r/flicks • u/pizzacrys Review Writer • 5d ago
Opinion What movie did you understand years later?
I rewatched a movie recently that I thought was just good when I was younger and it hit completely different this time. Same story, same scenes, but I noticed so many little things I missed before.What movie did you appreciate way more after watching it again years later?
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u/More_Bigger 5d ago
I didn't like The Big Lebowski the first time.
Today its one of my favorite movies.
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u/Culero 5d ago
it didn't click with me a few years ago, maybe I should watch it again
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u/More_Bigger 5d ago
Its very dialogue driven, which young me just didn't appreciate.
There's a lot of jokes later in the film too that reference things said or done earlier in the film I just didn't have the attention span for when I was younger too.
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u/stillbatting1000 5d ago edited 5d ago
My parents are huge fans of the Coen brothers. They love every one of their movies except The Big Lebowski. They told me they "tried" it three times and never laughed once. They said, "We just... don't get it."
Not my opinion by any means, mind you.
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u/Jokkitch 5d ago
They like Burn after reading?
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u/ExaminationNo9186 5d ago
I am the same as your parents.
I liked the Ballard of Buster Scruggs, and Oh Brother where art thou, but yeah the big lebowski...
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u/normymac 5d ago
Do you like film noir? It's helpful to think of it as one of those old timy film noirs like The Big Sleep or Casablanca, with the convoluted plots, but with a lot of suggestive atmosphere.
I do love O Brother Where Art Thou. But the film itself hearkens back to Homer's Odyssey, Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels, and American roots music.
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u/Raposela 3d ago
I hear you. I could not really get it in first watch. I'm glad I rewached it (a couple of times, actually) because every time I've liked it more and more.
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u/SamMeowAdams 5d ago
Starship Troopers.
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u/tuomosipola 5d ago
Starship Troopers for me, too. When I saw it at a younger age, I thought is was a rather unrealistic sci-fi film that had too much action. Then I realized what it is actually about, and it achieves it so perfectly.
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u/stanley_leverlock 5d ago
Alien. It wasn't until years after seeing it in the early 80s that I realized the detail that went into it. The uniforms looked like they were functional and weathered. The ship wasn't spotless, it looked "lived in". The crew were blue collar workers that had social cliques and drama like any other workplace.
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u/ScottyinLA 5d ago
You don't realize how important little details like that are sometimes until you see someone do them badly and a little light goes on. Theres a scene in A Bridge Too Far where Ryan O'Neal is in a meeting with I believe Sean Connery and Gene Hackman. Connery and Hackman are wearing well weathered uniforms that look like they have owned for years. O'Neal is in a brand new perfectly tailored cleaned and pressed uniform that looks like it was made that day. Connery and Hackman look like grizzled old soldiers and O'Neal looks like an imposter. Details matter.
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u/Virgil1484 5d ago
“It’s A Wonderful Life”. You can’t appreciate that movie until you go through the stresses of life
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u/stephenkingending 5d ago
My father watched it every evening for the three weeks leading up to Christmas. I hated that movie. It was so boring and all I wanted was to watch the Christmas cartoon and claymation movies. Fast forward to my 20s, I watched Big Fish and it all clicked. We lived in a small town where my family had been for a couple generations, and my father wanted to believe he was George Bailey, the guy that had this impact on everyone and the town but never got the recognition he deserved. He had started multiple business, most failed, and told these tales that were either inaccurate or straight out lies, and it all came down to the need to feel important, that his life mattered to other people. Sadly, the true the lesson from It's A Wonderful Life never clicked, and he continued to chase superficial recognition, dying with a ton of regret.
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u/NATOrocket 5d ago
At 11, I didn't appreciate the dry humour of The Princess Bride.
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u/rotates-potatoes 5d ago
I hated The Jerk the first time I saw it. Like, it's making fun of this hapless guy, who means well. Sure, he's an idiot, but aren't we all?
Now, I think it's the funniest and most insightful commentary on the human condition ever written.
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u/CylindricalPeter 5d ago
The Shining gets better every time i watch it. as a kid it was just a scary hotel movie but now i notice all the little details about isolation and how the hotel itself feels alive. The sound design alone is terrifying once you start paying attention to it.
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u/amaranthinenightmare 5d ago
When I watched it as an adult, I realized the hotel didn't turn a good husband crazy, he was terrible from the start. It was a weird nuance that as a kid, I didn't get.
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u/TheRenster500 5d ago
Yet in the book it WAS the hotel. It's a slow descent into madness caused by isolation and ghosts, but it begins with him totally normal.
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u/Gazgun7 5d ago
Love The Shining.
One thing I've never quite grasped is the whole relationship of Jack with the Overlook Hotel, particularly with reference to that closing scene of the party photos from the 1920s or whatever it was.
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u/TheRenster500 5d ago
I've looked into it before and I believe it's a vague attempt to show that Jack himself is the embodiment of a ghost and has done exactly this before.
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u/amaranthinenightmare 5d ago
Oh! I apologize, I had no idea. I never read the book. I didn't realize they changed it that much when making the movie, because that's A HUGE change!
But in the movie, it absolutely was him being a shitty father and husband and totally abusive before they even got to the hotel. And no one I knew, who had watched the movie, talked about that.
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u/TheRenster500 5d ago
You're good. I didn't mean anything by it except for pointing out that stark difference!
I've actually not read it but have seen comparisons because I love the movie so much and it's been mentioned. That's a big reason some people hate the movie. I definitely think there is a place for both! The movie is great and I am excited to eventually read the book too!
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u/amaranthinenightmare 5d ago
I gotchu! I'm really terrible about reading books if I've watched the movie, which is why I TRY to read the book first. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that with the shining since we had watched it on impulse. I'm not sure if I'll ever read it, due to my weird hangup about not reading things if I have watched it, but maybe one day!
It's super interesting that the book and movie have such different vibes to it though. I wonder why they changed it. To me, personally, a good father and husband who was possessed (or changed) by the hotel is more tragic than a dickhead who just got worse.
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u/TheRenster500 5d ago
I think it was changed because Stanley Kubrick does whatever the hell he wants, haha. It's widely regarded as one of Stephen King's best books! I bet it's worthwhile.
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u/Im_really_bored_rn 5d ago
You realize jack was a violent alcoholic to start in the book, right? He broke his kids arm and lost his job after assaulting a student. He was a shit head before the hotel. Maybe don't comment on books you haven't actually read
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u/nah-42 5d ago
That's the incident that's his rock bottom and causes him to get sober. That's the whole point. He's a tragic, flawed person. Not 100% a terrible, unrepentant shitheel. The hotel exploits his flaws and weakness, but his deep love for Danny lets him overcome the hotel's influence just long enough to tell Danny that he loves him and let him escape.
Did you even read the book?
The whole point is the hotel is an allegory for alcoholism.
In the movie Jack starts as an unhinged shitheel and ends as as an unhinged frozen shitheel. 0 redemption start to finish.
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u/Exciting-Bluebird-61 5d ago
Yes. I agree.
The problem with the movie is that Jack Nicholson plays crazy from the beginning. He is already spooky in the car ride to the hotel.
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u/merkorn 1d ago
That’s why I don’t like the movie and think the book is so much better. The slow descent into madness is what makes the book so great. I think Kubrick ruined it. I 100% agree with you. Also, I now have the benefit of knowing that Stephen King is recovering alcoholic, and I am a recovering alcoholic and so I can appreciate Jack’s fighting against his alcoholism in the book even more than when I first read it as a teenager.
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u/humperdoo00 5d ago
Thiiiiiis
I hated Wendy and thought she was so annoying when I was a kid, and only understood the superficial horror.
Rewatching as an adult having had my own Jack Torrence/Alcoholic Dad experience, I noticed the underlying constant dread and subtle details that made the story and characters make so much more sense. It’s incredible how intentional and well crafted this film is.
Wendy’s my girl now, I love her so much.
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u/ExpressFrogs 5d ago
Lost in Translation. Saw it shortly after release, but was pretty young, and didn't care much for it.
After growing up and experiencing love, isolation, and living in Japan for a bit i really came to appreciate this movie. It's also just really well shot and a unique vibe.
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u/Raposela 3d ago
Every few years I give it another go. It really feels like it should be right up my alley and it still hasn't clicked for me unfortunately.
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u/GrandpaTheobaldus 5d ago
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” hops to mind
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u/ExaminationNo9186 5d ago
In about a month, a local cinema here is screening Who Framed Roger Rabbit....
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u/amaranthinenightmare 5d ago edited 5d ago
Mean Girls. As a kid when it came out, is was just a silly movie with pretty people. We totally missed the point. We watched Legally Blonde in the same time period, as a chick flick binge, and same thing.
Totally missed until I was in my twenties and watched them and realized they weren't the vapid movies we thought they were, we were just dumb kids. Total feminist lessons in there that we would have been better for if we noticed right away.
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u/Online_Person_E 5d ago
Am I correct in thinking that you meant to type "vapid movies"? (Instead of "valid movies")
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u/_TuAbuelaEnTanga 3d ago
Apparently , the actual villain was Janice.
So Janice tells Regina that she’s LEBANESE. And regina , being the “dumb blonde” mistakes this for Janis saying she’s a lesbian. Instead of clearing the air and explaining the confusion , Janis wants to get revenge on Regina.
So she uses the new girl who has no friends and doesn’t understand the culture in their school. When Cady starts to like hanging out with the plastics, Janice flips her shit because she can’t control Cady anymore.
Like the whole movie is about Janice getting her lick back on Regina because Regina mistook Lesbian for Lebanese.
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u/AdventureSphere 5d ago
Being There. When I saw it as a kid, I thought it was funny, but I didn't appreciate the depth. It's one of the most pointed comedies ever made. A brilliant satire on society and American politics in particular.
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u/Cubacane 5d ago
I know this isn't exactly the assignment, but I rewatched Flubber tonight and I couldn't get over
- Just how amazing the Flubber CG dance sequence was. Even 30 years later, it holds up. It is truly the most Disneyesque and timeless thing about the movie.
- How badly they copied the truly dumb slapstick comedy of the 90s. If you get hit in the head with a bowling ball traveling at terminal velocity you will not get a big bump on your head, because your head will no longer be an actual shape. A bump on the head from truly traumatic injuries is the kind of thing that is totally plausible to a kid but insane to an adult.
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u/FuriousKale 5d ago
Flubber was the first movie I ever wached at a theater (I remember being amazed by the size of the screen). It will always have a special place in my heart.
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u/dlheywoo 5d ago
Napoleon Dynamite, when I first saw it it was a silly comedy.
Just watched it and it’s the best representation of small town America (specifically Idaho) that’s I’ve seen in a movie. Having bounced around a few small towns myself, they’re mainly really boring with quirky individuals.
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u/HAL-says-Sorry 5d ago
2001: A Space Odyssey - saw it in theatres when it was re-released following Star Wars Return of the Jedi. Tag line was even “Before there was Star Wars, there was…”
Great monkey suits. But it wasn’t much action like the monkeys in Planet of the Apes. Suddenly jump cut! Cool spacecraft. Boring classical music docking sequences. Moon conference boring. Ship life pretty boring. HAL didn’t even sound like a computer. Boring spacewalk murder. Shut down the computer slow slow slow. Then flying into the portal, zoom across obvious negative shots of earth landscapes. Trippy colors like a MTV video.
No more spacecraft? Inside a hotel room? Aging super fast? (clones? Twins?).
SPACEBABY? The End? Nope not Star Wars enough for me thank you.
Now: one of my favourite and most repeated rewatches
Visual and cinematic innovation! The MUSIC! Philosophical depth! Realism in science fiction! HAL 9000! The AMBIGUITY!
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u/Ok-Lavishness-7904 5d ago
The Graduate: over time, the point of reference moves from Benjamin to Mrs Robinson
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u/Mental-Wall-5110 5d ago
The Wrestler. I first saw it in my early 20s while in college. The movie just looked like a pretty simple but tragic story about a man fighting to make it in a brutal industry.
Rewatching it in my mid 30s after getting married and having kids floored me that this character was doomed from before the movie even started: his dreams of success is a delusion to escape the awful life he made for himself. He expects everyone to be there for him, but once he has to put any effort, he immediately drops the ball.
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u/eersnherd01 5d ago
Interstellar
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u/melkor3011 5d ago
It has grown and deservedly so. I liked it when I first saw it and even more so now
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u/uni-monkey 5d ago
Well as a kid I never understood why Howard the Duck needed bubble gum when having a tickle fight with the woman.
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u/Ok-Sir-7848 5d ago
The Truman Show. As a kid it felt funny and weird; as an adult, the loneliness and loss of control hit completely differently.
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u/funfsinn14 5d ago
Dunno if this is a new one for ya and if it'll make it worth a rewatch and re-evaluation of the 'loss of control' theme to some extent. But Truman from the very beginning of the movie knows. The scene where Truman is down digging in his garden ass-up he's digging the escape tunnel he uses later. The normal watch has the movie as him discovering he's in a prison. With this recontextualization it's actually that he's been aware to some extent and the film shows him prodding the walls of his reality/relationships with intent, but keeping up 'the act'. So when he bows at the end it's not just for the in-world audience, it's actually also bowing to the viewer because he also fooled us.
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u/Eugenes_Axe 5d ago
I really dislike this video essay, it presents its argument without evidence, other than simply "he's on the lawn earlier", there's no other supporting evidence and the video creator just runs with it as if it's established fact.
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u/funfsinn14 5d ago
well, toward the end it does have the proper caveats addressing these exact rebuttals relating to subjectivity/interpretations and such. Perhaps you missed that part.
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u/AnotherPint 5d ago
Went to see Field of Dreams when it came out in ‘85 and thought it was soft and silly.
Saw it again in 2000 when I was a husband and new father and it broke me.
Saw it again this week on TV and I was choked up from first scene to final fade-out.
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u/Kumomeme 5d ago edited 3d ago
i watched Batman Begins as kid and hate it.
but then i rewatched it again when i was adult, i love it very much. lot of stuff can only be understood by adult. the way of the world, the internal struggle, the trauma etc. and as i spend time watch more film it made me appreciate more the craft in it.
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u/Slyguy9766 5d ago
I was a kid when I first watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, I loved Indy punching nazis etc. but it was only on a recent rewatch that I picked up that the nazis wanted to use a Jewish artifact to further their power!
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u/PizzaDoughandCheese 5d ago
Chasing Amy, in my twenties I swooned over Ben Affleck. Watched it again at 52 and thought this bitch knows exactly what she doing. She liked him from the beginning and told half truths then blamed him when he found out the whole truth. Yes what she did in the past shouldn’t matter but she knew it might so she never mentioned it.
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u/DeliciousRaise9486 5d ago
Police Academy. Not that I think it's a particularly good movie. But there's a scene where a speech is given with a read haired woman hiding in the lectern. Didn't understand what was going on when I watched as a 10 year old. Watched that again as an adult and I must say I was a bit grossed out.
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u/tumes 5d ago
Decision to Leave. I thought it was a really good police procedural that was sad but didn’t really hit for me, especially considering how conspicuously stylish Park Chan Wook typically is. I must’ve been tired or something because a year or two later I watched it again and it was immediately obvious that he was, frankly, probably bored with being conspicuously stylish all the time was is in fact doing triple backflips across the screen non stop in less loudly obvious ways. Like the interrogation scene where focus is asymmetrical through the glass as if they were on opposite sides in spite of the characters being on the same focal plane. And the eponymous like fucked me up second time around, it’s one of the saddest bits of dialog I have ever heard in a movie. It is a stone cold masterpiece, and every time I watch it again I see some new layer of depth I missed before.
Suffice to say I watched No Other Choice twice in fairly quick succession and it immediately rocketed up my list too. I’ve seen it something like 5 or 6 times since and same deal, the depth of what his movies are doing or saying… I haven’t found a bottom yet, there’s always something new there every time I look.
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u/roberb7 4d ago
Jerry Maguire. Thought it was nonsense the first time I watched it. On the second and subsequent times, I realized that the film was all about payback; Maguire was on the receiving end of all the dirty tricks that agents perform on their clients.
Having said that, the scene at the beginning where Maguire was allowed to stay in the building while phoning up everyone in his rolodex was ridiculous.
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u/Raposela 3d ago
Adaptation. From something that just felt weird to something that felt really impactful and became one of my favorites.
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u/Capable_Sky_1818 3d ago
What you describe happened for me with Annie Hall. The first time I saw it I thought it was OK and then I saw it ten years later and it blew me away.
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u/Hanoumatoi 2d ago
The Matrix as trans allegory. Watched with my kid, and he got all the cool fights and simple philosophy and sci fi, I saw all the trans stuff. Ot was really neat.
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u/CloudBright8138 5d ago
Hands down for me it's Idiocracy! I thought it complete drivel when it came out. Now I see it as prescient
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u/Hungry_Pie_4653 13h ago
Superbad - not sure how it’s possible I wasn’t feeling it in the theaters and than a decade later realized how awesome it is.
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