Seeing Star Wars as a little one, the collective “whooooooooaaa!” of the crowd seeing the size of the star destroyer was unforgettable.
For the movie Ghostbusters, I always do complain of people talking loud, but there was only exception in my mind, on the part Sigourney Weaver is possessed in her bed, Bill Murray (Dr. Venkman) gets close to her and she sexily blurts:
“Do you want this body?” [Crowd in the theater was on suspense]
From the back of the theater I recognized the voice of a friend of the family making the most horny exclamation ever of the word “Yeeeeesssss!!” The thole theater trembled with the laughter of the crowd and I almost could not breath for a few moments.
To this day I can not see the movie without thinking a line is missing from the movie.
Sure. But just by sheer numbers, the vast majority don’t go to the movies. Only a small percentage actually buy tickets, and of course movies don’t run indefinitely, so there is something of a point of pride saying that during a short window if time, you experienced what relatively few did.
Jaws for me too. IMDB says it came out in 1975 so I was 8. I guess the rating system must have been different then. I can still feel my best friend’s older sister’s fingernails digging into my forearm…
I saw Alien in a huge theater that showed films in 70mm. My friend and I got there late and the only two seats we could find together were in the center about two rows back from the screen. I watched that entire movie with my neck craned straight up and having to keep looking from side to side in order to see the whole screen. I just about crapped my pants when that face-hugger jumped out of the egg.
I have seen many movies in cinema theatres, since around 1974.
I don’t really see what all the fuss is about, I have mostly uncomfortable, cold, and constantly irritated memories of the experience.
One of my strongest memories is watching Top Secret in 1984, with my best friend Martin. That was fun. Not sure if it’s in the spirit of the OP though.
I can’t say I have pride in it, but the first movie to really make an impression on me was 2001, but that was at a drive-in theatre (does that count?). After that, the opening of any Kubrick movie was an event that had to be attended as early as possible in the first run, and that held true for me until Eyes Wide Shut.
I also saw Star Wars in its first run at a Cinerama theatre and was hugely disappointed. I’d been (unreasonably) expecting another 2001, and all I could think as the movie unfolded was, “This is a kids movie. A lousy kids movie!” I was not pleased, especially after all the anticipation. I know I’m in a tiny minority, but I have no pride in seeing that bit of fluff.
Another not-so-great theatre experience…In the middle of watching Woody Allen’s “Love and Death”, some heavy banging started in the theatre and a terrified voice began screaming, “Get me out of here!” Eventually, a guy in obvious distress was helped out. No one laughed for about ten minutes afterwards.
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World in Cinerama. A great experience for a kid. I think my favorite part was Eddie Anderson landing in Abraham Lincoln’s lap.
I went to see the Who documentary The Kids Are Alright as soon as it hit town. The next week I went to the same theater complex for a double bill of Manhattan and Annie Hall. While enjoying those films, I could hear the Who coming through the wall from next door! That just reminded me of what a fucking great movie it was, so I went back to see it again the next week.
Ben Hur (1959): I was 8. I thought it was the most exciting movie ever made.
The Ten Commandments (I saw it as a kid, but it must have been a re-release since I wasn’t old enough to have seen it in a theater in 1956)
Lawrence of Arabia
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blazing Saddles - Not because seeing it on a big screen was that impressive, but because I have never heard an audience laugh that loud or that continuously before or since.
This Is Spinal Tap - I saw it at a preview sponsored by the local rock station, KY-102. I knew it was a comedy, but I swear that half the audience thought it was just a documentary about a hard rock band that they thought they knew. Which only made a very funny movie even funnier. At one point, I was laughing so hard, that I had to leave my seat and go to the lobby to resume breathing.
Brazil - Saw it in the theater after months of Terry Gilliam being screwed over by the studio executive Sid Sheinberg. Terry took out full page ads in Variety asking when the movie would be released, so my wife and I had been waiting for this film. And I was gob-smacked by the movie. I was still sitting there after the credits had finished and the lights came up, stunned.
The Pirates of Penzance - Played for one week in a terrible little theater with no newspaper ad. Virtually nobody saw it in the theater, and it’s a delightful film.
Rock School - Great documentary about the original School of Rock in Philadelphia. Saw it in a nearly empty theater, went back the next night and took my niece. Saw the School of Rock All-Stars when they played my city on tour, and now shoot concerts for various of the 91 Schools of Rock. Proud that I saw this in the theater.
Any DC Dopers know if the Uptown is still open and still as great as I remember? Gargantuan, elegant old-school theater. Its giant screen takes you back to when you were a kid and the big screen was the big screen.
In addition to first runs (LotR doesn’t really fit in this thread yet, but it’s a great example), they occasionally put up classics. Rear Window, the Exorcist when it came out again, that sort of thing.
I was about ten when my parents took me with them to the movies. The PG flick was sold out, so we all went in to see the new Steve Martin film (we were big fans, I think this was shortly after King Tut came out) the Jerk. Maybe it’s only standing out because it was the first ‘R’ rated film I saw.
My ‘I was there’ films are the original Star Wars releases–at the perfect ages: eight, eleven and fourteen.
When I was about 9, my brother and I discovered that 2001: A Space Odyssey was playing in Seattle and we convinced our mom to take us. (This would have been about 1974, so it couldn’t have been during the first run.) I was expecting space ships and I got monkeys; I was bored to death. But I never forgot it, either. Of course, I eventually saw the film on TV (I remember it airing uncut and without commercials at least once) and came to appreciate it. I even read the book. In the mid-90’s, I was living in Seattle and saw that a theater was having a special screening. I hadn’t seen it on the big screen since that first time, so I went. It was the same theater. I even tried to sit in the same part of the theater; I hope it was the same seat. It was amazing. I noticed details I’d never seen before.[sup]*[/sup] Combined with the sense of personal nostalgia, it was one of the most amazing movie experiences I’ve ever had.
It was the UA150, for any northwest dopers who remember it. Torn down in 2002, it says.
A few others come to mind. I saw Network in the theater. I would have been 11 when it came out; heaven knows what my mom was thinking. I still remember it, and think it’s a great movie.
I was reading The Right Stuff for the first time, and the TV was on in the background. Something on screen must have caught my attention, and I looked up. It was an ad for the movie; first I’d heard there was going to be one. I loved the book. Got tickets to a special pre-release screening and was blown away. Saw it four more times during its run and it’s still my favorite movie. Would love to see it on a big screen again. It was in Roger Ebert’s overlooked film festival several years ago. If I hadn’t been unemployed at the time, I’d have gone to Urbana just for that.
I wanted to see Fantasia 2000 on an IMAX screen, and the closest place it was playing was New York City. I think I drove to Connecticut and took the train to Grand Central, then walked around the city a bit before the evening showing. One of the segments turned out to be Rhapsody in Blue (which I love) and the animation (in the style of Al Hirschfeld) is lots of events taking place around New York City. It was really strange to see all the places I’d just been on the screen, stylized as they were.
The pan-and-scan affects that movie in a strange way. For most of the Dawn of Man opening, the camera is absolutely static. Whether it was Kubrick’s choice to do it that way, or an enforced limitation of the background projection process, I don’t know. The effect is to be very detached, and to notice the utter lack of anything smooth and mechanical in that world until the monolith shows up. The pan-and-scan, and that sense of fluid motion back and forth, ruins it.
I saw Around the World in 80 Days in Todd-AO widescreen in a theater equipped for it. Seeing it on TV, or adapted for ordinary widescreen ain’t the same.
Maybe someday someone will adapt the Cinerama, Cinescope, Todd-AO, and other ultra-widescreen formats so they can be shown in our current crop of Omnimax and similar theaters.
I’ve seen the 1925 Phantom of the Opera in a theater with full live organ music (played by the organist from the Boston Garden). I’ve also seen it with live orchestral music (from the Eastman Orchestra). In both cases it was a print with the Technicolor section intact.
I was one of the very few that saw this at the movies and tried to tout it to friends but it seemed to be ages before it appeared on video. One Saturday evening a while later I was strolling through the local huge video store looking for something to borrow. I spotted a group of long haired high school age “slackers” looking through the live music videos. And there was This Is Spinal Tap. I asked had they seen it and they replied that they didn’t even know the band. The case gave no hint of the pleasures within. I told them it would make them legends if they took it back to their waiting friends, got really stoned and watched it. A brief recounting of Stumpy Joe’s death had them convinced.
One of the next few Saturdays I bumped into them again and they rushed up to me like a long lost uncle to recount tales of the night they and their friends discovered a classic they had no idea existed. Information was at a premium in those days.
In the summer of 1978 I was 27 years old, and got HBO for the first time. It didn’t even broadcast 24 hours a day then! I didn’t know anyone who had a video cassette player or a laser disc player.
So prior to the summer of 1978, the only way it was possible for me to see a movie uncut and without commercials was in a movie theater. Since I’d been going to movies on my own since I was around seven, EVERY movie I saw was in a theater. Sure, you watched movies on TV, but it was broadcast network TV. Movies were chopped, reformatted, and filled with commercial breaks. And that was done to the movies that COULD be shown on TV. There were a lot of them that couldn’t.
So the comment, “The vast majority don’t go to the movies. Only a small percentage actually buy tickets…” is amusing, when you consider it wasn’t THAT long ago that buying a ticket and going inside a theater was the only way you could see a movie.
So, for example, “The Godfather,” “Network,” “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” “Star Wars,” “Jaws,” “Goldfinger,” or “Psycho.” These are all films I saw in a movie theater.
Asking if I’m proud I saw these in a theater is a bit like asking if I’m proud I listened to Beatles on vinyl. I’m not proud, I’m just old!
That said, seeing films like “Ben Hur,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Patton,” “2001,” “How the West Was Won,” or “Dr. Zhivago” in their original wide screen format at a downtown movie palace are experiences that cannot possibly be replicated today at your local multiplex. The only thing that approaches it is seeing a film premier in Hollywood at Mann’s Chinese Theater or a similar venue. I’ve seen films at Hollywood palaces, but never a premier. THAT would be exciting.
It was the opposite for me. My mom took me to see 2001 (it was a double-feature with Colossus: The Forbin Project) when I was younger. Frankly, I was too young. I didn’t understand it at all, and found Colossus more interesting and easier to follow. Then I saw Star Wars in the theater, in 1977 when I was 11, and it ended up being the defining experience of my childhood, leading to a lifelong love of science fiction and fantasy (both in films and books).
I’ve always meant to watch 2001 as an adult, but I’ve somehow never gotten around to it.
Oh yes! I saw this at the campus theater at Washington State University in 1984. Funniest shit ever! The only downside was that the theater didn’t have the volume loud enough, so a lot of the jokes were completely drowned out by the audience laughing at the previous joke.
In 1993 and 1994, my university’s Chinese student association imported films from Hong Kong and showed them at midnight shows. Those were a blast! And they were unlike anything I’d seen before.
The ones I remember:
Supercop
Supercop 2
Drunken Master 2
City Hunter
New Legend of Shaolin
Kung Fu Cult Master
Fong Sai Yuk
Last Hero in China (a.k.a. Iron Rooster vs. Centipede)
Once Upon a Time in China 2
I remember seeing The Naked Gun in a really old, run down theater with my Dad. The theater was located in the city, in a pretty bad part of town, and walking to it wasn’t pleasant.
Having said all that, it was one of the most memorable theater going experiences I’ve had.
The entire theater was laughing out loud through most of the film. I remember laughing so much that it physically hurt.
Yeah, and compare tickets sales to population at the time of release. More people used to go to movies for the exclusivity-based reasons you listed, but it’s still a minority and one that continued to shrink with other outlets becoming available over time.
Let’s take a huge movie for an example, The Godfather.
U.S. Gross: $134,966,411
Average ticket price in 1972: $1.70
U.S. Population circa '72: 209,896,000
That’s under 80 million tickets sold – with an unknown number of those being repeat viewings since it was such a smash. So even if we take the huge leap in granting that there were no repeat viewers, ie, that 80 million individuals bought a ticket for the Godfather (one of the greatest movies of all time), that’s still only 38% of the population. Factor in repeat viewings, and that percentage shrinks quickly. So at the water cooler, you had a less than a 50/50 shot at being able to discuss what you thought of The Godfather with a co-worker. Maybe closer to one in four. So yeah, you can be just a little proud that you’re one of the guys that saw it in it’s original theatrical run.
I’d have to pick Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000. I knew from the reviews that it was going to be memorably bad, but it also seemed unmissable and there wasn’t much time before it would be out of the cinemas. I knew it wasn’t going to have the same effect on home video. In the end it was awful beyond belief but also thoroughly entertaining. I left the cinema happy and didn’t feel that I’d wasted my money.
There were four other people in the cinema. I’d seen Batman & Robin at the cinema, too - and I’m proud of that - but it wasn’t the same, because I didn’t know in advance just how bad it was going to be. They didn’t screen it for critics in the UK. And the other bad films I have seen at the cinema (The Avengers, e.g. the awful Fiennes / Thurman Avengers, Spawn, Beavis and Butthead Do America) weren’t entertainingly bad. They were just tedious and awful.
So, you have Schindler’s List, other people have The Godfather, The Empire Strikes Back in 70mm, 2001 in 70mm, the original full-length print of Metropolis that you saw back in 1927. But none of you have Battlefield Earth. Unless you do. In which case you are my bother. We are brothers. We few. We happy few.
See, it’s objectively awful. But, dammit, it passed the time and I was never bored. I felt sorry for Barry Pepper though. After Saving Private Ryan he was at risk of being typecast as scarily intense soldiers. This was his breakout starring role that would bring him a whole new audience. Fat lot of good it did him. Next, We Were Soldiers, Flags of our Fathers, and lots of supporting roles. Poor chap.