I agree on Sling Blade…that is one of those eerie movies in which you know exactly how it’s going to end because there is only one possible way for it to end. And you see all the characters madly rushing towards that single, obvious conclusion, and you know how it’s going to be and it’s not going to be good and yet you keep watching. You keep hoping something will stop this runaway train, but you know it won’t. And as a result, there is a non-stop build-up of tension. It was very very well done and I don’t care if I never see it again.
Boys Don’t Cry, definitely. I watched it with two friends, and I don’t think we talked at all for the next half hour after it ended–we just kind of sat there going “Huh. Hm. Huh.” Never watching it again.
Remembered another one last night: ** Donnie Brasco**. Everything about that flick shook me up pretty badly. I am very glad I saw it, but yeee-ikes was that hard to watch.
It doesn’t get much more depressing than a guy drinking himself to death. And there’s a rape scene that’s filmed like you’re in the room, like you’re just standing there, watching and not doing anything about it.
Unbearable.
I’d say Kids, but I hate and have no respect for that movie. It’s perhaps the most blatantly manipulative film I’ve ever seen.
Yes.
re: Kids
Blatantly manipulative – how so, Blacksheepsmith?
Re-reading the thread title, I don’t know that I would call it “great” but I thought it was pretty good.
Top Gun
Saw it as a kid. Exciting movie. Never want to see it again.
No matter how many times Turner plays and plays and plays it on cable. And this was before 9-11-01. Turner might have a g-d channel dedicated to the damned thing!
Naked. Too disturbing.
Nashville. By the time it was over I loved it, but damn it took a long time to get there.
The Grapes of Wrath:
It’s a fabulous movie, but it’s too damned heartbreaking.
Raging Bull:
Another great one, but the boxer is such a putz that I can’t stand to see him again.
Ike, I also second “A Clockwork Orange.” I think it was a great film, but it’s too gut-wrenching.
I have seen many of the films mentioned over and over again, but there are a couple that I just won’t ever see again-
A Simple Plan- damn, I was ready to kill myself at the end, I was so depressed.
Arlington Road- ok, I’m not saying it was great or anything, but I was fully engaged by it, and it made me question some things I thought to be true (like about OK City, etc). Also, that eerie Stepford-wife thing that Joan Cusack had going really freaked me out!
Oh, and a question for MsWhatsit- I have heard many people say that about “Saving Private Ryan,” but which scene do you mean?
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN SPOILER WARNING!!!
Most people remember the “opening scene” as every guy in that pt boat being cut down by machine gun fire before they even got to the beach. But the actual opening scene makes me cry a lot harder- it’s where Ryan the senior citizen breaks down in the cemetary in Normandy in the present day.
I presume that you were talking about my comment about the “ending” of American Beauty, but since Spacey’s character says “I am dead.” within the first two minutes of the film, I didn’t think that mentioning that he was dead would be a spoiler.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Shoah. Not b/c of it’s length, but b/c it pretty much dominated my life for about six months afterwards. Devastating in it’s impact.
Platoon. That movie makes me so sad I never want to see it again. Mr. Lunasea doesn’t understand, because he loves it. It is a great movie, but I can’t watch it anymore.
I agree with American Beauty also, but because I find it way to predictable.
Last of the Mohicans.
I felt like Willian Wallace afterwards.
American History X gets my vote. It was a great movie with a great message, but I just can’t ever watch it again. Even thinking about it all I see is that kid with his mouth on the curb… :::shivers:::
I totally forgot about Boys Don’t Cry. That one is definitely on my list.
Dancer In The Dark and Breaking The Waves. Von Trier’s stories piss me off - he gives us a loveable, handicapped female lead and sadistically tortures her for the rest of the film. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader whether Von Trier’s films can be qualified as great.
I have watched Dancer multiple times, though, because I’m a Björk fanatic. I even memorized how to do the umlaut.
Scum - it’s a British film about boys in Borstal (juvenile detention). It is an incredibly well made, well acted film but I don’t really know of anyone who could sit through it twice. Something about the “reality” of the violence it portrays… none of this Hollywood, get hit, get back up nonsense… in this film, if some one gets hit, they go down… and then get the shit kicked out of them… and bear the scars and bruises…
As has been mentioned so many times, #1 on my list is Schindler’s List. It’s one of the greatest movies anyone ever made… and seeing it once was more than enough, thankyouverymuch.
Also on my list…
[ul]
[li]Cape Fear is an excellent movie, but it’s extremely disturbing, as is…[/li][li]Alive. It’s disturbing, and it requires a tremendous investment of emotional energy to make it through.[/li][li]Titanic. I loved it, but I will never watch it again. Too much sorrow; Mrs. Rastahomie and I watched it at the theater and just sat in the car in stunned silence for the whole ride home. Ugh.[/li][/ul]
I just looked up a plot description of Kids at the IMDB and it said, (paraphrashing) “An amoral skater punk sets out to deflower as many virgins as possible, until one of them gets tested for AIDS.”
I don’t get what’s so disturbing about that. Yeah, the subject matter is pretty deep and all, but are there graphic scenes of rape or torture or a profound death sequence or something in this movie? Now I have to go rent it…