What are the movies that had the biggest personal impact on you?

[Edmilson 8,521]

You know when sometimes a movie seems tailor-made to affect you personally? A movie that plays into your deepest fears, desires or needs, and leave you profoundly shaken after the experience?

 

TV episodes can also apply.

 

For me, these movies were:

 

Loving

The story about a white man and a black woman that fell in love in the America of the 1950s/60s, but then are persecuted due to the racism of the time. What made the movie so powerful is that the Loving couple were portrayed as decent, humble people who just wanted to leave their lifes in peace with whoever made them happy - but society insisted on chasing them and making them miserable just because.

 

Take Shelter and The Conversation

I'm also haunted by movies involving paranoia, and [SPOILERS] by the end of Take Shelter (also from Loving's director Jeff Nichols) the main protagonist's paranoia is revealed to be truth, while on The Conversation the main character will never know. Two depressing, haunting endings. 

 

Still Alice

A successful professor and academic finds out on her 50th birthday that she has Alzheimer. The portrayal of this disease made the movie more horrifying to me than pratically almost every horror movie I've watched.

 

A Beautiful Mind

Another portrayal of mental illness that is extremely sad, utterly terrifying, leaving you afraid that something like that can happen to you, all of that helped by James Horner's powerful score.

 

On the plus side...

 

The Fellowship of the Ring

I was 8 or 9 when I first watched on my dad's DVD, alongside my granpa. For three hours I was teleported to a magical world filled with great characters, terrible dangers, brave warriors and a growing darkness. Sure, it's a PG-13 movie, but Jackson still made so that a child could understand it. 

 

Also, back then I didn't know that was based on a trilogy of books (don't criticize me, I was just a kid, and we didn't had internet back then), and the concept of a movie ending with a cliffhanger was completly knew. I thought that, after the death of Boromir, there were still going to be the climax of the movie, on which Frodo and Sam would throw the ring into Mount Doom while Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli would battle the Uruk Hai and Saruman to save Pippin and Merry. So, when the screen faded to black and appeared "Directed by Peter Jackson" I was like 

 

Still, I loved the experience, and tried to recreate the movie with my toys. 

 

And what about you guys, what movies/episodes made the bigger personal impact on you, for good or bad?

[Thor 8,103]

I find it hard to separate between this and 'what are your favourite movies', since one's favourite movies are usually also films that had a 'big personal impact' on you.

[John Dutton 7,209]

[Chen G. 4,406]

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

 

I enjoyed the earlier two parts when they came out, but mostly as fantasy-action films. Fantasy films with pathos, to be sure, but the draw for my teenage mind was mostly for the florid, medieval fantasy-action setpieces. Only in The Return of the King did I truly understand the power of drama in film; the ability of the medium to, more than anything else and beyond any other medium, convey emotion, particularly poignancy. I could feel it at the very core of my being, which was immensly confusing to my barely-adult mind at the time!

 

This was obviously done through visuals (the cut to a wide when Sam is holding Frodo on the slopes of Mount Doom is still the best wideshot ever in a film) but also through theme: the film is above anything an exploration of the theme of friendship. It juxtaposes the calamitous, tragic friendship of Smeagol and Deagol with that of Frodo and Sam. Its no accident we cut from the renunion of Merry and Pippin on the battlefield to the reunion of Frodo and Sam in Cirith Ungol, or from the culmination of Legolas and Gimli's friendship to the climax of Frodo and Sam's. Its beautiful.

 

[bollemanneke 3,529]

HP4.

[Edmilson 8,521]

49 minutes ago, Thor said:

I find it hard to separate between this and 'what are your favourite movies', since one's favourite movies are usually also films that had a 'big personal impact' on you.

 

That depends, the impact can be negative. For example, on my first post, Still Alice is not one of my favorite movies (although I think it's a good drama movie with a great performance by Julianne Moore), but still had left a huge mark on me due to its themes about a sane person with an academic mind losing it through a silent, deadly disease.

[rough cut 1,739]

[Bespin 8,653]

The Exorcist.

 

I felt like they was making a movie about my own life.

[mrbellamy 6,634]

Wizard of Oz and Snow White were my first favorite movies. There's home movie footage of me trying to recite all the dialogue and act them out and things at 2 or 3 yrs old. I feel like I've been interested in movies as long as I've been able to be interested in anything.

 

The Back to the Future movies, especially the hoverboard chase from Part II, really sparked my interest in filmmaking and just wanting to be a creative person. I was the right age to see Harry Potter and LOTR in theaters too. Whoaaaaaa how'd they do that. 

 

Watching the Up! series of docs and a particular summer binging silent/experimental short films on YouTube was very eye-opening for me and had some effect on my cultural, aesthetic, historical worldview. It kept occurring to me that I wished movies had been invented hundreds of years earlier and grateful we have them at all.

 

And some that have just kinda fucked me up for the night have included Man Bites Dog, In the Bedroom, and the endings to The Deer Hunter, Fat Girl, Toy Story 3, and All That Jazz. Not all of those are favorites unlike Thor suggests. I also have a vivid memory of pulling an especially brutal all-nighter in college watching The Passion of Joan of Arc on Netflix streaming, at probably like 4 am, alone in one of the student lounges, and just feeling like life was sad and hopeless  very cliche.

[TheUlyssesian 2,538]

 

I would say in combination with perhaps Cache, this movie transformed my world view. I literally felt that I was thinking in a way I hadn't thought before seeing this film. I will never forget the experience of seeing it for the first time. It was in a giant cinema and I emerged absolutely stunned, as if I had been bludgeoned. 

 

This movie represents everything I love about cinema, about storytelling, my approach towards narrative (as a budding screenwriter) and my aesthetic and formal preferences. More importantly it changed my worldview, how I view what is the appropriate course of action to take in life. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,806]

Bad Santa

[A24 4,513]

9 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

That depends, the impact can be negative. For example, on my first post, Still Alice is not one of my favorite movies (although I think it's a good drama movie with a great performance by Julianne Moore), but still had left a huge mark on me due to its themes about a sane person with an academic mind losing it through a silent, deadly disease.

 

Maybe it's precisely because it left a huge mark on you that you don't want to see it as a 'favorite'. I can imagine that many people prefer to associate the word 'favorite' with 'positive feelings' or 'good times'.

 

Positive or negative, happy or sad, uplifting or depressive, art should move you. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,806]

Indy IV, if we're talking negative impact.

[Thor 8,103]

1 hour ago, Alexcremers said:

 

Maybe it's precisely because it left a huge mark on you that you don't want to see it as a 'favorite'. I can imagine that many people prefer to associate the word 'favorite' with 'positive feelings' or 'good times'.

 

Positive or negative, happy or sad, uplifting or depressive, art should move you. 

 

Absolutely. I don't think that my favourite movies are necessarily movies that imbue me with 'positive feelings'. I mean, ALIEN is one of my alltime favourite films, and it has partly to do with the visceral, negative tension it creates.

 

So for me, I can't really separate between what Edmilson is asking for and what is -- more generally -- my favourite movies, a very common topic. But sure, I can list off some of my favourite movies, that's no problem.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Mirror, The Sacrifice, The Saragossa Manuscript, Barry Lyndon, The Big Lebowski

[Thor 8,103]

Some of my favourites movies off the top of my head: JURASSIC PARK, ALIEN, ALIENS, PATHER PANCHALI, THE ABYSS, PROFESSIONE: REPORTER, GET CARTER, A.I., EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, BLADE RUNNER.....I just have to stop. Would perhaps be more fruitful to separate between Hollywood movies and non-Hollywood movies.

 

For TV series, it's easier. No TV series (or, in fact, any cultural product) has made more of an impact on me than TWIN PEAKS. It not only paved the way for my film music interest, it also spurred me to write a whole novel when I was just a wee teenager (handwritten, mind you!).

[Jurassic Shark 12,806]

16 minutes ago, Thor said:

it also spurred me to write a whole novel

 

If only it was about JW!

[Thor 8,103]

2 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

If only it was about JW!

 

He, he. Well, that would be a non-fiction book, if so (although, at the moment, my brain has filled in some gaps in his early years with 'semi-fictional' elements -- extrapolated from facts -- just to have everything come together).

[Jurassic Shark 12,806]

4 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

He, he. Well, that would be a non-fiction book, if so (although, at the moment, my brain has filled in some gaps in his early years with 'semi-fictional' elements -- extrapolated from facts -- just to have everything come together).

 

Hehe, we could write a fiction book on JW, where we right all the wrongs. Like let him not score Stepmom!

[Naïve Old Fart 10,231]

@Thor, I'm glad that you like THE ABYSS, so much. It had a profound effect on me, when I first saw it, and I love it, to this day.

Which version do you prefer?

 

[Thor 8,103]

2 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

@Thor, I'm glad that you like THE ABYSS, so much. It had a profound effect on me, when I first saw it, and I love it, to this day.

Which version do you prefer?

 

The extended version, without question. Gives much needed context surrounding the city's rise to the surface at the end; that it's about more than just giving him a "ride".

[Jurassic Shark 12,806]

That's good, because the ending doesn't make entirely sense in the theatrical cut, as I remember it.

[Thor 8,103]

No, it doesn't.

[Naïve Old Fart 10,231]

I guess that, in the T.V., the city had to rise, as there was no way that Bud could have made it back to the surface (or Deep Core, for that matter), without air, and it had to rescue the crew of Deep Core, anyway.

In the E.V., of course, the city rising is making a direct point: "Fuck with us, and we will destroy you".

You pays yer money, and you takes yer choice.

Although I prefer the E.V., I'm happy to watch either version. I find that they are, essentially, two different films.

[Thor 8,103]

If there's a filmic universe I'm in love in, I want to stay there for as long as I can. Which is why I prefer the extended version of ALIENS too, or the LOTR movies. But in the case of ALIEN, I prefer the original cut, so that's a counter-example.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,362]

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Great Muppet Caper

Allegro Non Troppo

Hellbound: Hellraiser II

Frankenhooker

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Jaws

Dumbo

The Unborn 2

Poltergeist

[KK 3,308]

The Return of the King

Pan's Labyrinth

Schindler's List

Magnolia

Before Sunset

In the Bedroom

The Thin Red Line

Mirror

 

Some of these would make to my all-time favourites, some not. But each of these films came to me at different times in my life and informed a lot of my worldview and perception of the power of film and art.

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 10,231]

4 hours ago, Kasey Kockroach said:

Allegro Non Troppo

That's a damn good one. It's always been known as "the Italian FANTASIA". I like it.

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, KK said:

Magnolia

In the Bedroom

Mirror

More good stuff.

The final hour of MAGNOLIA, when all the disparate stories converge, is, probably, the most concentrated, and emotional time, I've had, at the cinema. It left me drained.

[KK 3,308]

8 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

The final hour of MAGNOLIA, when all the disparate stories converge, is, probably, the most concentrated, and emotional time, I've had, at the cinema. It left me drained.

 

It was probably the first time I realized the power of film beyond the "fantastical" and "escapsim". The very idea that film is capable of making human stories transcendent.

[Koray Savas 2,254]

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

The Thin Red Line

Interstellar

12 Years A Slave

Road To Perdition
In Bruges

LOST

The Leftovers

Maniac

The Office (UK)

Scrubs

 

Just off the top of my head. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,806]

Lost? I guess we're talking bad impression here.

[_deleted_ 203]

I have a love/hate relationship with media. Media can be transformative, but also dangerous, esp. to children. I am always looking for new ways to think so here's my journey. 

BAD

High School Musical 1-3 and Asian tv shows

 

GOOD

Interstellar (2014)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Marriage Story (2019)

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

- Taika Waititi is not the first person to laugh at Hitler or to make a movie about him. But this story is important. We're on the verge of a new phase of isolationist BULLSHIT and we need stories like JJR to reminds us we're here to love, to open doors and to explore the universe, not to join Hitler's Losers' Club of Mistfits and Genocidal Psychopaths. This is happy-sad cinema done right!

 

GREAT

Arrival (2016)

- "Non-zero sum game."

 

FAVORITE TV CHARACTER: Data (Star Trek)

FAVORITE FILM CHARACTER: - 

 

 

 

[Brundlefly 2,392]

3 hours ago, A Ghost From Highwood said:

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

A bullshit film that is. It is important to remind you that this belongs to the BAD category.

[Jurassic Shark 12,806]

He clearly thinks otherwise. Did the film offend you?

[Nick1Ø66 5,593]

Worthy thread!

 

There are many movies that are near to my heart, and many that I love, but came later in life so their impact on me wasn't as great as it could have been. As @Thor pointed out, there is a distinction between being impactful and being a mere favourite. So while these films are among my favourites, this not a comphrensive list of my favourites. Nor are all these films works of cinematic genius. These movies just came to me at the right time and in one way or another impacted me, some profoundly so, and at least one completely altered the course of my life.

 

In order of release:

 

Casablanca

Star Wars

Educating Rita

Dead Poets Society

Shadowlands

Groundhog Day

Seven Years in Tibet

 

It's painful for me to leave The Fellowship of the Ring off this list, but it came to me when I was older, and the impact Tolkien had on my life happened when I read the books. Similarly, I think The Empire Stikes Back is a better film than Star Wars, but you can only see the first Star Wars for the first time once. 

[Sunshine Reger 3,572]

.

 

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

In release order:

 

Paths of Glory (1957)

Star Wars (1977)

Schindler's List (1993)

The Tree of Life (2011)

Silence (2016)

At Eternity's Gate (2018)

 

Off the top of my head, these six have had the biggest impact on me. Slight overlap with my favourite films, naturally (and directors too!). Star Wars was the inspiring film of my tender years, while the other five I've seen at different points since. Each of these stirred me deeply, and all of them had me pondering for a good long while afterwards. That's where my personal connection mainly lies. 

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

I think The Departed is only going to appreciate in value. It often feels in the shadow of Goodfellas, but honestly, it was an even more superior culmination when it came to screenplay.

 

Too often I hear the word cliché that the word itself is a cliché.

[Romão 2,311]

 

Still moves me deeply, I still quite can't put my finger on it. Maybe I just watched it at the precise right time, but I always respond intensely to it whenever I watch it

[Unlucky Bastard 8,483]

[gkgyver 1,647]

On 4/5/2020 at 11:45 PM, Chen G. said:

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

 

I enjoyed the earlier two parts when they came out, but mostly as fantasy-action films. Fantasy films with pathos, to be sure, but the draw for my teenage mind was mostly for the florid, medieval fantasy-action setpieces. Only in The Return of the King did I truly understand the power of drama in film; the ability of the medium to, more than anything else and beyond any other medium, convey emotion, particularly poignancy. I could feel it at the very core of my being, which was immensly confusing to my barely-adult mind at the time!

 

This was obviously done through visuals (the cut to a wide when Sam is holding Frodo on the slopes of Mount Doom is still the best wideshot ever in a film) but also through theme: the film is above anything an exploration of the theme of friendship. It juxtaposes the calamitous, tragic friendship of Smeagol and Deagol with that of Frodo and Sam. Its no accident we cut from the renunion of Merry and Pippin on the battlefield to the reunion of Frodo and Sam in Cirith Ungol, or from the culmination of Legolas and Gimli's friendship to the climax of Frodo and Sam's. Its beautiful.

 

 

Up until that point in 2003, I always wondered what it must have felt like to watch the famous classics and epics of past eras live in theaters at the time. 

Same feeling probably. 

I think I can only fully appreciate it now 15 years later. 

 

Probably revived epic cinema. 

[Chen G. 4,406]

5 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

Probably revived epic cinema. 

 

Epic cinema was already making a comeback with Dances With Wolves (the first Epic Western since Heaven's Gate), Braveheart, Titanic and Gladiator.

 

The Lord of the Rings very much rode that wave and built on it. Its basically Braveheart with fantasy elements.

[Naïve Old Fart 10,231]

18 hours ago, Romão said:

 

Still moves me deeply, I still quite can't put my finger on it. Maybe I just watched it at the precise right time, but I always respond intensely to it whenever I watch it

Romão, I'm glad that you like LOCAL HERO. It's one of two films that kick-started my love affair with all things Scotland. My love for the film has grown over the years to the extent that I find myself living in a little village not too dissimilar to the one in the film.

 

Fun fact: the village scenes were filmed 100 miles north of Aberdeen, on the east coast, but the scenes on "Ben's Beach", were filmed on the west coast, near Oban.

[Romão 2,311]

Yeah, I saw Mark Kermode talking about it, I had no idea the two locations were that far apart

I think it helped a lot how unassuming the whole movie is. It just creeps on you somehow.

[A24 4,513]

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

Epic cinema was already making a comeback with Dances With Wolves (the first Epic Western since Heaven's Gate), Braveheart, Titanic and Gladiator.

 

 

And before that you had an epic romance called Out Of Africa (which I never completed).

[Chen G. 4,406]

Right! Forgot that one.

 

Although the action-packed, grungy kind of epics that we got not just in Gladiator and The Lord of the Rings but also in Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and The Last Samurai clearly owe more to Braveheart than to Out of Africa or Dances with Wolves.

[Edmilson 8,521]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Although the action-packed, grungy kind of epics that we got not just in Gladiator and The Lord of the Rings but also in Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and The Last Samurai clearly owe more to Braveheart than to Out of Africa or Dances with Wolves.

 

What do you think that killed this trend, in your opinion? The mixed reception of the theatrical cut and subsequent box office bomb of Kingdom of Heaven? Or the poor attempts at replicating The Lord of the Rings, such as Narnia, The Golden Compass, etc?

[Chen G. 4,406]

Hmm, possibly; but there could be other, more fundemental societal reasons.

 

I think the doom and gloom of those films - they're all very violent, sombre, drawn-out, filled with disturbing thematic ideas, and almost all feature the death of the main character - just got replaced by the kind of light-heartedness that (for instance) contemporary comic-book movies traffic in.

 

Why? I have no idea, but there ought to be a reason.

[Naïve Old Fart 10,231]

1 hour ago, Alexcremers said:

 

And before that you had an epic romance called Out Of Africa (which I never completed).

NOT QUITE OUT OF AFRICA 

[Edmilson 8,521]

9 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Hmm, possibly; but there could be other, more fundemental societal reasons.

 

I think the doom and gloom of those films - they're all very violent, sombre, drawn-out, filled with disturbing thematic ideas, and almost all feature the death of the main character - just got replaced by the kind of light-heartedness that (for instance) contemporary comic-book movies traffic in.

 

Why? I have no idea, but there ought to be a reason.

 

I believe that, a few years after the 9/11, there was firstly the trend of "dark" movies (such was the success of Avatar), but then after the unbelievable box office results of The Avengers in 2012, Hollywood noticed that the people was hungry for a happier, funnier, more wholesome kind of entertaining. After the financial crisis of 2008, people just wanted to have fun at the theaters.

 

That said, with Avengers and Star Wars ending last year, and the huge success that was Joker, combined with the mindset of the people post-pandemic, maybe the "dark movie" will have a resurgence?