From worstpreviews, In a Lovefilm (a UK video rental company) poll, 1,500 people were asked to name movies that they have lied about seeing. It turned out that almost 1 out of 3 named "The Godfather" as the film they have claim to have seen.
The rest of the top five most lied about movies are "Casablanca," "Taxi Driver," "2001: A Space Odyssey," and "Reservoir Dogs." Researchers found that four out of five people lied to impress other people.
"Whether it is a small white lie about having seen a cult classic or nodding along to friends as they recount the infamous horse head scene in 'The Godfather,' there are some films that we just do not want to admit we have not watched," said Lovefilm editor.
Top 10 Lied About Films:
1. The Godfather (30%)
2. Casablanca (13%)
3. Taxi Driver (11%)
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (9%)
5. Reservoir Dogs (8%)
6. This Is Spinal Tap (7%)
7. Apocalypse Now (6%)
8. Goodfellas (5%)
9. Blade Runner (5%)
10. The Great Escape (4%)
Question: What movie have you lied about seeing?
18 comments:
I've never seen Reservoir Dogs, Apocalypse Now, or The Great Escape but I don't lie about it. Maybe I'm lying about that...
I've seen all of them, no lie but I'm sure it comes as no surprise. I'm an outright movie junkie.
Two hugely popular films I avoided until I was in my 20's were Gone With the Wind and The Sound of Music.
I'm still avoiding Gone With the Wind. I also haven't seen Raging Bull.
When I lived over in Japan my ex was out to sea so much I read books and watched movies like fiend. That's when I caught up on all the classics I had never seen.
The first unseen classic that comes to mind is On The Waterfront, but I don't think I've ever lied about seeing a movie I haven't seen. That's kinda dumb, since it's such an easily exposed lie. If I lie I do my homework.
1) Octo, you'd LOVE "On The Waterfront." Basically, every Bruce Weber Calvin Klein campaign in the eighties stole this movie's sublime "rooftop bricks, chicken wire and teddy boys in t-shirts in black and white" aesthetic. And Leonard Bernstein did a great score. And Brando...well, you have to see it to believe it.
2) I lie (by omission) about not having seen Dances With Wolves, Lost in Translation and a couple of others just because I don't want to hear the incredulous "You haven't SEEN THAT?" screamed at me.
I've never seen Top Gun but rather than lie about it, I'm rather proud of it.
JPX what the hell is the matter with you? Go watch Raging Bull immediately. In my opinion you can skip Reservoir Dogs. *SPOILER* Despite the clever groundbreaking Tarantino material, you spend half the movie watching a guy slowly bleed to death in agonizing pain. It makes for a very unpleasant movie experience.
- Citizen Kane
- Dances With Wolves
- The Graduate
- Any Police Academy movie
- Dawn of the Dead
(Kidding about the last one.)
This is kind of a correlative to the "movies you should have seen but haven't" topic, which is maybe more fun to talk about w/regard to books.
Which gets me to THE HAMLET GAME that some friends and I used to play in grad school. It's based on a scene from David Lodge's campus novel Small World, where a bunch of English professors at a dinner party go around and admit to a book they hadn't read. They get points for each other person who HAD read it. So the more embarrassing admission, the better chance of winning.
A young competetive Shakespearan scholar says "Hamlet" as his answer, thus winning the game but destroying his career, since he'd done his diss on the play.
Anyway, might be fun to play with movies, but it's hard to match the social stigma atmosphere of an English department dinner party.
Oh, and I watched a bit of Top Gun last night, JSP. Dumber than I even remembered.
I think the only time I've "lied" about having seen a movie is when someone is telling a story, and I'm not very interested, and they reference a movie as if I've seen it, and I just keep nodding to move the damn convo along. Very much like Jordan's example.
Also, I should admit to being a horrible person for "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THAT?!" Usually when talking to my wife. Pisses her off to no end, rightfully so.
like most of us i don't lie about having seen movies... where's the fun in that?
top 5 movies i've never seen that i "should" have seen:
citizen kane
reservoir dogs
schindler's list
raging bull
taxi driver
I've been thinking all day about how envious I am of those of you who haven't seen Citizen Kane.
I would LOVE to use a Men in Black memory-eraser on myself so that I could have an adult first-viewing of CK. I really couldn't be more familiar with the thing (having memorized it and read books about it, and even re-cutting my own experimental version). If I had serious money I would fly everyone together for a theatrical CK screening just so I could be THERE and watch all of youse see the thing for the first time. (It's very different from what you've been imagining or picturing, believe me.)
I can make similar rhapsodic comments about Taxi Driver, Schindler's List, Raging Bull etc. but I won't. I'll just diffidently refer to the big obvious point which is that these are actually good movies; it's not like eating liver or asparagus or whatever when you want to be eating ice cream. That's the joy of a "popular" medium: even Citizen Kane is a movie, you dig? You're supposed to munch popcorn and have a good time.
I come off so condescending. I didn't mean to! I'm just saying that I love how, when I finally get around to some movie (or book or TV show) that's been recommended to me forever, I always have this amazing reaction of "Wait--it's GOOD!" and everyone says, you know, "Duh," and I say, "No, what I mean is, it's ACTUALLY good...I'm totally digging it." But that's what they meant all along.
I lie about Fletch. Haven't seen it, will never see it, can't quote it, and get very weary whenever a quote-fest starts to come up among Guy Dude Types.
Similarly, I can't for the life of me remember any singular line of Caddyshack or The Big Lebowski, whilst seemingly everyone that has ever existed has memorized both, and expects to have entire conversations within the dialogue.
I get it; there's movies I know and movies I don't. I just love the presumption that if you happen to be an American male who is into chicks, then you have obviously memorized Caddyshack. I have not, nor will not.
And Jordan, I love how the title "Schindler's List" and the phrase "munch popcorn and have a good time" appear in the same paragraph.
That is a stand-alone superior film accomplishment, however, I would like to know exactly how many people own it on VHS or DVD and have actually uttered the phrase, "Oh, yeah, man! I've got Schindler's List right here! Let's throw it in! Grab me a beer?"
My hypothesis is that NO ONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD has ever voluntarily watched Schindler's List more than once. Citizen Kane, sure. A film of equal stature in its execution. But there's no human ovens in Kane.
*flinching, can see Jordan warming up his fastball*
(disclosure: I watched it twice for a film class. It's increasingly brilliant with repeated viewings, but WHEN would you ever throw it in?)
I have watched Schindler's Listmany, many times. I admit that most of the time I just watch the first half; by the time the Plazgow Ghetto is liquidated it's pretty rough going.
I like to "throw Schindler's List on" just to watch the opening hour because it's just impossible to imagine anything else, anywhere being as well done. (The arrangements to purchase and staff the enamelware factory -- underneath John William's incredible ten-and-a-half-minute oboe/strings vamp -- always makes me forget to breathe.) And you get that incredible nightclub sequence with the Kandinski on the wall and the S.S. officers talking about how "this storm is not the Romans; this is different. This is the S.S.," and the Judenrat sequence which is arguably the best two-people-talking-in-a-room scene ever shot. A bolt of fucking lightning hit Spielberg in 1993 and this movie is the result. I've been re-reading some WWII material (Kershaw Hitler biography) so I've been looking at it even more.
i do want to see all the movies on my list, just never seem to be in quite the right mood. have promised mr. ac that i'll watch taxi driver with him some day soon. but i'll never watch dances with wolves no matter what anyone says.
Neither will I!
Taxi Driver packs a hell of a punch. Brutal movie. I mean, it's brilliant, but it's definitely a trip to the dark side. (As I always suspected and was able to confirm only recently, it's essentially based on Sartre's The Stranger.)
Hey, I just remembered that Bernard Herrmann's FIRST film score was Citizen Kane and his LAST film score was Taxi Driver!
(Beat that!)
Octo, On the Waterfront is more of your pepper-flavored candy.
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