Watching a Movie
Backwards
The other
night Mrs. C and I were watching the Lifetime movie network. This channel specializes in crappy movies
with plot lines that somehow suck you into watching and it is impossible to
stop no matter how bad the movie is. I
can’t explain it, but this fact was recently confirmed to me by a fellow
blogger
Anyway, we
tuned into the channel as the movie was half over. Lifetime runs two movies on Saturday night back
to back, so we could watch the beginning of the movie later on that night.
This reminded
me of the way we watched movies “back in the day.” In the olden days a theater ran double
features, much like the Lifetime network.
We did not worry so much about when a picture was scheduled, we just
went to the theater before the main feature and generally midway into the second
movie.
It is an
interesting way to watch a movie.
You catch
the ending, not knowing who is who or why they are doing what they are
doing. You then watch the main feature, newsreels,
a short and a cartoon, then the beginning of the first movie comes on.
We used to stay
to watch the beginning and slowly figured out the missing pieces from the
second half.
“Oh, I get it, that’s her brother
that she thought was dead.”
“Of course, the mother
shot the boyfriend.”
“I get it, she didn’t inherit the
money, she stole it!”
“This is all making sense
now, the Uncle was really alive all along and was locked up in the basement by
the wife…OK, this is where we came in, let’s go.”
It was an
interesting way to view a movie, but that is how many of us did it in the old
days, now Mrs. C and I do it on the Lifetime Network.
It somehow
makes a really bad movie entertaining.
How can you tell ahead of time, if the movie is going to be horrible? Why bother watching if that is the case?
ReplyDeleteThat's like starting a book in the middle to see if the story is going to be good, before you go back and start at the beginning.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that, often! Oh you have taken me back a few years when somehow we always managed to get into the cinema half way through the film we wanted to see.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest daughter loved to watch Lifetime with her college roommates. However, they said it made them afraid to date because of all the creepy guys in the movie plots.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's time to slip over to the Hallmark channel where all the movies have the same plot just different actors..however, they do all have happy endings and not one person in the movie is ugly.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, my grandmother took me to see the original "Back to the Future" (this is when it originally came out). We missed the beginning so we sat through the beginning later on.
ReplyDeleteIt was an interesting way to watch a movie about time travel.
I never had that experience. I grew up in a small town with no movie theater nearby so getting to see a movie was a rare treat for us.
ReplyDelete"Back in the day" is an expression my 10 year old grandson uses often. "How/what/where did you ___ back in the day, grandma?" I wonder where he got it?
Many a time I've watched the first half of a show without realizing I'd seen it before until the second half which is when I came in the first time. I feel dizzy now.
ReplyDeleteI remember Sundays when my dad would drop me and my brother off at the movie theater, which always played a double feature. Dad would drop us off when he was good and ready, which meant the first movie was usually half over. We'd watch whatever remained of the first movie, catch the second, watch the first half of the first and then exit the theater. Many people must have done this because an expression became popular--- This is where I came in.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about that expression!!
DeleteNever done it but may give it a try just to see if it improves a weak movie.
ReplyDeleteWow, I never thought about how entertaining that would be. The husband and I are gonna have to try that.
ReplyDeleteNow it's kind of funny most of the movies I watch are on TV and about five minutes before the end Cindy will turn it off and say "you have seen this before"
ReplyDeleteSo it's not necessarily where I came in but where it was turned off.
I've watched movies like that on TV. I get really mad if I catch the end of the second one! Then I don't have a beginning to figure things out. This usually happens to me on my Showtime channels, so I have to look ahead for a few days until I catch it again with the DVR. The last one I had a problem with was "Z for Zachariah." It was hard to figure out the relationships without the beginning.
ReplyDeleteIt does sound entertaining, thinking of how they might have gotten to that ending, and watching the beginning to see how right or wrong your guesses were.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised nobody has mentioned that Seinfeld episode yet, the one where they did it all backwards. So I'll mention it. Each new scene started with something like, Six Hours Earlier. Clever!
ReplyDeleteI have been known to check out the ending of a book before finishing it or starting it because I HATE bad endings :)
ReplyDelete