Anyone Else Fast-Forward Through Movies?

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I feel kind of dumb, but does anyone fast-forward through scenes or whole movies?

I don't know why I do it and it's been getting worse lately... I use to read screenplays and write my own, so I was quite obsessed with watching every significant film ever made. I could sit in front of a film and amuse at every nuance without blinking an eye. Recently, a new interest has stole my attention and has put my screenwriting years on the shelf like they never happened. Since the change, I haven't quit my subscription to Netflix and still try to see everything that means anything. I don't know why I keep getting these movies, but I can't sit down and stomach two hours of acting anymore.

What happens is I put the film on, no matter how much I loathe the thought of it. I force myself to watch the first twenty minutes (looking for the hook) and I can't get into it, but I can't shut it off either. Consequently, I usually end up putting the subtitles on and fast forwarding the film at double speed so that I can watch it in its entirety, but in half the time. I just don't care about letting the film stir my emotions, but I feel like I have to know how the movie plays out.. I started out fast-forwarding though scenes without dialog, now it is most of the presentation.

Does anyone else relate or have similar behavior?

Latest films watched: Avatar, The Crazies, Lupin The 3rd, The Killing Fields, The Cove, Shutter Island, The Road, The Lovely Bones. I also just watched Snow Cake and Ben X and restricted myself with those.

I usually try to watch the entire movie, or I'll just stop watching it if it's not interesting to me.

Thats the reason I download films to my notebook so I can get through the boring bits. I watch dvds when I want to see the entire movie from start to finish. I also have ADHD.

Oh, yes, definitely do that.

I always skip all the boring parts and there's plenty of those.

I've never done that but it sounds like a good idea. It would certainly make the Andri Tarkovsky films a bit easier to take.

I too am a recovering film maker / screenwriter. I still keep at it, but on a much smaller scale. Anyway, as I have gotten older, it has gotten harder for me to sit though an entire film and keep my attention on it. More and more, I have to take breaks. Sometimes I have a great deal of trouble with certain kinds of conflict scenes.

Maybe part of it is so many stories follow the same predictable plot lines that they just don't seem new and exciting any more. Either that or I'm watching too many Tarkovsky films.

Lars

If there is chance that I'll be seeing some lovely ladies in the nude, yes.

The only scene I can think of that I fast forward through is the horrible sex scene in The Matrix Reloaded. It's just a horrible scene. Other than that, I watch the entire movie. If it's a bad movie, I don't watch any of it.

Nope, but there are very few movies I can just sit down and watch, I usually have to have my iPad with me to entertain me during the more boring parts when I'm watching at home. In theaters I just flat out refuse to see a movie unless it gets stellar reviews.

this thread reminds me of ted turner's pithy observation that "life is sorta like a b-grade movie, in that while you wouldn't want to leave before it was over, neither would you wish to see it again." it could be that the fast-forwarders are super-experienced movie watchers, and they have "been there and done that" so often that they are bored with the tedium of sameness, and for want of of novelty they vote on the originality of a given movie with their fast-forward button. just a thought.
i fast-forward through the unpleasant parts, parts that feature brutality or cruelty of any kind. there is too much brutality and cruelty in the outer world of reality for me to countenance wallowing in even more of it, in the inner world of cinema. i watch entertainments for escapism and not a hyper-immersion in quasi-reality. i had to fast-forward through the entire last movie clint eastwood did. i had to fast-forward through "faces of death" when they got to the scene where the live monkey was getting its brains bashed out by those demented foodies. i had to fast-forward through "gone with the wind" due to its, well, windiness and its interminable southern belle crap. if this makes me a philistine, then i embrace it with relish.

I fast forward on A Baloo Switcheroo from the part where Baloo tells the coach that the only thing he jumps to are conclusions until Kit crashes the Sea Duck.

Every time I watch Charlie/Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I always skip through till I find the part where Wonka greets the kids and invites them into the factory, and I watch it from there. That's because I only care about Willy Wonka. I couldn't care less about the kids finding their Golden Tickets.

Thanks for the replies, I have much better insight now and I don't feel so dumb

Well, I analyzed my quirks and boiled down the possibilities for reason. I'm not a psych, but these are my thoughts:
1. I have OCD tendencies, so maybe I can't stop watching the movie and forget about it because of this irregular compulsion?
2. Even though screenwriting is now foreign to me and has been overshadowed by a new interest, maybe there is a subliminal attachment that is still actively obsessive?
3. Now that I don't look at films through the eyes of a screenwriter, I can't be entertained because of the dissimilar course of actions, conversations, on-screen emotional development, etc. to how I act, converse, and feel.
4. I can't dedicate attention like I should because, away from interest in the screenwriting aspect, my ADD tendencies take over and I am quickly/easily bored with the flow of the film.

Like I said, these are just thoughts. Self-discovery is important to me since I am doomed to a region where psych's/neurologists are ignorant to treating ASD's (that sound mean?) Sorry if this annoys anyone.

Last edited by idunnosmile on 08 Jul 2010, 9:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I'm no shrink, but from what you described, your need to sit and watch movies even though it's not fun anymore sounds like a bit of OCD.

Thanks IdahoRose

You're welcome! You see, one of the symptoms of OCD is feeling the need to participate in certain activities even though you really don't want to. But if you refuse to do the activity, you experience anxiety and panic attacks. I used to suffer from OCD, so I know how it feels. Although my OCD never involved movies - it was always about germophobia and handwashing.