What’s Your Comfort Movie?
It was 1985 and my family stepped into a new era. It was a year of firsts – our first microwave oven and our first VCR player. And both were enormous by today’s standards, but back then we stood in awe of these modern inventions and the convenience they would bring.
Do you remember these?
The VCR particularly interested me as a kid since it changed the face of home entertainment forever. No longer were we captive to the network’s schedules to catch our favourite television shows or Christmas specials. No, we could program the VCR and watch these programs at OUR convenience. Finally, we could sing along with the Sound of Music anytime, not just at Christmas. Then came along the video stores and our heads spun with the options that lay before us, row upon row!
Fast-forward many years later to Y2K and I just gave birth to my firstborn. My own little family had both a VCR and DVD player. The big, bulky VHS tapes were starting to be discounted to make way for the slick DVDs, so we ended up with a small collection of children’s videos for cheap. My sons had their favourites over the years and we actually wore the tape out on a few Thomas the Tank Engine videos.
Now, we haven’t gotten fancy and upgraded to TiVo or anything like that since we aren’t hooked into any one program. But I do have my favourite “comfort movies” that I like to watch, and re-watch. I’ll stick one of these in when I have a mountain load of laundry to fold or iron, or I’m sick and my eyes refuse to focus on a book. Another time might be on a cold, icy winter day when I opt to run indoors on a treadmill while being pleasantly distracted by Mr. Darcy.
My top comfort movies are: Pride and Prejudice (BBC Version), Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Sense and Sensibility, Australia, Becoming Jane, Sound of Music, Anne of Green Gables, The Princess Bride, and Sleepless in Seattle. I will add Les Misérables to the list when that’s out on video. (You see I like sappy…I guess the LOTR trilogy doesn’t quite fit the pattern…)
- Cherie
Pride and Prejudice (BBC version) is my all time go-to, but I also love Sleepless in Seattle, and While You Were Sleeping. But I also have some favorite westerns…Conagher, McClintock, The Last Cowboy. Can you see a genre in this?
While You Were Sleeping is another good one. I don’t have that one on DVD, but that would be a nice addition to my collection.
I remember before we got a VCR going to the video store and renting the player and the movies. I still don’t watch movies very much at all, but I did figure out how to record on my VCR so I could record Horatio Hornblower movies off the TV.
Recording shows saved us a lot of disappointment as kids. I believe it was the Cosby Show that used to air on Sunday nights while we were at evening service. We so happy we could record it and watch it as a family later.
Who can not love Sleepless in Seattle???? I even have the sound track of that movie that I can stick in and listen to any time I want! Hubby and I both love old Doris Day movies…his favorite probably being The Ballad of Josie. I love musicals of all kinds–from Sound of Music to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. My taste in movies is about as varied as my taste in books. But I do not like things like Lord of the Rings, and all such kind! Don’t much care for animate movies either. I know, I know……:)
Our grandkids have ‘favorites’ they watch every time they are altogether at our house. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is one of them….. Our old VCR is getting so wavy and wobbly from watching it so many times I need to find it on DVD. I’m sure Amazon has it.
My dad used to record old movies that would air at 2 o’clock in the morning. Some of the great classics that I remember starred Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.
Twister is one of my comfort movies for some strange reason. Oh, and Back to the Future. I’m a big Michael J Fox fan. Serendipity starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack is another… These sorts of questions are always fun to answer.
We like Michael J. Fox…a good Canadian boy
It’s been years since I saw Serendipity. That would fit with the Sleepless in Seattle and While You Were Sleeping type of movie. Another good one!
Cherie, my husband and I watched a Danny Kaye movie on TV Sunday afternoon called The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. He was always a favorite of ours too.