This is my 400th post. I’ve been kicking around some thoughts for several months now and I’ve decided to do something a little different. Instead of a movie review/recommendation, I’m going to write something that I will simply term a “discussion starter”.
Many people have films that they consider guilty pleasures. They write about them from time to time, almost as a confessional. The thing is, these movies usually are ones that a large number of other people like, too. They are often movies that are fun to watch, but don’t have much depth to them. Just like most everyone else, it’s easy for me to write a recommendation for one of these films simply because I liked it. I also have no problem sharing my liking for these films in comments on your sites.
Over the last several months, though, I’ve noticed a trend in myself. I am far more reluctant to leave a comment that is critical of an all-time classic movie. Sure, I will tiptoe around it some by writing things like “I felt it didn’t live up to the hype”, “for whatever reason it just wasn’t for me”, or even “I realize I am in the small minority here, but I didn’t like it.”
All of those are qualified statements weakening the message, which is this – I didn’t like, and maybe even hated, this critically acclaimed, very popular movie. I’ve thought about why a guy confident enough to stand by all of his likes (me) is reluctant to stand behind his dislikes. I’ve come to the conclusion that it comes down to “being taken seriously” as a “movie person”.
As I mentioned, everyone has movies they love even though they know they are not that great, so they have no trouble sharing their pleasure. What I think may be just as common is having movies that you don’t like, even though you know they are considered great by most others. Saying that we feel that way about a film, though, is an invitation to having all our opinions on movies no longer being taken as seriously. “How can you dislike that film?! I love it! It’s an all-time classic. I’m not sure I can trust your recommendations on other movies now.”
I’ve decided to take the risk and come clean on two movies I secretly hate. “Hate” is a strong word for me, and I don’t use it lightly. I can find something likable in almost every movie. There have been only a handful of movies I would say I truly hated, but among them are a couple of classics.
I decided I needed some guidelines on what makes a “great” movie:
- It should be a film at least 25 years old so that a generation has gone by where it has been hailed as great.
- If possible, it should be both critically acclaimed AND liked by general movie goers.
- And it won’t be one of the trendy, easy targets like Ordinary People beating Raging Bull or other Oscar controversies. Hating Raging Bull? Now that would definitely qualify.
I also needed to eliminate choices where I felt the movie wasn’t that bad, but simply didn’t live up to the enormous hype surrounding it. I know some people have watched Citizen Kane and their reaction was “that’s it?” (I love it, by the way.) I’ve had that reaction to some classics, but I didn’t actually dislike them. No, it has to be a film that I truly disliked, where I maybe even had to force myself to continue watching it so I could at least say I had seen the whole thing and have an informed opinion on the film.
Okay, here goes. (deep breath) The great movies that I secretly hate are The Shining and Annie Hall. There are several others that fall into the “dislike” category, but for now I will concentrate on the two that generated the strongest negative reaction in me. I will write about these two movies in Part 2 of this post tomorrow.
So, there are my confessions of two great movies that I hate. Please let me know your thoughts on the topic in general. Do you have “secret hates”? In addition, what do you think about the concept of “discussion starters” being posted here from time to time? It’s not like I lie awake at night thinking Deep Thoughts, but I do have other ideas for discussion that I have been kicking around in my head.
Chip, I think this is a great idea! I think we've all felt that way about one film or another, but we've suppressed our dislike for fear of reprisal.
ReplyDeleteOne critics' darling that I've never liked is Nicholas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth. I like Roeg and David Bowie, but I just couldn't get into it, despite repeating viewings (It always seemed more pretentious than mind-bending). I also never saw the appeal in Highlander (guess I have to turn my geek's license in).
I have to admit that I love The Shining and Annie Hall, but I appreciate your honesty. This is the sort of thing we need more of. Keep the discussion starters coming!
Barry P. - Thanks for sharing. I haven't seen The Man Who Fell to Earth yet. I did see Highlander way back when it came to video.
DeleteI'd toss out Last Year at Marienbad, but it's one that gets mixed reviews. Ditto for Jeanne Dielman which could not have been more boring if it tried.
ReplyDeleteInstead, I'll give you Bringing Up Baby, the darling of the screwball comedy crowd. Rarely has a film watching experience been this frustrating for me--a film I wanted to love and just couldn't no matter how many chances I gave it. Sitting through it was a challenge, and I'll probably never watch it again.
I haven't seen the first two films you mentioned, but I know they are in the 1,001 Movies list. I have seen Bringing Up Baby, but it was long enough ago that I don't remember a lot about it. I don't think I disliked it, though. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteI'm with you on Annie Hall, actually. I won't go so far as to say I "hate" it, but I really despised Woody Allen's character. I get that the film had some groundbreaking stuff for its time period, but it doesn't hold up nearly as well today.
ReplyDeleteAnother one I wanted to like but struggled with was 8 1/2. There were some true moments of brilliance, but I found it as a whole to be disjointed and a bit of a mess.
I despised not only Allen's character, but Keaton's as well. Check out my Part 2 post, which will be going up shortly. 8 1/2 would be one of those that would definitely fall into my "that's it?" category, and might go into my "dislike". I do remember getting tired of watching it and being glad when it was over. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteHey. If you're Chip from Cony, see https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cony-High-School-Class-of-1982-Reunion/182089105178255
ReplyDeleteI am. Are you John Odencrantz? I went to the 10th and had fun for a couple of hours catching up with everyone, but then enough people showed up that everyone broke up into their old cliques from high school. Since I belonged to I guess what you'd call the "Why Bother" clique, I was about the only one to attend. I haven't gone to any subsequent reunions.
DeleteI see I'm on the list of people whose contacts are not known. I'm not on Facebook, so I can't respond on that page. You can email me at golf04330@yahoo.com if you want to add me to the list of known contacts.
Good idea for a discussion topic! I'm with you about Annie Hall, I find that film pretty overrated and don't get the love it gets. There are a couple of scenes that stood out to me(waiting cinema queue, cocaine and sneeze), but other than that ,nope, not for me. Maybe it's because I find woody allen a little annoying and whiny sometimes. There are a few of his films I would watch again, but there are lots I don't.
ReplyDeleteI think it's normal that bloggers hold back when criticizing. Like life, it would hurt people's feelings and insult them. I guess I look at it like this: if you say you enjoyed the cake you hate, then your family keeps serving it to you. It is wrong to lie, but telling a white lie is also kindness sometimes. In my opinion it would be awful to live in a world where everyone was 100% truthful, kind of a ricky gervais nightmare...
Good point, we risk people not trusting our recommendations on other movies now, if we don't like a classic...Bring em on Chip, the discussion starters!
I agree on Allen; sometimes he comes across as really whiny and I don't care for that.
DeleteIt's funny you mention Ricky Gervais and not lying. I liked his film The Invention of Lying quite a bit. It showed a world where everyone told the brutal truth and his character got the worst of it.
I definitely hesitate to even reply when it's obvious a person is gushing over a random, non-classic movie they love, but that I dislike. I don't even respond on those. For the more discussed movies, like the ones I defined as "great" here, people are a little more used to back and forth discussion, and those are the ones I have sometimes replied on, with those examples of qualified statements.
Thanks for the feedback and discussion.
I wrote a piece in December called Movies I Hate That You (Probably) Love, which sparked up quite a bit of controversy. Among my choices: It's a Wonderful Life, the Indiana Jones films, Braveheart, Gladiator, and The Lord of the Rings films. Hate 'em all!
ReplyDeleteOf those films I would say I love the first and third Lord of the Rings movies. The second was good, but a step down. I liked Gladiator, but it is a pale copy of Spartacus. I liked Raiders of the Lost Ark a lot, but not the second film. The third film was good again, but not the fourth. It's a Wonderful Life is decent, but nothing I felt compelled to watch more than once. I liked Braveheart, but had to laugh at the historical innacuracies. Thanks for sharing.
Delete