# Good films you cannot bring yourself to keep watching **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-films-you-cannot-bring-yourself-to-keep-watching/428712 "2007-12-03T22:04:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-films-you-cannot-bring-yourself-to-keep-watching/428712/41 "2007-12-05T00:34:33Z")
Watching all nine and a half hours of _Shoah_ during a weekend was probably one of the most “passive” powerful experiences I’ve ever had, but I was emotionally drained afterward, and couldn’t stop thinking about it for days. And the movie was mostly just people talking. I think I could watch most of the other movies again that you’ve already mentioned if they were shown in some sort of academic setting. I think dissecting a movie scene by scene would allow enough emotional distance. But not with _Shoah_. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-films-you-cannot-bring-yourself-to-keep-watching/428712/42 "2007-12-05T05:45:06Z")
_The Departed_. Intense and suspenseful, but I can’t bear to watch it knowing how it all comes down. _American History X_ was good but can’t do it again. I’m going to agree with _Brokeback Mountain_ as well. Heartbreaking. ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-films-you-cannot-bring-yourself-to-keep-watching/428712/43 "2007-12-05T05:53:08Z")
Two of Todd Solondz’s films Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse. I thought they were both good movies (Welcome to the Dollhouse, probably even great. But, since I don’t want to go back and check we will never know. Does an unwatched movie flicker?) Both movies are so dark and depressing I can’t bring myself to go through with it again. Do The Right Thing is an excellent movie, but it is so intense real and angry that I can’t ever watch it again. I watched it when it came out and then 4 or 5 years later I had a group project to work on based on the movie. I had to work on misty memories and a refusal to watch it again. Please don’t tell the professor or the rest of the team. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-films-you-cannot-bring-yourself-to-keep-watching/428712/44 "2007-12-05T06:18:10Z")
[QUOTE=gallows fodder] This doesn’t make any sense to me, but I’ve rented “The Long Hot Summer” three times and have never gotten past the first fifteen minutes or so. Even though I KNOW it features Paul Newman at his most smokin’ hot (and shirtless, no less!), and the clips I’ve seen of him and Joanne Woodward together make me rush to open a window…I just…I don’t know. And I love Faulkner! I should love this movie! But for some reason, I can’t sit still and watch it in its entirety. [/QUOTE] You should keep trying. Newman has a few scenes later that make me breathless–literally, I couldn’t breathe. He’s just so gorgeous and intense and gorgeous. And the movie does pick up a bit, I think. I remember I had some trouble getting into it, too, but I’m really glad I stuck it out. Really, really glad (did I mention Newman was gorgeous and intense and gorgeous?). As for the OP, I can think of several movies I won’t watch again, but I can’t think of any I stopped watching. ---
**Author:** ![Pel2na](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Pel2na](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pel2na)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-films-you-cannot-bring-yourself-to-keep-watching/428712/45 "2007-12-05T07:55:24Z")
I won’t watch any movie based on the Holocaust. I just know that eventually I’m going to see piles of scrawny dead bodies and I just. don’t. want. to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-films-you-cannot-bring-yourself-to-keep-watching/428712.md?page=2)