Just watched 12 Monkeys (1996), and it’s a little uncomfortable seeing Bruce Willis portray a character struggling mentally, know of his real-life problems with frontotemporal dementia. It’s not the time of year yet, but I’m wondering if my enjoyment of Die Hard will be reduced, since the hearing loss he suffered on that film may have been a contributing factor.
The Crow (1994) - on which Brandon Lee died, and Rust (upcoming) - on which Halyna Hutchins died - aren’t films I’d normally watch anyway, so I don’t know how the deaths would have affected my decision to watch them. Conversely, Kevin Spacey is in a lot of films I like, but it’s a bit queasy seeing his performances, with the suspicion that we all now know why he’s so good at portraying creeps.
So do you just try to enjoy a film as a film, or does real-life events ever stop you re-watching them?
I’ll admit I have different feelings for different reasons. For example when it turns out that the director was a horrible guy (Stanley Kubrik to Michelle Duvall in the Shinning) it does sour it a good chunk, while on other instances I just prefer not to go there (the Jeeper Keepers director being a convicted pedophile).
I think the saddest case of this for me is the Land Before Time, and Ducky, who’s VA was murdered not long after the movie released. Watching that movie and knowing that always left me feeling more sad than when I started.