Weekly questions’ comment sections are left open for one week. This thread is now locked.
Can you imagine what it would’ve been like to see The Wizard of Oz on the big screen in 1939? Try to imagine the crowd’s reaction when Dorothy’s world shifted from B&W to Technicolor.
Or maybe In the Heat of the Night in 1967; I hate that I have to imagine audiences collectively gasping (or cheering, depending on the audience) when Sidney Poitier backhanded Larry Gates.
Or maybe maybe Star Wars in 1977, just to hear a packed theater scream the first time a star destroyer passed over their heads.
You get the picture. There are just some cinematic moments that did not benefit from us first experiencing them on the small screen — that required an audience to truly experience them. Which brings me to this week’s question for the cinephiles out there:
What classic film do you wish you could've seen for the first time on the big screen?
5AM StoryTalk is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, become a free or paid subscriber.
Thanks for reading 5AM StoryTalk! This post is public so feel free to share it.
I'm old enough that I did get to see some classics.
I saw Star Wars on opening weekend and had to go back the next weekend, bringing a different group of friends. Same with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Halloween, and Grease.
I saw several Disney classics, including The Jungle Book and Mary Poppins.
I would love to have seen Casablanca (my all-time favorite) and Singing in the Rain.
When "Alien" first came out, I had a deal with my mother: I babysit my siblings while she sneaked out to see "Life of Brian," and she'd let me see "Alien" in the theater. It's really minor compared to everything else, but she kept that promise once she got what she wanted the way she kept every other promise she made, and I finally got to see it in a theater in 2000. I would love to go back to 1979 and see it on opening night, when nobody in the theater had the slightest idea of what to expect.
Alien is a close second to my first (Stalker). It was showing in maybe 1981 on "The Movie Channel." We didn't have cable, but my aunt lived in town and she did, and she watched my brother and me during the day. I asked her if I could watch it. I was 11. I'll never forget - she just asked, "you know the difference between movies and real life, right?" "Sure, Aunt Gloria!"
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Definitely credit Alien for my love of slow-burn horror.
Me, too, and think I was about 5 y.o. That was my very favorite movie ...until...LotR, btw. The combination of the wonderful Disney animation plus that beeeeautiful music took me to another place...same with LotR, without anime, of course!
I was on a camping trip in Vermont in 1987 and my high school friend and I found out Snow White was playing in Burlington. I don't know how we found out about it, but we decided to go see it. It was awesome. I hadn't seen it when I was a kid.
Good question! As someone who had my 1st hs job as an usher at an old independent movie theatre (one that showed reruns of golden age Hollywood films on the big screen), I can relate to this sentiment. Experiencing a movie on the big screen in a full house is quite a different than watching alone on a tiny digital screen. I’ve had the privilege to see the original Bladerunner, starring Ford and Hannah, projected with real film onto the big screen. In winter time, I used to attend a local screening of It’s a Wonderful Life at the Grand Illusion movie house in Seattle, WA.
Kubrick is one of my favorite directors (unfortunately his release dates were before my time.) Any of his beautifully crafted, visionary films, especially The Shining or Clockwork Orange, would be poignant and impressive to see in theaters. Seeing a Kubrick film screening would likely be joyful, fantastical, and terrifying in a good way, because the impact of a larger than life big screen format and being a part of a full house with fellow movie goers. Also: Cool Hand Luke, The Graduate, Vertigo, and Sunset Boulevard are a few more that I’d like to see in theaters. The immersive, collective atmosphere of the movie theater experience is unparalleled. I agree that some movies are often intended to be experienced en masse, as a community event, a collaborative communication between the movie goers and film creators (I think director Scorsese has a few good quotes about this subject.) Thank you for asking readers about the movies they enjoy. Thinking of the art of movies helps to cheer me up, in spite of everything.
THE SHINING, VERTIGO, and BLADE RUNNER would all be in serious contenders for me. I'm glad you enjoy these questions. I enjoy that feedback, especially since I put a lot of work into curating these questions. It's always fun to see which ones really pop for readers.
Ooh, Jesus. Jesus. Yeah. This film is so...goddamn, it's so good. My wife had never seen it. During the first Covid lockdown, I introduced her to it. I think it might've saved her sanity for a good week or two.
Did see "2001" in a theatre in 1968 (was a young adult) and it totally stunned! Have wanted to see it again in a theatre, but not had the chance. TCM was, for a bit, re-screening old classics, incl. a child fave (believe it or don't) "The Maltese Falcon..." Saw that and had a blast!
To be there at the time period to see In the Heat of the Night or Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner would have been intense, but the magical scenes of the first time for that amazing camera work of the ocean in the original Uninvited would be just everything!
Well, I did see Star Wars in the theater in 1977. The Cinerama in downtown Seattle. It was amazing. It changed everything. The movie I wish I could have seen for the first time with everyone else, just for how dramatic a change it was, is "L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat," the film of the locomotive coming at the camera, shown first in 1896. The story of the audience running to get out of the way might be an urban legend, but I believe it, if for no other reason than how it felt to have that star destroyer pass over my head. It's easy to forget how radical things can feel when they are new.
Hmmm... tough question. Maybe Citizen Kane or The Apartment or His Girl Friday. I've seen all three on the big screen after I had fallen in love with them, and there were elements in the storytelling - acting, background action, compositional dynamics - that I never noticed on home video.
I will say, I saw METROPOLIS the first time with you at LACMA, and that movie was burned into my brain. Even though I had seen clips from it over the years, nothing compares to see it in that massive viewing format.
I DID see "2001: A Space Odyssey" in a the theatre when it first came out! (Boy, am I old!) Also LOVED "Fantasia" (ditto with first viewing, was a kid then) but one movie I've never, ever seen on the screen, only at home view, my very tippy-top favorite now, and that is the much-loved "Lord of the Rings" series -- all of them! First time I saw any was "The Fellowship," on my son's 65" flatscreen TV, the biggest screen on which I'd viewed anything outside of a theatre at the time. WOW! - did it ever blow me away - the story, the characters, music, setting, you-name-it. That was 2015 (boy, am I behind things!) and have loved that trilogy ever since...
I'd rather have originally seen The Good, The Bad & the Ugly on the big screen. I have still not seen Barry Lyndon (been waiting nearly half a century to do so) as I somehow missed it on general release and I have never found a cinema showing it since.
I had a similar experience. Watched it on a crappy old television when I was a kid. Pretty much kickstarted my fascination with all those great (and not so great) monster films.
As a kid of the 70s and 80s, my movie-loving dad took me to all those tentpole movies like Jaws (in its 1977 re-release to hype Jaws 2), and Star Wars, Raiders, Close Encounters, Poltergeist and ET, and they absolutely kill at screenings. But I think I would have loved to experience the punch-drunk shock of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre with those first audiences. I've seen it on the big screen a couple of times, and it sucks the breath right out of audiences, but what would it have been like going in completely cold and not knowing what to expect?
I saw Jaws with my friend (who had seen it once already) and she probably still has the nail marks from me grabbing the arm rest she was using. There were collective gasps throughout the theater!
That's brilliant. What a memory. I love how much audiences add this whole other layer of experience to a movie. I saw Blade and Scream at midnight previews and the audiences were jumping and cheering in all the right places. Back when I was a movie projectionist running Fargo in a single-screener here in London, I used to stand at the back at the very end and watch the entire auditorium jolt as the axe came down. :D
I wasn’t born yet to see Star Wars, but I wish I could. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see the Star Destroyer pass overhead that first time on the big screen.
I think anything shot by Gregg Toland, especially Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Grapes of Wrath, or The Bishop's Wife. Each shot must've looked like a painting on the big screen!
Terry Gilliam's Brazil. This is my favourite movie, so it's a natural pick for me, although I tresure very deeply my first vewing expirience of it at my home when I was 12.
So, my obvious and predictable answer is Jaws which I would have loved to see at the cinema. However, it’s too obvious so I’ll go with another film I’ve previously mentioned: West Side Story. To sit from the opening bars of the overture as the block images on the screen slowly transform into the Manhattan skyline right through the beautiful end credits would be an absolute privilege. There is nothing about this film that I don’t love. To see it on a big screen would be incredible.
Jurassic Park. I've been lucky enough to see most of my favourite films that came out before I was born at throwback screenings, but this blew my mind as a kid
I saw Star Wars on the big screen when it first came out. We used to go to the movies all the time in the 60s and 70s. Heck, we still had drive-ins! The Wizard of Oz, for sure. Maybe some of the star studded extravaganzas like Ben Hur, Cleopatra, The Ten Commandments, might’ve been fun on the big screen.
I'm old enough that I did get to see some classics.
I saw Star Wars on opening weekend and had to go back the next weekend, bringing a different group of friends. Same with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Halloween, and Grease.
I saw several Disney classics, including The Jungle Book and Mary Poppins.
I would love to have seen Casablanca (my all-time favorite) and Singing in the Rain.
I saw Star Wars first week it opened.
Lawrence of Arabia
Yeah, this is my pick. Even more than STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE.
Singing in the Rain or Night of the Hunter or The Magnificent Seven or Come Back Little Sheba
The Third Man. Hands down.
When "Alien" first came out, I had a deal with my mother: I babysit my siblings while she sneaked out to see "Life of Brian," and she'd let me see "Alien" in the theater. It's really minor compared to everything else, but she kept that promise once she got what she wanted the way she kept every other promise she made, and I finally got to see it in a theater in 2000. I would love to go back to 1979 and see it on opening night, when nobody in the theater had the slightest idea of what to expect.
I saw it when it was released. Without forethought I literally screamed.
Alien is a close second to my first (Stalker). It was showing in maybe 1981 on "The Movie Channel." We didn't have cable, but my aunt lived in town and she did, and she watched my brother and me during the day. I asked her if I could watch it. I was 11. I'll never forget - she just asked, "you know the difference between movies and real life, right?" "Sure, Aunt Gloria!"
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Definitely credit Alien for my love of slow-burn horror.
I would say Fantasia, which I did in fact see on the big screen as a kid.
Me, too, and think I was about 5 y.o. That was my very favorite movie ...until...LotR, btw. The combination of the wonderful Disney animation plus that beeeeautiful music took me to another place...same with LotR, without anime, of course!
Any of Walt Disney's animated features from 1937 to 1967.
I was on a camping trip in Vermont in 1987 and my high school friend and I found out Snow White was playing in Burlington. I don't know how we found out about it, but we decided to go see it. It was awesome. I hadn't seen it when I was a kid.
Good question! As someone who had my 1st hs job as an usher at an old independent movie theatre (one that showed reruns of golden age Hollywood films on the big screen), I can relate to this sentiment. Experiencing a movie on the big screen in a full house is quite a different than watching alone on a tiny digital screen. I’ve had the privilege to see the original Bladerunner, starring Ford and Hannah, projected with real film onto the big screen. In winter time, I used to attend a local screening of It’s a Wonderful Life at the Grand Illusion movie house in Seattle, WA.
Kubrick is one of my favorite directors (unfortunately his release dates were before my time.) Any of his beautifully crafted, visionary films, especially The Shining or Clockwork Orange, would be poignant and impressive to see in theaters. Seeing a Kubrick film screening would likely be joyful, fantastical, and terrifying in a good way, because the impact of a larger than life big screen format and being a part of a full house with fellow movie goers. Also: Cool Hand Luke, The Graduate, Vertigo, and Sunset Boulevard are a few more that I’d like to see in theaters. The immersive, collective atmosphere of the movie theater experience is unparalleled. I agree that some movies are often intended to be experienced en masse, as a community event, a collaborative communication between the movie goers and film creators (I think director Scorsese has a few good quotes about this subject.) Thank you for asking readers about the movies they enjoy. Thinking of the art of movies helps to cheer me up, in spite of everything.
THE SHINING, VERTIGO, and BLADE RUNNER would all be in serious contenders for me. I'm glad you enjoy these questions. I enjoy that feedback, especially since I put a lot of work into curating these questions. It's always fun to see which ones really pop for readers.
The Kubrick film which first came to mind for me was Full Metal Jacket. I can imaging that would be quite alarming on the big screen.
A pristine print of A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
Ooh, Jesus. Jesus. Yeah. This film is so...goddamn, it's so good. My wife had never seen it. During the first Covid lockdown, I introduced her to it. I think it might've saved her sanity for a good week or two.
Psycho would have been great in the theatre given not everyone would know the twist midway through the movie about the fate of the main character.
I would have loved to have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey back in '68 with an audience totally baffled by what they were seeing.
Absolutely. Top 5 pick for me.
Did see "2001" in a theatre in 1968 (was a young adult) and it totally stunned! Have wanted to see it again in a theatre, but not had the chance. TCM was, for a bit, re-screening old classics, incl. a child fave (believe it or don't) "The Maltese Falcon..." Saw that and had a blast!
Believe me, we were.
To be there at the time period to see In the Heat of the Night or Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner would have been intense, but the magical scenes of the first time for that amazing camera work of the ocean in the original Uninvited would be just everything!
I would have loved to see Dr. Zhivago on the big screen.
A beautiful film.
'Lawrence of Arabia', in glorious 70mm.
My pick. Good pick!
Well, I did see Star Wars in the theater in 1977. The Cinerama in downtown Seattle. It was amazing. It changed everything. The movie I wish I could have seen for the first time with everyone else, just for how dramatic a change it was, is "L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat," the film of the locomotive coming at the camera, shown first in 1896. The story of the audience running to get out of the way might be an urban legend, but I believe it, if for no other reason than how it felt to have that star destroyer pass over my head. It's easy to forget how radical things can feel when they are new.
STAR WARS is my #2 pick.
Hmmm... tough question. Maybe Citizen Kane or The Apartment or His Girl Friday. I've seen all three on the big screen after I had fallen in love with them, and there were elements in the storytelling - acting, background action, compositional dynamics - that I never noticed on home video.
I will say, I saw METROPOLIS the first time with you at LACMA, and that movie was burned into my brain. Even though I had seen clips from it over the years, nothing compares to see it in that massive viewing format.
I saw Metropolis for the first time at our city's Cinematheque with live music. So wonderful!
Wait, didn't we see that together at LACMA? I think we did. I love that film!
I DID see "2001: A Space Odyssey" in a the theatre when it first came out! (Boy, am I old!) Also LOVED "Fantasia" (ditto with first viewing, was a kid then) but one movie I've never, ever seen on the screen, only at home view, my very tippy-top favorite now, and that is the much-loved "Lord of the Rings" series -- all of them! First time I saw any was "The Fellowship," on my son's 65" flatscreen TV, the biggest screen on which I'd viewed anything outside of a theatre at the time. WOW! - did it ever blow me away - the story, the characters, music, setting, you-name-it. That was 2015 (boy, am I behind things!) and have loved that trilogy ever since...
I'd rather have originally seen The Good, The Bad & the Ugly on the big screen. I have still not seen Barry Lyndon (been waiting nearly half a century to do so) as I somehow missed it on general release and I have never found a cinema showing it since.
Gah, I hadn't considered Leone on the big screen, especially GOOD, BAD & THE UGLY. Great choice.
King Kong (1933)
Brilliant, brilliant choice. I saw it on a tiny TV in the corner of my parents' bedroom. Indelible memory, but not the same.
I had a similar experience. Watched it on a crappy old television when I was a kid. Pretty much kickstarted my fascination with all those great (and not so great) monster films.
As a kid of the 70s and 80s, my movie-loving dad took me to all those tentpole movies like Jaws (in its 1977 re-release to hype Jaws 2), and Star Wars, Raiders, Close Encounters, Poltergeist and ET, and they absolutely kill at screenings. But I think I would have loved to experience the punch-drunk shock of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre with those first audiences. I've seen it on the big screen a couple of times, and it sucks the breath right out of audiences, but what would it have been like going in completely cold and not knowing what to expect?
Casablanca. One of my favorite films, and the anthem scene in a modern theater would be incredible.
Madame Bovary…wonderful classic! 🌹
It would have to be an ‘audience’ movie like Jaws or The Exorcist
I saw Jaws with my friend (who had seen it once already) and she probably still has the nail marks from me grabbing the arm rest she was using. There were collective gasps throughout the theater!
That's brilliant. What a memory. I love how much audiences add this whole other layer of experience to a movie. I saw Blade and Scream at midnight previews and the audiences were jumping and cheering in all the right places. Back when I was a movie projectionist running Fargo in a single-screener here in London, I used to stand at the back at the very end and watch the entire auditorium jolt as the axe came down. :D
I could not for the life of me hook anyone into taking me to see THE MATRIX and though I later saw it screened, I am still bitter about it.
I would be, too!
Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker. Also, I'd love to go in knowing almost nothing.
I would love to have seen Stage Door when it opened. There's so much talent in that movie.
Gone With The Wind
I finally, finally caught Alien on the big screen for its 45th anniversary, so my movie-going wants are more or less fulfilled :p
(just bear with me a second)
I wanted to scream when my theater had ROTK back during covid; missed that one.
I feel like Raiders is probably the one I really want theatrically; when they open the Ark especially.
RAIDERS is a solid pick. Top 5 for me.
I wasn’t born yet to see Star Wars, but I wish I could. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see the Star Destroyer pass overhead that first time on the big screen.
I think anything shot by Gregg Toland, especially Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Grapes of Wrath, or The Bishop's Wife. Each shot must've looked like a painting on the big screen!
THE BISHOP'S WIFE...it just makes me smile whenever anyone acknowledges that film exists. I love it so much.
Psycho. The audience reaction to the shower scene would have been something. Oh, also Frankenstein, where allegedly people fainted in the aisles.
And The Exorcist!
Terry Gilliam's Brazil. This is my favourite movie, so it's a natural pick for me, although I tresure very deeply my first vewing expirience of it at my home when I was 12.
So, my obvious and predictable answer is Jaws which I would have loved to see at the cinema. However, it’s too obvious so I’ll go with another film I’ve previously mentioned: West Side Story. To sit from the opening bars of the overture as the block images on the screen slowly transform into the Manhattan skyline right through the beautiful end credits would be an absolute privilege. There is nothing about this film that I don’t love. To see it on a big screen would be incredible.
Solid picks!
Cinema Paradiso
Jurassic Park. I've been lucky enough to see most of my favourite films that came out before I was born at throwback screenings, but this blew my mind as a kid
I would still like to see Lawrence of Arabia for the first time on the big screen. Sounds like it's worth waiting for the chance...
My top pick!
I saw Star Wars on the big screen when it first came out. We used to go to the movies all the time in the 60s and 70s. Heck, we still had drive-ins! The Wizard of Oz, for sure. Maybe some of the star studded extravaganzas like Ben Hur, Cleopatra, The Ten Commandments, might’ve been fun on the big screen.
God, I miss drive-ins. I still go occasionally, but they're ghosts of what they were. The one I grew up with was turned into a Wal-Mart.
Saw Dr. Strangelove in a theater in Europe before it was released here. We American kids laughed - the non Americans were horrified.
They were fun. Weird, different but fun.
The Hustler