Nick Has Never Seen Apocalypse Now
Posted 10 May 2008 in Television by Catriona
I consider this an oversight of epic proportions. In fact, I suggested devoting a blog post to the movies he’d never seen, but he felt this would be embarrassing. I felt this was an exaggeration, since—as I pointed out—the blog is read exclusively by people who’ve met him, but he still resisted.
But I still think a man with two degrees in Cultural Studies should have seen Apocalypse Now.
Of course, he insists he’s seen The Godfather, both Psycho and Rear Window, and Citizen Kane.
In fact, he thinks he’s seen the latter many times, which I think is unlikely, but he should know best.
On the down side, he’s never seen a Jean Cocteau film, which puts me ahead in the strange, competitive world that is our relationship.
(Although I note, from looking at Amazon.com, that it’s hard to find Jean Cocteau films on DVD, and that they’re immensely expensive. Still, there’s a Criterion edition of Beauty and the Beast, which might be interesting.)
I have a feeling that I should have been able to think of more films that Nick should have seen—to thus embarrass him further—but my inspiration ran out with Cocteau.
Share your thoughts [9]
1
Tim wrote at May 11, 06:21 am
I haven’t seen Apocalypse Now either. I don’t have two degrees in cultural studies, though.
2
Catriona wrote at May 11, 06:23 am
Haven’t you? Maybe we should have a screening some time. It is a good film—if a little hard to watch at times. At least, it was for me; I’m not a fan of war films. (Although, for some reason, I have seen Universal Soldier at least twice.)
3
Tim wrote at May 11, 09:01 am
The list of classic films I haven’t seen is actually quite long. I haven’t even seen Universal Soldier.
4
Catriona wrote at May 11, 11:37 am
I’ll save you 97 minutes, or so, and tell you to cross Universal Soldier off the list; my brother and I rewatched it over Christmas because we were looking for a comedy, and it even failed on that score. Although we did watch a fairly funny Kiwi comedy about mutant sheep, so it all balances out.
I also have an immensely long list of classic films I haven’t seen—but then my degrees are in Eng. Lit. I don’t need to see the films; I’ll wait for the book to come out.
5
Tim wrote at May 11, 01:11 pm
I don’t know, you miss a lot of the impact of the visual medium that way. I picked up a book of Romeo + Juliet, for instance, and they didn’t use their guns at all in the book.
6
John Gunders wrote at May 12, 12:57 am
If you are desperate for Apocalypse Now, I can loan you the DVD (Redux edition, with the French Plantation scene reinstated).
I wouldn’t say “war film”. Definitely anti-war…
7
Catriona wrote at May 12, 01:04 am
True—that’s what I get for sloppy use of language. Instead of saying that I dislike war films, I should have said that I dislike films that are set heavily on or around battlefields, regardless of their ideological or moral stance on warfare itself.
I haven’t even seen Saving Private Ryan—and won’t.
8
heretic wrote at May 14, 01:42 am
Good thing Nick never mentioned that out loud on campus, he’d have been ejected on the spot.
I don’t believe he’s watched Citizen Kane multiple times. Nobody watches Citizen Kane more than once. It’s one of those “classics you had to watch but were actually about three times as long as they needed to be and you might have been culturally enriched but dear god it’s never claiming another three hours of your life”. A surprisingly large genre.
9
Catriona wrote at May 14, 04:11 am
A surprisingly large genre, but one that can get you into a great deal of trouble if you’re too enthusiastic about assigning films to it.
I, for example, would assign Prospero’s Books to that category (except that it’s only two hours long)—a stunning film, but all style and no substance to me. I was bored senseless. I was even more bored in Kill Bill—both volumes; in fact, I can’t remember anything that happened in Volume 2—and have never been able to sit through Pulp Fiction after the first time. I stepped out of Jackie Brown after fifteen minutes or half an hour, as well. (Home viewing, not the cinema.)
But I’ve learnt to keep very quiet if I’m with film fans/buffs, after I made the mistake of saying I thought that Speilberg’s films were emotionally manipulative in a room full of Speilberg fans. (I didn’t know they were all fans until after I’d made the comment—when it became scarily apparent.)