Your memorable movie-going experiences

So last night, as I was flipping through the channels, I found Rocky IV, and naturally, I watched the rest of it, even though, of course, I know the ending. It took me back to when I was a kid, and, I still remember seeing it twice in theaters (once with my parents, once with other family members).

Both times, I remember the crowd treating the fight with Drago like it was a real fight. People cheering "Come on Rocky!" and going ballistic once Drago was knocked down. And I got to thinking, especially since, for most of us, theaters are shut down, about other memorable movie-going experiences. These are a few that come to mind for me.

* Schindler's List, with people in the audience audibly crying throughout the film. I turned around at one point and saw five or six people just sobbing.

* The Brady Bunch Movie (mid-90s), in which the entire theater began singing the theme song with the opening credits.

* Cape Fear (early 90s version). My college would run films a few months later, and the student crowds were quite raucous. For this film, the scene where Nick Nolte hires three goons to try to beat up Robert DeNiro, the goons fail, and Nolte tries to sneak away from behind the dumpster, only to stumble and make a noise. It's all quiet in our theater as we're watching the scene, then one guy perfectly times a "MEOW!" and the entire theater cracks up laughing.

* The Doors (Oliver Stone film). Also seen in college, and my school's student activities group, in its infinite wisdom, decided to show the film at midnight on a Friday night. Needless to say, a lot of drunken and stoned students were enjoying this one (as for me personally, I was drunk, not stoned).

* One of the later Star Wars films (can't recall which one as they're a blur to me). As soon as the Star Wars theme and the scroll came on, the entire theater cheered, just for that.

* Die Hard 3. Future Mrs. S. and I decided to see this at a drive-in. Partway through, a huge thunderstorm hits. We start getting worried, then we see a bolt of lightning flash right in front of us. We hightailed it out of there, along with 90 percent of the other cars.

 

I have mentioned before that Star Wars was the first movie I saw in the theater and the only one I have ever seen more than once in a theater. I saw it twice during the original release and once when put one of the remaster ones out in theaters in the '90s. I was only five years old and I got very confused during the initial battle. I remember my mother having to shush me because I kept asking questions. I couldn't tell who the good guys were because the Stormtroopers were wearing white. Then Darth Vader stalked onto the screen for the first time and even my five-year-old brain understood that was very much the bad guy.

Avengers: Infinity War was memorable for the end. There is usually so much buzz from the crowd after one of those movies, but that ending left people stunned and quiet. I think we all realized it wouldn't stick once we had time to think about it, but in that moment, it was a lot to process.

On the other hand, Avenger: Endgame was the memorable for moments that had the audience cheering loudly. From Captain American wielding Mjolnir, to "On your left" and "I am Iron Man," the directors knew exactly how to craft the big fan service moments for maximum reaction.

 

Watching Grease 1978, first time a boy told me he loved me

 

"Jaws" was my first movie theater movie, pretty impressive to a young kid in the '70s.

 

Boy, I would've loved to have been there to see and hear that! I can certainly imagine it happening, though.

The Brady Bunch theme song would feature prominently on a soundtrack of my childhood TV-watching.

 

* A double feature of Kentucky Fried Movie and Up in Smoke. Four hours of uproarious laughter.

* Watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High about once a week under the stars at a drive-in theater. We'd bring beach chairs and crank up the sound outside the car.

* I started a job at a daily newspaper on Dec. 23. I paid for a week of a hotel since I didn't have a place yet. I found out on Christmas Eve that we didn't publish on Christmas, so I had a day off. Being Jewish, there was no reason to drive two hours to where I had been living. So I went to the theater for Spies Like Us in the morning, left for lunch, then paid a separate admission for Rocky IV.

 

On a day off I went to watch a matinee, can't even remember which one.

Walking back toward the lobby I saw the marquee for a different movie that had just started, figured I'd take advantage of a freebie. It was a few minutes in when I sat down. I was immersed in an instant. It was simple and clean with pretty people and from what I could tell right away a romantic storyline. I'm a sucker for these kinds of flicks. By the end I knew I was watching one of my favorite movies ever. It was hitting the spot in ways that are hard to describe and, better yet, it didn't have a single flaw. Here comes the end, dripping with emotions ... fade to black, the end ...

... the theater was fucked, that is everyone in the theater was wrecked. Dead fucking silence except for that familiar chorus of sniffles and barely audible crying and silent sobbing. My eyes were soaked. I was wrecked.

The movie was The Notebook.

 

Blazing Saddles at a midnight show at the Westhampton Theatre in spring of 1974. It was epic.

That, and seeing the absolutely stunned look on the face of everyone else at the theatre after the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.

 

First time I saw Rocky Horror Picture Show in college, in a theater-style classroom, and people were fully immersed in the costumes and props. I had never heard of the movie. Ah, college!

 

The one missed. My buddies went to see Russ Meyer's Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens in 1979 and for whatever reason, I didn't go with them. They brought me back an autographed picture of the movie's lead, Kitten Natividad, who made an appearance.

This isn't mine, but it's the same photo IIRC

 

Yeah, I was 14 or 15 when I saw it for the first time in a theater that was always packed for the movie every Friday and Saturday night.

It was kind of weird to watch the cosplayers do their thing without knowing what all of the things meant.

 

It wasn't that great of a movie, but when the guy in "Blinded By The Light" basically recreated my avatar, I was all about "Hey I've been there..."

And when the custom agent nailed the line "I can't think of a better reason to come to the US of A than to see the hometown of the Boss"...there were a few "Hell yeahs" in the air...