I just watched Chinatown for the first time since it came out in 1974. I don’t think I really comprehended or maybe even cared about the water wars in California when I saw it the first time. I found it fascinating now that I am more well informed about the history of water in Los Angeles and we have been facing an acute water shortage for the past decade.
Ordinary People
Out of Africa
To Kill a Mockingbird
I’d have to add that the combo of reading the book and watching the movie again helped me understand them better.
Dead Poets Society. I could easily turn into Mr. Perry if I’m not careful.
Last Tango In Paris: I saw it when it was first released, armed with Pauline Kael’s fawning review and the fact that The Conformist was (and remains) one of my absolute favorite movies. (For those of you not familiar with it, it is an earlier movie by the same director, and features a dynamite tango scene at a Parisian nightclub involving a fascist assassin, his naive new bride, his decidedly un-naive ex-girlfriend, and her idealist husband, the assassin’s target.) I hated it. I thought there was one good shot in the movie. But I was 16 at the time.
About 17 years later, in my early-mid 30s, I decided to watch it again. It couldn’t possibly be as bad as I remembered it. But it was. It was every bit as bad as I remembered it. It was unwatchable. Except for one really great shot . . .
The first non-kid movies I saw were all early-mid 1960s epics: Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge Over The River Kwai, The Sand Pebbles. Those types of movies really got pushed aside by the moviemaking manifestations of the late-60s social upheavals – Easy Rider, MASH, etc. Going back and watching them as an adult, I am stunned by how nuanced and thoughtful they are – much more so that the simplistic stuff that followed.
I was in my 30s or 40s when I saw Last Tango. That’s two hours I’ll never get back. What was the really great shot?
Some movies I saw when I was a child and have recently rewatched: “Doctor Zhivago,” “Walkabout,” “Day of the Jackal.”
I was too young to appreciate Fiddler on the Roof when I saw it as a teenager. I enjoyed it much more from a parent’s perspective.
@JHS, I just put The Conformist on my Netflix queue. Oh, and I will NOT be rewatching Last Tango
Dirty Dancing. No, really. I liked it when it came out while I was in high school, but I saw it again a few years ago, and I caught a lot more than I had the first time. It really covered a lot of mature themes for a mid-80s dance movie, e.g., the botched abortion, the class difference between the guests and the staff, the relationship between Baby and her father. The dancing is still great, of course.
@Barbalot Thanks for asking, I remember watching Fried Green Tomatoes as a twenty something and thought the movie was great. Now as a woman 25 years older, I related to the Kathy Bates middle aged struggles completely. The relationship between Mary Stuart Matterson and Mary-Louise Parker characters was more pronounced with love. The racism and white supremacy in our country was depicted clearly in the movie and I just don’t think that I was as aware the first time I saw this film.
Good Will Hunting. Hated it the first time, understood it years later.
Gone with the Wind was far more touching after I’d lived in the south.
I think I’ll have to watch Dead Poets Society again…it’s on Netflix. I only saw it the first time and thought it was ok, but not great.
I watched it with my 14-year-old daughter last week. She’s always complaining about how her teachers (particularly English teachers) don’t challenge her enough. “Let’s watch a movie about a good English teacher”, I said. Already knowing Neil Perry’s fate lessened the emotional impact for me but that last scene, when Keating is leaving the classroom for the last time, always gets me and never gets old.
“Parenthood” has me laughing out loud this morning! It’s much funnier after you’ve raised kids and better than watching the news 
I have always loved Animal House, but after going through the college process with my daughter, it was much funnier the last time I watched it.
The last scene? When he was dying, he takes out a chewing gum from his mouth and sticks it under a railing. It left a lasting impression on me. I still think about it. At the most momentous occasion, he executes the most mundane, habitual act. I think that’s life. Life is not of big occasions, it is more of habit. I don’t remember anything else from the movie. Not saying it was bad. Just don’t remember.
I also saw Dead poets society in play they produced in NY last year. The play didn’t come even close. The main role was cast so wrong. He sounded more like a sports coach than an english teacher.
Funny, we watched Dead Poet’s Society last week, too. Just surfing and decided, what the heck? After having a kid complete four years of boarding school, we watched it a bit differently. Have to say, though, that watching a young Robin Williams talk about seizing the day in a movie with a suicide was sad.
“Little Miss Sunshine.” Once you have teenage kids you can really appreciate the brilliance of Paul Dano’s performance as Dwayne.
Pauline Kael had very definite tastes, many of which I did not share. Her glorification of Peckinpah’s violence porn, for example. I remember her going on about how much better an actress Deborah Winger was than Meryl Streep. I mean, I liked Winger, but really.
I saw Last Tango when it came out. The amount of (female only, of course) nudity and graphic sex in it was beyond what one would see in a serious movie at the time. I distinctly recall an interviewer asking Bertolucci why he didn’t show Brando as naked as Maria Schneider, and he said that they tried it but it made HIM feel too vulnerable!!! :@)
What a sexist, exploitative ass.
Mary Poppins. I enjoyed it a lot when I was younger, but loved it so much more after seeing “Saving Mr. Banks”
Beauty and the Beast. I re-watched the original animated version again just after we saw the live action re-make. The new version is good, but pales in comparison to the other.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Thought it was cute and, even I daresay, magical, and had the best Dumbledore. Even though the child actors are just that, child actors, I enjoy watching this more every time it comes on.
My husband would say the Shawshank Redemption and Jaws are his two movies that get better the more they are watched.