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I was thinking about it, and of the (possibly) hundreds of films I've seen in my life, there are probably about a dozen that have really impacted me - that is, they have actually had an effect on my worldview, or just overwhelmed me with beauty, or forced me to keep thinking about them long, long after I saw them.
These aren't necessarily my favourites (although I love them); they are just the ones that have had a lasting impact in some way: intellectual, spiritual, psychological, personal, or whatever.
So I thought I would list them here. Please name the films (and their directors, if you know them), with no limit on number. And if you want to say something about why they affected you, that would also be welcome. And add more if you think of a title or two later.
Mine (in no particular order):
1. Encounters at the End of the World, dir. Werner Herzog
2. Cave of Forgotten Dreams, dir. Werner Herzog
3. Magnolia, dir. P.T. Anderson
4. There Will Be Blood, P.T. Anderson
5. Thin Red Line, dir. Terrence Malick
6. Tree of Life, dir. Terrence Malick
7. Karakter - dir. Mike van Diem
8. Wings of Desire - dir. Wim Wenders
9. The Trial - dir. David Jones
10. Three Colours: White - dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
Your turn.
The Blair Witch Project.
Will forever now hate being in the woods in the dark on my own.
Crystal Voyager, David Elfick. I did go surfing.
[Bill Hicks] Zapruder Footage [/Bill Hicks]
True romance
Django - the Jaimee Foxx/tarrantino version
Pale rider
Event horizon
I'm still editing....
Blade runner (both)
Metropolis
Cube
Dark city
There's probably a few, but the one that I won't ever forget is The Mist. The last 3 minutes just cap it all off
Will forever now hate being in the woods in the dark on my own.
As long as you don't take a cheap 80's sony camcorder with you, (they seem to attract demons) i'm sure you will be fine 🙂
Rocky (all of them)
But mainly Rocky 3 when Mickey died
Jaws, not sure if it was the UK TV premier in '81 when I would have been 7, put me off swimming in the sea in water deeper than my waist for years... A short swim in deep water part way through a dolphin spotting boat trip off The Canary Isles in 2006 absolutely terrified me! 😆
Anchorman
Talladega Nights
Step Brothers
Also, Ex Machina - disturbing and enlightening on a number of levels. A superb film.
Apocalypse Now
Waltz with Bashir
Weekend at Bernie’s
The Big Lebowski
Big Wednesday
a clockwork orange
taxi driver
grave of fireflies
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Express
Also Pan's Labyrinth.
Fletch.
Betty Blue at an impressionable age.
Thanks Channel 4 🙂
Blade runner (original)
Paris Texas
Arrival (a lot things just hit a chord, from derivation Portuguese through to non-linear time)
Volver
Juileta (I even have a quote from it tattooed on my arm)
Dolor y Gloria (for a microsecond it made me contemplate ‘chasing the dragon’).
House of Flying Daggers
Serenity (also a quote tattooed, albeit translated into Spanish...)
In the mood for love.
Most of the above 🙂
+
'To Live' - Zhang Yimou
The Wages of Fear
Kanal
🙁
The Blair Witch Project.
Will forever now hate being in the woods in the dark on my own.
@choppersquad - I was doing a night ride at Llandegla, at the back as usual, when my lights died on the last descent.
It took about 10 minutes for the lads to realise I was missing and come back for me. It felt like an absolute eternity, because stood there in total darkness, listening to the trees rustling around me, the only thing in my head was the Blair Witch. I was a whimpering wreck by the time they got to me.
I now always carry a back up light with me. Bloody terrified me did that film! And left me feeling exactly the same about being out at night on my own
Jaws +1
Still not 100% comfortable in the sea when swimming, surfing, snorkeling etc
All my passwords come from Blade Runner
Actually quite a few of the OP’s list would make mine. Obviously a man of intelligent taste.
I’ll stick a few more in:
Princess Bride dir. Rob Reiner
Precious dir. Lee Daniels
Hunger dir. Steve McQueen
There’s probably a few, but the one that I won’t ever forget is The Mist. The last 3 minutes just cap it all off
I had no idea about the ending having changed from the book. Amazing.
…and Videodrome (Cronenberg). I was in a bad place when I saw it. It really affected me for months. I saw it again about 5 years ago and nothing...
Whistle down the wind “he’s not Jesus, he’s just a fella”.
Oh and
Kez dir. Ken Loach
Tyrannosaur dir. Paddy Considine
Natural Born Killers dir. Oliver Stone (man, the Cowboy Junkies’ version of Sweet Jane has remained with me forever.)
Dog Soldiers. Doesn’t need an explanation
DD.... Talking of Ken Loach... I Danial Blake.
When the film ended everyone in the cinema just sat there in total silence apart from a couple of people crying. The first scene in the food bank is absolutely heart-wrenching. I always think of it when I see what Marcus Rashford is doing
If you can get through that without it getting dusty in the room, you’re doing better than me.
It should be compulsory viewing the night before the next general election
Agree with you about Tyranasaur. Nil By Mouth is even worse. It’s virtually unwatchable at times. When you see Kathy Burke being funny on telly, doing Kevin and Perry or whatever, you forget that she’s delivered one of the most visceral performances ever filmed. It’s like being punched in the face!
Long term impact
Jaws - took a lot to get over my fear of open water (even fresh water)
Event Horizon - I found that extremely disturbing, I think it took 2 goes to see it to the end
Seven - not a comfortable watch, still don't like the subject matter
Silence of the Lambs - saw it at the cinema, scariest film I had ever seen at that point
Different films at different ages. All made a lasting impression. There are scores so here’s a few off the top
As a kid/teen:
Walkabout - Nicolas Roeg
Cannibal Holocaust - Ruggero Deodato
Nosferatu - Werner Herzog
Kes - Ken Loach
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot - Michael Cimino (Just the last part, ie the head-kicking ...) really disturbed me. Still does just thinking about it)
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - Spielberg. (Was too young really to see those aliens, argghhhh still hate the faces!)
Adult life:
Schindler’s List - Spielberg
The Tenant - Polanski
L’Enfer - Claude Chabrol
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest - Miloš Forman
Taxi Driver - Scorsese
The Piano - Jane Campion
Rabbit Proof Fence - Phillip Noyce
Tyrannosaur - Paddy Considine
*edit - crossposted with deadlydarcy on that couple of British bruisers
In the same vein - Dead Mans Shoes
It doesn’t get much more hard-hitting than that
“What you looking at?”
Watership Down.
Made me hate the fluffy long eared ***** from a very early age.
Unless they're an ingredient.
Not a huge film watcher but Tyrannosaur was absolutely outstanding.
Jaws - Always totally paranoid in deep water. Could never bring myself to jump off a boat far out. Never.
American Werewolf in London - For years I thought I would get machine gunned when I opened doors, and walking across dark moors at night is a no obvs.
Saving Private Ryan at the cinema. War not so cool after that opener... not watched it since.
Interstellar messed with my melon for days. I need to watch it again but holy shit that sent me deeeeeep.
La Cabina
The Wicker Man
Dead mans shoes . This is England . The railway man
Another for jaws. My favourite film, but I still wouldn't go swimming in the sea anywhere there are sharks.
Schindler’s List, watched in a tough part of Glasgow with my girlfriend at the time and the whole cinema was sobbing.
Interstellar. Made me realize just how insignificant we truly are in the universe.
Ex_Machina. Very physiological and disturbing film which seems to become more and more relevant these days with regards to the advancements made in AI. (Off topic here as series not film, but Devs is also very good, also written by Alex Garland, on Iplayer.)
Sophie's Choice. Only time I have been in a packed cinema and you could have heard a pin drop at the end. No one moved.
(Oh and Star Wars - impressionable 14 year old with his Dad - too many good memories)
Jaws +2 - I saw it at the cinema when I was about 12. To this day I won't go into the sea unless other people are already in there - a fact that dawned on Mrs Spekkie when we went to the beach together during term-time and I wouldn't go in. (this was in SA where they actually do have shark nets, but I'm the same everywhere)
James Bond (regardless in who plays JB) - I was about 30 before I realised that I drove my normal car, the one I expect to start every morning and get me to work, the way JB drives his cars.
^^^ Great call on La Cabina - from that night on I would always hold phone box doors open with my foot. Absolutely ****ing terrifying.
Son of Saul 2011 Dir Laszlo Nemes.
Tries to get into the heart of the Holocaust. chaotic and claustrophobic on purpose. V powerful
The Mission - I'd driven to Oxford to see it, so overcome with emotion after seeing it I desperately needed a drink but had to drive so I had a cigarette. I don't smoke.
Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Hamburger Hill - war portrayed as something dirty and not heroic after growing up with The Longest Day and 633 Squadron.
Schindler's List - I'd read Primo Levi but seeing man's inhumanity portrayed so well and the bad man doing good brought it to life. Adam Tooze's book "Wages of Destruction" had a similar effect - how bad people made ordinary people do bad things.
Lives of Others.
Harold & Kumar get the munchies.
The Mission – I’d driven to Oxford
😀
Interstellar. Made me realize just how insignificant we truly are in the universe.
I forgot about that one, deep and well, deep. Briliant film, but not for the faint of heart.
Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Hamburger Hill
All mandatory watching if you ask me. Brilliant films.
Also seven years in Tibet
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120102/
and Kundun
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119485/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Hamburger Hill
All mandatory watching if you ask me. Brilliant films.
Full Metal Jacket needs adding to that list. The whole Private Pyle thing is deeply disturbing
The Deer Hunter too, for the Russian roulette scenes. Harrowing
Full Metal Jacket might be just be the best war film ever.
I recently watched Dead Mans Shoes and Tyrannosaur off of the back of another thread on here. Both were outstanding but the former hit me the hardest.
Saving Private Ryan is another.
The Kingdom - Peter Berg
Black Hawk Down - Ridley Scott Look past the gung ho and it shows what a **** up it was.
Breaking Away - Peter Yates The film that got me properly into cycling when I was about 10
Wicker Man
Ex machina
Funny games (original one)
Full metal jacket
Great thread, massive fan of cinema like this. I usually have to watch them on my own though, nobody else in my house will bear them! I'm deffo going to look up the ones I haven't seen!
2001 a Space Odyssey
Requiem for a Dream
Generally I walk away from films without much of a legacy. The only one that's really stuck with me is Requiem for a Dream, dir. Darren Aronofsky
Thought it was superb but took a while to get that out of my head and doubt I'll watch it again.
Into the wild
Happy people: herzog
The field
Withnail and i
The harder they come: Jimmy cliff
Easy rider
Withnail and I is worthy of a mention
Not for the first time you watch it. Or the second, or the third*, when you laugh your tits off all the way though it
But for when you stop laughing and you really watch the final scene and you realise you’ve just watched the greatest story of unrequited love and the final scene is one of total heartbreak and despair
Then when you watch it again it’s a completely different film
* there’s a good chance that I’m just very slow on the uptake and most people got this first time around
Bambi - my gran (god rest her) reckons I cried in the cinema when the mum got shot. Love a bit of venison now mind!
Into the wild
That's a really good one.. very well done, I can't say any more, without spolilers.
Loads.
American Werewolf in London. My uncle put it on when babysitting 9year old me. Done me for years.
Schindler’s List. A beautifully shot but harrowing film of mans capicity for good and evil. I come back to it every few years.
Bone Tomohawk - S Craig Zahler. Outstanding film. Glad I watched it. There is one scene that impacted me in such a way that I shall never watch the film again.
Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction - never seen anything like it before and as a 17yr old, it felt like films for my generation
Return of The Jedi - my Dad picked me up from school and went to see it and it blew me away. But being taken to the pictures by my Dad was something that stayed with me - Octopussy too. Both films in Cinemas that were demolished.
Could go on.
Generally I walk away from films without much of a legacy. The only one that’s really stuck with me is Requiem for a Dream, dir. Darren Aronofsky
Thought it was superb but took a while to get that out of my head and doubt I’ll watch it again.
Same for me. I thought it was excellent, but couldn't face it again.
I watched Arronofsky's first film, Pi on my own in my flat in the same week I'd just been burgled. I did not sleep well for a while after that.
Darren Aronofsky
is a remarkable director. A few of his almost made my list. The Fountain is particularly good.
Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" is a great shout. The way a film about cave paintings ends up connecting with the scientists at Cern laboratory was truly mind expanding.
A couple of other recent films that have bent my mind in a similar way have Been:
"Timbuktu" by Senegalese director Abderrahmane Sissako, about the boko haram occupation in......er....Timbuktu and:
"This is not a Film" by Iranian Jafar Panahi, made whilst under house aŕest.
Thread lacking a bit of Italian neo-realism so I'll throw in "Umberto D" by Vittorio di Sica.
Oh, there's 'war films' and then thers films about war:
"Come and see" by Elem Klimov, (Apocalypse Now for grown ups).
I also found There Will be Blood to leave a lasting impression on me.
Also, these two, but in very different ways:
Nil by Mouth - Gary Oldman - bleak and harrowing.
Cinema Paradiso - Giuseppe Tornatore - joyful, wonderful, tragic and beautiful.
The films that have had the most long term impact, for me, are the ones that question the mind.
The Truman Show - Blew my mind when I first watched this. Superb acting from Carrey.
Fight Club - Amazing introspection into Norton's mind.
The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind - don't underestimate the value of memories, good or bad.
The Butterfly Effect - Another film that blew my mind. If you're the type of person who often looks back at their life and wants to change individual moments, then watch this film and perhaps reconsider.
About Time - Exactly the same vein as the butterfly effect, but even more potent I think. Great film.
All these films have aged well in my opinion.
Cuckoo's Nest for me also.
Goddam it, Chief. You fooled 'em . You fooled 'em all.
Fight Club – Amazing introspection into Norton’s mind.
Fantastic film! We watched it again last weekend. Even more relevant now than when it was filmed. We do a fillum night every week with the Binnerettes (13 & 16).
Both of them absolutely loved Fight Club and completely ‘got it’ as a comment on late stage consumer capitalism. The eldest is presently reading the book.
We’re doing The Big Lebowski on Friday night. Another classic
I’m not an avid movie watcher so will have to look up most of those mentioned. I don’t watch horror though so can rule those out straight away.
Jaws, yeah, will never be able to swim in water where I can’t see the bottom.
A Beautiful Mind - I’d watched it a few times before I found out that what they were giving him in the hospital was insulin and, as a diabetic I found that appalling - knowing just how helpless that feels, so can’t watch it now.
Much as I love cinema, not sure any film has ever truly changed my world view but there are some that have definitely changed my view of what cinema as an artform can do.
Star Wars. As a seven year old it blew my mind.
Blade Runner. Visually and conceptually flawless.
Close Encounters. One of the few films that genuinely gets better every time you watch it.
Moulin Rouge. Possibly the film that understands cinema more than any other I've seen.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Unique and way more important than it thinks it is.
JoJo Rabbit. Unafraid to just be itself and all the better for it.
Near Dark. In a decade of 'not as edgy as they think they are' bubblegum teen flicks, this was the much needed anti-Lost Boys.
Fantasia. Just because...
Dogma. If I was a director and could wish I'd made just one film, this would be it. For me very similar to JoJo Rabbit in its don't give a faeces ness approach to genre.
Black Hawk Down / The Revenant. Not sure which is the most tiring film (in a totally exhilarating way) I've ever seen.
Ah yeah The Revenant, my cinematographic experience of being repeatedly punched in the face for 2.5 hrs. I got to the end though.
No plans to watch ‘Come and See’ mentioned up there ^^
+1 for I, Daniel Blake. Just sat in tears for about an hour after it finished. And I'd been in tears for a decent chunk of the film. Such a powerful portrayal of how the government gives no ****s about people's lives.
The Big Lebowski. One of the greatest films ever made. I was obsessed with drinking White Russians for years after watching it!
It's a toss-up between Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. Possibly Platoon, just for the scene where Tears of a Clown plays.
Crash (2004).
If that fails to rock your world, nothing will... Such an eloquent film.
But horrible too..
Twelve Angry Men.
I'd love to see a study of jury voting patterns by those who'd watched this versus not.
Twelve Angry Men.
I'd love to see a study of jury voting patterns by those who'd watched this versus not.
Ned Kelly: waaaay back when my mum decided to give us kids (I was about, oh, 7) a special treat at Easter with a trip to the cinema to see Pinocchio except for some reason it wasn’t on. So Ned Kelly it was...
Similarly traumatic was The Sound of Music (at an even earlier age). Apparently I spent half the film hiding from its horror...
Earthed - the first film - specifically the section with Nathan Rennie descending at Whistler with a soundtrack of The Seeker. Any fast, swoopy descent has me searching for that feeling, and striving to ride more smoothly. I've been unable to ride for the past few years, and what that short section of film represents for me is what keeps me moving towards the day I can get back on the trails again. One of my nicknames is related to this piece of film!
+1 Jaws - it terrified me as a youngster - and not only in open water … I had visions of the shark bursting out of the plughole in the bath.
Otherwise, I'm out of my depth in this thread. 🙂
Going to sound a flippant choice but Idiocracy (...and to an extent Wall-E) as an almost wake up to the direction of western world...seen it a lot in the last 4 years and that film pops in my head straight away
Oh, and also going to add Falling Down
Kajaki - Any war movies are just that, movies, detactched from reality. However Kajaki was almost documentary-esque and probably the closest any movie has shown what being at war is like*
(* I imagine, having never actually been in a war/combat)