Similar to “There are no girls on the internet” is the axiom “There are no women walking the right-of-way.”
War Horse. It absolutely destroyed me for days afterwards, even tho’ (spoiler alert) the horse lives. But the carnage and destruction of human and animal lives and the countryside through that horrible, blighted war was more than I could take. Makes me tear up just thinking about.
I agree with previous comments about Hostel. It flipped a switch in me where most gratuitous gore movies are now no longer an enjoyable genre.
What The $(%( Do We Know?*. Horrible deliberately deceptive pseudoscience. It’s rage-inducing whenever I think about how effectively it packaged and peddled its nonsense. “Expert” scientists, A-list star with disability being exploited to increase credibility, high production values, “documentary” label…
Clockwork Orange. It took a half-dozen attempts for me to make it past the first or second rape scene. I now get the contextual point of the film and those scenes in the whole, but have no desire to ever watch it again.
Meerkat Manor. Flower. 'nuff said. bawls eyes out
This is the only movie I’ve ever had to turn off halfway in.
Saw it once and won’t see it again. Too strong.
One class of movie that I cannot watch: the traditional “Made for TV” movie that features one woman (it’s always a woman) fighting the system, or her horribly evil ex, or disease, or …
They always are frustrating exercises in tedium, with setback after setback, until the bad guy wins in the end. I get angry watching such films, and anger is not an emotion I want to feel. So I turn them off.
Several years ago I bought a copy of this book while in Brazil and made it my personal challenge to read the whole thing. Along the way I amassed seventy pages or so of translation notes, complete with page numbers, should I ever read it again.
I even enlisted the help of some Brazilians on the Dope in order to understand the '70s drug culture slang that had baffled my Brazilian wife.
I bought the DVD but never cracked the seal. Not for any definite reason, but I never watched it. Now as I read your comments I remember several scenes from the book and realize that I will probably never open that DVD.
I guarantee, I can do obsession like nobody’s business…
In real life, I have encountered a very few female railway enthusiasts; but it’s generally reckoned that in that hobby, the gender ratio is about 10,000 : 1 !
<curiosity piqued>
Good odds.
As an outsider to the USA’s more recent past regarding civil rights, can I just say that I like this film very much. Strong performances all round and Gene Hackman has rarely been better. I’m surprised at the very strong feelings in this thread towards this of all films.
Mind you, I am capable of enjoying films on their own terms. JFK is very well done and yet I know, you know and we all know, that it only represents the truth as Oliver Stone sees it. Doesn’t matter at all (to me at least) I don’t get my facts from films.
The films that upset me the most were
“Tyrannosaur”, particularly the beating and rape by Eddie Marsan,
“12 Monkeys” - the ending of course when Madeleine Stowe looks around the crowd to catch the young lad’s eye.
And “AI”. The end part where David gets to spend one last day with his mother. I saw it not long after my own mother died tragically young and it was a punch to the gut.
I looked up this film on IMDB, saw that the poster had two images on it - an eyeball and a razor blade, about 2 inches apart - and closed the tab.
That is ALL I need to know! :eek:
I had a similar “I’m experiencing the wrong emotion” feeling during The Boost, a 1980’s James Wood/Sean Young film where a successful up-and-coming couple fall victim to ravaging cocaine addictions. I wasn’t horrified at the bad choices, the accidents and arguments, the misery of their addictions, etc… what bothered me was that they were going broke.
Sixth Sense. The portrayal of the ghosts upset me terribly. I had nightmares and jumped at corners for weeks. I knew it would do this to me and didn’t want to watch it in the first place, but everyone told me I had to because it was so good! ugh. I don’t watch horror movies as a rule so I’m not inured to that sort of stuff in a movie. I couldn’t take it in a movie that didn’t bill itself as a horror.
I loved Life is Beautiful. I didn’t see it as the movie tell us that life is always going to work out, but that the father’s efforts to be positive and help his son was a beautiful thing. It was lovely. Even though that boy was a big ol’ dummy. 
Thelma,
I want you to know that I am deeply jealous because I can’t imagine you falling in love with anyone on this message board besides me.
Oh well, I suppose I just have to accept that and soldier on. After all, it would seem pretty clear there is nothing else I can do.
Imagine a story about a historical event which matters to you as a person. Then imagine that historical event completely stripped of its meaning and replaced with a series of lalsehoods which are then purported to be the truth and are believed to BE the truth by viewers of the film.
You stated that you are an “outsider” to the USA’s past. Imagine that someone made a film about your nation of birth which was almost completely fictional and was presented as fact. Even resources were available to make at least a “factional” (mostly fact mixed with fictional elements) telling of the tale.
That’s what offends me about Mississippi Burning.
It could have told a compelling TRUE story and been dramatic. Instead, it just said “f*ck history” and created almost its entire narrative from whole cloth.
I’m sorry, at what point was it presented as a documentary?
Movies creating fictional stories inspired by real events is not novel and it’s not a crime. Your problem seems to be that it wasn’t the movie you wanted…and how is that the movie’s fault?
I guess I’m just one of those women who leaves a trail of broken hearts in her wake…it’s a curse… or is it a blessing…?
Umm…I didn’t like the film, which is the purpose of this thread. And I stated clearly why I did not. I don’t remember saying anything about it needing to be a “documentary.”; that was your addition.
Really? are people that naive? Alan Parker was very clear that this was based on true events and was not intended to be the full story. For legal reasons it just couldn’t be.
As for being stripped of meaning…well I think you do it a disservice.
Titanic? Braveheart? pretty much any WW2 film you care to mention? Doesn’t bother me in the slightest because no film is ever presented as fact unless it is a documentary. Even then editorial bias is allowable and something every cinema goer should be aware of.
Doesn’t make it a bad film though, it clearly isn’t
As all films do it told “a” story and not “the” story and it wasn’t dishonest about it. The phrase “based on a true story” gives it away.
Now I realise it can be a touchy subject matter for some but there’s no reason why it alone deserves absolute fidelity in the telling.
Argo does this for me - good movie, well acted, completely eliminates most of what Canada risked, and contributed.