Earliest film-going experience you can remember?

Cafe Society
121

For The Love of Benji, 1977. I was six years old.

122

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 1971. I was about 6 at the time. I loved it. It’s still one of my favorite movies, and I developed a lifelong crush on the Wonka character as played by Gene Wilder. We went with another kid who was younger than I was , and he got very upset during the scene at the end when Willy Wonka was yelling at Charlie, so we had to leave early. I was so mad, because I *like *that scene. Didn’t get to see the whole thing for years after.

Other notable memories: *Jaws *at the drive-in in 1975 (scared the bejeebers out of me!), and a double feature of *One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest *and something called *Framed *when I was 11. I remember people being really shocked that my parents would take me to not one, but two R-rated movies, but I actually liked *Cuckoo’s *a lot. *Framed *was boring and I remember nothing else about it than that.

ETA: Hrm, Google isn’t finding *Framed *in that timeframe, so maybe I’m mistaken. Maybe it was The Conversation. Either way, it was boring.

123

It’s a blur, but it would’ve been around 1974 I guess, and I think it was either Bambi or Snow White.

I will check the re-release dates…

…

Hmm, both were re-released in 1975, and usually cinema releases in New Zealand were at least six months to a year after the US, so it might instead have been Herbie Rides Again (1974).

But I can also remember things like Benji (also 1974), and Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) very clearly.

Edited to add: I was 5 years old in 1974.

124

First movie I have a vague memory of watching is Tim Burton’s Batman, at 4~5ish. Wasn’t that movie rated R? I remember that I didn’t really have much of a clue what was going on except there wasn’t as much action as I would like.

First movie I have a fairly clear memory of watching is Jurassic Park. I also came out disappointed because I had collected some of the action figures before watching the movie and after they flew off on that helicopter at the end, I expected the characters to come back with the weapons the toys had and blow the shit out of the dinosaurs. :dubious: