This is pure coincidence, (either that, or the universe has a perverse sense of humor ) but in the TV era many times movies pop up, specially while changing channels, were you get to see a great movie midway; somehow, you stop and watch, you then know you have seen a great movie, but because the end is spoiled, you never bother to rent it, and so months or years pass, and once again you see it on TV!
At exactly the same part you saw before!!
My examples:
To kill a Mockingbird
All the three times I caught the movie, it is always from the end of the tear jerking trial.
The Never ending story
The two times I saw the movie it was always from the time the Rockbiter appears! (It is still one of my favorite movies)
Witness for the prosecution
This one was worse: I caught the last ten minutes of it in two different occasions, then last week I caught the beginning of it! But, I had to go out! Didn’t even see the end of the titles!
I don’t like watching movies once they’ve started but I probably saw the beginning of the first 2 Godfathers 10 times before I ever finished them. Bad timing, not a refelction on the movie.
Total Recall: I always seem to catch the last 2/3 after he’s landed on Mars.
Forrest Gump: Again, I only seem to catch the last 10 minutes.
Red Dwarf: Not a movie, but it’s been shown twice and I missed the finale both times- ARGGHH!!! Managed to catch up with web scripts, but it’s still not the same…
Earth: Final Conflict: Somehow I’ve managed to watch the first episode and all the finales but none of the intervening ones.
Tek Wars: Everytime it’s on I try to make myself watch the entire accursed movie, but turn it off in fustration after 20 minutes.
Willow: I swear I have seen the beginning of this like 10 times, but somehow I never seem to be able to get past the bit with the guy in the cage! I always have to be somewhere or something. I wonder if I’ll ever see the rest of it.
Also, I’ve never seen the beginning of American Pie, though I’ve seen the middle and the end numerous times.
MST3k even did that one. Raul Julia is in it, right?
I’ve caught Executive Decision at the same freaking part for weeks now. Right after the team gets on the plane, and I usually find something better to do shortly before the movie starts to finally get moving towards the end. I think the farthest I got was the signaling part (I hope that was vauge enough not to spoil a 2nd-rate movie).
I always miss the first 15 minutes of Valmont. I’ve seen the rest of it several times, but whenever I’ve come across it, the first fifteen minutes have already aired. I really like it, too!. It’s the same as Dangerous Liasons, but I prefer Valmont because of the actors in it: Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Meg Tilly, Fairuza Balk, Henry Thomas, and Jeffrey Jones.
The Godfather - I have seen bits and pieces from all parts on the movie, but never the whole movie. Total Recall - I haven’t seen the middle part American Pie - I’ve only seen it all the way from where he goes down on his girlfriend.
Star Wars: I’ve never seen any Star Wars Movie the whole way through. They used to play them and other movies the last three days of class in Intermediate School, but I’ve never seen one in its interty.
The Godfather: I’ve seen various five minute clips on probably five occasions.
The Never-Ending Story: I’ve just seen the ending, twice, a long time ago.
I’ve seen the ending fifteen minutes of The Abyss at least five times, but never anything before that.
Also, I think I’d seen Slim Picken’s grand finale in Dr. Strangelove almost twenty times before I watched the entire film. To the film’s credit, the impact of the ending wasn’t lessened one bit.
On at least three occasions when I was a kid, I wandered into the living room where my parents were watching COME BACK, LiTTLE SHEBA. And I always came into the story just AFTER Burt Lancaster had fallen off the wagon. He smashed the dishes and held a knife to Shirley Booth’s throat and scared me to death every time.
I never saw the complete film until I was about thirty.
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. When I was a youngster, they had a cartoon festival in the local town every year, and they always had a TV playing the above film at one of the local schools. When I ran out of things to do, I’d go and watch that for a while. Sometimes I’d see the beginning, sometimes the middle, sometimes the end. I expect, all in all, I must have seen the entirety of the movie in bits and pieces over the years.
I’d seen the entirety of It’s a Wonderful Life many times growing up, but never in its entirety until I was out of high school. Until then, I hadn’t even realized that the first half and the second half were the same movie.
And I’ve seen The Hunt for Red October twice. The first time, I missed the first half-hour, and the second time, I missed the first fifteen minutes. I do rather wonder how the movie starts.
) but in the TV era many times movies pop up, specially while changing channels, were you get to see a great movie midway; somehow, you stop and watch, you then know you have seen a great movie, but because the end is spoiled, you never bother to rent it, and so months or years pass, and once again you see it on TV!