I hear people are seeing
Avatar multiple times. I probably have done this once or twice over the years but not very often. Are repeat visits out of sheer enjoyment or more for studying various aspects of the movie? In our house, we almost never see a movie a second time. My husband has a scary ability to repeat lines from movies he saw forty years ago and I do not like to encourage this exorcistic-worthy display of his gift.
What movies have you seen at a theater more than once on their first run.? Have you ever finished a book and immediately read it again?
I did this all the time as a child but can't recall immediately rereading any book as an adult. What books/movies inspire this devotion or study?
PS. Check out my review of A SINGLE MAN on Crimespree Cinema-link to the left. Let me know if you've seen it and what you thought.
I did this all the time as a child but can't recall immediately rereading any book as an adult. What books/movies inspire this devotion or study?
39 comments:
The only movie I can recall seeing more than once on first run at theaters is Raiders of The Lost Ark. Only that one. None of the others.
As for books, I rarely read books more than once. The half dozen or so that I have I usually allow a few years between each reading though.
I think I saw the first Star Wars more than once. Mostly because we took the kids the second time. This week I will see Crazy Heart twice-couldn't say no.
I know I saw Star Wars more than once. Maybe 3 or 4 times. I kept taking other people to see it.
I have quite a few books that I like to pull out when life has me out of sorts, for whatever reason--sickness, sorrow, whatnot. Anyway, they are not great literary classics, just good comfort reads. Some of Agatha Christie, some of Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, even Harry Potter's.
None of the above!
Terrie
John Carpenter's The Thing, Buckeroo Bonzai. I also probaby saw Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run about 10 times as a kid--but that was only because they were always using it as part of a double feature!
I can understand Avatar--so much detail and stuff going on there, and really spectacular film making.
I'm not much for movies (especially during that last twenty years), but I recall rereading several novels (without hesitating between readings):
Kazuo Ishiguro's NEVER LET ME GO
Margaret Atwood's ORYX AND CRAKE
Flannery O'Connor's WISE BLOOD and THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY
Hemingway's THE SUN ALSO RISES
Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY
Jeanette Winterson's THE PASSION
Virginia Woolf's MRS DALLOWAY
Salman Rushdie's MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN
Garcia-Marquez's ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, and CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD
There are quite a few others that would fit this immediate reread category, but the sampling listed here gives you an idea about my idiosyncratic and eclectic reading interests.
Back in the Seventies I saw a bunch of movies multiple times in the theater just because I liked them so much: Star Wars, The Last Picture Show, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, American Graffiti . . . I could go on. Now I don't watch anything in the theater and hardly ever watch anything on DVD that I've seen before.
I'll reread a book if it's one that I originally read thirty or forty years ago and remember liking. Books that I'm reading for the first time now, I'm pretty sure I'll never reread. Like sand through the hourglass, you know . . . only so much time left.
When I was a kid, you could sit through movies again and again so I did.
NEVER LET ME GO is one of my very favorite books. Certainly the book that made me cry the most. Great list of books to read in general, RT. O'Connor will never be touched especially IMHO. Also A Gesture Life from Chang Rae Lee.
That sound in the hourglass leads me around by the nose now. Someone recently remarked on seeing The Last Picture Show for the first time. That's one I want to see again. All those lovely scenes in dust swept Texas are as exotic as anywhere to me.
Like Patti, I remember the days when a single ticket allowed you to sit through a movie more than once. I lived in a small town with only two movie theaters (no multiplexes) and the movies changed once a week, so we would often see a movie more than once. In the 1970s, it was rare for me to see a movie only once. If the movie had even the slightest bit of interest, my friends and I would see it repeatedly. Just off the top of my head: Love and Death, Annie Hall, Blazing Saddles, Chinatown, Animal House, Young Frankenstein, And Now for Something Completely Different, The Groove Tube, Kentucky Fried Movie, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, etc.
Perhaps this is why I tend to fall back on quotes from seventies movies.
As for books, I sometimes go back right after I've finished and reread passages that make the ending clearer, but there are only a few books that I've read repeatedly and I have to allow some time to elapse between readings.
The early James Bond movies were like peanuts to me. These days I don't bother going to the movies at all -- people talking right behind me, snapping gum loudly, texting, inept theater personnel, poor projectionists, p.a. announcements during the movie, uber-expensive and uber-lousy food...Oh,I just realized that I am a cranky old fart...
When I was working at an Equity theater, I was able to see the same play eight times a week during each play's three-week run. A fantastic experience. (Well, except for a very poorly directed Waiting for Godot.)
Books? Too many on my TBR list to reread much, although a really good book will send me on a single author binge. For a period of 20 to 25 years, I re-read the Alice books at least once a year and, as a kid, I can't count how many times I re-read the Hardy Boys books and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
I do like to see many films a second time. I saw Pulp Fiction and Chasing Amy twice on their opening days. Die Hard, The Doors and The Big Lebowski were both seen more than once on their initial run. I think I have seen Lebowski about 8 time on a big screen, to me it's just that good. A couple of years back some friends and I were kicking around the idea of opening a Cinema and Lounge (nothing ever got out of the talking stages)-- but one of the reasons for me was that I would get to see a lot more of my favorite films in a theater again or for the first time.
As for books, I have never re-read a book right after finishing it, however there is a small group of books that I have read more than once. As a kid I reread favorites more often, but as an adult it's been The Stand by Stephen King, the works of James Ellroy, Resume with Monsters, The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril and some Louis L'amour Westerns.
Young Frankenstein, Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Barton Fink, Big Lebowski, Rear Window,Monty Python and the Holy Grail, all the Connery Bond films... books Picture Of Dorian Grey and Rat Pack Confidential.
More than once in the theater:
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN
DAVID AND LISA
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
THE BIG CHILL
APOCALYPSE NOW
2001
STAR WARS Episodes 4 and 5
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC
ALIEN
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERERS' STONE
There were also many movies I saw more than once when I was in high school and would see them with my friends, then on a date, then maybe again if it was good, but no titles come to mind right now.
As for books, I don't think, as an adult, I've ever reread a book immediately.
Can't help but notice that few of these movies are recent ones. Were the movies better than or do the prices keep us away. And yet movie prices have moved more slowly than many others. I know. It's the advent of big screen TV, On Demand, things like that.
I'm planning on seeing AVATAR again next week at the IMAX. The graphics in AVATAR are so overwhelming, I need to check it all out again, especially those floating mountains! I rarely reread a book, maybe once or twice a year, but some people take rereading to a new level. For example, Art Scott and Steve Stilwell have read Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series 50 times! It boggles the mind!
Casablanca, so many times I've memorized it. I play it when I need to understand loss and sacrifice and giving one's self to a higher cause. It reaches so deeply within me that even now, after many viewings, I tremble at certain scenes.
George-do you think an IMAX screen would be substantially different?
Richard. That may be the movie I've seen most, too. But never on the big screen-what a shame.
IMAX just makes everything bigger and more immediate, Patti. I saw THE DARK KNIGHT at the IMAX and it was mind-blowing. The movie experience is enhanced by the jumbo screen and all the digital speakers.
Saw BULLITT four times. Still don't understand the damn movie but Steve McQueen was the king of cool.The car chase was great and the cheerleader I was dating waaaayy-back-then loved counting how many times she seen the same green Volkswagon slogging down the San Fransisco hills between a helluva' fast Ford Mustang and a Dodge Charger.
John McAuley
Patti - we saw it in the IMAX. I can't compare it, as I only saw it yesterday, but I'll see it in "regular" 3-D next time (cheaper) and I know the screen will be half or 2/3 the size and the sound will be inferior.
My oldest son Paul was nine when Top Gun first ran and back then when I asked what he and his friend Timmy wanted to do, it was always the same. See Top Gun again. As for movies I have seen more than once in the theater because I personally wanted to, there are two. Lawrence of Arabia and Dave.
I wans't sure at first if you meant see the movie more than once during the first run or see the movie twice in succession.
I've done both of course. We used to see a lot of double features and more than once the second feature was something we'd seen already, so I'd call that seeing it again by semi-accident. Last time this happened: JUNO.
Occasionally we see a movie that strikes an immediate chord and we just stay and see it again. The last ones I remember doing that for were AMERICAN HOT WAX (if the opening scene doesn't get you, nothing will) and (what else?) GROUNDHOG DAY.
Jeff M.
PS - What about a list of "movies we were most anticipating that turned out to be a major disappointment"?
I ahte to say it but RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was that for me. The raves I'd heard were so over the top that nothing could have lived up to the hype and I was severely disappointed. Ditto for THE LION KING in the theater (despite the spectacular costumes, etc.). In that case, I liked the movie better!
In both cases a secdon viewing helped.
Oh yeah, one movie we saw twice as a double feature and one that scared the crap out of me both times was Polanski's REPULSION.
My nephew and I saw Star Wars opening weekend at the Lakeside Mall cinema in Sterling Heights. A week later we got my sister (his mom) to take us back for the ten o'clock show where we stayed for the next three showings.
Hi Jeff-Good idea for a topic. I'll do it next week. Was disappointed in the sequels to Raiders but liked the original.
Repulsion-once was it over me. Good movie though.
Jack_ Wish you could still do that. Although I guess you could in effect, leave go to the rest room and then come back. Lakeside Mall-I haven't been up there in a while but I love that FORUM 30 movie theater. Although the Paladium in B'Ham with those seats is my favorite.
Steve McQueen--didn't always care for his movies but he was one dreamy guy.
Theatrical repeats: My friends (who were nauseated) and I (who was disgusted) wandered out of THE FOOD OF THE GODS, and the theater didn't want to give us vouchers or refunds, so we ended up seeing THE BAD NEWS BEARS, for the second time for me (Tatum O'Neal made that a less than trying experience). Later, the only other films I've seen twice in a theater have included films I attended with different friends, thinking that the second friend needed to see the brilliant ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and the fine AKEELAH AND THE BEE (Kate Winslet and Angela Bassett helped make those experiences less than trying).
Films that friends and (extended) family have dragooned me into seeing repeatedly have included SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, wherein it became a joke and I started watching a bit of it whenever it was on, so as to be able to say I've looked at it at least nine times. I definitely on my own steam saw the original KING KONG about twelve times by the time I was ten, since public domain prints were available to tv stations.
I've reread more short fiction than novels since youth, but have reread Avram Davidson, Jorge Luise Borges (his collections of linked stories), and a few other great favorites as an adult.
Todd's KING KONG comment rang a bell. When we were kids Channel 9 in New York ran something called "Million Dollar Movie" where they'd show the same movie every afternoon (at 3:30 I think) for a week, followed by all-day showings on Saturday.
The movies I remember them running are:
KING KONG
SON OF KONG
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG
Needless to say (probably) I watched them all over and over, though SON OF KONG didn't live up to the others.
Jeff M.
Todd's KING KONG comment rang a bell. When we were kids Channel 9 in New York ran something called "Million Dollar Movie" where they'd show the same movie every afternoon (at 3:30 I think) for a week, followed by all-day showings on Saturday.
The movies I remember them running are:
KING KONG
SON OF KONG
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG
Needless to say (probably) I watched them all over and over, though SON OF KONG didn't live up to the others.
Jeff M.
Which is nothing compared to today, Jeff, when my three year old grandson has watched Finding Nemo and Cars dozens of times and can recite every line.
Todd-your repeat visits to movies seems to be based on its female attraction.
Eternal Sunshine was a fabulous film and one I need to see again for thing I missed.
I went to see "Mulholland Dr." three times in theaters because it was just so cryptic and endlessly fascinating. So three times is the record held by this movie alone, although I've seen a number of things twice, really too many to list or even remember. But if you throw in tv and video viewings the all-time record holder is probably "Psycho". No telling how many times I've seen that--I've actually watched it just to listen to the music--but I'd say at least 20.
Steve McQueen spent his dying days at his friend Tom McGuane's ranch near here, living in a small log guest cabin where he could see the eternal mountains and listen to the rushing creek. The place is owned by friends of mine, who have placed a small, warm photo of McQueen on the wall of the cabin where he clung to life and beauty to the last, even as the sunset came.
Richard-this fills me with sadness yet happiness that he died in such a place rather than the usual. He died too young, of course.
Jeff Myerson--as you probably know, Chris Steinbrunner, the film & tv columnist for EQMM, was the film programmer for WOR Channel 9 in NYC.
Patti--no, the gorgeousness of the young Tatum O'Neal to the young me, and the mature Kate Winslet and Angela Bassett to the middle-aged me, simply made already good to brilliant films that much more pleasant to view again. Much as I didn't suffer while taking in Sela Ward and most of the rest of the female cast of ONCE AND AGAIN, nor do I when contemplating Julianna Margulies and (Ms.) Archie Panjabi of THE GOOD WIFE, quite aside from finding the series fine television drama.
I went to see a number of films twice (Alien is the only one to come to mind immediately) because I saw them in a drive-in first and um, there were distractions that kept me from seeing the movies.
I probably saw The Kids are Alright a couple dozen times (or maybe more...) because they played it as a midnight movie and it became a ritual with friends, so much so that we were already sitting down in the theater when we realised that they had changed the midnight movie to Gimme Shelter. I was even more pissed off when the guy next to me threw up on my shoes.
I've gone to films more than once when I could go with different people who I knew would appreciate it and it was a film that I knew I'd be glad to see again -- or a classic film that I'd only seen on the small screen (ah, seeing The Haunting on a big screen paired with The Innocents! Sublime!).
Seeing a particular movie at the cinema on more than one occasion doesn't happen to me very often, but there have been a few.
Mulholland Drive (4)
Three Colours:Red (2)
Shallow Grave (3)
Blue Velvet (2)
Crash (Cronenberg, 2)
As for books... I've re-read Straub's Ghost Story numerous times, as well as the late Steve Bach's Final Cut and will undoubtedly take a second run at Tim Lucas' essential tome devoted to Mario Bava.
Love your site. Saw it mentioned in that excellent blog my our mutual friend over at Lazy Thoughts.
Hi Steve-Have never seen Crash, but the rest are favorite. Blue or Red, hard to pick one.
Ghost Story is one my favorite reading experiences ever.
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