I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

[alison the wilca]

 

I am growing nostalgic for the time this film was showing in theaters and coming out on DVD. Please, regale me with your stories of how many times you saw it in the theater.

 

I personally saw the film 3 times in 3 different theaters. I pre-ordered the DVD and ,the day it was delivered, I missed the UPS guy and all three of us wilcas trekked to the UPS shipping facility in an industrial park and asked them to get it off the truck so we could get it that night. then there was the time i went and saw Sam Jones' band and he played 'I Got You,' which was so lame that I almost laughed. I wish I could find the list of awesome John quotes from the DVD commentary. I think that those were typed up prior to the '03 board crash Corn clap!

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I just found the bonus DVD the other day in a box of things I haven't gotten around to unpacking yet. I thought I'd sent it back to Netflix months ago

 

I first saw parts of it quite awhile ago, before I was really a Wilco fan. I was at a friend's house. I remember drinking gin and tonics, and there was some problem with the DVD, and we ended up not watching the whole thing. It took me too long to finally get around to seeing the whole thing. It's one of those DVDs I really need to own.

[aricandover]

I also saw three times in the theater. Around the time the DVD was announced, I pre-ordered from amazon. The day of release, my shipment hadn't arrived, and I happened to be at the mall, so I stopped in the Sun Coast Video and bought a copy. Once the amazon order arrived, I sold it to a friend. I thin I watched the extras disc more the main one, and whenever I do watch the main disc, I do so with the commentary on.

 

"Who's Bob?"

 

EDIT:

 

A few years ago, I bought a copy of the movie for my cousin. She seemed to like Being There, when I gave her a copy of it, so I fugured she might dig the movie. Some time after giving her the DVD, I asked her if she watched/liked it. She told me yes, and thanked me very much for giving it to her. This past Christmas, I was at her parents house, and happened to find the DVD, in a basket, next to their TV, still in the wrapper. Realizing I'd been lied to, I "reacquired" it. Now we have an extra copy, still sealed. I'm think about selling it on eBay.

Edited March 1, 2008 by Larry Mendte

[myboyblue]

I also saw three times in the theater. Around the time the DVD was announced, I pre-ordered from amazon. The day of release, my shipment hadn't arrived, and I happened to be at the mall, so I stopped in the Sun Coast Video and bought a copy. Once the amazon order arrived, I sold it to a friend. I thin I watched the extras disc more the main one, and whenever I do watch the main disc, I do so with the commentary on.

 

"Who's Bob?"

I love that scene.

 

I was never able to see it in theatres due to timing. However, I bought the DVD immediately and watched it multiple times with both friends and people I felt should be

 

I haven't watched in a couple of years...need to pull that out again.

[Dreamin']

I saw IATTBYH at the Ridge Theatre in Vancouver several nights in a row. I didn't know any Wilco fans at the time, but I managed to drag my friend Stacy along on one occasion. I remember that someone in the audience was wearing a tiara.

[LouisvilleGreg]

I saw it opening night, first showing at an art house theatre in San Diego in I believe September 2002. I saw it the second time at an indy theatre in Louisville. The third and last time was a month or two later and around the end of the year in 2002 at a suburban megaplex in Richmond. The first time was of course the best, there was a local band that played and did an UT song or two if memory serves me correct. They were waiting on the film to show up for a 5 showing and it arrived late and a couple of dozen of us stuck around the theatre waiting for it to show up. It did in time for the 7 showing. I loaned my DVD out to a friend over a year ago and am dying to get it back, maybe this thread will motivate me to do so. It's a great rock film that I think will stand the test of time.

[Sir Stewart]

I saw it opening night, first showing at an art house theatre in San Diego in I believe September 2002.

 

Holy shit Greg - Beth and I were at that showing. The band Rookie Card played a set in the theater before the show. Remember that? They did "Joe DiMaggio's Doe It Again."

[LouisvilleGreg]

Holy shit Greg - Beth and I were at that showing. The band Rookie Card played a set in the theater before the show. Remember that? They did "Joe DiMaggio's Doe It Again."

 

Wow, that's a pretty crazy coincidence. We should have been chilling six years ago, instead of just a week ago. We'll have to make up for lost time someday soon. I was visiting a good friend who lived in a house boat off of Coronado Island that week and I saw it in the local arts rag and just had to go. I went by myself and would've loved to have met you'll. Damn that's weird beyond weird. Hope to see you both this summer somewhere, greg

[Sir Stewart]

That's some wild stuff, indeed. See you again, for sure.

We were living in OB at the time. One of the producer's family was there that night. I remember a bunch of middle-aged and younger people pointing at a dude's name on the poster outside, and they couldn't believe his name was on a movie poster.

I wonder if kidsmoke was there.

[Preferred B]

Aww. I saw it once at a theater during its three-day run or whatever in town. A friend actually invited me to go; I don't think I knew it was playing. At that point I think I'd seen Wilco in concert once, but that was it. Come to think of it, the movie was screening in the same theater where I'd seen Wilco. It was a very fun theater experience - the audience was very into it.

 

I preordered the DVD from Plexifilm - I remember there was some sort of delay in it coming out? And then I remember a bunch of people's copies didn't play right, including mine. Good times. They replaced them for free, though.

 

I can't tell you how long it's been since I actually watched IATTBYH. It may be time to watch it again. I'll bet it'd be a very different experience now that I'm slightly more familiar with Wilco.

[Mr. Kinsley]

A buddy of mine asked if I wanted to go to the Nuart in West LA with him and his wife to see some movie about some band I'd never heard before. (Heard of, but had never actually heard them.) By the time the beginning titles were rolling over the buildings of Chicago, I new I had a new favorite band.

[TheMaker]

Theatre: 0, since I refuse to drive two hours to see non-live entertainment.

 

DVD: countless.

[Analogman]

I never knew it was shown in theaters. It is the first dvd I ever bought- I actually did even own a dvd player at the time.

[bjorn_skurj]

Once in a theater. Went with my friend Marc. And I saw it again via Netflix. A fine movie.

[noyes]

bought the dvd in mid 2004 at Tower Records on 4th and Lafayette.

i remember it playing at Cinema Village in 2002 but hadn't even gotten into Wilco then.

i also remember thinking how awesome it was that some dude named Sam Jones decided to release a 92 minute "film about Wilco"

bought it on sale for $20 bucks and sat down in Washington Square Park to read the nice, thick booklet.

i thought it was cool that the film's shot-list was printed on the back cover.

i've watched it countless times ever since and wanna watch it again soon.

[winter party person]

I love how the movie ends with "Pure Imagination".

[bigshoulders]

As I recall, it was playing only at the Varsity in Chapel Hill. Mary and I drove out there opening night to see the film. A few weeks later, we just so happened to catch it once again, this time in Raleigh, at Mission Valley (the largest screen, save for the IMAX.) It was a Thursday night, and the last screening before the films changed out on Friday. The next day it was in the can, on the way back to the distributor.

 

Truthfully, it's been a while since I dusted off the DVD and played it. Perhaps this is the perfect weekend to do just that, since I have no Wilco shows to attend. Last week in Chicago, I was replaying that scene in my mind's eye while walking along Lake Michigan on my "day off." I felt a twinge of nostalgia then as well, Alison.

 

Kevin

[SoulardBee]

Haven't been so excited for a Wilco event since the screening of the film. Viva SNL.

[Dr. Steve Brule]

I had seen Wilco 7/31/2002 in Madison and then had to work the next day. This is my recollection:

 

So, we get back Thursday, and I'm instructed to go the Hideout afterwards. ...It was some sort of soiree in honor of the Wilco movie after the Jon Langford and the Sadies (show which I didn't even see). A fabulous 12 piece Wilco cover band (old school Old Town ensemble) took the stage and wowed the crowd (including the real Wilcos) with their renditions. The rousing "California Stars" included the "lovely" vocal stylings of Dave Sadowski. Thankfully, the real Wilcos releaved us by playing a few... I do have to say the version of "Via Chicago" they pulled off was beautiful.

 

(In retrospect: The version of Via Chicago is not that beautiful. I had a lot to drink in a short period of time and was feeling all mushy. Here's an MP3. DivShare File - 18 Via Chicago.mp3)

 

 

I didn't see the actual film until a week later:

 

From my blog, August 7, 2002

 

not like I didn't know how it would end

 

 

Saw the Wilco movie I Am Trying to Break Your Heart with Sooz tonite. The bathroom scene was...uh, intimate? Some of it made me feel a bit uneasy, which is cool I guess. It was fun spotting people I know in the crowd scenes. I was a little dot in Grant Park...maybe you can pause the DVD when it comes out and see me. I'm just waiting for the Wendy's Kids Meal toy tie in though.

[willywoody]

Haven't been so excited for a Wilco event since the screening of the film. Viva SNL.

 

 

guess you missed the acl telecasts?

[Nobody Girl]

I saw it once in the theater. I was just out of college and had gotten my first job, halfway across the country, so a friend and I were driving from Wichita to Philadelphia. We made a detour in Pittsburgh to see the Andy Warhol Museum, and I somehow learned that the movie was playing. I remember my friend grabbing my leg and holding on out of annoyance during the Tweedy/Bennett argument.

 

I was at a pretty obsessive stage in my Wilco fandom then (OK, so I still am ), and I can't remember if it was before or after seeing the movie that my friend imposed a ban on listening to any more Wilco in the car. Of course we ended up compromising on that.

[tugmoose]

Saw the Chicago premiere on Aug. 3, 2002, I think, at the Music Box, a night or two after they had a special showing for the band and friends. They had a big organ playing, like at an old-time theater. It opened with with trailer, and the volume was much too low. Sam Jones was taking questions after the show, but I bolted for the Riv to see Wilco later that night.

 

Saw it a couple more times at the art theater in Cleveland, but the sound was pretty horrible.

 

Pretty sure I pre-ordered the DVD from Amazon, and I remember thinking it was pretty silly for people to go tracking down their UPS guy cause they needed to see it that night.

[Lynch]

One of the first conversations my wife and I ever had when we first met was about going to see this movie in Winnipeg. It would have been our first date, but she ended having to work. I still have the little poster she gave me advertising it in the theater.

[H.Stone]

Never in the theatre--we were in PODUNK at the time--but through Netflix as soon as it came out. We didn't buy our own copy until much later, and now we love the extra disc more than the movie itself. The commentary is priceless.

[Guest Jules]

I watched it once and threw it in the ocean.