# What was the first movie you watched as what you felt was a grown-up context? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 5, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562 "2015-12-05T23:43:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/21 "2015-12-07T00:32:49Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I should add that Dad took me to see “2001” the year before, but I didn’t get it. At all. Which didn’t help me feel grown up. I dunno about that. I watched it three times in twenty years, and I never got it. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/22 "2015-12-07T00:36:19Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > My mom dropped me off to see a different movie but I walked into the **R** rated one and nobody challenged me. I was 14. Oh, yeah, I’d almost forgot about the time I was 15, hitch-hiking across Canada, and waited outside the theatre asking for spare change in order to see A Clockwork Orange. The only comment the cashier made when I finally had enough for a ticket was, “I was wondering what you were going to do with the money.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/23 "2015-12-07T02:14:45Z")
\*Gone with the Wind. \*My parents took me, age 9. I slept through most of it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/24 "2015-12-07T03:18:20Z")
My parents took the kids along to see Gandhi when I was 8. That was the first time I can remember seeing a serious, non-kids movie. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/25 "2015-12-09T16:38:01Z")
When I was a kid, they showed movies for a dollar or maybe fifty cents in the elementary school gymnasium on summer afternoon to give moms a break, I guess. They were almost always Disney or other similar fare of the “Herbie” variety. I went sometimes, but usually took a book. One day I guess somebody brilliant ordered something completely different. The movie was “Animal Crackers.” I laughed like a maniac while the other kids just stared. They didn’t get it. I probably was about 8. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/26 "2015-12-09T16:51:53Z")
Dad took me, and me alone (no brother, sister or mom), to the theater to see Animal House. I felt pretty special that he had singled me out to see what I thought was going to be a wildlife documentary. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/27 "2015-12-09T17:09:14Z")
My dad took me and my younger sibs to see Billy Jack, but I didn’t feel very adult with my younger sibs putting their hands over their eyes most of the movie, and me doing same during the rape scene. I guess the first movie experience that felt like I was adult enough was seeing Heaven Can Wait, a romantic comedy, with my dad. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/28 "2015-12-09T18:11:20Z")
The first non-kid movie I recall seeing was \*Cat Ballou \*at a drive-in. Mom and Dad bundled the 4 of us kids in the back of the station wagon (seat down, blankets spread out - we ranged from 4 to 11, me being the oldest.) I’m sure there was something more child-appropriate for the first feature and they expected us to crash. I didn’t understand much of the movie, but I recall laughing at Lee Marvin singing Happy Birthday at the wake, and I remember being scared when the guy with the silver nose suddenly appeared!! :eek: I saw the movie again years later and realized a \*lot \*went over my head. As for the first movie where I didn’t feel like a kid in an adult movie, I have no idea… ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/29 "2015-12-09T18:20:39Z")
The first movie I saw by myself was Star Wars. The first movie I remember seeing that dealt with adult subjects was The Naked Civil Servant. To this day I’ll never understand why I watched more than five minutes of it. I must have really been bored that day. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/30 "2015-12-09T18:25:45Z")
_Hawaii_ (1966). I was 12. There was brief nudity. I don’t recall much else. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/31 "2015-12-09T18:53:28Z")
[Shane (1953)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046303/?ref_=nv_sr_4) when I was about to turn 12. I had seen many B Westerns at Saturday matinees and had become used to that presentation of Old West values and situations. And I’m not sure whether it was that movie or [High Noon (1952)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044706/?ref_=nv_sr_3) that I saw first. Yes, _High Noon_ is a year older but I didn’t see it for a while – and at a drive-in, so it could be later. The shock value of seeing blood and the hero being made to look silly was what appealed to me then – and now – as a departure from formula Westerns. It was only later that I saw things like [Red River (1948)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040724/?ref_=nv_sr_1) [The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040897/?ref_=nv_sr_1) [Duel in the Sun (1946)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038499/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_53) and it’s possible (don’t remember for sure) that I saw them on TV! The candidates for first non-Western I have any decent memory of seeing would be: [All the King’s Men (1949)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041113/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_109) [A Place in the Sun (1951)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043924/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_13) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/32 "2015-12-09T21:35:06Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner > > When I was eleven, my parents took me, and me alone, to it. Must be a Sidney Poitier thing, because mine was Lilies of the Field in 1963. I was nine and my mom took me, I think my dad was out of town on business. I remember I liked it a lot. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/33 "2015-12-10T13:25:15Z")
As far as movies shown in a theater, my first was _The Poseidon Adventure._ Not terribly heavy I know, but I don’t think it was meant as family entertainment; or at least not for six year olds. As for stuff on tv, I couldn’t say. My parents were big on watching tv and I don’t recall anything ever being off limits to me as long as it was on before my bedtime. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/34 "2015-12-10T15:53:25Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I dunno about that. I watched it three times in twenty years, and I never got it. Well, my Dad was a cerebral fellow. and when he took me to _ **2001** _ back when I was 7 years old, I felt sort of proud. My Dad was telling me, in effect, that I was smart enough to understand a highfalutin’, intellectual movie. When I DIDN’T get any of it, I felt stupid, and imagined I’d let him down. ---
**Author:** ![Totenfeier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/35 "2015-12-10T16:23:36Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > _The Hawaiians_ , with Charlton Heston, from 1970. Ir was the first movie over G I saw when movie ratings were first introduced. It was M, what would now be PG I think. I was fifteen. First female frontal nudity I saw on film, a brief scene where a girl is getting out of a Japanese bath. My experience was similar, but it was _The Betsy_, with Katharine Ross stepping down _into_ a pool. I bought a ticket for another movie - I don’t remember which - and just popped into the wrong theater. I felt like a real secret agent. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/36 "2015-12-10T16:27:49Z")
My parents took me with them to go see all their grown up movies. I didn’t care what we were watching so long as I got my buttered pop corn and soda. But I guess the first movie that I went to see that I felt like I was being a grown up (or intellectual) was The Breakfast Club when I was 15. Sure it’s about a bunch of angsty teenagers. But it wasn’t no Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It was a serious movie that took a serious look at some of the problems teenagers face at that age. And then there’s St Elmo’s Fire… ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/37 "2015-12-10T16:30:11Z")
[Jory i](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068773/)n 1973. It wasn’t the fist time I had gone to the movies without an adult, but it was the first movie aimed at adults that I went to alone. Linda Purl’s brief nude scene made me feel funny down there. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562/38 "2015-12-11T02:57:44Z")
I was 13: “Summer of 1942” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-you-watched-as-what-you-felt-was-a-grown-up-context/739562.md?page=1)