What (fiction) films have had the biggest impact on how you look at life?
The Hustler with Paul Newman as “Fast” Eddie Felson explanning how people feed off of other peoples talant.
Quote:
“Fast” Eddie Felson: You still don’t see it, do you, Charlie? You are nothing but a small-time Charlie. You’d love to keep me hustling for you, huh? Wouldn’t ya? I mean, a couple more years with me, scuffling around them little towns and those back alleys. You might make yourself enough to get a little poolroom back in Oakland. Six tables and a handbook on the side. Is that when you say goodbye to me, Charlie?
So many other great quotes and lessons in the film.
Being There with Peter Sellers. It made me realize appearance was important.
Groundhog Day made me appreciate perfect moments.
SUPERMAN II. I had a big, life-changing decision to make, and I honestly couldn’t figure out which way to go — and so I sought out someone brainy that I figured could be counted on to say the wrong thing: giving me bad advice, so I could then do the opposite.
As a direct result, I’m happily married with plenty of money in the bank.
Brokeback Mountain had a pretty profound effect on my perspective of same-sex relationships. Having been fully brainwashed growing up as a fundamentalist, young-earth, creationist, Pentecostal, it was shortly after my religious deconstruction that the movie came out. Even though it was fiction, I felt such sadness and loss in the exact same way I would for a hetero couple. It remains one of my favourite movies to this day.
The movie that made me aware of “the perfect moment” was Swimming To Cambodia. I know a perfect moment is waiting for me at some point in every road trip I undertake…the trick is never to expect it.
I think Testament (1983) might have helped do this for me.
Kurosawa’s Ikiru made me appreciate how we can give meaning to our lives even with pursuits that go largely unnoticed.
I watched 12 Angry Men with my father when I was a boy. The performances of all the men from Henry Fonda as the good Samaritan to the prejudiced bitter man wanting to play judge, jury and executioner and all the others who entered that room wanting to get it over with quickly because it inconvenienced their lives … it was a sensational movie with such a powerful message and insight into human nature. That profoundly opened my eyes to the matter of law and justice.
I now plan to watch this soon — thanks.
While I was already far along this path, Life of Pi presented it much more poetically regarding what one chooses to believe: which is the better story?
The Year of Living Dangerously. Mainly Linda Hunt’s role as Billy Kwan. Two lines stood out for me:
“You just don’t think about the major issues. You do whatever you can about the misery that’s in front of you. Add your light to the sum of light.”
and
“Starvation is a great aphrodisiac.”
The movie came at a time in my life where I was just starting to travel and see the world, and what poor really means outside the US.
When I saw Until The End of the World, I emerged feeling like it was the first truly life-affirming film I’d ever seen, there was such a joy to the journey in it and a hopeful look at the future.
Also, seeing In Bruges blew my mind and just a couple of years later I visited the city. It was…disappointing.
There’s a great scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Roger and Eddie Valiant are handcuffed together and Eddie is furiously trying to cut the handcuff off his wrist but the wooden crate or table on which he’s working is rocking, making it difficult. So Roger slips out of the handcuff on his wrist and comes around to hold the table steady.
Eddie notices and says angrily, “You mean to tell me that you could have taken your hand out of that cuff at any time?!”
“No, Eddie. Only when it was funny.”
That’s become my perspective on life.
Joe vs. the Volcano - “If you have a choice between killing yourself and doing something you’re scared of doing, why not take the leap and do the thing you’re scared of doing?” Dialed back, don’t let fear be what holds you back from changing an unsatisfactory situation.
Shirley Valentine - If you’ve got a dream, go after it while you can. The rest of the world will sort itself out.
After seeing Jaws, I was afraid to go swimming. After seeing Jaws 2, I was afraid to go to the movies.
And after one of the Star Wars instalments, I figured I was getting too old for that shit franchises.
The Joy Luck Club - It drove home the sometimes complex relationships between mothers and daughters that previously I had no concept of.
Empire of the Sun - When young Christian Bale says towards the end of the film when his rescue from the POW camp is imminent, “I can’t remember what my parents look like,” that floored me. He’d made such a “success” from his new life as a prisoner and the war had become his new normal that his old life in a normal childhood was too far gone to remember.
Men in Black - That short line from K when he tells J that “A person is smart. People are dumb.” I think about that a lot when I see generalizations of groups of people, or when I feel predisposed to judge someone based on some demographic they belong to.
I was at that point, but having been raised wishy-washy “just come to our church and give us money”, I was thinking about constructing my spirituality.
Saw The Seventh Seal and realized my journey was a lot like Max Von Sydow’s disillusioned knight.