On Movies & Movie Watching: TBW Lists are Aspirational Documents, Not Ironclad Contracts…..

A few days ago – on April 8, to be exact – I posted a “To Be Watched” (TBW) list of movies that I aspired to watch over the April 8-10 weekend. To wit:

1. Chernobyl (2019)
2. A Walk in the Sun (1945)
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
4. Casablanca (1942)
5. The African Queen (1951)
6. Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Though this list is heavy on drama and light on comedy titles – most of these movies are serious, although Casablanca features many comedic exchanges and witty one-liners, Catch Me If You Can is perhaps the lightest fare since it’s billed as a comedy-drama – that’s what I anticipated watching last weekend.

Unfortunately, that was also the weekend when my previous computer, a Lenovo C560 that I bought in Miami back in 2014 at a time when my mother was still alive, stopped working and I had to buy the computer I’m using now. Consequently, of those six movies, I watched exactly – none.  

The one I came close to watching was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I had recently acquired the 40^th Anniversary 4K UHD Blu-ray set from 2017; it cost $9.99 when I ordered it on March 19, and since the disc contains all three versions of Steven Spielberg’s UFO classic (the 1977 theatrical release, the 1980 Special Edition re-release, and the 1998 Director’s Cut) and the code for the digital copy, I could not resist. (I mean, seriously. $10.74 – when you factor in Florida sales tax – is a bargain price for a good Spielberg film.)

However, since I was not thrilled at having to buy a new computer so soon, the most I did with Close Encounters was what I usually do when I open a new Blu-ray (aside, of course, from redeeming the digital copy code): I watched the bonus features on the 2K Blu-ray, which included a new Laurent Bouzerau behind-the-scenes documentary for the film’s 40^th anniversary, as well as the bonus features ported over from the 2007 30^th Anniversary Ultimate Edition set.

Other than that, though, I did not watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind or any of the other five films on the TBW list.   

Will I watch any of these movies any time soon?

Maybe. As with all my leisure activities, my choices depend on my mood, so even if today I wrote another TBW list, one with more than one comedy title in it, say, I can’t guarantee that I will watch any of those movies. My TBW (and, for books, TBR) lists are often aspirational documents and are thus not “set in stone.”