V for Vendetta and Watchmen. Both very well made movies, but both movies that I’ve never felt any particular desire to re-watch.
Actually, V For Vendetta was a very well made movie, but I distinctly didn’t like it. What can I say? Seems I don’t care much for villain protagonists.
Watchmen? I dunno, maybe it was just this side of too dark for my tastes. I enjoyed the hell out of it when I saw it in the theater.
Joy Luck Club and Taking Chance as well, for a different reason. I just haven’t felt the need for the kind of cathartic emotional release that both movies inspire in me (no man watches Taking Chance and gets “dust in his eyes”, trust me). Though with Joy Luck Club, I guess I cheat by watching the ending from time to time.
Saving Private Ryan. I swore at the time I saw it it would be the last war movie I’d ever see, and so far, it has been. War is gruesome and dark and merciless and generally all fucked up, already know. I don’t need to SEE it (or have scenes of it replay when I’m trying to sleep). Good movie, though.
And another vote for Million Dollar Baby. Another great flick that I don’t want to watch again.
Me either, even the most disturbing movies I’ve seen, including a few mentioned in this thread, I still like to rewatch - although it might take me a few years to want to see them again.
I recently re-watched V for Vendetta, too, and I liked it better the second time. I’d go so far as to say it’s become one of my favourite movies. Natalie Portman’s Golden Globe win was no surprise after watching that movie.
Gandhi. Beautiful film, deserving of all the awards it was nominated for or got. But once I saw it, the need was sated. The square hole was forever filled by a square peg. I can’t imagine any emotional payoff to a second viewing.
On another note, anytime I see (or hear, he’s got a very distinctive voice) the black guy from Requiem for Dream in anything, I flash back to the final scenes of that movie and whatevers on is immediately ruined. I can’t even watch The Cape, even though it looks like it’s right up my alley.
I thought this would be one of mine, too, as it was pretty depressing, but I ended up seeing it again and actually liked it better the second time around.
For me it’s undoubtedly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Wonderfully filmed, surrealistic presentation, excellent acting from everyone in the film but I watched it after a very rough breakup and I don’t believe any movie has ever effected me emotionally like that before or since.
Perhaps one day I’ll go back and watch it again, as I am a huge fan of Michel Gondry’s work and even more of Charlie Kaufman’s writing… just not yet.
Upthread someone else mentioned Synecdoche New York. I’d like to second that.
As a matter of fact, Roger Ebert’s movie glossary has a listing for “Any film which is undeniably good, perhaps great, but once you’ve seen it, there is absolutely no reason to ever want to see it again,” which he calls…“Gandhi Movies.”
Last summer, my daughter had to take a summer school high school class to make up a failed social science credit. She stayed home “sick” one day while they were studying India, so I made her watch Gandhi that afternoon. The next day, she went back to school, and the teacher had the class watch Gandhi.
I am at a crossroads… I have avoided avatar to great aplomb. I have missed it as a cultural phenomenon and as the largest grossing film of all time. I have never seen it and have grown like a mushroom avoiding the spoilers and memes, although as an impartial observer I have felt the memes inoculating and crystallizing… its momentum overcame my inertia.
I have come to a point where I might watch it… not 3-d. I can confess I partially put off watching it hoping that I might someday see it in 3-D. So, my question is should I rupture my virgin mind on the DVD or wait for the proper Big Screen venue?
I haven’t seen Taking Chance, but it sounds a lot like the book Final Salute by Jim Sheeler. I found it hard to read more than a chapter at a time of Final Salute without getting “dust in my eyes”. If Taking Chance is similar, I’d find it hard to watch it more than once.
Although I’m not sure it would compare. The review in Wiki for Taking Chance says
Some, like Saving Private Ryan, have a scene that makes watching them again difficult. I’ll get past that, especially since it’s in the beginning of the movie. Something like Deliverance on the other hand, there’s a constant premonition of what’s to come (though I wouldn’t call Deliverance a great movie).
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned A Beautiful Life. Incredibly moving, hard to watch the first time, I’d have a hard time seeing it again.
Maybe also, What Dreams May come. The ending is better, but there’s so much darkness on the way.
Alive Day from HBO Films.
In the end though, in the right mood, I’d watch any of them again, if I appreciated them the first time.