What movie has had the biggest impact on you?

I don’t think any have. And I have seen a ton of movies. (I worked as a projectionist for three years in college)

But there is one book that I feel completely changed my outlook on life for the better. So it is possible for me to feel that way about media, just no film has done it yet.

@johnpowell Oh? What book?

Siddhartha

@johnpowell Oh I read that book in English last year! It was beautiful!

Gone Baby Gone. Made me think a lot about law and justice. The law doesn’t always serve justice, but justice can sometimes do harm to people. To follow the law or justice, that’s a really hard question.

This is difficult! I love movies. :/
Just one…well, I guess – Apollo 13
Directed by Ron Howard.
I loved the Apollo Space Missions, and I remember this particular flight very well.
It was very well done, the cast was excellent.

There isn’t just one. In my life, I have seen hundreds, maybe thousands of movies. I’ve picked up a little here and a little there from most of them.

To pick one movie as “most meaningful” is actually insulting to the hundreds of movies that have shaped me into what I am today.

Rather than a movie, I took a class on Third Cinema in college, which included films that were illegal to watch in their home countries. The contrast between these films and Dumb and Dumber, which came out at the same time was a heap of dissonance for my 20-year-old brain.

I don’t know about “changed my life” but there have been a few movies that stuck in my head for a while.

They are obscure and arbitrary, no doubt. It’s all about the timing probably.

Green street hooligans and Castaway. Weird, I know.

Clockwork Orange shook me up when I saw it. It used an interesting technique of simulating the depiction of violence in a non-graphic way which, for me at least, was very chilling, because it forces you to consider the thinking that goes into the violence rather than the act itself.

I must be among the few who did not get into 2001. It just moved too slowly for me. There was a sequence where they were playing a Strauss waltz that literally put me to sleep.

I don’t think any one movie had a huge impact on me but there are some that I have memories of that won’t quit. I was always a lover of animals and so animal movies would make me cry as both a child and as an adult. Any Lassie movie. Free Willy. The one that I remember the most was The Yearling. Harry and Tonto. The Incredible Journey.

Some really funny movies leave me with fond memories: Superbad. Borat. Fargo. Meet the Parents. I could think of more and will probably think of more later. I really like comedies that are a little offbeat, like Fargo. I don’t usually like the “typical” comedy. For me to like Superbad and Borat is really just a fluke. I Liked Silver Linings Playbook.

The two with Jack Nicholson, one with Helen Hunt and one with Diane Keaton. The line he said to Helen Hunt, “You make me want to be a better man.” I think that was a great line. Thelma and Louise was great. I wish there could be a sequel, but if you know the movie, you know there cannot ever be a sequel. Another good action movie but one that was not huge in the box office is Set It Off with Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith.

I love anything with Robert DeNiro. I’d say he’s my favorite actor and he is quintessentially New York.

Also, there are a few scary ones that really stuck with me, the biggest being The Shining (Jack Nicholson version). The Silence of the Lambs was pretty scary.

Harold and Maude comes to mind.

Papillon
taxi driver
one flew over the cuckoos nest
There are others but these and some of the novels they were based on were partially responsible for changing my world view in a positive way.

The Pianist.

One of the greatest movies of all time-Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil”-the trailor only hints at its greatness. Watch it and see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wh2b1eZFUM
It has so many elements that need expressing-cold bureaucracy, impassioned search for love and meaning, railing against mendacity, controlling your own destiny, comfort with chaos and violence, betrayal, ....I could go on but I can’t express what this one film does without lecturing. It’s a damn good adventure film to boot. You will garner your own meaning from it I’m sure.

Trivia note: Robert DeNiro plays “the phantom repairman”. He provided the tools and toolbelt from his own possessions.He is so damn cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dht_3NziwSw

I think this fiilm must have been a true Labor of Love.,(Yeah, I know it shouldn’t be capitalized, but I can’t help it. It deserves it!)

@David_Achilles Yeah, Brazil is great, and the phantom repairman such a great character – I’d watch a whole movie just about him.

@Zaku The whole movie was a revelation to me about what movies could be. I’d love to see De Niro himself reprise his role as the Phantom Repairman! Wouldn’t that be great??

@David_Achilles Yeah it could be awesome – I wonder what that world is like thirty years later…

And yes, it is a different class of film.