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+1 Arrival
Fish Tank
Sullivan's Travels
Koyaanisqatsi
Parasite
Alive. Amazing true story of the Uruguayan Rugby team that survive the plane crash on the Andes.
They were stuck up there for 72 days.
Duel did it for me - I watched it sometime just before my O Levels' exams and started having recurring nightmares of the wagon piling through the walls of the exam room at school.
In no particular order..
Bladerunner (both)
Dead Mans Shoes
Drugstore Cowboy
Full Metal Jacket (especially the soap in socks bit-and Pvt Pyles whimpering after)
There Will Be Blood
The Basketball Diaries
Requiem for a Dream
Into the Wild
Ooooohhh,
North by Northwest.
Wings of Desire.
Jaws.
Alien.
Star Wars.
Two Lane Blacktop.
The Vanishing.
Rear Window.
The Music Box.
Dead Man's Shoes.
Pulp Fiction.
Cross of Iron.
Dead of Night.
Went the Day Well?
American Werewolf in London.
The Sting.
The Deerhunter.
The Three Colours trilogy.
TG,TB & TU.
All brilliant pieces of cinema that have affected how I judge other films.
I don't know about long term effect, but there are two films where I couldn't talk to anyone for hours after leaving the cinema.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
The Fifth Element
Strange that those two films would have that effect on me, isn't it? What does that say about me?
Kes
The Graduate
Bladerunner
The Mission
Brokeback Mountain
Apocalypto
Leon
My Neighbor Totoro
Napoleon Dynamite
Also Apollo 13 effected me a bit - this was not helped by the fact I went to see it with a group including my brother-in-law who is a rocket scientist (quite literally) in LA and we also got talking to someone after the film who was actually working at Mission Control when the actual event happened (he was then a worker at the US Listening Base at Menwith Hill near Harrogate where we saw the film).
I have yet to watch Come and See. Is it worth tracking down?
Jaws, for a slightly different reason than some have already said.
I've got a friend who is deeply into to films, so much so he's now a Director of Photography
We used to sit and pick apart Jaws, shot by shot and scene by scene. Its basically a film making tutorial.
The Matrix - Its been sullied by the sequels but the original film is just amazing, great concept and some mind blowing stunts.
Apocalypse Now - watched the "Final Cut" on iPlayer recently. Its just such a wild film, so full of images and ideas, its a war film and a crazy allegory about the madness of men. They literally don't make them like that anymore, there are laws against it.
Ooh, loads of great ones already mentioned, but 2 standout for me. My college showed them on a double bill and I was so excited I was trembling the whole time. Either that or the hall was too cold!
The Warriors - (Walter Hill, a proper action director and Barry Devorzon's music. I know this cos I have the 7" single 🙂 )
Eraserhead - (David Lynch, what can you say?)
both still faves.
Also, The Incredibles (Brad Bird). It was just so spot on with it's depiction of Supers in the real world... but mainly because it was me & my son's film when he was a nipper, so it just reminds me of that and makes me feel good. Brings tears to the old eyes when I watch it.
A soft (or maybe not 😀 ) spot for Debbie Does Dallas, cos it was the first proper pron film watched with my girlfriend at 16. Fond memories
A soft (or maybe not 😀 ) spot for Debbie Does Dallas, cos it was the first proper pron film watched with my girlfriend at 16.
Mine was a film called S3x World (loosely based on Westworld) – found it in my dad's sock drawer and kept me busy for quite some time.
The Deer Hunter too, for the Russian roulette scenes. Harrowing
I watched it for maybe the third time over the weekend. The first time, as a teenager in the 80s I thought it deeply boring. I can't remember what I thought of it the second time, or when that was. Maybe I've grown up finally, because now in my 50s I've realised how good it is. To the extent of thinking of re-watching it immediately after it had finished.
(Maybe as a kid I just couldn't relate to the start of the film. Russian orthodox weddings, deer-hunting, small industrial towns in NJ. None of this meant anything to me. But I can relate to the characters themselves now..)
Apocalypse Now and Deerhunter made a really big impression on me at the young age I watched them at and are still two of my favourite films. Other than that, Blade Runner opened my eyes to Science Fiction that was huge, elaborate and distopian and Akira and a lot of the classic anime followed on.
One of the reasons I like driving around Stockholm at night, especially coming from the south of the city (Nacka/Huddinge) towards the northern part is that, in the dark and coming over the bridges that link up the islands, it's like Akira's cityscape.
Big
Training day
Ali-G in da house
Adding to various from above, top of my mid are:
Adolescence - Wild Things (3somes are a thing?!)
Adult life - The Road. Grim.
Platoon
Hamburger Hill
Donnie Darko
American History X
The Matrix
The only film that I came out of the cinema feeling shellshocked was Trainspotting - funny and harrowing at the same time.
Return of the Jedi was brilliant and got me hooked being a star wars fan, recently enjoyed watching the films with my daughter, it's taken years but now I think she gets it 🙂
Child's Play - shouldn't have watched that at a young age when I was alone in the house
Bruce Lee and the early Jackie Chan/Yuen Biao/Samo Hung films gave me a lasting love of martial arts.
Mississippi Burning showed me how bad it was in the 60's for minorities and American History X showed me it hadn't really moved on that much. Also how it's not just ignorant idiots that can be consumed by racist hatred. This was all prior to social media and such things can now easily be seen in 2 mins on ****ter or Facistbook.
Un Chien Andalou
The Bicycle Thieves
Cuckoo's Nest
Blue Collar
Shooters
Trainspotting
Local Hero. For the scenery and the quotes. My family use many on a regular basis. Also made me want to go to West coast of Scotland, so it was probably the most expensive single visit to a cinema if you add on the 40+ times I have been there on holiday since
Stand By Me, I thought it was utterly brilliant the first time I watched it. I think it helped that I was also about the same age as the boys in it.
Event Horizon, Hamburger Hill and The Beast (about a Soviet tank crew during the Afghan war) always seem to have stayed with me.
Un Chien Andalou
Blimey yeah! My memory is failing - the bill with Eraserhead was Un Chien Andalou + Eraserhead.
The Warriors was a different week. 🙂
My Neighbor Totoro
Nice one! I wasn't thinking about Miyazaki when I made my list, but I would probably add this one.
Airplane and National Lampoons Vacation (the 1st one) Still quoting them regularly
The Matrix, for the red pill/blue pill thing, and bullet time
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
In the original script, he goes home and tops himself. I believe it was Bruce Robinson's wife who convinced him that this would have been overegging it and that it really didn't need that ending.
Films that have stuck with me -
La Haine
Pi
The Idiots (I didn't particularly like it, but it certainly occupied my brain for a while)
Moonlight
The Matrix, for the red pill/blue pill thing, and bullet time
and all the other references to literature and philosophy and religion, both hidden and not.
Close encounters of the 3rd kind.
The Eagle has landed.
These two, because my Dad took me as a kid to see them. He worked very hard when I was young and didnt have much time for Dad things, so I remember these fondly. In this case the films themsleves arent that important (although I could keep watching close encounters regularly for the rest of my life).
For the film themselves...
Star Wars,
Jaws,
Donnie Darko.
Shows my age but The Fly, and later the Exorcist were impactful on many, especially us young uns back then. Surprised not to have seen The Road up there....
Mine where the first Mad Max, which has not survived well, Silent Running, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Brewster McCloud and Blade Runner. Umm all films of loners...
Tyrannosaur
Winter's Bone
Brewster’s Millions
Naked - Mike Leigh.
Se7en
Passion of the christ
Amadeus
Love me if you dare
Such a massive impact on me initially and throughout my life
Some cracking films already listed.
Narrowing mine down to a manageable top 3...
Life Is Beautiful
The only thing that has made me cry (and does every time I watch it) as a grown man! The final scene breaks my heart.
True Romance
A brilliant film in many ways. So many great actors and brilliant performances throughout. I can watch it again and again.
Irreversible
Made a lasting impression on me for two main scenes. If you've seen it, you'll know what I'm on about. A film that really challenges the concept of 'enjoying' watching a film. It's more of an experience.
Grave of the Fireflies for depicting he brutal human impact of overseas war. The best film you'll only watch once. I saw the animated version.
My Neighbour Totoro for a happy place of childhood safety and calm.
Both Hiyao Miyazaki.
I, Daniel Blake definitely helped galvanise some aspects of my social conscience but definitely felt a little too blunt in that closing speech.
Many others have had impacts lasting days or even longer, have shocked and stunned but I'd be pushing it to say they have had a real long-term impact. I'd count Schindler's List and Requiem for a Dream amongst them.
Jaws
Requiem for a Dream
Man Bites Dog
"Come and See" amazing, harrowing film. Leaves other war films trailing in its wake.
Once were warriors.
The film tells the story of the Hekes, an urban Māori family, and their problems with poverty, alcoholism, and domestic violence, mostly brought on by the patriarch, Jake.
Saw it about a year after release (1995), not felt the need to watch it since.
Powerful is one way of describing it............
Dead Poets' Society.
Most of mine have been mentioned but here's a couple more that got under my skin:
Snowtown
Bully
Not sure I would want to watch either again.
The Breakfast Club (1985) - Know the script verbatim, dressed like one of the characters in mid/late 80's and more recently as a teacher a film I recommend to pupils - not one has said they didn't enjoy it. Also soundtrack.
Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) - Soundtrack (Furniture's 'Brilliant Mind' especially) and the line 'better to be alone for the right reasons than be with someone for the wrong reasons'.
Nikita (1990) - Quite possibly the classiest violent film I own.
a couple more that got under my skin:
Which has reminded me of "Under The Skin" - now that was a film which stayed with me, and I wasn't even sure why.
Which has reminded me of “Under The Skin” – now that was a film which stayed with me, and I wasn’t even sure why.
Because it's so damned good! Love that film, and much better than the book IMO
Under The Skin for me too. A Field In England is also great. Both very strangs films.