# What's the earliest movie that you liked that you still like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817 "2014-01-03T17:43:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/1 "2014-01-03T17:43:40Z")
If you’re like me, you’ve seen many movies that you have just forgotten whether you liked them or not. But surely there’s some early movie experience that you still consider to have been a good one. The very earliest of those I probably have forgotten, but at least these still hold up for me: Shane Samson and Delilah (Mature and Lamarr) A Place in the Sun From Here to Eternity Jim Thorpe, All American High Noon I saw all of these before high school age. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/2 "2014-01-03T17:55:28Z")
_ **Some Like It Hot** _, which I saw at the tender age of four in 1959. I have _never, ever_ in my\* life\* been as turned on as I was watching Marilyn Monroe singing on stage in that so-called dress she sort of had on. I got to see it because my mother, who hated going to the movies alone, took me along with her (apparently, neither my dad or my older brother wanted to see Marilyn, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, and Joe E Brown in a Billy Wilder flick :rolleyes: ). When one of her friends told her she shouldn’t take me to see movies like that, she replied “Oh, he doesn’t know what he’s looking at!” My only response was a dumbfounded stare. I wanted to say “Of **course** I know what I was looking at! I’m not **stupid** , you know!” :mad: ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/3 "2014-01-03T18:00:44Z")
Star Wars, i was around 2 or 3 when i saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/4 "2014-01-03T18:11:42Z")
\*It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. \* When I was in (Catholic) elementary school in the '60s the nuns took us to see it at the Cinerama as a school treat. Today I own it on DVD; I think I’ve watched it within the past year. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/5 "2014-01-03T18:15:16Z")
Logan’s Run beats out Star Wars by a year. I was 6. My parents were not happy that my brothers took me to see it, but I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/6 "2014-01-03T18:19:11Z")
_The Sound of Music_ was among the first movies I ever saw (age 4), and it still holds up for me. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/7 "2014-01-03T18:25:13Z")
Empire Strikes Back. I was very young and choose to pee myself in the theater rather than miss any of it. It’s still the best in the trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/8 "2014-01-03T18:34:00Z")
The first movie I remember seeing is _Vacation_; still a great movie. I would have been about 6 or 7. According to my parents, when I was around 2 or 3, I loved _The Jerk_; also still an amazing movie. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/9 "2014-01-03T18:34:09Z")
**Dr. Strangelove** , which I saw when I was twelve. I knew it was the best movie I’d ever seen. I know there were many before that, but the one title the sticks in my mind, **Sleeping Beauty** , is inferior Disney. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/10 "2014-01-03T18:37:37Z")
My father took me to see _2001 - A Space Odyssey_ in the theater in 1968. I was astonished. I was an 8-year-old who knew the names of the Mercury Seven and could recite stats about them in much the same way as other guys could rattle off RBIs and HRs for their favorite baseball players. It is still a really good film. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/11 "2014-01-03T18:37:41Z")
So far as I can remember, _ **SLIH** _ was the first movie I saw in a theater/cinema. Before that, I remember watching Disney’s _ **Dumbo** _ and _ **Snow White** _ on TV. I also remember watching The Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy shorts (I got to stay up late a lot), plus the courtroom scene in _ **Duck Soup** _, which really creeped me out. A few years later, I remember watching _ **The Dam Busters** _ and _ **Sink the Bismarck** _ on TV. By then, I had seen the following on the big screen: _**Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Guns of Navarone Hell Is for Heroes Journey to the Seventh Planet Journey to the Center of the Earth 13 Ghosts The Time Machine The Parent Trap 101 Dalmatians Lady and the Tramp Operation Petticoat The Sad Sack Little Shop of Horrors Taras Bulba**_ I’m sure there were others (my brother was a big Jerry Lewis and Danny Kaye fan), but these are the ones that made the strongest impressions on me. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/12 "2014-01-03T18:39:17Z")
Hmmm. Probably _ **The Wizard of Oz** _, but I’m honestly not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/13 "2014-01-03T18:44:16Z")
I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw _The Court Jester_, maybe 6 or 7? I think I love it even more at 50+. I do remember seeing _1776_ at age 10 and it holds up for me as well four decades later. ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/14 "2014-01-03T18:59:52Z")
During February Vacation, as a kid, we’d stay with my Aunt, in Boston, every year, she’d take us to an old-time, majestic theater (all gone, now) to see a big screen epic. 50 years later, they still are remembered as classic. **Lawrence of Arabia** (At intermission, they sold over-price OJ, and we were thirsty from all that desert. Best quench ever! **Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World** (in Cinerama) **Goldfinger** (My Aunt didn’t realize the movie would be so racy and almost made us leave) **Dr. Zhivago** **2001** And you know, all these years later, all of them still stand up very well. ---
**Author:** ![Rollo\_Tomasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/15 "2014-01-03T19:00:26Z")
I know the first movie I saw in a theater was **All Dogs Go to Heaven** , and I was told that I liked it, even though I don’t remember seeing it. I still think it’s pretty good, albeit a little strange for a kids movie. The first ones I remember watching and liking were **The Princess Bride** and Disney’s animated **Cinderella**. That was in daycare, so I would have been about age 4 or so. I have them both on DVD now. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/16 "2014-01-03T19:05:23Z")
Mom took me to a bunch of forgetable disney stuff (Escape to Witch Mountain, Mary Poppins, Cat from Outer Space) that I remember finding incredibly dull. Even when I saw Star Wars in 76’ (when I was 6) I just wasn’t that wowed by it. The marketing of toys, cards, everything more or less forced it in your lap. The one that really blew me away was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Saw it a couple times in the theatre at age 7. I was mezmorized and still love that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/17 "2014-01-03T19:06:17Z")
I was 6 when I saw _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_, and it was love at first sight. Gene Wilder as Wonka was my hero, and had a pretty strong influence on the kind of guys I like to this day. It’s still one of my favorite movies ever. Saw _The Aristocats_ around the same time and I remember it having a heavy influence on me at the time (I already loved cats, but the movie turned me into a jazz lover (that didn’t really stick) and made me name all my stuffed cats after characters in the movie). I still like it but it didn’t really stand up to the test of time. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/18 "2014-01-03T19:06:19Z")
Probably _The Sting_. I was 11 or 12 when it came out. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/19 "2014-01-03T19:08:54Z")
Of movies I saw in the theater, probably _Star Wars_ or maybe _The Empire Strikes Back_ (I’m not certain which of the two I actually saw first, as opposed to picking up through cultural osmosis). But I probably saw _The Sound of Music_ or _The Wizard of Oz_ before that, as they’re fairly often on TV (and _TSoM_ is my mom’s favorite movie). Probably the first movie I ever saw in a theater was an animated version of _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_, but I remember absolutely nothing about it except that Aslan’s pounce on the White Witch near the end was very impressive. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817/20 "2014-01-03T19:15:56Z")
Another one that must have made a big impression on me was _ **The Apartment** _, which I saw with my dad when it first came out. I didn’t really get the story at the time (though I thought it was funny when Jack Lemmon used a tennis racket to strain his spaghetti), but I saw it on TCM this time last year and I was amazed at just how much of it I remembered anyway. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-movie-that-you-liked-that-you-still-like/677817.md?page=2)