These are the movies that try men's friendships.

For my brother, it was Torn Curtain. There was a time when he showed this movie to everyone he could get to sit through it, claiming that he learned a lot about people in the process. I'm not sure if it was the crazy oven scene or the frustrating communication issues between the Paul Newman and Julie Andrews characters, but somehow the way his friends reacted to the movie told him everything he wanted to know about them.

While I don't personally have a movie I test people out on like this, there have been a few times when watching a movie with friends changed the way I viewed them. The friends, I mean, not the movies. (Although the reverse has also been true.)

For example, I saw The Fugitive in the theater with a girl who was convinced Harrison Ford's character was guilty. (Did she think the one-armed man was an apparition? I don't know.) Another time I watched The Miracle of Morgan's Creek with some girlfriends, one of whom somehow didn't pick up on the pregnancy until the very end. (I know they kept it subtle back then, but come on! It's a major plot point!)

This is not to say that I have ever ended a friendship with someone based on their reaction to a movie. But I have changed my mind about what type of movies (if any) I will share with them.

What about you? Is there a movie that tested your friendship with someone based on how they viewed it? Is there a movie you use to test people out, perhaps an obscure title you reference when someone claims to be a film buff? Or is there a movie you love to watch with people because it's so open to interpretation that you use it like a Rorschach inkblot test of film?