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

[publicist 4,643]

14 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

 

Old lion Burt Lancaster has a wonderful presence in this.

[Chen G. 3,949]

15 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

 

I believe that, a few years after the 9/11, there was firstly the trend of "dark" movie

 

I generally dislike the idea of hanging this up on 9/11.

 

9/11 influenced the tone of disaster films, which were immensly popular up to that time, but after 9/11 you just couldn't be gleeful about mass destruction.

 

But in terms of cinema at large? Braveheart was 1995, Titanic was 1997, Gladiator was 2000 and The Lord of the Rings was already in post-production when 9/11 happened.

 

When Jaws ushered the blockbuster era, most of the early blockbusters were quite lighthearted. Maybe not so much Jaws itself, but certainly Star Wars, Superman, E.T. and Raiders all were quite lighthearted in their overall approach. Close Encounters is intense, but I wouldn't call it dark, either.

 

It makes sense that, within almost two decades time, there would be a maturation of the form and blockbusters would begin to explore more mature territory (in terms of dwelling on the harsher elements of their respective stories), which is what happened in the 90s/2000s.

 

Now we've regressed.

[Edmilson 7,466]

I was referring more to thrillers like the Bourne movies and The Dark Knight, but yeah, you're right, this trend was long before 9/11. 

 

In general, Hollywood chases money. By the beginning of last decade, after countless failed attempts at replicating Lord of the Rings, The Avengers fulfilled the "need for adventure" that many were feeling back then that wasn't being fulfilled by the blockbusters of that era. Then the MCU exploded, Star Wars returned, and the rest of the decade was dominated by blockbusters based on nerd proprierties. 

[Chen G. 3,949]

Yeah, I suppose it didn't help that, in spite of numerous attempts, nothing from that period quite lived-up to the success of Gladiator (in the R-rated historical epic field) and The Lord of the Rings (in the PG-13-rated fantasy epic field), box-office or Oscar-wise.

 

I wouldn't put Star Wars in quite the same trend as The Avengers, though. While The Force Awakens is a fun movie, it contain some fairly tragic overtures: it opens with a mass-massacre and ends with patricide. Rogue One isn't much more cheery. The Last Jedi has the kind of meta humour that we've come to expect from the MCU, but its still not a cheery movie overall.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

5 hours ago, Chen G. said:

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

...and much much better.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Both are superb.

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

All four, you mean?

[Chen G. 3,949]

Yes.

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

5 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

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?

 

5 hours 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.

There is one other which came out later which seems to belong to the same group - 300 (2007) - which was very successful. It is serious, but not somber, and is actually quite uproarious and entertaining.

 

 Can 300 be considered the last gasp of epic cinema, of the sort you mention above?

[Chen G. 3,949]

300 is a different kind of movie in terms of how stylized it is; as a result it is, like you said, not really somber in the same way that the others are.

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

Isn’t that a problem though? That movies want to be too somber today and forget that they also have to be a good time at the cinema.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Too somber today? If anything, all the tentpoles nowadays are insufferably lighthearted.

 

This more than a bit of a hyperbole, mind you, but the whole point of good drama is that it puts you through an extended wringer of grim unpleasantness and then lets you out.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Dark and disturbing. 

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

51 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Too somber today? If anything, all the tentpoles nowadays are insufferably lighthearted.

 

This more than a bit of a hyperbole, mind you, but the whole point of good drama is that it puts you through an extended wringer of grim unpleasantness and then lets you out.

 

Maybe we are looking at things differently. I don't find modern blockbusters "fun" at all, save some MCU titles. I find most to be extremely drab and not even entertaining. 

 

I did not even find Endgame to be entertaining and was thoroughly bored by it.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

It was too long.

[Edmilson 7,466]

300 is one of the gayest movies I've ever seen. It's so devoted to a perfect masculine form that ancient Greeks idolized that it becomes almost comical. 

 

It's a ridiculous film, even with Tyler Bates' music begging us to take all that nonsense seriously.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

1 minute ago, Edmilson said:

300 is one of the gayest movies I've ever seen. It's so devoted to a perfect masculine form that ancient Greeks idolized that it becomes almost comical. 

 

It's a ridiculous film, even with Tyler Bates' Elliot Goldenthal's music begging us to take all that nonsense seriously.

 

[A24 4,338]

7 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

Isn’t that a problem though? That movies want to be too somber today and forget that they also have to be a good time at the cinema.

 

Drama or comedy, if you were absorbed by the movie, you had a good time. 

 

8 hours ago, Chen G. said:

300 is a different kind of movie in terms of how stylized it is; as a result it is, like you said, not really somber in the same way that the others are.

 

I would even go as far to say that its (well-accomplished) style is the main attraction. Without it, it would look and feel just like any other sword & sandal movie. 

[KK 3,307]

6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Too somber today? If anything, all the tentpoles nowadays are insufferably lighthearted.

 

Not to worry Chen. Last I checked, there were still plenty of snoozefest Braveheart-knockoffs being made.

 

The King and Outlaw King are two films that come to mind.

[Chen G. 3,949]

I know; I meant good ones.

 

Although, again, at least they're trying! I even appreciated the early DCEU films (which were awful) for staying away from the insufferable lightheartedness that the MCU perpetuated in the cinematic landscape.

[Sweeping Strings 2,363]

I'll take Marvel's *insufferable* lightheartedness over DC attempting to make Superman 'dark' any day of the week. 

[Chen G. 3,949]

Oh, I can't stand it, but I can applaud the effort. It would have worked, too, had they just stuck the landing. Sadly, they didn't.

[Sweeping Strings 2,363]

Affleck's Batman is the only one I haven't seen any of, such was the extent to which MOS put me off. 

[Bayesian 1,363]

One film that had a big impact on me was Robocop. It's a landmark film in all ways, no question, but I remember being truly terrified during the ED-209 scene right at the point when the robot doesn't realize the guy threw the gun down. It's the earliest experience of that sort from a movie that I can remember. (I was probably too young to have been watching it in the first place, though.)

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,534]

"Anybody wanna call a goddamn paramedic?"

 

It's a bit late, for that 

 

Is it me, or does ED-209 sound like Worf?

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

Mostly they were kids movies I saw early on. (*) means I still love it.

 

The Matrix*

The Lion King*

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels*

Aladdin*

Kingpin

Mulholland Dr.*

All Dogs Go To Heaven*

007 movies*

some Steven King movies

The Others (in the middle of the night my brother came over and surprised me, took me out to see it, and because was a cool night I remember it well.)

Evil Dead (same story-- my brother is into scary stuff and made me watch it. I later turned him onto Resident Evil 4)

Home Alone

The Little Mermaid

 

As for Star Wars, I was more impacted by the theme park at a young age than the actual movies. I remember going to Universal Studios and hearing the themes to Jurassic Park and Star Wars vividly. I really liked the waiting line of Star Wars, it was so hype, feeling like you're actually in another world rather than just watching it.

 

They also made us watch a few Holocaust movies in school. That impacted me on some level.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]