FSM # 18: What is the film you’ve seen the most times?
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For me, I think it must be JURASSIC PARK — which I’ve seen between 30-40 times, 3 in the theatre.
Runner-ups are the ALIEN films, which are probably also close to 30. At least for the first two. Never seen the first two in the theatre, though.
What about you?
I should add that now, 12 years later, JURASSIC PARK is nearing 100. ALIEN films also up there. And I have seen the two first ones in the theatre since then.
I have not counted anything but the old classic westerns RIO BRAVO and EL DORADO might lead as they were traditional favorites of my father and me we often re-watched. The Star Wars, Indy (just last year a three movie special) and Jaws (also last year) I for sure saw several times.
Probably the Bond films. The first I was old enough to see on release was You Only Live Twice (although I was so excited I spent the whole pre-credit sequence in the toilet, and to this day, his “assassination” in Hong Kong seems like a new sequence, so impressionable was the young TG.)
Taking this into account, the older the film, the more I’ll have seen it. Until the mid-70s they were only watchable in the cinema, but I used to go to the pictures inveterately during the school holidays, and Bond double bills were common. I’ll have watched them all scores of times up to the Brosnan ones, where it reduces to dozens of times.
I’m still a huge fan, although I’m well aware of their shortcomings (some uncomfortable moments when judged through a modern prism relating to race or sex, plot holes, some silliness, the occasional slide-whistle) and still watch them all every so often.
Other than that, we watch Scrooged, It’s a Wonderful Life and The Muppet’s Christmas Carol every Yuletide.
My most watched giallo would be “Eyeball” (aka Red Cats in a Glass Labyrinth), which is a comfort watch for reasons it’s hard to explain.
Oh yes, Bond films of course as well, especially the Connery and Moore ones. And ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST I saw often, too.
I doubt I have seen many films more than five times. I guess films like Forrest Gump, The Stand, The Langoliers, The House Of The Spirits, The Green Mile, Rain Man and The Game are up there.
I have never seen Jurassic Park and I doubt I ever wiil.
There used to be a time when I had a few movies on Sony’s Video8 format, so we watched them as teens more often.
I don’t know which movie I’ve seen the most really.
But there are movies I have seen multiple times, movies I don’t tire of watching. Those are the movies I tend to get on Bluray/4K.Movies I watched many times (at least five) and never tire of watching include but are not limited to (* indicates I’ve seen them at least once in a theatre):
Casablanca
Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983… though I don’t like Jedi all that much)*
Indiana Jones Trilogy (1981-1989)*
Alien*
A Christmas Charol (1951)
The Big Country
Once Upon a Time in the West*
Papillon*
Chinatown*
Basic Instinct*
Bram Stoker’s Dracula*
Duel
Jaws
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Shining
Escape from New York*
Blade Runner*
The Thing (1982)*
Se7en*
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
RatatouilleThere are more. Not sure which one I’ve seen the most. Also, some movies I’ve seen often, but haven’t seen in years, others I have not yet seen often, but will probably revisit in coming years. I’ve seen Jurassic Park also a number of times, including in its original theatrical run.
In theater probably E.T. and Star Wars might be my most watched movies. Don’t remember how often I went.
On regular TV it’s more difficult. As a kid I watched comedies a lot. It’s a Mad Mad Mad World might be a contender, Some Like It Hot, Pillow Talk or Die Feuerzangenbowle.
Ich I wonder what movie I have watched most on VHS, DVD, BluRay or streaming it becomes more confusing.
Maybe some action flick. Some Star Wars film probably, Terminator 2 or something like that.There are some movies I think are great that are just not on that list because I have not seen them that often, but still several times. They include Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS (which I have seen at least four times so far), or Ridley Scott’s KINGOM OF HEAVEN (great movie, have seen once the theatrical cut and once the director’s cut), THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (which I’ve seen a number of times, including once in a theater). There is THE GODFATHER TRILOGY, which I’ve just seen last month in the 4K restauration (and the improved Coda cut for the first time), so that was at least the fourth time I watched the movies. I’ve seen APOCALYPSE NOW a number of times as well.
The number of times I have watched a movie does not necessarily say something about the quality of the movie. Of course I don’t rewatch a movie I completely dislike.
But there is something like a rewatch factor for movies. Especially movies, that are more form and aestetics than plot or story.And there are great movies that I watched just once because I think, it is impossible to reproduce that impressive first time watch experience. So, I can better preserve that memory and don’t desecrate the experience.
Yes, fully agree. Which is why this thread is about the movies we’ve seen the most, not the ones we hold to be the greatest
The movies I saw most often are probably the ones I had (copied) to video back in late 1980s, when I had my first VCR and both the option to watch movies at home was new, and I only had a few. I have not seen any movie as often as Thor has seen JURASSIC PARK. As I said, I don’t know which movie I’ve seen the most, but there are a number of movies I’ve seen quite often. If I had to take a guess, I would say BLADE RUNNER and CHINATOWN may be the movies I’ve seen most often, and both are (or definitely belong to ) my all time favorite movies. I did have the (theatrical) cut of BLADE RUNNER on Video 8 in the 1980s, I saw the theatrical cut in the theater, I saw the Director’s Cut in 1991 or 1992 in a theater. First time I saw CHINATOWN I saw it in a theater (obviously in a re-release), had it on Video8, later on DVD, and now on 4K. So CHINATWON and BLADE RUNNER may be the movies I’ve seen the most, I don’t know of often I’ve seen them. Though last time I saw BLADE RUNNER was in November 2019, so it’s still a while.
The Thing (1982)*
I found The Thing not so suitable for a rewatch. Because a lot of the tension is lost when you know what is going to happen.
Some movies really live from the tension that anything can happen at every moment. When you already know that in a certain scene nothing surprising is going to happen it can suddenly be quite boring.
That is how I felt in many scenes at rewatching The Thing.
Still a great movie. Probably Carpenter’s best.For me, the most interesting aspect of THE THING, and that’s why I love watching it, is one of the very few movies with an actually “alien” lifeform, one the protagonists struggle to comprehend because they are trying to survive.
There is a terrific science fiction story by Peter Watts which tells the Carpenter movie from the point of view of THE THING (which is often just as puzzled and frightened as the people). This is a perspective I have always found interesting from the first time I watched the movie. It’s an obviously intelligent alien, but one that’s so different from us, it can no more communicate with us than we could with it… an intelligent “bio mass” (which, in the story exploration by Watts, gets more intelligent when it absorbs more mass, and is less intelligent when it’s just a few cells). This “Thing” was really an alien intelligence. That’s my favorite aspect of the movie, the truly “alien alien”.THE THING is a film I return to quite often, but never for the story. Only for the mood, which I can stay in forever. I love those ‘snowed in’ dramas. In fact, I watched it so much for a period there, I had to take a long break from it.
That’s also one of the reasons for why I return to a film over and over again. It’s often to do with the mood more than the story. I especially love first acts. This is why I return to certain films over and over again, even if they aren’t necessarily masterpieces. THE MARTIAN, Emmerich films, for example. And obviously, the mood aspect applies to some of my favourite ‘masterpiece’ movies too, like ALIEN, ALIENS, JURASSIC PARK. For JURASSIC PARK, I often put it on and watch until the T-Rex first puts its claws on the fence. Then I turn off. Because after that, the movie takes a tighter narrative turn. But before that, it’s all about being absorbed, and about expectations.
By the way. A little off-topic. Many years ago I remember watching another movie about a polar research station where scientists were making experiments on monkeys. And after some time the crew feels that they are not alone. People are dying and after some time people are suspecting eachother. In the end the last survivor is lured outside the Station by a noise and after two stets outside into the freezing cold the door behind him gets closed and he sees one of the monkeys staring at him from the glaspane in the door.
I found that movie quite atmospheric and scary. Anyone knows which movie that is. I would like to watch it again. I don’t know if I remember everything correctly. I was a kid when I saw the film.
Of course, I can also see parts of films I have seen before, repeatedly on tv. An example is THE GAME. They air it all the time, and I can see parts of it again and again.
Many years ago I remember watching another movie about a polar research station where scientists were making experiments on monkeys.
Could it be this one? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068390/?ref_=ttpl_ov_bk
As we speak of monkeys, 12 MONKEYS is also a movie I saw several times.
THE THING is a film I return to quite often, but never for the story. Only for the mood, which I can stay in forever
THE THING is great, I love the way it’s set up, the opening scenes. I love the dog actor (Jed, who later played WHITE FANG alongside Ethan Hawke), I love the way it’s set up, I love the way Carpenter sets the camera, and I love Ennio Morricone’s music. (There is often the misguided notion that Carpenter only used the electronic parts of Morricone’s score, but that’s not true, a great deal of the orchestral music is in the movie as well.
Interesting side note would be why we watch certain movies over and over (or at least often). What is it that they do for us? As has been pointed out, we already know the “story”, and we know all surprises.
Story is but one aspect of a movie. No one watches James Bond movies “for the story”. Same with the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movies. The MISSION IMPOSSIBLE stories exist to set up elaborate and intricate heist and action scenes.
No one watches Columbo for the story. I can always watch Columbo, especially the classic 70s episodes. The “story” and basic story arc is usually clear. In Columbo, it’s a usually affluent and highly intelligent person who murders someone, believing that their meticulous planning and removing of the evidence have placed them beyond the reach of consequence. In comes that disheveled and seemingly scatterbrained Police Lieutenant Columbo, who notes all kinds of oddities and just asks “one more question”, that slowly and surely puts a grip on the murderer. So that’s basically always the story, the fun is not the “story”, the fun is the riddle and the acting, the fun is finding and noting the gottcha things the murderer (and usually we, as the audience) overlooked. And the fun is to put all these great guest “murderers” up against Peter Falk. And the fun are the little unexpected “breaks” from the usual (such as the episode where Leonard Nimoy is a particularly calculating and ice cold killer, where Columbo in a rare moment loses his temper and tells him flat to his face that he thinks he’s the murderer and will find proof.)
A good movie can impress you, but what makes it “rewatchable”? Good question. Not sure if I have an answer. It may be that the story, the mood, the setting, the craft just lands with you, aligns with you. Or it so perfectly aligns with your values, your aspirations, your nostalgia, your mood, your hopes, dreams, nightmares, whatever, that it hits, confirms or even challenges certain things about you, that you enjoy re-experiencing it. Not all movies we consider great are the ones we watch over and over again, and we know some movies may not be masterpieces, but we never tire of watching them (I certainly love Ralph Bakshi’s WIZARDS (1977), and I’ve seen it often, but it’s not a flawless masterpiece of a movie). There are movies that obviously strike a nerve, we return to them not because these movies are better, but because they are “ours” in some way.
So that’s basically always the story, the fun is not the “story”
It’s often on rewatching that it is some kind of feeling familar or feeling “home” with it and the characters.
For often rewatch a film must keep a certain ballance of visual originality, complexity, simplicity, depts, entertainment, transparancy etc.
For example, to me it looks like a director like JJ Abbrams tries to achive rewatchability by keeping the tension high with his mystery boxes, visual spectacle, permanently something entertaining is happenning etc. But he exaggerates it and achieves in a way the opposite. The movie falls apart from story to content. In his movies I see too little weight on the story. And I find them “unballanced” in the way I described.
There are any numbers of reasons for why I watch a movie several times. I tried to say a few things yesterday up there, but I had a splitting headache (I struggle with some health issues at the moment we can’t really make heads or tails of), so the post came off as rambling and repetitive.
Anyway, one reason to rewatch is obviously because I think the film is great, its sheer quality.
Another is because I find many layers to “deconstruct” and analyze, which can only be done after multiple viewings (Antonioni films, for example, for those who follow that thread).
Yet another is because I like the setpieces more than the story, and my expectations to said setpiece.
Yet another is – as I alluded to above – because I love the mood. It’s a fictional universe where I can just stay and absorb and experience the surroundings. This is, in fact, one of the most important aspects for me when it comes to filmic experience. It can be “cozy”, like the opening of LOTR, set in Hobbiton, or it can be “unsettling”, like in ALIEN. But even in ALIEN, there is a familiarity with the unsettling surroundings that I find comforting.
And then there is a different type of use as well. A fairly mundane form of reuse is watching a film when I’m inebriated, at the end of an evening, before I go to sleep. That’s why JURASSIC PARK is so useful, up until the appearance of the T-Rex. Or films like 2012 and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, when the purpose is to “live inside the acts”, and the expectations of what’s to come. Or films like THE MARTIAN or CAST AWAY, that are both calm and tense at the same time, but with plenty of time to just ‘stay’ at the place. I’ve seen all of these films countless times.
That’s why there are certain concepts in film that draw me back again and again – especially ‘isolation dramas’ (whether it’s snowed-in stations like in THE THING or desert islands or derelict spaceships). Sometimes, a CONCEPT is more reason than the quality of the film itself.
Sometimes, a CONCEPT is more reason than the quality of the film itself.
That might be the reason why I watched the Star Wars prequels countless times in opposite to the sequels. The prequels might be highly flawed, but the concept is convincing to me. For the sequels the only concept is fan service which doesn’t do anything for me.
That might be the reason why I watched the Star Wars prequels countless times in opposite to the sequels. The prequels might be highly flawed, but the concept is convincing to me. For the sequels the only concept is fan service which doesn’t do anything for me.
So true, fully agree.
What Thor said is probably quite true for me as well; there may be a multitude of reasons why I like to re-watch a movie. It would probably be easier for me to explain on an individual movie-by-movie basis why I like to re-watch that particular film, rather than to extrapolate sweeping generalizations from that.
In the end, it isn’t so much a generalization for me, but a discovery of certain film elements that I either like or don’t like. For example, I’m not a big fan of dialogue, especially if that dialogue dominates, is full of plot-centric information and delivered at high speed. I can obviously like a good and well-written dialogue like everyone else, but I prefer films that communicate more via visuals.
I’ve also discovered that I’m no big fan of body horror (although I saw my fair share of slashers and gorefests as a youngster), or – in fact – any film heavy on realistic bodily functions.
Similiarly, I’ve discovered over the years that I’m particularly drawn to certain concepts and ideas and sub genres over others. I mentioned isolation dramas. There are also films that utilize vistas. Films that nurture space. Man vs. nature. Survival. Films with loads of subtext and inter-textuality. Etc., etc.
So it’s not all out there in the broad generalization sphere. Some things are fairly specific. And they are often what take me back to a film for a rewatch or two.
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