I was cruising around Twitter yesterday and I saw…
So I started to respond… agreeing to the same 6 films. I have since removed Manhunter from my list because I think I’ve only really watched it like 6 or 7 times.
But it’s a crazy list. I came up with 146 films… and I am pretty sure I am still missing a few.
Thing is, the shape of the list has a lot to do with the shape of content availability over the last 5 decades or so. There are movies from before VHS and Cable on my list… but not a ton. I have seen my share of classics, but not really 10 times or more. Looking back at lists of movies, the first year since the 80s without any movie on the list from a given year is 2000. There are not many titles since 2010.
Part of this is my life. I’ve seen at least 300 films a year since the late 90s and the time to see anything 10 times is, say, limited. Last year, the movie I saw the most times was Oppenheimer, which I ended up seeing on a screen 8 times… but I haven’t watched it since. I am sure it will end up on this list before too long. But I am having a rest.
I saw a bunch of movies last year 3 or 4 or 5 times. In fact, it made me a little sad that so many movies I love deeply just didn’t get that many viewings. If 5 was the standard for movies in my life, this list would be at least 5x longer. But that is not what this exercise is. 10 is a lot. Some of the movies are junk. Some are fantastic.
That period in the 70s when HBO happened… they would play these movies over and over and over again. Plus, you could tape it off “air.” And we had a young pirate in our school van who delivered almost any movie for $20. Watched a lot of movies a lot of times.
But I don’t think it was just me being a teenager and the sudden availability of HBO and VHS. I think my viewing has been victimized by the long tail.
My son, 14, watches almost nothing more than once. I love watching things that I find really interesting more than once.
The world in which movies are presented to us for our viewing are only a sliver of our engagement these days. TCM… Criterion Channel… that’s about it. And the avalanche of choices. It’s the most exciting thing to me about the Taylor Swift thing… that people are focusing so intensely on one performer, if even only for. a year or two.
I saw most of these films in a real life movie theater when I saw them the first time… and I remember that experience for pretty much every one. What city… what friends… what girlfriends… what that feeling of discovery was and wanting more.
Some of the movies that didn’t make this list for me are films, like House of Flying Daggers, that I loved so much in the theater - from a horrible angle at the worst theater at TIFF… Roy Thompson Hall - that I didn’t want to watch it on TV until it was available in 4K. I prayed that it would be part of the most excellent Sony Classics 30th Anniversary 4K box. No luck. A movie that should be seen in an IMAX theater in all its gorgous glory.
There are other films, like Before Night Falls, are so emotionally intense, I got through it 3 or 4 or 5 times… and I need to revisit it soon… but 10 would be so hard.
Look at the “A”s on my list… 16 films… there are titles that I have really studied, like A Clockwork Orange, Adaptation., All That Jazz, and Apocalypse Now. There are movies that HBO just played so many times, like …And Justice For All ("You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order!") and Author! Author!. (Both coincidentally Pacino movies) There are movies that are just a joy to watch for me, like The Addams Family, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Airplane, Annie, Annie Hall, and Arthur. There are movies I was fascinated by, watching them an irrational number of times (American Werewolf in London and At Close Range). And there is a movie that is deeply personal to me - I’m not alone - and make me think about my father and my family and the odd truths of time… that would be Avalon.
Of course, these descriptions bleed between the groups I just offered up. Clockwork, like so much of Kubrick, offers brutal truths that I had to navigate emotionally to understand over the course of years. All That Jazz is, for me, a painfully perfect movie. (And I have never been a sex or pill addict… or died.) A family member who loved Arthur obnoxiously is part of that movie when I see it. Etc.
This is a swath of movies from which I still offer ideas, still quote, still laugh to myself about, still carry with me. Even some of the shitty ones. But amongst them are some of the greatest movies of my lifetime.
So here is my list… I invite you to comment with yours…
10
1776
2001: A Space Odyssey
48 Hrs.
A Clockwork Orange
Adaptation.
The Addams Family (live-action)
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Airplane
All That Jazz
An American Werewolf in London
… And Justice For All
Animal House
Annie (John Huston)
Annie Hall
Apocalypse Now
Arthur
At Close Range
Author! Author!
Avalon
Barton Fink
Basquiat
Batman
Batman Returns
The Big Chill
The Big Picture
Bird
Birdman
Blazing Saddles
The Blues Brothers
Boogie Nights
Borat
Bowfinger
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Blade Runner
Blazing Saddles
Broadcast News
Caddyshack
Carnal Knowledge
Chariots of Fire
Chinatown
Christine
Citizen Kane
City of God
The Commitments
The Cotton Club
My Cousin Vinny
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Defending Your Life
Delicatessen
Deliver Us From Evil (documentary)
Die Hard
Diggstown
Dr Strangelove
Everyone Says I Love You
Excalibur
Eyes Wide Shut
Face/Off
The Family Stone
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fight Club
Full Metal Jacket
The French Connection
Get Shorty
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Graduate
The Great Santini (aka The Ace)
The Godfather
The Godfather II
GoodFellas
Grease
Hair
Hannah & Her Sisters
Heartbreakers (Bobby Roth)
Heat
Heathers
Heist
High Society
In America
Jaws
The Jerk
Just Tell Me What You Want
Kramer vs Kramer
Late For Dinner
Lawrence of Arabia
Lenny
The Limey
Little Shop of Horrors (the musical)
Local Hero
Lost In America
The Mambo Kings
Manhattan
The Matrix
The Meaning of Life
Michael Clayton
Midnight Express
Midnight Run
Miller’s Crossing
Modern Problems
Modern Romance
Moulin Rouge!
My Best Friend’s Wedding
My Favorite Year
Network
The Object of Beauty
On The Town
Once Around
One From The Heart
Out of Sight
Parenthood
Penny Serenade
Phantom Thread
Poltergeist (Hooper)
Popeye
Prince of the City
Ragtime
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Right Stuff
RoboCop (Verhoeven)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Scarface
The School of Rock
Shoot The Moon
Sideways
Silverado
Singin' In The Rain
Some Like It Hot
Something Wild (Demme)
The Sound of Music
South Park: Longer, Bigger & Uncut
The Spy Who Loved Me
Star Wars
Sullivan’s Travels
Take The Money & Run
Taxi Driver
There’s Something About Mary
Things Change
True Romance
Tootsie
Unforgiven
The Untouchables
The Verdict
The World According To Garp
Young Frankenstein
Zero Dark Thirty
Until tomorrow…
When TV broadcasts them in Italy, I also watch them more than once. But never intentionally. Sure, some movies need rewatching but not that much. The fact is that, even after 20 years, I remember sequences, scenes, dialogues and backgrounds so well that seeing them again seems more like an exercise in style than a pleasure. However, I too have seen "All that jazz" many times but the film I have seen the most times of all is "Umberto D", by Vittorio De Sica.
Warner used to run a double bill of Bullitt and Bonnie & Clyde, and I'm sure I saw that double bill alone at least 10 times...