Movies that touched a nerve...
For whatever reason: story, writing, acting.. enlightenment.. etc. there are certain movies that have hit me harder than others. They created an emotion, a feeling, that has stuck with me for years, even decades. They live on in my mind as an emotional connection to a time or place in my life and it's not always clear to me why. LOL Some are great movies, some aren't but for whatever reason these movies made a strong impression on me.
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- DirectorWoody AllenStarsMartin LandauWoody AllenBill BernsteinAn ophthalmologist's mistress threatens to reveal their affair to his wife while a married documentary filmmaker is infatuated with another woman.One of my "top 5" movies of all-time. Beautifully written. A lifetime of Woody Allen's psychoanalysis on display here. The insights into life and the meaning of it all are thought-provoking.
I walked out of the theater feeling different then when I went in -- always the mark of a great movie, for me. - DirectorClint EastwoodStarsForest WhitakerDiane VenoraMichael ZelnikerThe troubled life and career of jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker.Reprinted from my IMDB review:
There are certain movies that leave you dazed when you walk out of the theater. For me, "Bird" was such a movie.
On a nice evening in 1988 I decided to take in a movie on the spur of the moment. I walked to the nearest theater (Fine Arts, Downtown Chicago) and looked to see what was playing. I had never heard of Charlie Parker nor his music, but I was developing a love of jazz and the movie being directed by Clint Eastwood didn't hurt.
I went in, found a seat and had no way of knowing that, in a couple of hours, my life would be different.
The music penetrated my soul in ways I could never express. I was in awe and filled with emotion as the music carried me away while the visions of Charlie Parker's life flashed in front of my face. When the final credits scrolled up the screen, I could not move. I was frozen to my seat, dazed, overwhelmed, completely awed. I couldn't get the music out of my head, songs were playing back as if I'd listened to them a thousand times. My mind felt as if it were orbiting the sun.. spinning round and round, bathed in this warmth of beauty.
I didn't walk out of the the theater so much as stagger. I walked around for miles just playing over and over in my mind what I'd seen and heard and finally, hours after the movie ended, I found myself in front of an all night music store where I bought the soundtrack and raced home to listen to it.
No matter that I had to get up in the morning for work... no matter that the movie had ended before 10pm but I didn't find my way home until after 2am. No matter that I was dead tired from walking dazed miles in a haze of thought.
I played that CD until I fell asleep then took it to work and played it all day... I played it constantly for weeks and then I started to buy other Charlie Parker CDs and reading everything I could about him. Charlie Parker is my favorite musician of all time, to this day, nearly 20 years later (20+ years now --ed.)... and it began with this movie." - DirectorSam MendesStarsKevin SpaceyAnnette BeningThora BirchA sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.Wow... what a movie! This movie is just incredible. From the first scene to the last, I was completely in love with this movie! Funny, ironic, witty, dark & twisted, beautifully written and acted -- it was a complete pleasure. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days afterward! This is, IMHO, one of the best films I've ever seen - a top five placement, easily. Alan Ball, who went on to create the incredible series "Six Feet Under", wrote the screenplay
- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsTom HanksElizabeth PerkinsRobert LoggiaAfter wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.I was in my early 20s when I saw this movie and I guess I was still close enough to my teen years to relate to the young kid who wants to grow up and be "Big". Watching his progression from childhood (playing with friends, fretting about girls, dealing with parents) to adulthood (finding a job, getting an apartment, fretting about girls, dealing with parents) was like a mirror on my own life at that time... and that resonated with me powerfully.
I thought about this movie for days after. - DirectorSydney PollackStarsJane FondaMichael SarrazinSusannah YorkThe lives of a disparate group of contestants intertwine in an inhumanely grueling dance marathon.I first saw this movie when I was in my early-teens... WOW! What a film! It was one of the best films that I had ever seen to that point. The movie is intense and brilliant with a story of an era (the great depression) and an event (marathon dance competitions) that I knew little of, but that completely fascinated me. This movie is in my Top 5 list of greatest movies ever. ”
- DirectorHector BabencoStarsWilliam HurtRaul JuliaSonia BragaA gay man and a political prisoner are together in a prison. The gay man narrates the stories of two fake movies and his own life.I saw this movie when I was in college. I knew nothing about the film when I went in. After the first few minutes I seriously thought about walking out.. the first time I'd ever considered doing that while watching a film.
I was, like many young men at that time, very homophobic. A sociological disease that infected me during my H.S. years when we/I were taught, via peers, that homosexuality was a deviant lifestyle/choice and that gay men preyed on young heterosexual boys.
I had to make myself stay and watch "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" and for that decision I was rewarded with enlightenment. By the end of the movie... for the first time, I realized that homosexuality was about love, not sex.
This movie cured me of my homophobia. - DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodMeryl StreepAnnie CorleyPhotographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.The best love story I've ever seen on film. Meryl Streep's scene in the truck at the end of the movie, as Eastwood stands outside in the rain, is one of the most powerful scenes I've ever witnessed. The torturous longing, the emotion.. it's palpable.
- DirectorFernando MeirellesKátia LundStarsAlexandre RodriguesLeandro FirminoMatheus NachtergaeleIn the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.I don't remember how this movie came to my attention but the fact that it showed images of life in Brazil was enough for me. But I wasn't prepared for this story based on actual events. WOW... it's an incredible well made movie! The directing, acting and screenplay are all superb and the story it tells is sad and amazing. The DVD also includes a documentary that itself is worth the cost of the DVD.
- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonOver the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDanny AielloOssie DavisRuby DeeOn the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.This was a big movie event for my friends and me, all young movie buffs at that time. Most of us had seen "She's Gotta Have It" and really wanted to see what Spike Lee would do next. We weren't prepared for "Do the Right Thing"! The camera work, the direction, the acting, the story... beautifully done!
As I grew older and more knowledgeable about films, I could see the influences of a host of great director's films in "Do The Right Thing" and how he applied these to his film (as all directors do) but this is a special film, told from a, then, new perspective and should be considered one of best truly American films ever created. - DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsFrank SinatraLaurence HarveyJanet LeighAn American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.The first time I saw this movie was in the late '90s, thirty plus years after its release and even then I was blown away by it! Just imagine the impact it must have had during its time in the early '60s --- the cold war; the Cuban missile crisis; the unrest in S.E. Asia (from Korea to Vietnam and the Philippines); JFK's Camelot and soon, his assassination. These were all present day (or soon to be) events at the time of its release...WOW!
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsJeremy IronsJuliette BinocheMiranda RichardsonA Member of Parliament falls passionately in love with his son's girlfriend despite the obvious dangers.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsEmilio EstevezJudd NelsonMolly RingwaldFive high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought.
- DirectorBarry LevinsonStarsDustin HoffmanTom CruiseValeria GolinoAfter a selfish L.A. yuppie learns his estranged father left a fortune to an autistic-savant brother in Ohio that he didn't know existed, he absconds with his brother and sets out across the country, hoping to gain a larger inheritance.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsHilary SwankClint EastwoodMorgan FreemanFrankie, an ill-tempered old coach, reluctantly agrees to train aspiring boxer Maggie. Impressed with her determination and talent, he helps her become the best and the two soon form a close bond.
- DirectorCameron CroweStarsBilly CrudupPatrick FugitKate HudsonA high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.
- DirectorLawrence KasdanStarsTom BerengerGlenn CloseJeff GoldblumA group of seven former college friends gather for a weekend reunion at a South Carolina vacation home after the funeral of another of their college friends.
- DirectorNeil JordanStarsStephen ReaJaye DavidsonForest WhitakerA British soldier kidnapped by the IRA soon befriends one of his captors, who then becomes drawn into the soldier's world.I saw this opening night, without having the slightest idea what it was about. Couldn't believe how packed the theatre was, literally not one seat open. I guess most there came out to see this movie, I was just looking for something to do, having already seen one film that evening and not ready to go home. When the famous scene happens... the singular gasp in the theatre sounded like all the air had been sucked out of the room, followed by a chorus of nervous laughter and outright bellows. I really loved this film.
- DirectorLina WertmüllerStarsGiancarlo GianniniMariangela MelatoRiccardo SalvinoA trip into the Mediterranean sea becomes a trip into the discovery of how society's frameworks of the rich and poor are delicate and temporary.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEthan HawkeJulie DelpyAndrea EckertA young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.Movie took me completely by surprise! Just loved the idea of this and it caught me.
- DirectorKevin CostnerStarsKevin CostnerMary McDonnellGraham GreeneLieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.Seems that many people think of this movie as a love story. I never saw it that way... the most amazing and memorable part of the story to me was how Native Americans lived... which wasn't focused on nearly long enough, but nevertheless, it was given more description than I've ever seen in a movie.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsHarvey KeitelTim RothMichael MadsenWhen a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.A friend told me about this movie in '93. I'd never heard of it and it was available in video stores... so I grabbed it up.
As the movie unfolded, I was sitting there in awe! It was, all at once, oddly familiar and completely new. By the time Madsen strolls to his car (to the beat of Steeler's Wheel - "Stuck in the Middle with You") I knew I was watching one of the best and most memorable films of my life. - StarsAdam CurtisRobert ReichAnn BernaysA documentary about the rise of psychoanalysis as a powerful means of persuasion for both governments and corporations.There is absolutely no synopsis I could write that could do ANY justice to this brilliant documentary. The truths revealed have to be heard and understood, they need to be pondered and studied... and then accepted with incredulity and amazement at how little we know of ourselves and our culture and why we and it "act" the way we do.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonGiovanni RibisiA faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.Sometimes a movie effects me for no obvious reason... this was such a movie. I just felt for the characters, this feeling of being lost/isolated which they felt in a foreign land but much more in their own lives.
- DirectorGuy RitchieStarsJason StathamRay LiottaAndré 3000Gambler Jake Green enters into a game with potentially deadly consequences.