"i should have seen this film years ago!" (1 Viewer)

[Christ Reynolds]

this is a thread i had to start, because i have more than one film that i feel this way about. with netflix, i get to see a lot of the stuff i cant find at the local video store, sadly enough. these are famous movies i'm talking about, too.

first, on the waterfront. i had heard the "i coulda been a contenda" line a hundred times, but i figured there was more to this movie. i loved it, it was a great film on every level.

network. i'm mad as hell that i only discovered this film a month ago. i also loved that there was very little music, if any.

the apartment. watched this last night, and is the main reason for this thread. and i call myself a fan of cinema, but it's my first billy wilder film.

what are the movies you wished you had discovered earlier?

CJ

 

[george kaplan]

Assuming you liked it, if I may suggest as a follow-up:

Double Indemnity
Some Like It Hot
Stalag 17

As to my own such revelations, I did go through that, but it was quite a few years ago. I remember 'discovering' Hitchcock, and renting all of his films. I continue to discover films I truly enjoy, but rarely any major ones anymore. Probably the most recent (couple of years ago) important first time viewings were films like Rashomon, The Seventh Seal and Hail the Conquering Hero. My most recent 'discovery', which was very enjoyable, though not very important, was The Great Gildersleeve.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Jeez, I could go on forever with great films I've discovered late that I wish I had tried earlier. Some examples:

SUNSET BLVD.
CITIZEN KANE
ON THE WATERFRONT
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956)
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
HIGH NOON
INHERIT THE WIND
KEY LARGO
JEZEBEL
PATHS OF GLORY

On the other hand, here are a few that I could have remained forever content had I not seen them:

THE APARTMENT (Sorry, George)
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
SHANE
THE SEARCHERS
THE BIG SLEEP
GONE WITH THE WIND

 

[Christ Reynolds]

yes, very much. your suggestions are now on my netflix queue, let's hope they speed things up, they are so slow for me now, i could buy the movies for cheaper than i'm renting them from netflix i also plan to watch sunset blvd this week too.

i also 'discovered' hitchcock, probably about 10 years ago. i always loved alfred hitchcock presents, so i figured i'd give a couple of his films a try. i was blown away what i saw, and have been a fan ever since.

my girlfriend is a high school teacher, and sometimes on monday mornings, she'll talk with the kids about what they did over the weekend, and sometimes they ask her. i dont want to say "kids these days", as i am still a kid in the eyes of many, at 27. but...kids these days! they haven't heard of 2001: a space odyssey, and they havent heard of alfred hitchcock. there are some other ones, but i cant remember, i'll have to ask her, i think there was a musical artist they never heard of. if it's not the godfather or the beatles, they never heard of it if it came before 1988. these kids must have some brains, they are in spanish 3 and 4 accelerated. i silently wept

CJ

 

[CaseyL]

Coppellas "The Conversation"

Watched it for the first time about 2 years ago...Totally blew me away that I'd never seen it before. Super great.

 

[Josh.C]

I am a huge fan of the classics. If you are wanting to watch an older film you may not have seen. Check these out and let me know what you think.

The Court Jester (Danny Kay)
The Great Imposter (Tony Curtis)
The African Queen (Bogart & Kate Hepburn)
Some Like it Hot (Mentioned above, Monroe & Curtis)
Just about any Hitchcock film, though I am partial to Vertigo, Rear Window, and the Man Who knew too Much
The Quiet Man (John Wayne & Marine O'Hara)

Here's a few Westerns too. I'm a sucker for John Wayne Flicks.

Rio Bravo
El Derado
The Sons of Katie Elder
Shenendoah (Jimmy Stewart)
Big Jake

Thanks for the other posts. I saw a few mentioned that I have not seen yet, and will be checking out soon.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

I was in my mid-20's before I finally saw "High Noon." It has stuck with me for quite some time.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

saw sunset blvd last night, another one i wish i'd seen years ago.

CJ

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I just added this to my list too, Michael - though I didn't see it til I was 40!

 

[Paul_Scott]

finally saw Man Who Shot Liberty Valance just the other night.
was just as good as its reputation had suggested.

Random Harvest was another that knocked me out this last year, but was a title i had resisted for the longest time.
its now happily a part of the permanent collection.

Westerns in general have been a genre that i never really gravitated towards, but now, at this time in my life, find quite appealing so i'm discovering more and more of those.

 

[David Wilkins]

Don't forget to explore the more recent classic that were produced during the 60's, 70's & 80's...the 80's after all, were two decades ago.

And...the huge slew of lesser known films, both during the classic era, all the way up to last year. There are some real gems that even most movie goers are not aware of, due to poor distribution, etc.. Those type films are just as unlikely to show up on the shelf at your local video store.

It's been said before: So many movies...so little time.

 

[Nigel McN]

I only saw The Shawshank Redemption a few weeks ago, wish I had seen it earlier, excellent film.

 

[Francois Caron]

I've stopped saying "I should have seen that film years ago" years ago. The simple fact is that there are so many great old movies out there, it's very easy to miss a lot of them. But when you discover them, it makes for a terrific movie night. In my case, it wasn't until I started borrowing DVDs from Montreal's "La Grande Bibliothèque" that I discovered Errol Flynn's great old swashbuckling and western epics. And if it isn't Flynn, it's other great epics such as this weekend's picks: Fritz Lang's "M" with Peter Lorre, and Raoul Walsh's "The Roaring Twenties" with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.

It's no wonder I've stopped watching today's movies. They simply can't compete against the great epics of the past, especially Hollywood movies made during the late thirties and early forties. That was truly a golden era, most of it filmed in glorious black & white.

 

[Janna S]

Night of the Hunter
Elmer Gantry
Marty

I saw these films years ago, but had I seen them sooner in my movie-going career, I would have understood more about actors like Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Burt Lancaster, Shirley Jones, Lillian Gish, and Ernest Borgnine. And I would have appreciated Charles Laughton.

 

[RodneyT]

I have to confess that up until a year or so ago i was not a fan of "classic" older films, pre-1970. So for ages I had no idea about films like Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus etc etc. Those older films i tended to look upon with disdain, opting instead for the commercial, hyperkinetic, blockbusting films of the "modern" era.
Thankfully, I was having a sick day once, and watched a mates Lawrence of Arabia DVD. Blown away by the experience, I realised that my assumptions about older films had made me miss out on some true gems at the video store. Since then, I have endeavoured to include in regular purchases of new films, some older films as well. But Lawrence: there's a film that made me wish I'd seen it earlier.

 

[Nathan Phillips]

I agree with that; I'm glad that I'm just now getting into directors like Bergman and Hawks because there's so much more to see, whereas I've now seen every accessible Hitchcock movie (he's my hero) and I'm quickly running out of Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, Spielberg, etc. The more great movies I've yet to see, the better, and there are enough forgotten gems out there that I don't think it's a finite number.

However, I did say to myself one time in particular "why did I miss out so long?" and that was "Citizen Kane." From things my mom had said about it and its enormous status in the film world I assumed that it would inevitably disappoint me, but it blew me to smithereens. It's such a blast, nothing I would want to taint by putting on a pedestal, but it's so amazing that it's hard to resist doing just that.

My favorite discovery this year was "Barry Lyndon," which impressed me even more than "Kane," but I had wanted to see it for years so it didn't give me quite the same feeling.

 

[Ruz-El]

"Singing In The Rain"

I was on of those guys who wrote off the entire genre of musicals as only for chicks. I watched this for the first time when the SE DVD came out at a friends place, mainly from suggestions on this board as to how great the transfer was. Yes the transfer was impressive, but the movie was simply magic. One of the biggest movie watching revelations I've ever had, and has lead to me buying many more musicals for my collection.

That last time I was blown away was with Hitchcocks "Shadow Of A Doubt", a great film I never heard of, that I saw for the first time last month, while going through "The Masterpiece Collection".

 

[GeorgePaul]

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.

This is SUCH a fun film. Alan Arkin is a revelation as Sigmund Freud, Nicol Williamson brings Sherlock Holmes into REAL humanity for the first time in my experience with the character, and while I thought at first Robert Duvall would bomb as Watson, he makes the character game and passionate--far more than the helpless-seeming bookish prig of Conan Doyle.

Nick Meyer transforms his bestselling book into a delightful romp through the early 20th century, aided by John Addison's lush score and a witty Stephen Sondheim number, and counterbalanced by some excellent cinematography which really drew me into Holmes' struggle with his cocaine addiction.

It's not even a film that is a product of its time (1976); rather, studios simply choose to no longer make films like these. Which is a real shame, IMHO, as this appeared to be a joy for everyone involved to make. It certainly was a breath of fresh air from the '70s, and a joy to watch.

 

[Jeremy Stockwell]

For me:
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
City Lights (1931)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Psycho (1960)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
All About Eve (1950)
Metropolis (1927)
High Noon (1952)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

More recent, but still wish I'd seen them before I did...
Empire of the Sun (1987)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Heat (1995)


And my source is not NetFlix, but rather, my local library.

Cool thread, by the way.

JKS

 

[Scott Simonian]

Took me up until just last year that I had never seen Goodfellas and Casino. Casino I kept skipping on because I couldn't find time to sit for the whole thing and I hate watching movies not in one sitting. Don't know why it took me forever to see Goodfellas.

Now it is one of my favorite movies.