Someone said on here a few weeks ago that they have never been frightened by a movie. I have a friend that is so frightened at scary movies, she just can't see them. They play over and over in her head like an earwig.
Do you get so caught up with a movie that it makes you scared, or makes you cry or makes you angry. I can hardly watch movies where people are unjustifiably accused of something. It just drives me nuts. (THE WRONG MAN made me crazy).
What about you? Are you always able to remain outside of a movie or do you get swept away? I seldom cry at movies but when I saw PRIEST in 1997, I wept all the way home. Speaking of which, why has Linus Roache been relegated to TV movies.
Do you and the movie become one or are you always aware of it being just a movie?
21 comments:
When I do get swept away, it's always in the theater and never in front of the television. That might be as important as the movie itself.
I recall it happening when I saw Seabiscuit, which evoked the Depression brilliantly. I understood how much people needed something to believe in, and the big showdown between Seabiscuit and War Admiral became impossible to resist.
I don't often become caught up in a movie but I sure do like it when it happens. And when it does I feel the emotions very intensly.
Last time I remember getting caught up in a movie like that was MEMENTO.
Yes, I've been scared watching movies (though not lately), with REPULSION being the one that comes immediately to mind. I think the fact that it was a seemingly ordinary person's life rather than an ostensible "horror" movie made it that much more harrowing.
And I totally agree with you about people being unjustly accused! The other ones I can't take are related: a couple arrives at a motel, the wife goes to check in while he parks the car. By the time he gets inside she's vanished and everyone there denies ever seeing her.
In part that's why I found NBC's THE EVENT so unwatchable. I'm supposed to believe a couple was on a cruise for several days, interacting with fellow passengers and crew, then she disappears (part of the conspiracy). Yet not a single person on the ship admits to having seen her? Were they all in on it?
It makes me angry just thinking about it.
Jeff M.
I thought about your question a bit and can't really remember but a couple of films I got caught up in enough to affect me emotionally.
I usually can enjoy the performance, the scenery, without getting lost as you put it. I'm not sure what that says about me.
I never get caught up in movies I watch on DVD. Never. It only happens for me at a movie where I lose a sense of myself more. The dark, the smell of popcorn, sticky floors, I need all that.
I get caught up in a movie only if I'm really enjoying myself watching it and that too only in a cinema hall and never on DVD (too many distractions). HARRY POTTER 1 to 5 did that. So did THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Never a dull moment.
I'm the same as most: I only get swept away at the theater. Inception had me caught up.
Jeff: you're so right about THE EVENT.
I think the theater also amplifies a bad movie--maybe it's because you paid so much to see it :-) I've seen some really bad kid movies that made me consider demanding a refund...
Patti - I have to admit, I don't often get swept away by a movie; I really don't. Only a couple of times have I been so caught up in a film that I was truly affected by it. For instance, Alfred Hitchock's Shadow of a Doubt caught me up and didn't let go...
Have you done Kate Laity's questionnaire, Patti? Did that nudge you in this direction, too?
No. I'll check out her blog. The idea came to me when someone last week said they had never been scared watching horror movies.
I'm with Charles and I also concur about the experience being more intense, when a movie is particularly good, in a theatre setting.
Not a fan of graphic violence, but will tolerate it if there's a "higher" purpose in showing it.
I always get lost in a great movie. I'm more affected when I watch movies in a good movie theater (if the audience is quiet) than watching it at home in Blu-ray. The movie that made me weep was TERMS OF ENDEARMENT.
Yep. It did. And several others like Dr. Zhivago, GWTW, Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Affair to Remember, Casablanca, Schindler's List, Sophie's Choice, Diary of Anne Frank, Love with the Proper Stranger. Just off the top of the head.
I guess I'm too interested in lighting and camera angles and edits to be totally taken in by a movie. Don't get me wrong I usually end up loving the movie more if it's cleverly made.
GOODFELLAS is in TV a lot and I'm one of those guys who tunes in for the long, hand-held shot over Ray Liotta's shoulder while he's walking through the back of the restaurant and winds up at the Henny Youngman show. RUSSIAN ARK was pure ecstasy because I was aware of the camera while I was loving the stories.
Probably a joke on me, but I got caught up in SIXTH SENSE.
Oh, so did I. I know you can only see it once but it sure worked for me.
I don't know enough about the technical stuff to even think about it. I don't notice the music either--not unless it uses music I already know that is. Don't often notice costumes. I just care about setting, character and story. Strange what we bring with us into a theater or a movie.
Sometimes. American Grafitti held my interest all the way through, as did Jaws and Woodstock and Casablanca. I agree that it's unlikely to happen at home, what with people, phones, and pets interrupting all the time.
For me it was THE MAGDALENE SISTERS, which is sort of in the 'unjustly accused' category. It being based on real events contributed, I guess.
JAWS was terrifying and a lot of it was because of John Williams score.
And THE MAGDALENE SISTERS was hands down the most miserable I have ever felt watching a movie. Great movie but wretched subject.
I cry or get caught in a movie even if it's on DVD. It all depends on my mood, I suppose.
I wept bitterly when I watched BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Now there was a movie tha gripped me for days and days, even weeks. Even now if I re-read the short story, I get teary. I don't watch the film anymore, it's just too sad.
I saw MASTER AND COMMANDER in the theater with my daughter and her hubby and got so caught up in that shipboard world and the performances and music that I was practically speechless until we were in the car on our way home. I like when that happens.
When I was a kid, I used to come out of the theater after watching a musical - filled with joy, feeling as if I wanted to dance all the way home. But that was in the heyday of great musicals...
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