Here’s a list of fondly remembered movies that I saw on the big screen. These are not my “favorite” movies, but movies that evoke fond memories of the experience of watching them in a theater. They wowed me and had lasting impact. Several of them go back to my childhood. It’s by no means an exhaustive list because memory is imperfect, so I might update the list as I recollect other movies that impacted me significantly. Again, the list excludes movies I’ve seen only on the small screen, such as DVDs and streaming movies.
Planet of the Apes (1968)
I saw this with my mother and brothers at a theater in Plainfield, New Jersey (the Paramount?) in 1968 when I was only eight years old. Wow, what a blast! The innovative make-up, costumes, music, sets were all outstanding, and I remember being amused by the nakedness and profanity. I hoped that the revealing costume worn by Linda Harrison, who played the silent role of Nova, would reveal more. Of course, the ending filmed on a Malibu beach was a total shock. The movie now seems a bit silly, but that Jerry Goldsmith score still gives me chills.
Mary Poppins (1964)
This was perhaps the most fun I ever had at the movies. I’m totally serious. I was only four or five when I saw it, and I fell in love with Mary Poppins (who is quite chilly in some scenes). So many memorable songs by Richard and Robert Sherman: “Feed The Birds,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” and “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” Dick Van Dyke’s British accent was horrible, but I didn’t care because he was the perfect Bert. I was captivated by all the magical moments on screen; the visual effects and animation were delightful. Right after seeing the movie, my mom bought the soundtrack album; I remember playing it endlessly for months. In 2018, Disney released a big-budget sequel Mary Poppins Returns starring Emily Blunt, but I couldn’t muster the will to see it. For me, Julie Andrews will always be Mary Poppins.
The Other Side of Midnight (1977)
One of my first R-rated movies, based on Sidney Sheldon’s bestselling novel. Yes, it’s pure trash, and a bit slow, but Marie-France Pisier and Susan Sarandon were breathtaking (and revealed quite a lot of skin). I saw it at a second-run theater (probably the Bound Brook Theater) when I was 17. This movie opened my eyes to the erotic potential of movies, which unfortunately hasn’t been met by many Hollywood movies, despite the high volume of soft-porn movies produced for cable TV in the Seventies and Eighties.
Rear Window (1954)
I saw this when it was rereleased in the fall of 1983, after having been out of circulation for more than a decade. It’s a tremendously fun Hitchcock movie, and one of his best. It’s based on a Cornell Woolrich short story called “It Had to Be Murder,” which is worth reading for its mastery of suspense. The set of the movie was amazing, Raymond Burr was memorable as the villain, and Thelma Ritter was a hoot. The scene where Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly kiss in slow motion is astonishing.
Aliens (1986)
I saw this at a New Jersey multiplex when it first came out, but it was still an action-packed blast, and the cast is much more interesting than the original Alien cast. Who knew that Paul Reiser could play such a slimy villain so convincingly? Bill Paxton steals the movie as Private Hudson: “Game over, man! Game over!”
Diva (1981)
I saw this at the Paris Theater in Manhattan during the movie’s opening run, and fell in love with the movie’s style. For years I regarded it as one of my favorite movies. But it now seems like a silly, lightweight movie that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Still, it was an intensely memorable experience, and Frederic Andrei, who plays the young Parisian mailman, was gorgeous. Director Jean-Jacques Beineix achieved success with his provocative hit Betty Blue (1986), but his later movies often didn’t get a United States release. I was surprised to learn that the Paris Theater is now the only single-screen theater in Manhattan and is currently owned by Netflix.
Ronin (1998)
I saw this alone in the Scotts Valley Theater at the tail end of the movie’s original run, and it was exhilarating. It’s probably the best car chase movie I’ve ever seen. Great job by director John Frankenheimer and the stunt crew. The movie has a fantastic cast of aging action heroes, including Robert DeNiro and Jean Reno. Some of the movie was filmed in the same Paris tunnel where Princess Diana died. I own the movie on DVD, but it’s really not the same on a small screen.
The Conversation (1974)
I saw this movie in the early Eighties at an evening film class showing at Rutgers. It’s a fascinating, cerebral art film-thriller with a quirky performance by Gene Hackman playing Harry Caul (great symbolic name!). It’s unbelievable that Francis Coppola made this rather small movie—which was obviously inspired by another art film thriller, Antonioni’s Blow Up—in between Godfather I and II. The movie was shot in San Francisco, and there are several familiar locations, such as Union Square and the Financial District. It’s a chilling movie that captures the paranoia of the mid-Seventies, but it’s even more relevant today. In addition to talented veteran actors (John Cazale, Allen Garfield, and Terri Garr), look for a young Harrison Ford and Cindy Williams in the cast. The toilet bowl scene is brilliant and will give you nightmares. The Conversation is my second-favorite Francis Coppola movie after you know what, and it pairs well with DePalma’s Blow Out.
The Exorcist (1973)
I saw this as a student while attending Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, probably in 1980. The largely Catholic crowd was perfect for this movie. The audience’s terrified reactions made the experience truly memorable. There were several things that surprised me about the movie: the lengthy prelude in Northern Iraq, the haunting score, the relatively small role of the title character (which is true of the novel as well), the stunning camera work, the great sound effects and special effects, excellent script, tight direction, and wonderful performances (including by Linda Blair, who was only 14). It’s a provocative, entertaining movie about demonic possession, a lurid subject, but it’s also extremely well made. BTW, William Peter Blatty’s novel, which sold 13 million copies, is still the best demonic possession novel of all time.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
I saw this with a high school English teacher and a bunch of fellow students. I remember being blown away by the visuals. I still don’t believe that UFOs are extraterrestrial in origin, but this awe-inspiring movie feeds that strange obsession better than 100 hours of programming on the History channel.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
I’d already seen this on TV, but jumped at the chance to see it on the big screen when it was re-released in 1988. The movie had been pulled from theaters after the JFK assassination in 1963, and due to litigation was rarely shown in theaters for the next 25 years. It has a great cast (Frank Sinatra, who also produced, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, and Janet Leigh), a wonderfully quirky screenplay by George Axelrod, and inventive staging, direction, and editing. It’s one of my favorite movies, and it’s superior to both Richard Condon’s novel and Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake.
Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
I’ve seen this French movie, which was directed by Jacques Rivette, only once, probably at an evening film class at Rutgers in the early Eighties. It’s a long movie (more than 3 hours), so I probably won’t ever try to watch it again on video. But it will live in my memory as a truly magical and dreamlike excursion into the endless possibilities of narrative.
Breathless (1960)
I saw this Jean-Luc Godard classic a few times at film classes, and each time it was just as fresh and delightful as before. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg are wonderful. This is a movie that makes you believe that anyone can make a movie—all you need is a camera, film stock, and two charismatic actors. The script is optional. Of course, today you don’t even need film stock.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
I saw this realistic spy thriller on its initial run at the AMC Saratoga 14 as a first date with my future husband. It’s a great action movie with wonderful car chases and stunts and exotic European locales. Stars Matt Damon and Franka Potenta are wonderful together, but the supporting actors (Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Clive Owen, and Julia Stiles) do much of the heavy lifting. Director Doug Liman was replaced for the other Bourne movies, but this is easily the best of the series. For me the movie has nostalgic appeal because it marks the beginning of a lasting relationship.
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
I saw this widescreen Spaghetti Western spectacle at the Annenberg Auditorium on Notre Dame campus in 1981. Wow, what a breathtaking experience! By far the best Western I’ve ever seen on the big screen. The opening credits and the arrival of Harmonica (Charles Bronson) by train is beautifully staged. Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale are wonderful, but Henry Fonda steals the movie, playing against type as the villain Frank. Director Sergio Leone reinvented the American Western, adding vulgar humor, sadistic violence, and epic scope. Ennio Morricone’s score is exquisite.
Peking Opera Blues (1986)
I didn’t see this movie until the early 2000s, at an evening showing on the UCSC campus by Professor Earl Jackson. It’s a colorful, frenetic movie, a period action comedy set in 1920s China and directed by Tsui Hark. It’s one of the most extravagant, exhilarating movies from Hong Kong in the Eighties. It features three heroines, Sallie Yeh, Cherie Chung, and the exquisite Brigitte Lin, who plays a patriotic cross-dressing rebel throughout the movie.
Swallowtail Butterfly (1996)
I saw this movie at another evening showing on the UCSC campus in the early 2000s. I was frankly stunned at how accomplished yet playfully experimental the movie was, yet I’d never heard of it. This may be director Shunji Iwai’s masterpiece. I’ve always wanted to watch it again, but it’s difficult to find. Just recently, I discovered that someone has uploaded the full movie to YouTube. Watch it here while you can.
The Road Warrior (1981)
I can’t remember where I first saw The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2). Probably in a multiplex cinema in New Jersey. But I remember thinking that the car chase scenes were terrifying, the violence was chaotic and thrilling, and the ending achieved genuine poignancy. Critic Pauline Kael thought the movie was pretentious, and so I tossed her views aside thereafter. C’mon, Pauline! It’s simply one of the greatest action movies ever made.
Die Hard (1988)
I saw this in a midtown movie theater in Manhattan between job interviews in 1988. I hadn’t heard anything about it, so I was pleasantly surprised that it’s a well-executed heist movie (one of my favorite subgenres) as well as one of the best Christmas movies (yep, it’s a Christmas movie). Of course, Bruce Willis is excellent in the lead, but Alan Rickman steals the movie. The stunts and special effects are jaw-dropping. I’ve watched the movie countless times since, but the experience of seeing the vault open to the tune of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy just isn’t as impactful as that first viewing. Just thinking about it makes me smile.
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
I saw this at the Somerville Drive-In in 1967 when I was only seven. It’s a blistering war movie with an amazing cast (Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker, Trini Lopez, and more), remarkable action sequences, and an explosive (literally) ending. It worked perfectly on a large drive-in screen, and I honestly didn’t mind the tinny speakers. I’ve seen this movie many times. Director Robert Aldrich pulled off something amazing: a thrilling war movie that portrays its American heroes as brutal war criminals (remember, they burn the Nazi high command with gasoline at the end of the movie). War isn’t for heroes; it’s for psychos. Marvin is confident in the lead, Savalas plays a convincing psychopath, and John Cassavetes earned an Oscar nomination for a fine performance.
Jurassic Park (1993)
I saw this at the Skyview Drive-In in Santa Cruz, California. We went to the drive-in rather than the cinema because we took my first daughter, who was just a baby. The T-Rex looked gigantic on the big screen. It’s a really fun movie, combining ingenious practical effects with early digital effects. I doubt my daughter remembers the experience, but I certainly do.
Fight Club (1999)
I didn’t see this in its original release, but caught it several years later in a midnight showing with my future husband, who to this day is still a huge Edward Norton fan. Brad Pitt, playing Tyler Durden, was the draw for most people (well, certainly me), and he looks perfectly sculpted, as does Jared Leto playing Angel Face (SPOILER: until Tyler destroys his face). Singer Meat Loaf has a memorable supporting role as Robert Paulson. And of course Helena Bonham Carter, playing Marla, has the best line in movie: “I haven’t been f**ked like that since grade school.” Director David Fincher delivered a wonderfully edgy, homoerotic movie that appeals to a niche audience (basically, a theater full of gay guys who don’t mind pretentious voiceover narration). Not surprisingly, the movie wasn’t a hit, and its toxic masculinity and misogyny haven’t aged well. But that shocking twist ending, with its apocalyptic demolition of several skyscrapers (two years before 9/11), is still haunting.
The Third Man (1949)
I saw this on video first, but later saw it at an evening showing on the UCSC campus in the early 2000s. The Third Man is one of those movies that is fortunate to have a literary script (Graham Greene), a wonderful cast of actors (Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, and Trevor Howard), a skilled director (Carol Reed), an incomparable zither score by Anton Karas, and stunning on-location photography of post-war Vienna by Robert Krasker. It all comes together to form a serendipitously perfect movie, one that is much more re-watchable than other more famous classics. For instance, I’d much rather see this again than Citizen Kane; it’s a lot more fun.
The Great Escape (1963)
Another movie that I saw at the Somerville Drive-In, probably in the late Sixties around the same time that I saw The Dirty Dozen with my family. This is perhaps the best prison break movie of all time. It features an all-star cast (Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Donald Pleasance, and many others). The nonfiction book by Paul Brickhill was adapted by James Clavell (of Shogun fame) and W.R. Burnett (of The Asphalt Jungle fame), who turned the escape from Stalag Luft III into a mostly American adventure, perhaps at the behest of the Mirisch Company who produced it. Despite its historical inaccuracy, it’s a very exciting movie, and it’s worth watching for Steve McQueen’s motorcycle sequence (with legendary stunt man Bud Ekins performing all the daring stunts) and for Elmer Bernstein’s memorable music score. The movie inspired several other TV shows and movies (including Hogan’s Heroes and Chicken Run).
Jaws (1975)
The first summer blockbuster. I saw this at age 15 during its initial record-setting release. I prepared for it by reading Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel, which is quite different from the movie. Benchley and fellow screenwriter Carl Gottlieb tightened the story for the screen, abandoning the extramarital affair subplot. The three lead actors, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw are all good, but Shaw’s USS Indianapolis monologue is the highlight of the movie. Shaw deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination. The problems the crew experienced with the mechanical shark (nicknamed “Bruce” after Spielberg’s attorney) are legendary, but keeping the shark offscreen for much of the first half of the movie only heightened suspense. When the shark finally appeared while Chief Brody (Scheider) was tossing chum off the rear of the Orca, I nearly jumped out of my seat. A few weeks ago I watched an outdoor showing of Jaws at the Seattle Center, and the audience loved it. Despite Spielberg’s Oscars for directing Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, I still think Jaws is his best movie. It’s also the last movie I saw in a theater with my mom.
Carrie (1976)
This Brian DePalma movie is probably the best Stephen King adaptation, even better than Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. It’s slickly made, well-acted by a young cast (Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, John Travolta, and Nancy Allen), delivers plenty of violence and gore (often in split screen), and that jump scare ending made the entire theater scream. It’s been remade twice (in 2002 for TV and 2013 for theaters), but the original was so effective that I skipped them. DePalma went on to make other great movies (particularly Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, and Mission: Impossible). It’s unbelievable that he’s never been nominated for an Oscar for directing.
Parasite (2019)
Probably my favorite movie of the millennium, a wonderful, witty Hitchcockian suspense thriller. See my review here.
John Wick 3 (2019)
I saw this at the AMC Seattle 10 in the University District in its initial run. It was a Saturday afternoon, and the theater wasn’t crowded, but once the gun fu started, my husband and I had a blast. We were enjoying the movie so much that the couple next to us shushed us and yelled, “Stop laughing!” We couldn’t. It may not be the best John Wick movie, but for some reason it was the most fun. And it’s the only time I’ve been shushed in a movie theater.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
I saw the 1989 restored version of Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm on a midtown Manhattan screen with some friends, perhaps the same theater where I saw Die Hard the year before. I remember it being quite an event. We were all so excited to see this famous epic movie on a big screen. Freddie Young’s photography was the highlight of the movie. His shots of the desert are just breathtaking. The movie spared no expense; they blew up real trains, not miniatures, and they used a cast of hundreds, many of them on horses or camels. Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif looked so young, and of course they were (this was their movie debut). Anthony Quinn, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Jose Ferrer, and Arthur Kennedy did solid supporting work. After it was over I felt fortunate to have seen it in all its stunning grandeur.
Von Ryan’s Express (1965)
I saw this exciting World War II thriller at age five with my mom, who was a huge Frank Sinatra fan as a teenager. It’s about an American officer (played by Sinatra) leading mostly British prisoners of war (including Trevor Howard) in a massive escape in Italy. SPOILER: Sinatra reportedly changed the ending of the movie to prevent a sequel. In the climactic scene, his character Ryan is shot by the Nazis, preventing him from boarding a train to escape to freedom in neutral Switzerland. At the moment of Sinatra’s shocking onscreen death, I glanced at my mom. She was teary-eyed, as was I. It was an intense shared moment, one I’ll always remember. I learned then that Hollywood doesn’t always provide the fantasy ending we crave, and that’s a good thing because ultimately every movie ends, the lights come on, and we have to leave the theater. Reality beckons.
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