So last night, I went by myself to see 1982’s First Blood, which was back in theaters for one night only. I did this even though I’d been up ’til 4 a.m. the night before writing about the Top Model season finale. Even though I knew my DVR wasn’t gonna be recording The Office and Ugly Betty because it’s out of space. Even though Slezak was totally serious about us going out to find a mojito to drown his Women’s-Murder-Club-got-canceled blues in.
And I’m so glad I did. It renewed my faith in the movie-going experience. No one talked during the film, or during the taped interview with Sylvester Stallone (pictured) that preceded it. There was just the shared giggles over David Caruso’s uncharacteristically enthusiastic presence. ("I knew there was something about that guy!") The universal round of applause when the late, great Richard Crenna made his entrance as Col. Samuel Trautman. ("God didn’t make Rambo… I made ‘im.") And the mass marvel at the ballad "It’s a Long Road" playing over the end credits.
Which movie would you love to see back in theaters, for one night only? I still dream of watching the 1948 Montgomery Clift-John Wayne western Red River at a drive-in. And I know for a fact that witnessing Gene Kelly just dancin’ and singin’ in the rain on the big screen would bring me to happy tears.
Also, if you’ve got a theater in your town that plays older films, give it a plug.
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I’d drop most everything to see my favorite all-time films in all their big-screen glory…
1. Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended director’s cuts, natch!)
2. Monty Python’s Holy Grail
3. Terminator
4. Singin’ in the Rain (I’m there with you Mandi!)
5. Magnificent 7
6. Mary Poppins
The best thing that ever happened to me was getting to see Days of Heaven on the big screen at Chicago’s Music Box Theater. Seriously incredible.
The Ohio Theater here in my hometown of Columbus has a Summer Movie Series while taking a break from Broadway Across America shows. I’ve seen “Gone With the Wind” on the big screen (twice!), as well as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Mary Poppins,” “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “Bringing up Baby,” “Funny Girl,” and “Brigadoon,” (and the list goes on and on). This year they’re playing a lot of other great ones, like “Sabrina,” “His Girl Friday,” and “Oklahoma!” It’s one of my favorite things about living here in Columbus, seeing these fantastic movies in the “air-conditioned splendor of the might pleasure-dome” that is Ohio Theater.
My requests, though, are “High Society,” “Imitation of Life,” and “The Music Man.”
When I was a freshman in high school, my parents took me to a midnight showing of Casablanca – even though it was a school night. My mom slept through the entire show, but I remember thinking (and I still think) that my parents are pretty darn cool, and I’m so thankful that they have passed on to me their love of film.
The Artcraft Theater in Franklin, IN plays old(ish) movies–sometimes it’s Home Alone or the Sandlot, but they show older stuff too, and you can recommend films you want to see. The Christmas showing of White Christmas is a must go–it’s so much better when you’re in a theater full of people (and it’s pretty darn good to begin with).
I was about to get on here and sing the praises of the Ohio Theater, but to my surprise somebody already did it! Yay Lena! Last year they even played some Hitchcock. It’s great.
Every year or so when my family pops in the first “Star Wars” into the player, my dad can never shut up about what it was like, seeing it for the first time in theaters. We’re not massive Star Wars fans, but he still maintains that it was a movie experience like nothing else in his life. He always says stuff like “nobody saw it coming” and “it was so completely different than anything we’d ever seen” and talks about how people saw it four or five times in theaters.
. Nothing like a little nostalgic belaboring of the subject to do that to a girl.
So of course I’d like to see that one on a big screen
I would LOVE to see First Blood in the theater. Lucky!
This is something that my husband & I discuss a lot. Here’s the short list of what we’ve come up with: Robocop, Die Hard, Scarface, Serenity (we were late to the whole Firefly game), the original Halloween, and Mean Girls (we thought it would be stupid when we first saw the previews.)
I think they should play the Star Wars movies once a year in successive weeks. The prequels might not get as much business, but I certainly enjoyed seeing the re-release of the originals in the late ’90s. There’s nothing like seeing a movie with a whole auditorium of fans.
i’d love to see the Monkees movie “Head” on a big screen at least once.
A small indie theater by me is showing The Princess Bride on June 6. I can’t wait.
i want to watch the original Halloween in the theater. I saw parts 4 & 5 when they played last October, but it’s not the same! The Criterion Cinemas in New Haven, CT plays older movies on friday and saturday nights and sunday mornings. i’ve seen Jaws, Psycho, Airplane! and even Showgirls (which by the way was like the best movie going experience of my life).
The Dryden Theater at the George Eastman House in Rochester plays old movies every week. For my (now) wife’s birthday several years ago, I planned to take her to dinner and to the Dryden for “Singin’ in the Rain” (one of her favorites), but our service at dinner took so long that we missed it. That’s one I’d like to see in a theater, if only to make up for missing it then.
my bad, not indie theater, Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick MD. One showing at 8:00pm on June 6, The Princess Bride. If you are in the Washington DC/Baltimore area and want to see it on the big screen.
The Palace Theater in downtown Maryville, TN occasionally shows old movies, usually around the holidays. I once attended a Halloween-night showing of the original “Night of the Living Dead”. Good times.
I’d love to see To Kill A Mockingbird on the big screen, and perhaps I should contact the theater owners about that. But I doubt they’d want to fulfill my other big-screen dream–The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Do they do midnight showings of that anywhere anymore? I know the larger cities used to.
Definetely “Gone with the wind”. I’ve seen it on tv dozens of times, but to see it in its big screen glory would be fabulous. Also other movies that I’ll love to se in the biggest screen ever are Lawrence of Arabia and Ben-Hur.
I say this to my husband all the time but I wish that Twister was made for the Imax screen. That would have been amazing. Also Jurassic Park will never be as good at home, that is one you had to see in the theaters to get the full effect.
For me, its the Inwood Theater in Dallas, that shows classic movies on Friday and Saturday night (plus they have a bar)! But I would definitely go see Sound of Music or Pulp Fiction (for the 500th time). I do remember seeing the movie Tommy there when I was in HS but there wasn’t a bar there then.
West Side Story – and I know it is corny, but I’d love to see The Sound of Music, without singalongs and people in costumes!
Court—I think they’re playing another Hitchcock movie this year! I think I remember seeing one on the list of movies! They’re also doing “Back to the Future,” “When Harry Met Sally,” and for Christmas in July, “The Muppet Christmas Carol” and “White Christmas.”
Willie Wonka and Bugsy Malone
The Detroit Institute of Arts often shows older films. I saw North By Northwest there. The Redford Theatre in NW Detroit plays nothing but older films.
As for films I’d like to see, I agree with Mary Poppins and the Wizard of Oz (or any musical). I also somehow managed to miss Saving Private Ryan and Fantasia 2000 in IMAX. It would also be nice to see Disney return to rereleasing animated films in theatres. Their older classics just don’t work on a small screen.
When I lived in St. Louis, the Esquire would play older movies (I saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Touch of Evil there). But the best was the summer midnight shows. Older movies mixed with Anime. Evil Dead one week, Ghost in the Shell the next.
Sorry it wasn’t the Esquire. It was the Indie theater in University City.
Hitchcock’s Psycho, oh man that would have been horrifyingly excellent. I’ve seen so many Hitchcock documentaries, citing that audiences weren’t allowed to give away the ending, it was all very “hush hush”, and then when the infamous shower scene occured, screams erupted throughout the audience. Brilliant.
I was too young to go see romances such as The Age of Innocence & Out of Africa. I would have loved to have cried in the theatre the first week of the films release.
I would kill to see Serenity on the big screen. I know it’s just a few years old but I became a fan of the movie and Firefly after it had passed.
I did get to see Bridge on the River Kwai on the big screen, and it was perfect. Seeing the bridge blow up in the end on the big screen was everything that the small screen version had promised it could be.
You’re absolutely right, there is nothing like seeing certain movies on the big screen.
I actually work at the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, NC, and we show old movies once or twice a month.
“Singin’ in the Rain” is my favorite movie, and the first time I saw it here, on the big screen, even though I’ve seen it over 100 times, it was like watching it for the first time; I couldn’t stop smiling. Gene Kelly never looked so happy.
“Strangers on a Train,” “Stand by Me” and “The Warriors” are all movies I would love to see on the big screen…
But the one I would love to see most on the big screen would definitely have to be “Clue” — that would be amazing on the big screen with a whole theater full of fans.
Patton and The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn.
I would pay serious bucks for a Star Trek marathon (even numbered movies of course) and to see Jaws with that genius masterpiece of score playing on both sides of my head sounds really nice too. A few others pop to mind: Amadeus, All That Jazz, Xanadu