Good movies you wish you'd never seen (mild spoilers)

Cafe Society
21

Shoah for me. The Holocaust deniers should be forced, at gunpoint if necessary, to sit through this once.

Not a single frame of archive footage was used. No images of emaciated corpses being bulldozed into common graves, no still-smoking oven chambers. Instead, interviews of those who were there – witnesses, inmates, and guards – interspaced with the sites as they are today.

I didn’t see it in the theater; it was in and out too fast and would have taken two separate evenings, being over nine hours long, but about fifteen years ago, I rented the tape. I, and DesertWife had to watch it in three sessions because it was so emotionally wracking.

For me, the worst was towards the end. The interview was with a Jewish French (?) barber who, because of his profession, was kept out of the gas chambers at Treblenka to shear the hair of those passing through. He did the job for several months, but he knew full well what happened to those whose hair he cut. Then one day, his mother and his sister passed through . . .

I bawled like a baby and had to stop-tape at that point. to pick it up again the next day. In fact, I’m tearing up now as I type this. I’m glad I saw the film, it is important to do so, but never, ever again.

DD

22

I’ll go with Threads, the BBC nuclear war movie. Ted Turner showed this on WTBS once or twice during the Cold War. Far more realistic and disturbing than The Day After.

23

I didn’t get the impression that it was being taught as history. Merely that it’s an important/good piece of literature (using a broad definition) that students should experience… not unlike making kids read Shakespeare or Faulkner or Dostoevsky.

Pi.Sleepers. Requem for a Dream.
Oddly, I own all these.

24

The Field. It was well acted, directed, directed etc. I was taken by a couple of friends to see it because thay had heard it was good and they thought going out to a film would cheer me after some minor personal problems.

Most depressing film ever. They did apologise afterwards, though.

25

It’s used as a supplement. They show it after the classes have been taught the Holocaust and WW2.

26

Threads: The only reason I’ve ever watched this one again is so I could show it to someone else.

Johnny Got His Gun: a serious mindblower. The only reason I’ve been ABLE to watch it again was because I know that Timothy Bottoms didn’t actually get his face blown off in WWI (and that Donald Sutherland is not actually Jesus).

Crumb: I never regarded this one as depressing so much as fascinating… it’s a literal look into the way the guy’s mind works, and into his extremely weird family. It’s like watching aliens, in a weird kind of way. And I’m not sure I’d say he was indifferent to his brother’s problems… I mean, how’s he supposed to act? Charles Crumb was mentally ill for many years. Seems like it would have been business as usual for Robert.

Welcome To The Dollhouse: Man, that movie hurt. It was *real * to the point of being disturbing.

Gummo: I have no idea what this movie was supposed to be about, but it was remarkably ugly.

27

I’ll second Threads and add Jacob’s Ladder, which I saw in the theater when I was 12 or so.

I still don’t think I’ve quite washed all of the “ick” off yet.

28

Midnight Express.

29

Still horrifies me. That movie unteaches more than it teaches; it should be taught only by Holocaust deniers, IMHO.

30

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - so well done I never want to see it again… or even think about it.

31

How Green Was My Valley. Well acted, beautifully shot, very good adaptation from an excellent book – depressing as hell.

32

Trainspotting. A couple of the scenes haunted me for months.

33

I love this movie; one of my favorite Ford’s. I could watch it over and over again.

34

I wouldn’t want to not have seen these if you follow that, but the following were all hard to watch.

Death and the Maiden,
The Passion of the Christ[sup]*[/sup],
Saving Private Ryan,
Schindler’s List[sup]**[/sup],
Twelve Monkeys,
GATTACA[sup]***[/sup],
Se7en.
[sup]*[/sup]Whether you believe in the events depicted or not, it is still heartwrenching to see someone go through all of that cruelty. I was saddened to think that humans were capable of that violence and spent most of the movie with tears streaming. For the record I’m not overtly religious but I do have a nebulous faith in a higher power.

[sup]**[/sup]My Mother is still impressed that I didn’t say a word about it for about 20 minutes after we left the theater. I usually analyze movies and discuss them on the way out the door, but not that one. I was pale when we left.

[sup]***[/sup]I saw this movie once in the theater (and never since) and I still don’t know if I liked it or not – I find that fact disturbing.

-DF

35

That is the first and only movie that came to mind for me. I’ve only seen it once even though I think it’s one of the best and most innovative movies I have seen.

36

I don’t have any I wish I hadn’t seen, but I do wish I had stopped watching Dances With Wolves when they were getting ready to head off into the hills to hide from the army. That’s when my wife’s version of the movie ends.

37

Dollhouse was filmed in the town I grew up in, and my last name happens to (unfortunately) be Weiner. I started crying almost at the opening credits. By an hour in, I was begging my friend to shut it off. She made me watch the whole thing, and wondered why I didn’t want to do anything fun when it was over.

Sleepers was a movie I thought was well-made, but gods, I never want to watch it again. All the others I can think of have already been mentioned.

And I’m kinda re-traumatized just thinking about Dollhouse. I’m going to go have a cigarette and cry in a corner. :frowning:

38

Se7en and Glory.

39

Eraserhead by David Lynch. To be more specific, I should not have seen that movie drunk and alone at three in the morning.

Of course, the jury’s out on whether that can be considered a “good movie” at all. I was in no state to figure that out.

40

Testament