What movies deeply impacted you or spoke to you?

[Frosteon]

SW. Good and Evil are a lot of times, a point of view. And applies to real life, as well. I prefer not to get involved in a lot of the world's affairs because of the message that this teaches.

The Wrestler. I like the plotline of how his life sucks in general, and Wrestling is the only place people still care about him. He (most likely) dies doing what he loves in the end.

 

[Alan Cross]

The first movie that had a real impact on me was Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER. I saw Taxi Driver when I was 15 years old, back in 1976. It was the first time I realized a movie could be more than just a quick, fizzy, entertainment. Taxi Driver was, by turns, beautiful and ugly and scary and profoundly sad. The soundtrack, especially, is such a character in the film. What got to me was what the film said about gun violence and the mentally ill and how society creates villains and heroes and how the main character is both a hero and a villain and mentally disturbed and... it's just an amazing film and it gave me an appreciation for what was possible in movies.

 

[Halliwax]

i really connected with "october sky" little brother is kind of the odd ball, while the older is a sports hero in school. father does nothing in common with the little brother, little brother is highly involved with rockets. due to a accident, the father is injured and the little brother drops out of school to work in the coal mines, so that the older brother (who totally treated the little on like dirt) can continue school and go to college on a foot ball scholarship.

little brother only wanted his father to be proud of him..

real good movie

 

[The Terminator]

AVATAR - please note I have never seen Dancing With Wolves or Pocahontas. So in my world view it was fairly original.
STAR WARS
ALIENS
Back to the Future
Indiana Jones - All three of them.
Saving Private Ryan - which lead to Band of Brothers :love

 

[JOATRASH FX]

The Crow (1994) -

The Crow here too. But this movie DID resonate with me through it's "alternative" (I don't say the G-word because things were different back then.. EMO didn't exist...) style. I still maintain that this scene is one of the most beautiful pieces of cinema ever made:

Return of the Jedi. I don't think it's the best of the trilogy today, but back when I was a kid... I just went nuts when it came out.

Donnie Darko. Walked around in a daze all evening the first time I saw it.

Serenity. On subsequent viewings, not the first one because I hadn't seen the show at the time. Final scene is also one of the best ever put to film.

American Beauty. It's just... incredible.

The LOTR trilogy (and to a similar extent, the Hobbit trilogy). Peter Jackson took me back and made me feel the same way I did when watching Star Wars as a kid. This unbelievable sense of epic wonder and grandeur. I almost lose it at several points every time I watch them.

Aliens. Partly because of some deep, personal things that it connects me to. But also because it's such a perfect movie in so many ways.

Oblivion. Don't really know why. I was in a weirdly impressionable mood that day and it just blew me away and it stayed with me for weeks afterward.

Star Trek 2 TWOK and Generations. (Aw hell, First Contact too.) The former just because... well... Spock... and I was still pretty young when I saw it. The latter, because Sweden was a SCIFI wasteland in the 80's and early 90's and I hadn't been able to see Trek (or any other scifi show) in YEARS. So this was the first time I saw one at the MOVIES since TVH. (I also almost lose it when Data "has his little moment among the rubble at the end". Yes, I'm a sap for the fluffy things.)

Pulp Fiction. Yeah... I was swept up in it too. It just revitalized the while movie experience at the time. Still maintain that The Marvin Incident is one of the funniest scenes ever put to film.

Ghostbusters. It was the first time I really wanted a "prop" from a movie. Was at some in 8th grade and some dude in the show had a replica Proton pack...

Time Bandits and Smokey and the Bandit. Because, for all intents and purposes they were the first prop replicas I actually MADE as a child. I made the BAN-ONE license plate and I used to sit at the back of the classroom drawing the TB map. Also... the last scene in TB is STILL creepy... and the credits song by Ringo is just... odd.

 

[Laspector]

There was this movie called A Thief in the Night that came out in 1972
A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 1972 FULL - YouTube
On Youtube this is described as a religious turd-fest, which I agree with. BUT in 1972 I was 7 years old and lived deep in the Southern hell-fire and damnation Bible belt. The movie was all about the Rapture taking place and all these people disappear. My church didn't believe in going to the movies, but for some hypocritical reason they got a copy of this and showed it one Sunday night. The people there took this movie as a 100% truth, and I remember everybody freaking out while watching it. To my 7 year old impressionable mind, it really scared me too. I remember having many nightmares about it. Not so much about the movie itself but what it represented. So it definately had an impact on my life back then.

I know we can't discuss religion here so I won't. But suffice to say I soon grew out of that way of thinking. Never went back.

 

[Sean]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkN0JdXRpM

 

[shiveringmelody]

Stand By Me - Made me realize around the age of 6 or so that I wanted to be a writer. Also how precise friends, family and life are and how quickly it can all end.

Batman Begins - Was the first movie that I was able to sit down and watch from start to finish after my Father died. The scenes between young Bruce and his Dad just struck a chord and still resonates with me even when I see it on television.

Robocop - As a kid a lot of stuff went over my head such as the commercial satire. Yet even with such a corrupt, bleak and messed up future the look and presence of a man turned robotic cop was like a super hero came to life.

The Crow - The whole alternative and grunge influence pulled me in. Add on Brandon Lee's performance and the great story and still remains one of my favs today.

 

[CelticRuins]

Lord of the Rings: The books too, but the movies brought me the love of my life, they got me started into heavily costuming, and brought me many friends. Helped me back on to a path I almost had lost. When I hear the "Fellowship", "Twilight and Shadow" or "Sam and Frodo" themes, I always get choked up. No matter what ups and downs there are within that fandom for me, those movies will always have a huge place in my heart.

LotR is an outstanding favorite as well as striking a chord...but these are some movies that will always just impact me psychologically speaking:

Garden State: The soundtrack primarily, but a good chunk of what was happening with his "friends" in that movie, where echoing the "friends" I thought I had.

The Fountain: That movie is beautifully depressing. Hypnotic, if you will.

And it wasn't that great of a movie, but The Lovely Bones. I can't get the after-life scenes out of my head. Paired with the haunting soundtrack.

 

[Raphael Argus]

Wow, this was kinda tough for me. Some entire movies have impacted my life, while on others it was certain moments. Here are a few of my choices...some are unconventional.

Star Wars/Star Trek - This one is obvious for most all of us. Science Fiction has impacted my life in so many deep ways, I can not count them all.

Star Trek II - Spock's death scene brings me to tears every damn time. The scene is about true friendship. One so deep and so strong that one will sacrifice himself to save the other. That theme of the friendship between men really hits home for me.

Grease - WTF?! Yes, Grease. I saw this when it first came to cable as a kid, and the story always left my 9 year old self feeling sad at first and then happy at the end. The theme of two teens in love, then separated, then reunited but didn't really 'find' each other until the end meant something to me and still does.

Firestarter - Huh? When my daughter was the same age as Drew Barrymore in the film, the display of how close Dad and daughter were got me. The part where dad is dying and his daughter is telling him not to go chokes me up every damn time. That part is a heartbreaker for me.

Time After Time - Really? The 'Man out of time' finding his love interest brutally murdered was traumatizing...especially the scene with the bloody apartment. I learned that I wasn't into gore.

 

[atacpdx]

Star wars - For many of the reasons already stated.
Top Gun - It led me to the NAVCAD program and my wings.
A River Runs through it - As a lifelong fly fisherman with a black sheep sibling, this was tailor made for me and I already loved the Novella.
LOTR Trilogy - I 1st read the books in elementary school and have read them yearly since. The movies were everything I ever pictured in my head and more.

 

[Wetwired]

Brainstorm (1983) - IMDb
Recording your what you feel when you die really touched me. Great movie ahead of its time.

The Last Temptation of ****** (1988) - IMDb
Religion and being human, lots to think bout.

A Clockwork Orange (1971) - IMDb
I really wanted to be Alex even if I knew it was wrong. Really makes you think about free will.

 

[NeoRutty]

Obviously Star Wars... It pretty much catapulted me into love of movies.

Batman 1989 - Even though I was already a pretty big movie nerd, this awoke something in me that was sleeping. A love for Batman. When I got married I had on Batman shoes and a Batman Lego minifig on boutonniere (or BATonniere, if you will...)

High Fidelity - I still hold this as one of my favorite films of all time. I loved the book, loved the movie just as much. There's just something about it. I already told my daughter that the first time she goes through a break up, with that boy that she thought would be her true love forever, we're going to pour some drinks and watch Rob Gordon smoke and complain about his life.

 

[Snowtrooper]

ALIEN affected me the most. I saw it when I was 10 and I had nightmares about it for years to come. Things like the inside of my school becoming the inside of the derelict and knowing that a facehugger was waiting for me around the corner was common. Even to this day, I will once in awhile have a dream about a acertian aspect or that I'm in a certain situation related to it.

 

[Art Andrews]

I am LOVING reading all of these. This is just great stuff!

 

[Master Valon]

Like pretty much everyone here, Star Wars is my first and foremost. I don't think my dad knew what he was starting when he showed me ANH on VHS when I was 2. I had watched the OT many, many times by the time the SEs came out in theaters, which I went to. So by the time TPM came out, even though I was 5, I was already enamored with SW. It was so engrossing for all the reasons we all know, and it helped me immensely when I was bullied and ostracized in elementary school. I could always go home and read the SW books, and play with my ships and watch the movies. And 10 years later, the toys have gotten a bit cooler but I'm still playing in that world!

Other movies that affected me, for more empathetic/emotional reasons relating to their content:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower-

This movie almost perfectly encapsulates a lot of what I went through late in high school/early college. Almost too perfectly in a lot of cases. I can't watch it without tearing up. If I want people to understand how I feel a lot of the time, I've had them watch this.

Blade Runner-

As Scott said, Roy's last words summarize everything I love about this movie. I think Blade Runner was one of the first movies where I thought it was gonna be something cool, but nothing unexpected, but then had all my expectations flipped on their head. To me anyway, that scene showed me that I was wrong to have blindly been rooting for Deckard the whole time, for him to "retire" these replicants. And then of course the main question it leaves you with is to this day my favorite open ended aspects to discuss of any movie.

50/50-

*****, what an emotional roller coaster this movie is! I think it holds the record for movie that has made me go from crying like a baby to grinning like a madman to laughing in the shortest amount of time. Like others have mentioned about other films, the music accompanying the powerful scenes just push it over the top. The climactic scene where "The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack" plays...water works.

Oldboy (the original)

Only movie to have made me physically sick while watching.

 

[JcM528491]

Fight Club: Oh, God!! This movie found me at just the right time!! I was just on the beginning cusp of my now full force insomnia, AND I was 16 and needing some direction, and this film talked to both. I felt for the narrator, living like I was, day to day, needing a way to just let go. Then I sided with Tyler because he was free in every way I wanted to be. Like my parents were forcing me to believe what they did, and I very rarely questioned, I really didn't think of having a mind, opinion, or even a personality of my own! Then, this movie pushed me in the right side, and I'm now independent, stuck with the right friends and just being me and free! (Wow, that was hardly as inspirational as I thought it would be, but oh well, it's the truth!!)

Zombieland: Don't laugh!! Stop... st... ok..... ya done? Ok, the reason why is because it really puts things into perspective. Like, you have all of this stuff... all these things you have to do and all these things you put off... annnnnd you're gone. Rule 32. enjoy the little things.

The Back To The Future Trilogy: I have never found a better: family, coming of age, action, comedy, drama trilogy than this! I mean wow! Friendship is everything! Trust is key, love conquers all, and you're future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!

 

[redinight]

I completely agree with you on Prometheus !!

The movie that changed my world, the first I couldn't be more of a fan of was Jurassic Park. Movie making, dinosaurs, perfect marketing, pure fun.

Having said that before JP, I viewed Indy as a super hero in Temple of Doom as a little kid. I always wanted the costume it's what ultimately drove me to cow and here.

About the same age, Tombstone. That is my favorite Americana film ever. Cannot get enough of the characters or dialogue. I was six and it made me consider the movies my parents watch might actually be good. The next year I got a single action .22 six shooter for my birthday. I was allowed to play with it on my own, on my grandparents farm after each VHS viewing ! Not much to collect though.

Apocalypse Now, literally with the opening song The End, drove me to find what music I like. The Doors will always be my first love and real introduction to music. Not to mention the movie is hands down genius. Read Heart of Darkness!

All things Lucasfilm. Star Wars inspires me daily. It's my favorite stuff, I'm thankful for what George gave us.

 

[Soulinertia]

Can you guess what I'm going to say . . .?

Fight Club: This movie hit me like a punch to the face. It was a time in my life where I was figuring out what kind of person I was and who I was going to become. What direction would I take my life? What was REALLY important? This movie spoke to me in a way no other movie ever has. And it's so jam-packed with profound quotes and words to live by, I often reference them, (even if only in my own mind) on the daily.

• "Man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. ******** it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables – slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy **** we don't need.We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

Collecting and making FC clothing and props has become an obsession of extremely ironic proportions! LOL

The Matrix: Thisis a runner-up for me. It really made me question concepts of authority and reality, but the 2nd and 3rd film kind of knocked the first one down a few pegs. Something I didn't think was possible. In my own mind I have rewritten the ending to this trilogy to set things right.

 

[jkno]

I grew up with SW OT in a hard time when Romania was under Communist and Soviet rule (70's and 80's). I watched ANH and ESB on cinema, but ROTJ had to watch on a friend's VHS player since Ceausescu (the Communist leader/president) didn't allow it to run on cinemas. Before 1990 there were hard times in this part of the world, and Star Wars OT was like a light tower for people here, especially for children who watched it. Of course there were no SW toys to be found in the Eastern Block, but even so I considered SW an inspiration, a way to make people forget about their every day problems.

I remember one day coming from school with two friends (I was about 9-10 back then if remember correctly), and we've seen a new BMW car parked near the school. since it was a different car that the ones we were used seeing ever day we got near it and looked inside. On one of the doors there was a bumper sticker with Vader fighting with Luke with their lightsabers, we stood there for half an hour looking at it and remembering scenes from the movie. The car was still there for about 3 weeks - seems it was a German from Western Germany (the non-Communist Germany, from across the Wall) who came in visit to a house in our city... As I said SW had a huge impact on some of the children here, especially on me.

More recently movies like The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Ninth Gate, Ghost in the Shell or October Sky impacted me.