Favorite films that changed your life at any point (1 Viewer)

[EricBourke]

Favorite film picks you reckon changed your life (if
that's even feasible) in a profound or funny way at any point. Doesn't matter if some aren't on dvd yet. I spose my pick is The Matrix. It introduced me to anime, Asian cinema and the philosophical aspects still resonate.

 

[Rain]

2001: A Space Odyssey
When I first saw it, I was resistant. I was a young kid who didn't care about film at all.
One day after class, my Grade 12 English teacher was dubbing a copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey and I got sucked in.
And so my interest in film began...
I guess you could call it The Dawn of Rain.

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"Imagine all the people, living life in peace..." - Imagine by John Lennon

 

[Ricky f]

American Beauty
The Breakfast Club
Heathers
Pump Up The Volume

 

[Neil Joseph]

Star Wars
This is the movie, that when I saw it theatrically, changed my life forever and made me have a love of movies.
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My Favourite DVD's
[Edited last by Neil Joseph on November 09, 2001 at 08:43 PM]

 

[John Kilduff]

"Back To The Future"-Sheer optimism from this modern classic somehow got through to me.
"Amazon Women On The Moon"-I see some of myself in a few sketches from here (Notably the Pitnik segments)
"South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" (It inspired me to add music to a comedy-drama-action-thriller-romance idea I have. Work on the script starts this year.)
Sincerely,
John Kilduff
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"Who makes it happen?"
"I make it happen"-
Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith in "Working Girl"

 

[Tommy G]

Saving Private Ryan. That movie made me have the utmost respect for any veteran and days like Veteran's Day (which is Monday for us in the US) and Memorial Day are not quite the same since I saw that film. Now every Memorial Day, I take the wife and kids to an arbitrary cemetary and we read the headstones of the ones with the war memorials on them. I am hopeful it will have a lasting impact on my kids.

 

[SteveGon]

The Third Man made me realize just how terrific film can be when you have a convergence of great talent operating in perfect harmony.

 

[Sean Conklin]

Boy, me and Ricky f often are on the same wavelength!
Back to The Future(trilogy)
Heathers
Pump up the Volume
Real Genius
Breakfast Club
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Sean
"I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said.......I drank what?"

 

[Patrick McCart]

Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo, and Psycho (Inspired me to take up cinematography and filmmaking)
Fantasia (Started my passion for animation)
Around the World in Eighty Days (First epic I ever saw. I still have trouble explaining why I like this film.)

 

[MichaelPe]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)
American History X
Contact
The Deer Hunter
Fight Club
Good Will Hunting
Jurassic Park
Magnolia
Schindler's List
The Ten Commandments
True Romance
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http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum9/HTML/005780-2.html
MY TOP 20 OF 2001

 

[Brook K]

Taxi Driver
Three Colors: Red
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Wizard of Oz
It's A Wonderful Life
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"It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen"
S&S Challenge: 72 ...24
DVD BEAVER

My DVD Collection

 

[Jason Boucher]

Changed my life is a tough standard. Changed the way I think is better, such as Birdcage and Fight Club, which both challenged my conservative way of thinking.
The films I like best however are ones that I have seen repeatedly, but which have a different effect on me as I age. I'll put Godfather in this category since its a recent rerelease. When I saw this as a youngster, I though Michael Corleone was godlike and that his code of ethics was a model to live by. As an adult, I see him as the tragic figure he is, and his code of ethics as fatally flawed. When I have a realization like this, it has a profound impact on me and makes me question much in my life. Perhaps this is a good argument why children shouldn't view adult films?

 

[Jack Briggs]

I suppose I'm an open book here. It has been my privilege to see several brilliant films. But in all my life, only one film has truly influenced the way I think and how I look at the world. That film would be...
The 1968 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer classic by Stanley Kubrick. Nothing else comes close...
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[BryanS]

Field of Dreams
Searching For Bobby Fisher
On The Waterfront
American Beauty
Unforgiven

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Taxi Driver is the first movie I saw that really taught me how to appreciate character development, the importance of camera angles and movement, street photography, and how to set a mood with music. Combine this with some great acting, writing, and a climactic ending with a twist (as well as social commentary) I realized how great and powerful movies could be!

 

[David Ely]

David Lean's Great Expectations
It doesn't get any better than that!

 

[Jeff_A]

The Day The Earth Stood Still. I was about eight when I first saw this film on TV. I actually remember grasping the importance of world peace at that very moment. Difficult to explain, but that film stayed with me. Many other films would go on to impact me throughout my life, but you always seem to remember the first ones with special fondness.
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The Dark Tower

 

[John Besse]

Star Wars, damn you. Stupid Star Wars movies have made me collect the books and read them. I've watched those movies more than any other. I've spent more time reading and watching Star Wars than I could have ever imagined.
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My DVD Collection
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[Chuck Mayer]

An interesting question...
Star Wars is intertwined with my childhood much more than anything else external to my family. I remember how sad I was at the end of ROTJ, because I knew that was it.
IJ and the Last Crusade was the first movie I saw opening day, and I can honestly say my love of movies began there. I was finishing 9th grade, it was the summer of '89 (Batman, Lethal Weapon 2, The Abyss, Star Trek 5 - uggh). It was funny, exciting, and so WELL-DONE. Probably the first time I really WATCHED a movie.
Titanic meant a lot to me when it came out, to the tune that I saw it 5 times in the theater (4 times by myself). I really felt transported by it.
And lastly, Fight Club. It changed the way I look at things when I first see them.
Take care,
Chuck
[Edited last by Chuck Mayer on November 15, 2001 at 12:29 PM]

 

[Ashley Seymour]

The Godfather and The Godfather Part II
Puzo and Coppola created a deep and disturbing masterpiece that affected like no other movie.
On the surface the works deal with idealized depictions of the values placed in the family and Religion. The moral equlibrium of the viewer is then disturbed when the characters corrupt these moral values for selfish ends, calling in to question the inviolate sanctity of the institutions.
The strongest social order is the family, and if you are going to engage in crime, you could not creater a stronger social order than the extended family. For those who maintain the fealty to the family, flow obscene benefits. For those who would betray the trust, either through calculated design or incompetence, there is exacted a horrible vengence. Michael felt the betrayal by Fredo as so damaging to the family and criminal order that he inherited and maintained, that he could not imagine forgiving this sin of betrayal.
Michael used the Church to cement relationships. As Godfather to his sister's child, he continued the control that the "family" would hold through successive generations. Michael was corrupt not because he maintained the trappings of a religious person, but because of his inner nature.
The Godfather Part III is roundly dismissed as a lesser work, but the message is the most important. Michael comes to ask a Priest to hear his confession as he seeks forgivness of his sins of the murder of his brother, is mother's son, and his many enemies. The toughest issue of the Godfather trilogy is this issue of Michael coming to understand his sin. Is he to be forgiven? How does the viewer feel about someone with as much blood on his hands as Michael having the temerity to believe and seek forgivness for his sins? Should he expect that his mother, father and God can forgive him for what he did with his hands and what he believed in his heart?
Most of us have a lot less weighty issues that we carry around with us than does Micheal. If someone like him can atone for his sins, there there should be hope the rest of us.
In the secular world what should happen to Michael? We can't have any input in the relationship that he chooses to have with God. As to his actions and behavior in the hear and now, well he is as good a candidate as there is for the death penalty.
These works have affected me for 30 years now.