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...in your life.
For me it was Dead Poets Society.
I saw this movie in my 9th grade English class. It colored everything after that, and for years I counted it as my number one favorite film.
Even now I make a special mark on the calendar to watch it every September, and after almost 20 years I find it still very affecting.
Though, ultimately, I joined the Army, I studied English and literature because of this film.
What movie significantly affected you in the early years?
Xtro.
...in your life.
For me it was Dead Poets Society.
I saw this movie in my 9th grade English class. It colored everything after that, and for years I counted it as my number one favorite film.
Even now I make a special mark on the calendar to watch it every September, and after almost 20 years I find it still very affecting.
Though, ultimately, I joined the Army, I studied English and literature because of this film.
What movie significantly affected you in the early years?
Man that would be a hard one to pin down. I love movies and picking out one that has had an impact on my early life...
I guess I would have to say Glory. It's one of my favorites. I don't know, something about struggling to accomplish something even if you know that the outcome would be failure seems to strike a cord with me. Glory represents that to me. I admire people that are like that. It has shaped me into the person I am today.
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In all seriousness...The Terminator. I knew that the robot wasn't real, but when it was revealed at the end, I was fascinated.
Within a few years, I was also into comics (like the X-men) and things such as Sentinel robots and the mutant inventor Forge (one of my favorite characters) drew me more towards a love of mechanisms.
Without all those influences, I might never have become an engineer, and my entire life would have been different.
Bogart in The Maltese Falcon. If I were smart enough, I'd want to be just like Sam Spade.
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Ooh, this is a very hash question !
One of my favourite movies is Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924).
I have seen it at least 4 times (it's quite difficult since there is no DVD yet).
Then, since I love westerns, Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959).
But I could write down so many movies I love...
Directors like John Ford, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Tim Burton, John Lasseter, Nick Park, Joseph Mankiewicz, Howard Hawks, Robert aldrich, Steven Soderbergh, John Carpenter, Georges Romero, Jacques Tourneur, Tod Browning, King Vidor (and many more) have made such wonderful movies !!
I know this is gonna get me funny looks, but for me Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal is probably the single most important film in my life. It is probably the first movie I ever saw, was my constant companion growing up, is still a source of comfort today and gave me the life-long love of fantasy that found me more friends than any other aspect of my life. It is one of the triumvirate of media, along with Star Wars and Robotech, that most shaped me into the person I am today. D&D is a very close fourth.
Dead Poets, Glengarry Glen Ross, Inventing the Abbotts, Empire Strikes Back, Donnie Darko, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jaws I, Godfather I and II, Goodfellas, Nightmare on Elm Street I, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, Waitress, Once, Outsiders, Young Frankenstein, Gremlins, A Christmas Story, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Dial M for Murder, A Thousand Clowns, Days of Wine and Roses, In the Company of Men, Tod Browning's Freaks, Once Upon a Time in the West, M, and a couple dozen others have all made me stop and wonder at the world. Amazing stories or performances or twists or just being in the right frame of mind at that time. All of these blew me away for one reason or another (another vote for Gummo, too).
But, the one that allowed me to see that individuality was ok in the world and that I didnt need to conform to whatever my friends were watching and praising as the funniest or greatest thing ever was watching Cool Hand Luke in about 8th/9th grade. Ive seen it probably only 6 times all the way thru, but it has some of the most quotable lines and...oh I just cant explain it. Just, that movie is the most important to me!
One of my favourite movies is Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924).
I have seen it at least 4 times (it's quite difficult since there is no DVD yet).
Greed! Great movie. It's not available on DVD? That is a travesty!
Anyway, I'd have to choose the Apu trilogy, by Satyajit Ray. These three movies about a man's childhood and adulthood affects me like no other. Very emotional every time I watch them. Ultimately it's about inner triumph despite life hard shocks. If you are open to old foreign movies, please do yourself a favor and find these (not an easy thing to do though, as the DVDs are no longer released).
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Oh, jeez... there are a lot for me... Bowling for Columbine, ZEITGEIST, There Will Be Blood, The Fifth Element, K-Pax, Into the Wild, The Patriot, Death Proof, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Serenity Dead Alive, The Toxic Avenger, Evil Dead, Cube, Man with a Screaming Brain, A Clockwork Orange, Stargate, Sin City, Pan's Labyrinth, the list goes on and on.
However, the film most important to me would probably have to be The Boondock Saints. I don't know exactly why it affects me so profoundly, but every time I watch it, it's... it's almost a religious experience for me.
The Big Lebowski.
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Almost forgot Gleaming the Cube. God, I wanted a metal skateboard when I was a kid. Who am I kidding -- I still want a metal skateboard. And a Pizza Hut truck. And a bomb shelter bedroom.
Groundhog day...strange as it may seem
Made me realise that every day gives you an opportunity to learn/do/achieve something new....if you choose to take it.
Sounds a bit naff - but rescued me from some serious suicidal depression a few years back...
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Groundhog day...strange as it may seem
Made me realise that every day gives you an opportunity to learn/do/achieve something new....if you choose to take it.
Sounds a bit naff - but rescued me from some serious suicidal depression a few years back...
i might have to go with this one as well. i had liked the movie before i went to prison, but i saw it again, as a "reward" during an in-prison rehab program, and it reminded me of the situation i was in. every day inprison is basically the same, only defined by the steps you take to improve yourself and ensure you have the tools to never go back when you're finally released.
thanks for reminding me of that one :)
(of course, BEFORE i went to prison, the most influential movie would have been a toss up between goodfellas and scarface...)
...in your life.
For me it was Dead Poets Society.
The young man who killed himself in that movie was based on a the uncle of a client of mine.
Personal life: Big Fish (cursi...)
RPG life: Willow (as a big milestone for "medieval" fantasy movies)
Deep-thinking life: Any of Wef Anderson (personal favorite: Royal Tenembaunts)
Personal life: Big Fish (cursi...)
RPG life: Willow (as a big milestone for "medieval" fantasy movies)
Deep-thinking life: Any of Wef Anderson (personal favorite: Royal Tenembaunts)
Love me some Wes Andersen. Tennenbaums was my favorite as well. Darjheeling Express probably my least favorite (after Bottle Rocket, but that was a low-budget first try).
Love me some Wes Andersen. Tennenbaums was my favorite as well. Darjheeling Express probably my least favorite (after Bottle Rocket, but that was a low-budget first try).Personal life: Big Fish (cursi...)
RPG life: Willow (as a big milestone for "medieval" fantasy movies)
Deep-thinking life: Any of Wef Anderson (personal favorite: Royal Tenembaunts)
Hehehe Tenembauts, my writing was faaar off. Luckly you know better.
I liked a the Darjheeling Express (especially the begining with bill murray running like crazy to be left behind XD, but not my favorite. Life aquatic my second favorite.
Forgot one:
"I left my brain in a jar" life: Top Secret (I guess that was its name, very 80's old movie of super spies...
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Saving Private Ryan
I used to suffer from the "war is cool" thought process of most children. I grew out of it, but never understood what war is not only "not cool", it is decidedly "uncool".
SPR made me feel: joyful, regretful, nervous, nauseated, cynical, thankful, and hundreds of other nuanced emotions. I've never had that experience before or since. It was powerful, I was quiet the entire night afterwords, which is rare for me around friends.
Creative Director
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Although my favorite movies are Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, and Jaws... I suspect that the most important film I've ever seen was Godzilla. I was already pretty deep into dinosaurs when I saw this on Creature Features late one Saturday night. It was the first movie in what would become a weekly tradition with my Dad to stay up late on Saturday to watch monster movies, and it was certainly the movie that not only cemented my love of monster movies but my love for monsters themselves.
And as it turns out, a love for monsters is a pretty important quality for the job I ended up having today.
"Goonies never say die!"
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For me the most important movie is Star Wars (the one released in 1977). Soon after it came out there was a television special about all the special effects. I remember watching the sound designers show how they collected all the sound effects for the movie and said "I want to do that... "
I would guess the second most important for me would be Star Trek. I watched that movie and said "I can write something like that... ".
All my career choices since have been loosely based on those two statements.
Fellini's Satyricon. It came at exactly the right time for me. I saw it when I was struggling to forge my own identity in apartheid South Africa. The film was banned, but we got hold of a copy, and watched it in a small cinema in Hilbrow, Johannesburg. It blew my mind, and it changed the way I looked at humanity. It gave me a hunger to find the history, and psychology of the mad people around me, and led me away from anger, and towards sympathy and understanding. The key insight I gained from the film, was the same insight that one gets from reading Frazer's Golden Bough, that paradigms, erroneous as they are, are still complex, and robust. People in madness believe themselves sane, and we are all trapped in our paradigms.
Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves was quite educational in what it said about some Hollywood film-making.
I'm not sure how important that was, though.
I remember we kept calling it "Prince of Dweebs" when it came out...
Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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Well, mine's not a deep, soul-defining film (can't think of the MOST important film in THAT regard), but.....
Singles was pretty important in that it got me motivated to look to grad school in the Pacific Northwest, instead of the Midwest. I was finishing up undergrad in Kearney, Nebraska and the grunge scene was just hitting, and "Singles" came out, showing me that Seattle was perhaps the coolest place on Earth. I walked out thinking, "I am SO going to live in Seattle."
I made it to Moscow, Idaho...a mere 5 hours away from Seattle. Took me another 3.5 years to finish grad school and make the final move to Seattle. And I moved there for a woman...who is my wife now.
Of course, grunge was dead by then. (shrug) Whatever. I made it.
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Big. Yup, the movie with Tom Hanks. I decided not to let myself 'grow old' mentally because of that movie.
Same here, actually. Big difference between being mature and being old, and being old is lame.
Although my favorite movies are Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, and Jaws... I suspect that the most important film I've ever seen was Godzilla. I was already pretty deep into dinosaurs when I saw this on Creature Features late one Saturday night. It was the first movie in what would become a weekly tradition with my Dad to stay up late on Saturday to watch monster movies, and it was certainly the movie that not only cemented my love of monster movies but my love for monsters themselves.
And as it turns out, a love for monsters is a pretty important quality for the job I ended up having today.
You sound like my younger brother, James! Him and I stayed up late to watch monster movies with my dad. One time he watched one about a giant octopus, and he wouldn't go near ANY water for a month. I do mean ANY water.
A movie that affected me for the worse was Neverending Story and White Fang in combination. I used to love wolves, and I do more now than ever, but for about 5 years I had a crippling phobia of wolves because of the G'Mork and the scene in White Fang where the wolves surround the campfire (I used to go camping a lot).
It got so bad I used to imagine wolves stalking around the upper floor of our house as I lay in bed. I got over it, though.
Yup, the movie with Tom Hanks.
Should I admit that "Bachelor Party" is one of my all-time faves? When my wife says something that I can't hear over her hip-hop music, I sometimes still yell "Nick the WHAT?!"
The one movie that I'll ignore everything else going on just to see when it is on is "Sergeant York".
For most of my life I probably would have answered this question with "Star Wars." It was the first movie I ever saw, has has certainly left an indelible mark on my psyche (and sense of morality) that will pretty much never go away.
However, I think the film that has made the biggest impression on me was Akira Kurosawa's Ran, a re-telling of Shakespeare's King Lear in the trappings of Japanese feudalism. It's not only my favorite movie, its also the first movie I saw that made me literally start questioning the meaning of life itself back when I was ten or so. I watch it every year and still find myself tearing up at the end.
Kyoami - "Are there no gods... no Buddha? If you exist, hear me. You are mischievous and cruel! Are you so bored up there you must crush us like ants? Is it such fun to see men weep?"
Tango Hirayama - "Enough! Do not blaspheme! It is the gods who weep. They see us killing each other... over and over since time began. They can't save us from ourselves. Don't cry! It's how the world is made. Men prefer sorrow over joy... suffering over peace."
Hehehe Tenembauts, my writing was faaar off. Luckly you know better.
I liked a the Darjheeling Express (especially the begining with bill murray running like crazy to be left behind XD, but not my favorite. Life aquatic my second favorite.
Same order of preference for me, as well. Oh, for me, Rushmore actually gets in there before Darjeeling Express.
Fellini's Satyricon. It came at exactly the right time for me. I saw it when I was struggling to forge my own identity in apartheid South Africa. The film was banned, but we got hold of a copy, and watched it in a small cinema in Hilbrow, Johannesburg. It blew my mind, and it changed the way I looked at humanity. It gave me a hunger to find the history, and psychology of the mad people around me, and led me away from anger, and towards sympathy and understanding. The key insight I gained from the film, was the same insight that one gets from reading Frazer's Golden Bough, that paradigms, erroneous as they are, are still complex, and robust. People in madness believe themselves sane, and we are all trapped in our paradigms.
Wow. I can't say I got all that from the movie. But it's nice to hear your perspective. Interesting.
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Just to clarify the original question--I'm talking about a film that moved you in a different direction; a film that changed your life.
This is the film that was most important, most influential, over all others. It may or may not be a favorite movie. For some people, there simply won't be a film like this.
When you outline your life, key decisions and changes of direction can be directly linked to viewing this film (whatever it is).
For me, DPS affected me so greatly, I left a Sciences track and focused my academics almost exclusively on the Humanities, from the ninth grade through college and graduate school.
I'd probably be an engineer or programmer, had I never seen DPS. In my life decisions, one is so far from the other, I can reasonably suppose I never would have met my wife, and my children would not exist. It doesn't get much more significant than that.
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Just to clarify the original question--I'm talking about a film that moved you in a different direction; a film that changed your life.
Exactly. Logan's Run is one of the (many) sources that made me re-evaluate my socio-political outlook.
Here you have a perfect, egalitarian society, where no one is poor, hungry or lacking for anything. In fact, they are provided with any and all kinds of pleasures and diversions. But what is the cost? The governing computer knows that human's health begins to degenerate after age 30 and that greater resources would have to be allocated to them - so it comes up with a perfectly logical solution.
It made me appreciate that personal responsibility comes as a package deal with true freedom, and that each time you hand off some of that responsibility to another entity, be it person or government, you hand over some of your freedom as well.
Almost forgot Gleaming the Cube. God, I wanted a metal skateboard when I was a kid. Who am I kidding -- I still want a metal skateboard. And a Pizza Hut truck. And a bomb shelter bedroom.
Lol, I thought I was the only person who ever watched this movie!
Surprised Fight Club hasn't been mentioned by anyone!
Alien, and anything by with Ray Harryhausen rocking the stop motion.
Claymation? That reminds me...
I already mentioned Maltese Falcon; that represents the "usual me." When I'm with my wife, though, my whole outlook is colored more by Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, a film that proved to me beyond any doubt that "getting in touch your inner child" (or whatever the current babble says) isn't necessarily a bad thing to do. I saw it on a lark, and ended up leaving the theatre with a lot to think about.
Same order of preference for me, as well. Oh, for me, Rushmore actually gets in there before Darjeeling Express.
You just made me watch the Darjeeling Limited again last night... Couldn't resist the idea of watching Bill Murray running gaian. -ans some nice shots of Natalie...
And Fight Clob its also one of my favs.. but I don't know how to "classify" it
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All the Harryhausen movies got me to love monsters, esp the skeletons in the Argonauts/7th Voyage of Sinbad. Those movies piqued my intest in all things fantasy/Sci-fi and monster related. Later on seeing boxes of lead minis with Minotaurs or Skeletons depicted on them, and that was it. From then on Gygax, Grenadier and TSR had me hooked.
The original War of the Worlds (1953 George Pal version), The Road Warrior (Gamma World FTW!) and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". The original Halloween was big for me also.
It's against the rules....you're out.
LOL XD GREAT remark