Remember earlier this week when I said that I hated writing negative reviews of movies I wanted to like? Well, there's something the Cap'n hates to do even more than that, which is admit that there are movies - well known, highly respected movies - that I have not seen.
Actually, every self-identifying cinephile feels the same way; we love to hang our hat on the assumption that we've seen all there is to see, save for the truly obscure, rare, or hard to find films we trade as currency to raise our stature among other film geeks. Oh sure, there are the movies that cinephiles are "too good for", or other excuses to deflect the "wait, you didn't see this or that", but what many of them will never tell you is that there are movies they should have seen but have not.
I could qualify this and say "yet", but let's not mince words here: I know that I should have seen the following five movies, but I just haven't. Hopefully I will, but right now I won't continue to hide behind the "film scholar" shield.
Think less of me if you will; certainly, you'd have every right. I have have no excuses.
1. The Shawshank Redemption - I know. Everybody loves it. I've seen The Green Mile, or most of it. I've seen The Mist, but for some reason I never got around to watching Frank Darabont's first Stephen King adaptation. It's on all kinds of "top" lists and critics and audiences love it, but the Cap'n has yet to make time for Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. I honestly don't know what happens in the movie, which may be as amazing to you as the fact I never saw it.
2. West Side Story - I can honestly say that I've never seen West Side Story. I've seen clips from it; I may have even watched entire sequences, but I know for a fact that I've never seen the movie from beginning to end. The Cap'n is a BIG Robert Wise fan (The Haunting may be one of the creepiest horror films I've ever seen) from The Day the Earth Stood Still to The Sound of Music*, and I have seen productions of West Side Story. Just not the film.
3. Mean Streets - I talk a lot about Martin Scorsese here, so it's a crying shame that despite the fact I have seen Boxcar Bertha, Cape Fear, and The Color of Money, I have yet to make the time to watch Mean Streets. I have no good reason whatsoever. I have a copy of Mean Streets in my apartment, and must have seen the same clip of Robert DeNiro losing it in the bar over and over again, and yet it has not entered my dvd player.
4. The Dirty Dozen - I'm not sure why I'm including this, because I have started watching The Dirty Dozen. I've just never finished watching it. There are a lot of movies I can say that about, some of which I'm simply too embarrassed to put out in public. Someday I hope to finish the "men on a mission" World War II movie, so I can put it alongside The Great Escape, Where Eagles Dare, and the original Inglorious Bastards in my "seen it" pile.
5. Rebel Without a Cause - Okay, this is kind of a cheap shot, because I have no intention of watching Rebel Without a Cause either. I don't care how influential it was with "teen" culture in the 1950s; I don't like James Dean. I just don't. I think people mistake his inability to act for "raw emotion" and it annoys me. The only movie I ever kind of liked Dean in was East of Eden, and that's pushing it.
Since I'm an unabashed member of "Team Brando" in this situation, allow me to qualify (and admit) that I've also never seen The Wild One. There's a slight chance I will someday see that, but Rebel Without a Cause is probably S.O.L. as far as the Cap'n is concerned.
I don't quite know why, but I too realize that this list is almost entirely about angsty guys dealing with their drama. Take from that what you will. To be fair, there are a number of other movies I simply couldn't bring myself to admit to you good readers that I a) have not finished watching or b) simply haven't seen. Considering some of the ones I have, it's just better if you don't know right now. If - or when - I decide to give up writing about film, I'll share the rest of the list with you (honestly, it grows both longer and shorter every day), but for now you have five to chide me about while I attempt to rectify the situation.
* But not Star Trek: The Boring Picture.
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