Which movie has affected you profoundly?

Movie promotion time! ~

Right now the two movies on top of my best list are Ace in the Hole and The Fire Within. They are two completely different movies in term of style and pacing, but they both manage to haunt me after I have seen them for a long time.

Ace in the Hole is more about a brutally realistic reflection of a real-life issue that people can see. I won’t go into too much details to avoid spoiler, but it has a lot to do with greed and oppotunism being strengthened by the morbid curiosity and heartlessness of the mass. It doesn’t shy away or sugar coat anything. It just aims for the truth, to the point of making people uncomfortable. And I like it when movies are honest.

The Fire Within is a bit more psychological and abstract. It’s more like an existential crisis trip to Wonderland, except that this Wonderland is filled by real-life people. I just don’t know how to describe it, something about it is very surreal even though I can’t find anything surreal about it. And if that alone isn’t haunting enough, the movie talks about an issue that not many people can understand nor talk about: the feeling of being isolated while completely surrounded. This movie is a bit hard to understand because not many people can understand the problem the movie points out. But if you can understand it, it hits you hard, very hard.

Catch-22

I know it’s a cliche answer, but damn it, that final scene from Saving Private Ryan gets me every time. I don’t usually cry during movies, but without fail I start tearing up when old Matt Damon falls to his knees in the graveyard.

The whole movie is cinematically powerful, but something about that final scene has made it stick with me.

Guy Ritchie’s Revolver is definitely the one film that has gotten to me the most (It probably would’ve been Steppenwolf but I read the book way before I ever touched the film and the book is much more profound than the film). That is definitely the one film that had led me to some serious introspection, comparable to some books that I have read (definitely not comparable to the works of Herman Hesse though… except maybe Siddhartha, that one was rather bleh).

I Married a Witch was a film that bewitched me when I was quite young. I have watched it a few times since curious to learn what it was about it that fascinated me so much. Veronica Lake of course but only up to a point. The film seems pretty trite to me now, I must be grown up.

Ahh. Veronica Lake with one eye perpetually behind that veil of hair. Wonder how they pulled that off?

She was a bit of a stunner in the day though it didn’t end so well for her.

The Best Years of Our Lives, The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Passion of Joan of Arc (a silent film), Da, Becket, and too, too many others to count.

Road to Perdition

NOBODY wants to see Tom Hanks shot and killed (not even “pretend” shot and killed)

Clockwork Orange. People told me that they would not see it because it glorified violence. I went to see it on my own. The interesting thing is that there was no actual blood and guts shown. The violence was all simulated, and in a way it made it more dramatic. I left the theater with an unexplainable urge to punch something. I just checked Roger Ebert’s review. He said that the film was right wing propaganda. That is not how I saw it. It seemed more about the inherent violence in society.

I have to agree about Saving Private Ryan.
I was talking with a war vet years ago about war movies compared to reality. I asked him if he had seen that one. He said he hadn’t, but he would like to.
I warned him that the opening was quite graphic. He stated that it was a very long time ago, and he wasn’t affected all that much by movies.
I brought my copy for him to see. Not a full minute passed and he was sobbing aloud. I hit “eject” and he never tried again.
I am stricken by each end of that movie. It is quality all the way through, but the opening and end sure hit bone.

Mon Uncle d’Amerique
Mindwalk

A Passage to India directed by David Lean. I also like his Lawrence of Arabia and Summertime.

The King’s Speech is a beautiful piece of filmmaking.

All About my Mother by Pedro Almodovar

Brokeback Mountain

What the Butler Saw
We place a towel over the bedroom keyhole now, just for peace of mind mostly.