Another example of how we are so very disconnected from our society and culture.
What we have been doing (actually Dan for the two of us) is collecting DVD's of old movies and TV shows. So the actors' and writers' strikes have had no impact on us.
When we talk about it we realize that we haven't been in a movie theater in too long to remember....certainly way pre-Covid. And we wouldn't go now for the same reason---we don't want to get Covid.
But more important than even that worry is that we don't want to sit in a movie theater with a bunch of rude people. Instead we can sit at home, eat a real meal instead of popcorn, drink whatever we want, and watch a DVD of a fine old film.
In the past two years here are some of the films we have watched:
3:10 to Yuma (the original which was so much better than the stupid remake)
42nd Street
A Christmas Story
A fish Called Wanda
A League of their Own
A Place in the Sun
A Star is Born
An Officer and a Gentleman
Anatomy of a Murder
Arizona
Army of Shadows
As it is in Heaven
Auntie Mame
Away from Her
Ballad of Cable Hogue
Ben Hur
The Best Years of our Lives
Bicycle Thiefs
Bite the Bullet (twice)
Boyhood
Breaker Morant
Brigadoon
Broken Lance
Carousel
Chinatown
The Country Girl
Cowboy
Dances with Wolves
Dave
Deadly Companions
Duck you Sucker
East of Eden
El Cid
Fat City
Five Easy Pieces
For the Love of the Game
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Friendly Persuasion
From Here to Eternity
Giant
Gladiator
Goodbye Mr. Chips
Grease
Heavy
Hell or High Water
Hidalgo
High Noon
His Girl Friday
Hondo
House at the End of Time
How Green was my Valley
How the West was Won
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
I want to Live
In the Electric Mist
Jeremiah Johnson
King Arthur
Laura
Lawrence of Arabia
Lone Survivor
Lonesome Dove
Love Affair
Magnificent Seven (the 1960 original, not the dreadful remake)
Man in the Wilderness
Man of the West
Man who Shot Liberty Valence
Marty
Memphis Belle
Minority Report
Mississippi Burning
Mixed Nuts
Monte Walsh (the original, 1970, with the great Lee Marvin and Jeanne Moreau)
Mortal Storm
Mountains of the Moon
My Cousin Vinny
My Sister Eileen
Nebraska
Night of the Hunter
Nevada Smith
Night Passage
No Country for Old Men
No Name on the Bullet
Nobody's Fool
October Sky
Once Upon a Time in America...original cut..4 hours..the best Gangster film of all time
Once Upon a Time in the West
One-eyed Jacks
Open Range
Paris, Texas
Peggy Sue Got Married
Picnic
Places in the Heart
The Proud Rebel
Quick Change
Red River
Richard Rogers Documentary
Ride Back
Ride the High Country (twice)
Rio Grande
Road to Perdition
Road Warrior
Saturday Night Fever
Shall we Dance?
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Singin' in the Rain
Somebody up there Likes Me
South Pacific
Stars in my Crown (twice_
Stoney Burke TV Series from 1960
Sunshine
Tender Mercies
The 39 Steps
The African Queen
The Ascent
The Band Wagon
The Big Country
The Big EAsy
The Big Red One
The Bravados
The Cider House Rules
The Grapes of Wrath
The Horse Soldiers
The King and I
The Last Wagon
The Man who would be King
The Manchurian Candidate
Easy Rider
The Naked Spur
The Outlaw Josie Wales
The Parent Trap (original)
The Professionals
The Reivers
The Search
The Shootist
The Sound of Music
The Star Wagon
The Station Agent
The Tall T
Decision at Sundown
The Unforgiven (not the Clint Eastwood western, Unforgiven, which we don't think is all that good)
The Village
The Westerner (short-lived TV series)
The Wild Bunch
The Women
To be or not to be
True Grit (2010) ....twice (Jeff Bridges a better Rooster than John Wayne? Yes, it's true)
Tuskegee Airmen (twice)
Two Rode Together
Unconquered
Urban Cowboy
Vertigo
We were Soldiers
Whispering Smith
Wild River
Winter's Bone
Witness for the Prosecution
Wonderful Town
Words and Music
The Lighthouse
Schitt's Creek (watching now..TV series)
We have also watched 3 of the 4 seasons of a western series from the late 1960: The High Chaparral. We really really like it, so wanted to save the final season for next summer.
There are only two or three that we'd not recommend (No Country for Old Men, The Lighthouse, Urban Cowboy)
The average year these films came out would probably be around 1970. Most of them we will watch again in a couple of years, they are so good. And if we live long enough, watch again. But we have an entire collection of oldies that we haven't seen yet.
The average cost of the DVDs is about $4.50....about 1/4 of the cost for both of us to go to a theater. And the big majority of the films we have seen have been really really good. The three I mentioned above we'll probably never see again. But that's it.
Right now we are watching the TV series Schitts Creek. The whole series only cost us $20. And we DEFINITELY will watch it again in a few years. We watch four per evening, which means we are spending $1/evening for entertainment....and that's just the first time we watch it. The next time is free! ?
We are actually a little afraid that DVDs will no longer be made, since the current fad is streaming. Won't bother us a bit.
I'll still be drinking my red wine watching old Academy Award winners with my love of my life, Vicky.
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