Never Seen the Shining
Everybody has their own unique cultural blind spot. Stuff that falls in the blind spot that everyone else has been exposed to, yet for some reason, you never did.
As I blogged a while back, The Great Gatsby was in my literary blind spot - one of those books that everyone says, "I can't believe you've never read that!" Of course, everyone also has blind spots for music and television shows.
Recently on Facebook, my friend Brian admitted to never having seen Dr Zhivago. My impulse was to gasp! - before I realized that his Zhivago is my Shining. It's in that cultural blind spot. Movies I'm embarrassed to admit I've never seen.
So here's my filmic blind spot (also known as its other name, the Netflix Queue). A lot of Best Picture winners. Movies that most of you have seen and love - some of which will cause you to gasp!. Note that I didn't list foreign films, since there're way too many I haven't seen (curse the prolific likes of Kurosawa, Truffaut, etc) - and most of the films are 1960 and after. My blind spot-
The Departed
Brokeback Mountain
Shakespeare in Love
Fight Club
Dances With Wolves
Lethal Weapon
This is Spinal Tap
Scarface
Ordinary People
The Shining
Reds
American Graffiti
Taxi Driver
Blazing Saddles
Psycho (pretty much all Hitchcock films)
Spartacus
Cool Hand Luke
Dr. No
12 Angry Men
Sunset Blvd
Now that you're done gasping! at the films I've never seen, what films are in your blind spot?
As I blogged a while back, The Great Gatsby was in my literary blind spot - one of those books that everyone says, "I can't believe you've never read that!" Of course, everyone also has blind spots for music and television shows.
Recently on Facebook, my friend Brian admitted to never having seen Dr Zhivago. My impulse was to gasp! - before I realized that his Zhivago is my Shining. It's in that cultural blind spot. Movies I'm embarrassed to admit I've never seen.
So here's my filmic blind spot (also known as its other name, the Netflix Queue). A lot of Best Picture winners. Movies that most of you have seen and love - some of which will cause you to gasp!. Note that I didn't list foreign films, since there're way too many I haven't seen (curse the prolific likes of Kurosawa, Truffaut, etc) - and most of the films are 1960 and after. My blind spot-
The Departed
Brokeback Mountain
Shakespeare in Love
Fight Club
Dances With Wolves
Lethal Weapon
This is Spinal Tap
Scarface
Ordinary People
The Shining
Reds
American Graffiti
Taxi Driver
Blazing Saddles
Psycho (pretty much all Hitchcock films)
Spartacus
Cool Hand Luke
Dr. No
12 Angry Men
Sunset Blvd
Now that you're done gasping! at the films I've never seen, what films are in your blind spot?
posted by Eugene at 4:27 PM
6 Comments:
A lot of your blind spot movies are my blind spot movies....but at some point I'd highly recommend Hitchcock's Rear Window.
Speaking of books: I've never read Gatsby either. Or War & Peace or the rest of the famous Russian Writers.
You must see Spinal Tap. There is nothing funnier than the midgets dancing around a 12 inch tall Stonehenge or when Harry Shearer is locked in the pod still playing his bass during a concert -Jon
Until just this year--thank you, former landlord's Direct TV with all the channels!--I had never seen The Shining either, Eugene. But had heard about and/or seen clips of most if not all of the major imagery. Also never saw Saturday Night Fever 'til this year on that same Direct TV channel. And can I just say? Saturday Night Fever turned out to be a veeery different movie than I had been led to believe all these years!
I just watched Annie Hall for the first time a few weeks ago.
Um... What's another movie everyone in the world seems to have seen that I've never seen... How about The Godfather (I, II, or III!)
ETA: And I'm Italian! I think it's a law.
Holy stinkin' crow, Eugene!
You must... MUST... watch THIS IS SPINAL TAP, TAXI DRIVER, SUNSET BLVD, and AMERICAN GRAFFITI as soon as humanly possible. The other films on your list are either good or important in a pop cultural sense, but these four are essential. And hugely entertaining.
PSYCHO is good, but IMHO it's far from Hitchcock's best. You're better off with NOTORIOUS or NORTH BY NORTHWEST. And REAR WINDOW, as the other commenter suggested.
I'm a movie junkie, but I've got blind spots too. I didn't see RISKY BUSINESS until a year or two ago. Still haven't seen VIDEODROME, which upsets some of my friends. And I have never seen an Ingmar Bergman film.
I just have to say - it's so not a fair fight when my movie watching has to be compared to people who graduated from USC film school.
I'm just sayin'... :)
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