle and The American President 50 times because they’re cute or something.
So now I have seen (by choice or no) all of these great American treasures (And I can quote verse from The American President). Some I loved, some I liked, some I thought “huh? Who voted for this?”
I did find out that many of the movies I had first tried to throw out the window were fantastic, and others that I wanted to see weren’t so moving. And yes, many an hour was spent wondering why I don’t have a hobby to waste my time with (but as far as wasting time goes, we don’t have any TV/cable reception - we can only watch DVD at a rate of about two a week - so we have plenty of time to spare).
So where am I going with this? I guess that my point is, you just never know…
I’ve never seen it, but I’d be very curious to see Birth of a Nation. Being that it is racist, I think the movie has value to see how white people regarded (and portrayed) black people back then, for a historical perspective. Bad things have occured in our nation’s history, and you’ll never understand completely, or grow from those mistakes unless you search out the facts. You won’t learn about it from high school text books.
I didn’t want to see Forest Gump either, because I thought it would poke fun at retarded people, and make it sentimental. Actually, that is not the case, and the movie is quite enjoyable. The Tom Hanks character achieves more than we could ever believe, because he is not aware of any ‘limitation’. Its really cool.
I also thought I didn’t want to see Schindler’s List because I thought it would be just extremely depressing, and would show a period of time I didn’t want to know about. I did see it though, and its in my top ten movies of all time. To see how the people dealt with adversity,…it was very moving and uplifting (and eduactional of history, too).
I’m 29 and haven’t seen any of the American Pie movies.