Films you're embarrassed you haven't seen...

MakeEmLaugh

Are there any films here that regular posters/moderators are willing to admit they're embarrassed they haven't seen?

I consider myself quite well-versed in cinema, but there are a few 'classics' that I really should have caught up with by now. Here are some examples...

Seven Samurai (1955, Akira Kurosawa)
Gone with the Wind (1939, Victor Fleming)
Sunrise (1927, FW Murnau)
The Birth of a Nation (1915, DW Griffith)
Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)
The Leopard (1963, Luchino Visconti)
Andrei Rublev (1966, Andrei Tarkovsky).

Are you up to saying what yours are?

Adamantium

The Godfather Part II
12 Angry Men
Clockwork Orange
Anything Kurosawa.

MadDog76

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Are there any films here that regular posters/moderators are willing to admit they're embarrassed they haven't seen?

I consider myself quite well-versed in cinema, but there are a few 'classics' that I really should have caught up with by now. Here are some examples...

Seven Samurai (1955, Akira Kurosawa)
Gone with the Wind (1939, Victor Fleming)
Sunrise (1927, FW Murnau)
The Birth of a Nation (1915, DW Griffith)
Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)
The Leopard (1963, Luchino Visconti)
Andrei Rublev (1966, Andrei Tarkovsky).

Are you up to saying what yours are?

Mrs Doubtfire

e_e

Andrei Rublev
The Battle of Algiers
Casablanca
Come and See
Fanny and Alexander
Grand Illusion
Metropolis
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Not embarrassed per se because they're not all the most widely popular movies but they are definitely blind spots for me.

clappyhappy

Reservoir dogs
Platoon
Godfather all.

Keep meaning to watch just never have, have all on dvd as well so no excuse.

Mickeroo

Genuinely don't think anyone should be embarrassed for not having seen a film. You're allowed not to find something appealing regardless of whether it's a classic or a b-movie, and if it's a film you actually want to watch then you'll get around to it eventually anyway.

I've only seen Seven Samurai out of that list and Metropolis is the only one on there I have a chance of ever watching tbh, the rest don't appeal to me and I'm fine with that.

nc19

Adamantium wrote:

Clockwork Orange

don't bother with it imo

MakeEmLaugh

Adamantium wrote: »

The Godfather Part II
12 Angry Men
Clockwork Orange
Anything Kurosawa.

You've got to check them out!

The Godfather Part II, in particular, is magnificent. One of the few films over three hours in length that I have seen multiple times and never find dull.

12 Angry Men is one of the best 'all in one place' films out there.

A Clockwork Orange is very good, though not one of Kubrick's best films, in my opinion.

I haven't seen Seven Samurai, though I have seen Ikiru, which Roger Ebert considered Kurosawa's best film.

e_e wrote: »

Andrei Rublev
The Battle of Algiers
Casablanca
Come and See
Fanny and Alexander
Grand Illusion
Metropolis
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Come and See is great, as is The Battle of Algiers.

Fanny and Alexander is another of those films I'm embarrassed to say I haven't seen.

don ramo

Chinatown
Lawrence of Arabia
Deliverance
Dog Day Afternoon
Once Upon A Time in America
Raging Bull
Taxi Driver
The Bridge on the River Kwai

these in particular are ones i have that i just cant seem to find time to get around to, i watch so much, i try and watch films i havent seen, but find i do tend to go back to films i love, sometime you just want something that you know will hit the spot, i find amongst my friends im probably considered the film guy, these films have come to my collection due to constant referencing in the group, and are used as weapons against me :D:p

darkdubh

nc19 wrote: »

don't bother with it imo

Its a great film.Anyway for me,

Groundhog Day.

Shaft.(the original)

Lucifer Rising.

Blood For Dracula.

Akira.

darkdubh

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

You've got to check them out!

The Godfather Part II, in particular, is magnificent. One of the few films over three hours in length that I have seen multiple times and never find dull.

12 Angry Men is one of the best 'all in one place' films out there.

A Clockwork Orange is very good, though not one of Kubrick's best films, in my opinion.

I haven't seen Seven Samurai, though I have seen Ikiru, which Roger Ebert considered Kurosawa's best film.



Come and See is great, as is The Battle of Algiers.

Fanny and Alexander is another of those films I'm embarrassed to say I haven't seen.

Same here,I think its something like five hours long though.Will get to watch it some day.

MakeEmLaugh

don ramo wrote: »

Chinatown
Lawrence of Arabia
Deliverance
Dog Day Afternoon
Once Upon A Time in America
Raging Bull
Taxi Driver
The Bridge on the River Kwai

these in particular are ones i have that i just cant seem to find time to get ajround to, i watch so much, i try and watch films i havent seen, but find i do tend to go back to films i love, sometime you just want something that you know will hit the spot, i find amongst my friends im probably considered the film guy, these films have come to my collection due to constant referencing in the group, and are used as weapons against me :D:p

Wow, those are all classics (except The Bridge on the River Kwai, which I haven't seen).

You need to sort that out!

e_e

darkdubh wrote: »

Same here,I think its something like five hours long though.Will get to watch it some day.

I've the 3 hour long theatrical version but I'm holding out for the 5 hour Criterion version to go down in price.

don ramo

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Wow, those are all classics (except The Bridge on the River Kwai, which I haven't seen).

You need to sort that out!

i know, thankfully its a small list, there are probably more, but they would be one ones im most embarrassed about, all huge films in so many ways, but for every classic i havent seen ive probably seen 10 others,

e_e

I'd recommend that people who want to see more classic films join their local library. I've found so much great stuff in the past few months because of mine.

Reg'stoy

don ramo wrote: »

Chinatown
Lawrence of Arabia
Deliverance
Dog Day Afternoon
Once Upon A Time in America
Raging Bull
Taxi Driver
The Bridge on the River Kwai

For me it's Casablanca, I recently introduced a 30 year old female neighbor to the original Star Wars trilogy. We were talking one night and she mentioned when it came up in conversation that she had never seen them :eek:

MadDog76

Reg'stoy wrote: »

For me it's Casablanca, I recently introduced a 30 year old female neighbor to the original Star Wars trilogy. We were talking one night and she mentioned when it came up in conversation that she had never seen them :eek:

Was she suitably mortified .......... ???

JayRoc

Reg'stoy wrote: »

For me it's Casablanca, I recently introduced a 30 year old female neighbor to the original Star Wars trilogy. We were talking one night and she mentioned when it came up in conversation that she had never seen them :eek:

I will honestly never get over how many women haven't seen Star Wars.

On a personal level, I had to show my missus Trading Places and It's a Wonderful Life (on christmas morning, natch!), and am about to show her Casablanca. Extraordinary.

Reg'stoy

MadDog76 wrote: »

Was she suitably mortified .......... ???

Not in the slightest, offered her my boxset. She was like meh when I asked her what she thought. Then again my wife refers to 2001 A Space Odyssey as that film with the monkeys :mad: and crosses her eyes when ever I mention Blade Runner. So maybe it's a female thing but personally I think they just don't have any taste.

FloatingVoter

Easy to avoid Star Wars if you're not a sci-fi fan. But you do miss out on all the indirect references in popular culture. Not so easy to avoid Casablanca as its on four times at least every Christmas.
Personally I've never seen a Matrix movie nor do I ever intend to. Anybody asks and I just say " Keanu Reeves" - they tend to nod understandingly;).

auldgranny

Lord of the Rings
Avatar.
just haven't bothered about getting them on dvd to look at

e_e

auldgranny wrote: »

Lord of the Rings
Avatar.
just haven't bothered about getting them on dvd to look at

You can easily skip the latter tbh. Just do a double bill of Aliens (military sci-fi) and Princess Mononoke (ecological fantasy) instead.

There's something so "special effects tech demo" about it on the small screen too.

MadDog76

Reg'stoy wrote: »

Not in the slightest, offered her my boxset. She was like meh when I asked her what she thought. Then again my wife refers to 2001 A Space Odyssey as that film with the monkeys :mad: and crosses her eyes when ever I mention Blade Runner. So maybe it's a female thing but personally I think they just don't have any taste.

That wasn't a serious question, sorry ........... I've never seen Star Wars myself and I have zero interest in watching it .......... I'm not in the least bit embarrassed by that fact.

MadDog76

auldgranny wrote: »

Lord of the Rings
Avatar.
just haven't bothered about getting them on dvd to look at

I'd recommend both of these, you'll need a spare 12 hours or so though!

darkdubh

Dune:I know its not very well regarded but as I'm a big David Lynch fan would like to see it.

The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue:The title alone makes sure its on my want to see list.

Sam Pekinpahs Major Dundee,The Killer Elite and his last fim The Osterman Weekend.Think I've seen everything else by him.

johnny_ultimate

Why get embarrassed? There are nearly endless layers of cinema to discover, each discovery regularly leading on to dozens more. Accept that there will almost always be more great films to watch, and I think an ever-growing backlog is something to be excited about rather than feared.

I do think there's a tendency to watch the popular 'masterpieces' of a director and leave it at that, tick the director off 'the list' - something I've definitely been guilty of. But IMO most great directors need more attention than that. I don't think seeing Seven Samurai or Ikiru alone, for example, gives anywhere near a satisfactory idea of what Kurosawa was capable of. Ditto Bergman - if anything, Fanny & Alexander is almost an atypical work, although one's that fascinating in a diverse and vast body of work. For those reasons, I'd say there's a few directors I really must watch more of - I've seen a good few silent Lubitsch films, for example, but yet to watch any of his talkies for whatever reason. Jim Jarmusch would be another.

As for proper gaps, Rainer Werner Fassbinder is one filmmaker I've yet to watch anything from. Have also been meaning to watch some Derek Jarman films. Less embarrassed and more keen to see what they have to offer

Probably will never get around to Birth of a Nation though, given I found Intolerance intolerable

Mickeroo wrote:

I've only seen Seven Samurai out of that list and Metropolis is the only one on there I have a chance of ever watching tbh, the rest don't appeal to me and I'm fine with that

Sunrise - seriously, give it a chance. It's a film I'd give a pretty much blanket recommendation to. Something like Metropolis, Caligari or Chaplin's work are often the 'go to' silent films, but to me Sunrise is the best introduction to early cinema, and a beautifully accessible and entertaining one to boot.

Right Turn Clyde

Mickeroo wrote: »

Genuinely don't think anyone should be embarrassed for not having seen a film. You're allowed not to find something appealing regardless of whether it's a classic or a b-movie, and if it's a film you actually want to watch then you'll get around to it eventually anyway.

I've only seen Seven Samurai out of that list and Metropolis is the only one on there I have a chance of ever watching tbh, the rest don't appeal to me and I'm fine with that.

That's sound advice. I've seen a few Tarkovsky films, and with the exception of Ivan's Childhood I didn't like any of them. Stalker looks great, but it's bloody boring. It's taken me a while to admit that though. If I was ever embarrassed of anything, it was that I didn't like a lot of 'classic' films. But I'm much more comfortable with myself now. If you don't like something then you don't like it, and that should be enough.

Skerries

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

But I'm much more comfortable with myself now. If you don't like something then you don't like it, and that should be enough.

you can hand in your Film Snob badge on your way out

chanelfreak

@JayRoc - its the opposite for me. I'm a massive movie nerd and my husband is the complete opposite. He hasn't seen LOTR, Godfather all, Avatar, etc etc etc. What's worse is that when I introduced him to the marvel that is Star Wars (original), you know what he did??? He went 'Meh, its alright'. ALRIGHT?? ALRIGHT??

To be honest, I don't know how we are still married

e_e

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

That's sound advice. I've seen a few Tarkovsky films, and with the exception of Ivan's Childhood I didn't like any of them. Stalker looks great, but it's bloody boring. It's taken me a while to admit that though. If I was ever embarrassed of anything, it was that I didn't like a lot of 'classic' films. But I'm much more comfortable with myself now. If you don't like something then you don't like it, and that should be enough.

Great point, people need to seriously stop treating some films like sacred cows that can't be criticized or at least re-evaluated in any way. I love that there's a canon of films out there that people can refer to but it shouldn't be set in stone, or else Paul Haggis's Crash would be considered one of the greatest films of all time. :P

Case in point: A Clockwork Orange, A Bout de Souffle and Once Upon a Time in the West. Three "classics" that did absolutely nothing for me. I love Stalker though.