Discuss: Movies to See ONLY on the Big Screen

by Christopher Campbell Jun 16th 2008 // 9:32PM

Filed under: Classics, Fandom, Exhibition, Lists

There are a few classic films that I simply refused to rent while growing up, specifically for the reason that I knew I should see them for the first time on a big screen. Of these, I managed to see both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner in a theater, while others, such as Lawrence of Arabia and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, were on television too often to ignore them on the small screen first. One film that I'm still dying to see in a theater is Terrence Malick's Badlands. A few years ago I actually went to a special screening of the film in Connecticut, but it was disappointingly (understatement) projected from a DVD copy. Then two months ago it played one show at NYC's IFC Center, but I had to miss it for another engagement.

Last week Entertainment Weekly presented an article/photo gallery titled "23 Movies You'd Like to See on the Big Screen," which lists these kinds of films (there's actually many more than 23 cited), most of which should ONLY be seen on the big screen, as they were originally meant to be. The list includes obvious epic choices like 2001, Lawrence of Arabia, Gone With the Wind, The Greatest Show on Earth and The Ten Commandments, as well as other classics, like Malick's Days of Heaven, Casablanca, Once Upon a Time in the West, Star Wars, High Society, Halloween, Singin' in the Rain, To Kill a Mockingbird, Psycho, Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Searchers, Stagecoach and The French Connection.

Others are clearly just fan favorites, such as Serenity, Clue, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Xanadu, The Warriors, Rocky III, Moulin Rouge, Fletch and Head. Because the picks come with quotes from the people who were polled, there's a lot of "I was too young/not yet born" kind of responses. One person was apparently not even around 11 years ago, because she says about Titanic: "The sinking must look awesome on the big screen!" Of course, it does. And a lot of other films look awesome on the big screen, too.

What movie(s) do you feel is a must to see on the big screen?

19 Comments

Tags: 2001 a space odyssey, 2001ASpaceOdyssey, badlands, blade runner, BladeRunner, casablanca, days of heaven, DaysOfHeaven, featured, fletch, gone with the wind, GoneWithTheWind, lawrence of arabia, LawrenceOfArabia, moulin rouge, MoulinRouge, serenity, star trek, star wars, StarTrek, StarWars, the searchers, the warriors, TheSearchers, TheWarriors, titanic, xanadu

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)