In preparing my lists for this year’s “To Be Read” Challenge, I got to thinking about how many DVDs/Blu-rays I own that I haven’t watched, which got me to thinking about how many of them are movies I’ve actually never seen, in a theatre or on television, but which I bought because I thought I’d want to see them, and then never got around to watching them. Which then got me to thinking about movies I’ve wanted to see but also have never bought in physical or digital format…
My mind does wonderful things when I’m procrastinating, doesn’t it?
So I put the idea out on Facebook and Twitter about a 2022 “To Be Watched” Challenge: twelve movies you’ve always intended to see but have never gotten around to it, plus two alternate titles in case one or two of your main choices turn out to be “unwatchable”. The only catch: the movies must be at least one full year old, meaning nothing originally released in 2021 or 2022. There are no restrictions on genre or length or what form you’re going to watch it in (DVD, streaming, etc.), and no judgements on what you choose.
Feel free to post your list as a comment on this site or post it on your own blog and share a link in the comments. I would like to offer some kind of raffle-prize for those who finish the challenge, the way Adam does on his RoofbeamReader “To Be Read” Challenge, but I’m not sure quite how to make that work just yet.
I’d love other people to participate, but this is all for fun, and to motivate myself into finally seeing some of the movies on my “I should watch that eventually” list.
This list could easily be two or three times as long, but here are my twelve, with their original release dates in parentheses:
1. My Boy Jack (2007)
2. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
3. Alice Adams (1935)
4. Macbeth (Orson Welles version) (1948)
5. The Producers (Nathan Lane/Matthew Broderick version) (2005)
6. The Last Picture Show (1971)
7. In Cold Blood (1967)
8. Mr. Holmes (2015)
9. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
10. Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
11. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Lon Chaney Sr. version) (1923)
12. Logan (2017)
And my “alternates:”
A. Twelve Angry Men (1957)
B. Seven Samurai (1954)
I’ll come back to this post as I watch each film and change that movie’s text to italics, followed by the date I watched the movie.