Recently, as I dozed through 20 minutes of commercials at my local Cineplex, I awoke in time to watch a promo for a newly re- mastered, digitally-enhanced, one-night-only showing of “The Sound of Music.” (I believe the “Do-Re-Mi” song roused me out of my slumber; it scores the same on the annoyance scale as “It’s a Small World.”)
When I mentioned to my wife that I’ve never seen that particular movie, her jaw dropped. According to her, I might be the only person in the world never to have experienced the joys of the Von Trapp family. I won’t be viewing it this time around either. But it did lead to an interesting discussion about the other classics I’ve managed to avoid (either on purpose or by happenstance) over the years. Here’s a partial list:
“Lawrence of Arabia” “Dr. Zhivago”
“Barry Lyndon” “Reds” “Ghandi”
“Out of Africa”
“El Cid” “Schindler’s List”
“Cleopatra” (all of them) “Ryan’s Daughter”
That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure there are plenty of others. I believe the one thing they have in common is a running time of more than three hours. Of course, I’ve enjoyed lots of long movies, including the “Godfather” trilogy, “Gone With the Wind,” and most of the Scorsese oeuvre. So that’s not a good excuse. Maybe it’s because I get the feeling they’re depressing; I’m depressed enough already. Or perhaps the extreme temperatures have me spooked. In any event, I feel it’s my duty to expose myself (not in the Pee Wee Herman sense) to some or all of them before I head to that giant OMNIMAX in the sky.
In the meantime, I’d like to know which classic films you’ve missed. I think it will lead to an interesting conversation.