How To Watch More Classic Movies
Pressing play and foregoing an imaginary perfect moment is a good way to start.
This month, I watched a handful of movies. My favorites I watched for the first time were “Se7en” and “Dirty Dancing.” I knew the general premise and iconic final scenes of both films. And yet I got deeply emotionally invested in both. I shed tears through both endings, though for very different reasons, to say the least. People were surprised I took so long to see either, because both are classics that are exactly up my alley. That is, contradictorily, why I hadn’t watched them despite hearing about them for years and being recommended them by people who know me and my (eclectic?) taste well. There are much harder things to do than watch movies, but I sometimes find myself hesitating to watch some classics.
It’s not that I haven’t seen classics, but it’s that I can never see enough. It makes it harder when I put some off to be in the “right” headspace, a nebulous idea that just leads to picking something else. The thing about putting off something like a movie to be in the “right” mood is that, if a movie is transportive enough and as long as you are in a mode to be transported, it will guide you. A stressful movie can let you transfer your life worries into those of the characters. A good comedy can alleviate your stress for a couple hours. There is no perfect moment, just the present moment. Such is life.
The longer you put something off, the bigger a deal it seems to be, when most things aren’t that serious — much less pressing play on a movie. Expectations and hype (which abounds with classics especially) can turn me off entirely and put off watching new and old movies alike. And often, these things are right. I love watching a classic movie and realizing it’s a classic for a reason. And if not, then I know what I think about it for myself.
You can’t return to a movie you’ve never seen, and that means missing out on beloved rewatches of films I haven’t even seen yet. I put on classics here and there, and I’m going to watch at least a loosely-defined classic a week.