I searched a few times to make sure that this hasn't been started as a topic before, but couldn't find anything (I still might have missed it), but I thought it might make good discussion (also, I'm curious, as childhood still fascinates me):

What is the first film (or few) you remember seeing? And do you still like it/them?

I think the first film I can remember seeing is The Jungle Book, and though it's been quite some time, I think I'd still like it on rewatching. I should rent it sometime-- we don't have a copy anymore because I watched it until the tape wore out.

I think there's going to be a lot of Disney here... Pinocchio.

This is timely. I am told my first cinema experience was Hello, Dolly.

First one I can remember: A drive-thru screening of Herbie Rides Again (1974). I believe we also have photographic evidence of my mother and me standing outside a theatre that was showing One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975), though I have no memory of the film itself.

I also have fond memories of Riki-Tiki-Tavi. :-D

I am told that the first movie my parents took me to see in theaters was The Little Mermaid, and I haven't liked it since. The first theater experience that I actually remember, however, was the first Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers movie. I would probably still like it, purely for nostalgic reasons.

I love the drive-in, when it's not rainy, foggy, or cold. :-D

Cinderella, I think. That was before videos, but I saw it in theaters two or three times, and if I'd had the video I would have been one of those kids who sits there and watches a video all day long.

I saw Smokey and the Bandit with my family in 1977. I clearly remember the scene where Burt Reynolds looks right into the camera and smiles. It was so big (it may have been the drive in). I was five years old.

I think I also saw Star Wars in the theater that year. So which ever movie came out first, that would have been my first film.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Just kidding. Some Disney re-release in 1972/3. As you can tell, I don't remember the film, but I remember the puppet show the drive-in had off to the side... which I had crashed... which is why I remember it, at around 2 or 3 years old. (My parents had reiterated this story to me, so I know I wasn't dreaming).

First film I remember? The first Freaky Friday was on the other day, and I have vivid memories about the stupid car chase near the end, especially the scene where the police car cuts in half.

(Of course, it wasn't so stupid at the time).

Lassie Come Home. At the now-demolished Bexley Theater. With big green lime gumdrops.

:-D Gumdrops! I had skittles.

Jeff Rioux wrote:
: I saw Smokey and the Bandit with my family in 1977. I clearly remember the scene where Burt Reynolds looks right into the camera and smiles. It was so big (it may have been the drive in). I was five years old.
: I think I also saw Star Wars in the theater that year. So which ever movie came out first, that would have been my first film.

Oooh, tough call. According to the IMDb, Star Wars came out on May 25, while Smokey and the Bandit premiered May 19 in New York City and went to the rest of the country May 27. So depending on where you lived, the two movies could have reached you virtually simultaneously.

The first movie I remember seeing is The Jungle Book back in 1984.

That I remember? Song of the South.

First movie that changed my life that I remember seeing in a theater? Star Wars.

The Apple Dumpling Gang [1975] - I've loved Don Knotts and Tim Conway ever since.

King King is the first movie I remember seeing. I grew up on a farm, there was no cable, and we rarely picked up TV stations, but I do remember that coming on and being frightened by it.

Ghostbusters is the first movie I remember going to a theater to see. My dad raised me by himself, and he refused to spend money on entertainment, so to counter this, I used to listen to a local radio station that gave away tickets on Friday mornings to my town's four screen cineplex (it got tore down and it now a Subway). If I won tickets, Dad would go with me to the movies. This means of winning free tickets to the theater is how I saw Ghostbusters, Cannonball Run II, Back to the Future, Crocodile Dundee II, Ernest Saves Christmas, Batman, Ghostbusters II, Back to the Future II, Back to the Future III, Home Alone, and Ernest Goes to Jail.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1976.

I saw The Apple Dumpling Gang right around the same time, but I know Snow White was my first visit to a theater.

I saw The Hobbit soon after that... at the local library in a room full of awestruck children. Then Star Wars, with my grandfather and my uncle. I have very vivid memories of seeing The Muppet Movie. I can remember almost the whole movie. I think I laughed myself out of my chair when Animal "saves the day" at the end.

That reminds me. I had almost completely forgotten. My grandmother bought my family a copy of the 1979 animated The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was my first exposure to Narnia, and I think I remember it being better and more fleshed out than it actually was. Still, my sister and I watched it until the tape broke.

The first R rated movie I ever saw was when disobeyed my parents and sneaked in and watched _Jaws_ in secret on HBO on our new cable TV one afternoon. As about a 10yo boy living at the Florida beaches, it completely scared the crap out of me. It remains to this day on my top 10 favorite movies of all time.

First film in a theater (apocryphal): One Hundred and One Dalmatians
First film on VHS: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
First film on DVD: The Third Man
First current release in a theater: Fellowship of the Ring

My family watched more television and pre-1950's films when I was growing up. The first movie I remember seeing as more than just entertainment was Lawrence of Arabia.

And The Hobbit scared the crap out of me when I was 5.



You were a bit rough on tapes, eh?

No kidding. Off the top of my head, I can think of five that we watched until they stopped working. More if I give myself time.



I didn't see Jaws until I was fifteen, and it still creeped me out a bit.

The first PG-13 movie I can remember seeing was Jurassic Park. I was eight. My dad and uncle had just bought it and let me watch it with them while my mom was out shopping. I remember her being furious when she got home. I had nightmares about raptors for a week, and it's still in my Top Ten.

Hate to bust bubbles, but Jaws is PG. Really.

My first R in the theater? I think it was The Man Who Fell to Earth. Seriously. And I was BORED OUT OF MY MIND...

No way! Really?

All I know is I was forbidden to watch HBO without my parents and specifically forbidden to watch that movie.

So it was rated R in my head.

That is correct. We used to play it at the video store because we were only allowed to play films with a PG Rating or lower.

I remember feeling that way about some movies. I have traumatic memories of watching a CBS miniseries-turned-movie called "In a Child's Name." I'm not really sure why my mom let me watch it (I was ten) but a luminol scene where they're testing for bloodstains scared the crap out of me. I still get uneasy about things that glow blueish-green. (IMDB link). Funnily enough, there's actually a thread on the IMDB boards about the same luminol scene that creeped me out. In my head, it's still rated R.

If you think about it, Jaws contains very little overt objectionable material... there's nudity in the opening sequence, but it's sillouetted across the rising sun, and nothing is seen. There's very little profanity, if at all. And all of the scary parts are thru implied action, save for a few brief (can we say effective?) shots.

According to the imdb page, it looks like it was initially rated R in Canada, and then fought to bring about a lower rating.

And this is all familiar territory for Spielberg, who fought for the PG-rating of Poltergeist and PG-rating of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. That latter film, however, helped bring about the birth of the PG-13 rating.

Oh, man. Nice challenge. I can't remember the first film I ever saw. It may have been A Thief in the Night but it was more than likely a Disney film - maybe Bambi, maybe Dumbo, maybe Pinocchio, hmmm maybe it was Danny Kaye in Hans Christian Andersen. I just couldn't say.

One of my more, um, memorable early film experiences as a pre-teen was when my rather careless, much older cousin took me (and her two daughters) to a drive-in to see Tarzan: The Ape Man. No, not that one (Greystoke). Yes, THAT one (Bo Derek). Unbelievably bad judgement. I'm still trying to get those images out of my head. (Of course, the following summer, when I was staying with a different, much older, female relative--who lived with an uber-Bachelor--IIRC, someone left a copy of a certain "gentleman's" magazine lying around with Mrs. Derek featured, in the middle of it. Those images are still bouncing around in my head, too, God help me.

Please be careful about what your kids are exposed to, especially when they're in the care of "responsible" adults.

The first movie I remember watching was The Wizard of Oz--on our black-and-white TV. My mother would tell us when everything turned to color. I was terrified of the witch, and the winged monkeys.

When I was at boarding school, a memorable occasion was seeing the Shirley Temple A Little Princess, dubbed in French (I can't remember if there were English subtitles or not), projected on a whitewashed wall. That was bizarre.

The first movie I remember seeing in a real theater was Camelot, which completely blew me away. Give me a break--I was 13. When I saw it again a couple of years ago, I could not believe how dated the costumes were, and how bad everyone's makeup was. And, sadly, none of the actors can sing, except Franco Nero (if that's really his voice). Plus, I'm so over the whole romanticization of adultery theme. But the idealization of a world in which "right is right" is still attractive.

in-womb: Tron (1982)
out-of-womb: Octopussy (1983)
first film memory: Hercules Conquers Atlantis (1961).

Thoreau wrote:
: No way! Really?

Yep, the first three Jaws movies were all rated PG, and the fourth one was rated PG-13.

Nick Alexander wrote:
: According to the imdb page, it looks like it was initially rated R in Canada, and then fought to bring about a lower rating.

There is no Canadian rating. Each province has its own rating system. (Hence, The Love Guru is rated 14-A in B.C. and G in Quebec, etc.) It looks like the "fight" to which you refer was limited to Nova Scotia, which initially rated the film R and then rated it 14 in 1995. According to the IMDb, the film is rated 13+ in Quebec, AA (the equivalent of the modern 14-A) in Ontario, and PG in Manitoba. A quick check of the B.C. film classification website indicates that it is PG here, too. I have no idea what it is in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island or the territories.

How the West was Won

Denny

I have vague recollections of seeing Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, Shaggy Dog, Absent Minded Professor, Visit to a Small Planet at drive-ins. On TV I watched King Kong, Godzilla, Dracula.

Can't really pin down a time frame for any of it it was over half a century ago.

Darrel Manson wrote:
: I have vague recollections of seeing Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, Shaggy Dog, Absent Minded Professor, Visit to a Small Planet at drive-ins. On TV I watched King Kong, Godzilla, Dracula.
: Can't really pin down a time frame for any of it it was over half a century ago.

The TV stuff, maybe, but Sleeping Beauty was released in 1959 (49 years ago) and 101 Dalmatians in 1961 (47 years ago), so not QUITE half a century ago.

And those are just the dates I know by heart, because I collect cartoons. The IMDb indicates that The Absent Minded Professor also came out in 1961 (47 years ago), The Shaggy Dog in 1959 (49 years ago) and Visit to a Small Planet in 1960 (48 years ago). So, still UNDER half a century. Just.

My family went to the Chief Drive-in to see Journey to the Center of the Earth (the one with Pat Boone). After playing on the playground waiting for it to get dark we piled into the car to see the movie. I sat up front with my Mom and Dad and my sister sat in the back. When the scene came on where the journeyers realize the path they are walking on was actually dinosaurs I was so startled, I screamed and jumped into the back seat and remained there, crouched down for the rest of the movie. My mother, as a result, refused to let me see any movie that might be considered remotely scary. I never got to see any of the monster movies growing up, like Frankenstein, Wolfman or Dracula.

My first not for kids movie (before the rating system I believe) was The Graduate. A bunch of us guys actually paid to get into the drive-in without a car. We sat on the ground with the speaker in the middle of us watching the movie. The scene we were the most looking forward to (the one in the topless bar) was interrupted by the manager who thought we had snuck in. We showed him our tickets and he left us alone but by then the scene was over. We were very disappointed as the rest of the movie was pretty boring to a bunch of adolescents.

Jim Janknegt wrote:
: My first not for kids movie (before the rating system I believe) was The Graduate.

Hmmm, right you are, it seems. The Graduate was released in 1967 but did not get its PG rating until 1972, according to FilmRatings.com, which also notes that "The Rating system went into effect on November 1, 1968."

The first movie I saw in a theatre that I was technically too young for was The Principal, starring Jim Belushi. I was 16, a few weeks shy of my 17th birthday, at the time, and the film was rated such that you had to be 18 to see it ... but I was at Bible school and heading into town with a bunch of my fellow students, and I didn't want to be left outside the theatre on my own in a city that I had never really been to before ... so I figured I'd buy a ticket and hope that no one ID'ed me. And no one did. (I hated the movie, BTW. To Sir with Love, it wasn't.)

Nearly a year later, I bought a ticket to Die Hard, when I was 17 and a few months shy of 18. I loved it. When my Bible school friends visited Vancouver a month or two later and we went to see Die Hard -- me for the second time, them for the first -- THIS time I got ID'ed, so we decided to go see Midnight Run instead, which was rated 14A.

Which brings up another point: A number of films that were rated R in the States were rated 14A or even PG in British Columbia -- Witness and Stand By Me were two favorites of mine that both happened to be in the PG camp -- so I might have been "underage" for those films by American standards but I was perfectly in the clear by local standards. And pretty much no one bothered to check the American ratings on the various VHS tapes that I rented.

101 Dalmatians in the 1991 re-release. My parents took me and my twin sister to see it, thinking that they were going to have to take me out during the movie, because they thought I would get restless and talk. Well, as it turns out, I didn't speak for the entire duration, I was so completely transfixed by what I was seeing.

In the theater? --

Bambi.

And yes, I cried.

Outside the fence in the backseat of my parent's car at the drive thru theater close to our home in the great great suburbs of Indianapolis? --

Jaws.

And yes, I loved it. (I begged them to take me, which they wouldn't do, but in order to pacify me, they parked outside the theater and we watched the awesome shark chew on a guy's leg.)

Oooh, my first not for kids movie was The Exorcist. It was on USA network, I think, and Dad made me sit down and watch it with him. Ugh... it freaked me out. I don't think I made it through it.

If you are counting making it through it, then my first not for kids movie is The Shining. Also on the USA cable network. Hm, between scary movies, professional wrestling, and Hannah Barbara cartoons, the USA network contributed much to the delinquency of my youth.

Great, so now we know I only have storage for 49 years of memory. At the rate new data flows in I probably drop 2 years for every year I live. By the time I hit 80 I'll be doing good to remember last week.

Darrel Manson wrote:
: Great, so now we know I only have storage for 49 years of memory. At the rate new data flows in I probably drop 2 years for every year I live. By the time I hit 80 I'll be doing good to remember last week.

Oh dear, and here I had meant to be positive and uplifting, in a sort of "you're not as old as you think you are!" sort of way.

(I am tempted to seek clarification on whether, by "last week", you mean the week before you hit 80, or the week that just passed here and now in July 2008. But I haven't thought through the ramifications of that question yet, so I won't ask.)

I don't remember what I meant.

The first moviegoing experience I remember -- but that's not exactly what you're asking is it? -- is Snow White and Seven Dwarfs at the State Theater in Falls Church. I remember my uncle being there. I remember standing in a line outside the theater. But I remember nothing about watching the movie.

Darrel Manson wrote:
: I don't remember what I meant.

The first movie I saw in theaters? Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Yes, growing up, movies were evil. I was almost 21 when I went to the theatre for that first time.

Even though I don't think the reasons were quite the same (I could be wrong) you're not entirely alone, Stephen Lamb.


Is there anyone else who didn't go to a theater for the first time until after childhood? My great-grandfather owned a theater, so for my family, it was more like tradition to go. Everyone just grew up used to it.