I gotta ask that question too. Did the commercials make it seem like a comedy? I can’t quite recall.
And I never quite could understand why people would walk out of a movie, especially nowadays when with reviews and the internet, you can get a sense of what a movie is going to be like.
Didn’t the Passion of the Christ have a lot of walkouts? I can imagine this movie having quite a large number of walkouts.
I think The Aristocrats had a lot of walkouts from people with children who got confused and thought they were going to see a Disney cartoon. At least, I’ve heard that anecdotally from a couple of people.
The only movie I’ve walked out of was Lost in Space, just from the sheer idiocy. But I didn’t see hordes of people following me.
I’m highly skeptical of this. The AristoCATS had already been made - did people think it was being remade? From the previews to the reviews to the damn movie posters inside the theater, you would have to be literally of subhuman intelligence to not know that the Aristocrats was not a Disney cartoon.
Many years ago, had I not been warned, I would have walked out of A Clockwork Orange during the first ten minutes. Fortunately, a good friend had already seen it and told me that if I made it through that, the rest of the movie was totally worth it. He was so right.
I too have a no walk out policy, but if I sure wanted to walk out of The Matrix. Luckily I saw it at the drive-in so I wasn’t too embarassed to fall asleep.
I have gathered, from many conversations, that women do not like A Clockwork Orange because of the rape scenes (and by “not like” I mean cannot watch it.) This doesn’t stop men from liking American History X, or The Shawshank Redemption, or Deliverance. Is there something else about A Clockwork Orange that would turn women off, perhaps something subconscious? Is it the fact that there are no primary female characters?
Every so often, Disney re-releases some of their cartoons for theatrical runs, although usually its something much more high-profile than The Aristocats. I can see a parent seeing the name in the listings when looking for something to take the kids to, and assuming it’s the cartoon from their own childhood without ever seeing an actual advertisement for it. Which wouldn’t be hard, as it was a pretty small release.
I’d bet that it’s some art flick like Andy Warhol’s Empire. 485 minutes – *Eight Freakin’ Hours and Five Minutes * of black and white silent unmoving imagery of the Empire State Building. It’s not static – you see the light change as the sun moves – but it’s a real test of your dedication. I’ll bet the vast majority of film buffs give up long before the end, no matter how committed. The Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak, and I wouldn’t blame it.
You could always watch his Sleep. It’s only five hours long:
I’ve noticed the same thing, and I don’t know why either. I haven’t seen ACO. Is it particularly graphic? I mean, as in gory? Horror movie gore, as in "make believe " doesn’t bother me, but if it’s a real type of situation then that’s another story. I had a much harder time watching the other movies you cited, and I’m a woman(who has been raped).
On the DVD commentary, Penn Jillette talks about a woman with kids walking out of a showing he was at after about 10 minutes. He points out that this is after George Carlin has spent most of that time describing in florid, Baroque detail shitting diarrhea into his wifes’s open mouth and a variety of unnatural sex acts. He wonders what it was at the ten minute mark that finally pushed her over the line and made her realize that maybe this wasn’t a children’s movie.
Alan, what movie was that!?
I actually quite like A Clockwork Orange, but those scenes are hard to watch. It’s hard to articulate, but it’s the incongruity of Alex’s cheeriness with the utter helplessness of the couple. MacDowell is playing it in such a huge, over the top comedic way, and the couple is playing a very naturalistic terrified way - mixing the two styles just ups the WTF factor and belittles the woman’s pain and terror in a very discomfiting way. Added to that is the absurdity of the Huge Porcelain Cock being used as a weapon…it’s just bizarre. (It’s been decades since I’ve seen it, so I might be conflating scenes.) I find the whole thing very unsettling (though there are other rape scenes in other movies which are far worse.) But something about Bizzare+comedy+terror+rape=really hard to watch. And no, WOOKINPANUB, it’s not particularly graphic - certainly not in a horror movie type way.
I have never seen Deliverance, so I can’t comment on that, but I found the rape scene in Shawshank Redemption uncomfortable, but because it’s played out naturally, it doesn’t have the same sense of bizzaro-world of Clockwork Orange, of course.
I don’t actually remember the rape in American History X. The thing that stands out for me in that movie is the curb scene. THAT was horrific.
I’ve never walked out of a theatrical showing.
I do watch a boatload of movies on DVD and the last one I couldn’t make it through was i am sam. Seriously - I thought I was gonna puke. :rolleyes:
I have however, successfully made it through Salo and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover without a problem. Go figure. 
That would be The Aristocrats I’m sure.
The only movie I saw anyone walk out on was The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He lasted to maybe the end of Frank N. Furter’s first song - Sweet Transvestite. I don’t remember exactly what he said when I asked him why he left, but the answer involved the phrases “I thought it was a horror movie” and “goddamned faggots”.
Interestingly, his wife stayed for the whole film and enjoyed it immensely. 
I saw the Aristocrats with some friends who thought it was just some kind of documentary about comedians and didn’t know anything else about it. They walked out in the middle and I followed since they were my ride.
Oops!
Yep, that was The Aristocrats. Sorry!
I have heard from many people who didn’t bother watching all of Napoleon Dynamite (on DVD). It is rather interminable if you don’t find it funny.
Not the same as walking out of a movie, but who watches movies in the theater anymore?
I and probably five or ten others walked out of the showing I attended of What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?. There may have been others after me, of course; I made it about 45 minutes in.
For what it’s worth, I’ve also walked out of Van Helsing and Nothing in Common (the latter when I was 15 or so).