Someone of "The Big Picture" Facebook page posted a query asking people about the first "adult" movie they saw in a theater. By "adult," I assume they meant R-rated, and strictly R-rated. (So if your parents snuck you into an X-rated movie, you're out of luck).
The post got me to thinking about my own moviegoing life, not just my first R-rated movie experiences, but all movie experiences. It seemed like a fun topic to explore in this blog.
Disney animated features are the first movies I went to. This is when my parents lived in Holt, just south of Lansing. A Lansing, by the way, that still had downtown movie theaters. I have distinct memories of seeing Bambi, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, and Song of the South with my mom. I'm sure we saw others, but these are the ones I definitely remember. By the way, these were the days when Disney routinely re-released old, animated movies from their vault for exhibition in theaters. It's a shame that Disney has gotten away from doing this.
I suppose it sounds like a cliche to say that seeing these animated Disney movies was a "magical" experience, but it truly was. It's difficult to capture the feeling of being a four-year-old child in a mammoth theater watching a bright, colorful animated feature on an enormous movie screen, but I know it was a profound experience because I can remember it to this day. I have memories of all those Disney movies because I loved Disney. Every Sunday, I would go absolutely apeshit (I believe that's the technical term) whenever The Mouse Factory (1972-1973) show would be televised
The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) is the first live-action movie I can remember wanting to see. I have vague memories of seeing the trailer on television and being intrigued by the scary Bigfoot aspect of the movie. I must have pestered my parents enough about it because they did take me to see it. I'm pretty sure this was a drive-in theater viewing and it was a creepy, though hardly terrifying, experience. It was so long ago that I have little recollection of The Legend of Boggy Creek. A rewatch would be fascinating.
Other movie memories from the early-to-mid seventies include my parents taking me--once again to the drive-in--to see The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), starring Robert Redford as the eponymous barnstorming airplane pilot. This is a movie experience that is hazy, and I'm not even sure if I ever saw The Great Waldo Pepper again after seeing it in the drive-in. I am not even sure if I stayed awake for the entire flick. As it was directed by George Roy Hill and stars Redford, I am sure this is another good candidate for a rewatch. My only distinct memory of this movie is that the flying scenes were exciting.
The 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express is the first "grown-up" movie I recall seeing in a theater and not at a drive-in. I went with my mom and my grandma, who was an Agatha Christie aficionado and I'm sure was game to see any filmed version of a Christie novel. I wish I could say this led me on a long and rewarding path of whodunit fandom, but in truth I was bored stiff by this movie. I'm not even sure why I went, unless my mom couldn't find anyone to watch me and was forced to take me to the theater. Maybe I asked to go? I have no idea. Apparently, the movie made enough of an impression to stay with me in memories, so perhaps it wasn't so terrible.
1974 was also the year I saw Herbie Rides Again at the movie theater. I remember a Volkswagen in the theater lobby that was painted just like Herbie the Love Bug, with "his" distinctive red, white and blue stripes and number "53". I loved Herbie and this movie was a quite an important event in my movie-watching life. Disney strikes again.
At this point, I've been going on and on about my movie life and I'm not even to the really good stuff yet. As it's getting late, I'll wrap this up now and go for "part two" tomorrow.
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