# What's the hardest movie for you to watch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 4, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198 "2006-10-04T03:25:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/1 "2006-10-04T03:25:45Z")
-either the whole theme or at least one scene/performance hits too close to the bone. Weighing the risk between not chuming the thread-waters, and pointing off into an over-personalized dead-end tangent, I would say mine would be two movies: _Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?_ I had an original cast (Uta Hagen & Arthur Hill) LP from which I memorized the text, which served to neutralize the otherwise star-belabored Liz/Dick movie version. The ultimate, painful take-away which no casting could ruin was the author’s theme of a married couple who exploited accumulated intimacy for the sake ofhoning in on eachother’s sore points with deadly accuracy. _As we do, don’t we? (ouch)_ _Long’s Day’s Journey into Night,_ the play that even Katherine Hepburn couldn’t ruin (KH was so pre-indisposed to playing a victim that, on a sub-genetic level, she’d be compelled to sabatoge any production that so cast her). Again, the author’s theme overrides (in this case, "the sins of the fathers - this particular sin being parsimony or simply being donkey Irish - shall be visited upon the sons). When Jason Robards’ character comes home drunk from the whorehouse and delivers his "I love your guts, kid ’ monologue, there’s not a dry eye in the house; house: population me. So, when did you last tune in a movie and painfully see your life story/theme… (if you’ll allow that movies can, rarely, be up to such a task)? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/2 "2006-10-04T04:08:53Z")
Well, it’s not my life story, and I think it’s a wonderful movie, but the last couple of times I’ve tried to watch _Brassed Off_, I’ve had to stop, because in parts it’s so sad. There’s a lot of humour in there, and triumph in the end, but eviction and attempted suicide because the mine is closing are really not a happy story. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/3 "2006-10-04T04:15:04Z")
Not my life story either (they don’t make movies about people like me - too boring), but I hate hate hate watching films where people lose it to drug addiction. Have no idea why as I never suffered from a drug addiction, but there it is. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/4 "2006-10-04T05:51:26Z")
_Closer_ left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach for days. And much like **JohnT** , people losing it to drug addiction makes me uneasy. I found _Requiem for a Dream_ to be both fascinating and completely unwatchable. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/5 "2006-10-04T06:07:38Z")
_I Never Sang for my Father_ , _The Great Santini_ , and _The Mosquito Coast_. Haven’t seen any of them in years, all for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Blue-Sighted_Shadow)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/6 "2006-10-04T07:12:50Z")
_The Celebration_ is my family, only speaking Danish. It came out about 6 months after my father’s suicide, so I think that’s why it hit me so hard. I have no desire to ever watch it again. Another Dogme 95 movie, _Breaking the Waves_, is another movie I’ll never watch again. I can’t tell you why, but it definitely hit a nerve. I avoided Dogme 95 films after that. I walked out of a theater production of _Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?_ at intermission, only because I didn’t have the nerve to leave before then. The production and acting were excellent, and that was the problem. If I wanted to endure that kind of abuse, I could go to my grandparent’s house, for free, instead of paying $75. Way, way too close to home. ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/7 "2006-10-04T07:19:08Z")
_Blow_ with Johnny Depp or _Pay It Forward_. I love both movies, but you know the heartbreak is coming at the end. _Shampoo_ strikes me as especially sad too. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/8 "2006-10-04T08:25:59Z")
_Rain Man_ hits way too close. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/9 "2006-10-04T08:27:52Z")
_On the Beach_ is rather sad, as is _Mad Max_(at least the bits where Max loses his family.) ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/10 "2006-10-04T09:46:13Z")
[QUOTE=malkavia] I found _Requiem for a Dream_ to be both fascinating and completely unwatchable. [/QUOTE] I watched this with a sense of anticipation, waiting for the really dreadful bit at the end as I’d been told that it was a great film but the last 20mins were quite harrowing. They weren’t wrong! Having said that, I think that toning down the final sequences of the film would have taken a lot away from the power of the story and although I still find those scenes difficult to watch, I wouldn’t have wanted another ending to the film. sin ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/11 "2006-10-04T09:51:57Z")
Without the slightest shadow of a doubt, \*[Hard Candy.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424136/) \* ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/12 "2006-10-04T10:14:04Z")
It will be a long, long time before I watch _United 93_ again. That said, I can’t recommend it highly enough. _Schindler’s List_ I have seen twice. I may see it one more time before I die, but that will be enough. But the film that upset me the most is _Whose Life is it Anyway?_, which I had to rewind to watch again because I was crying too much to see it properly. I’m not even sure how good the movie is - it was a long time ago and I haven’t watched it since - but that was absolutely the hardest movie for me to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/13 "2006-10-04T10:33:08Z")
“Hits too close to home” seems to be a common theme here. I will never again watch _Pulp Fiction_. In college my roommates were watching when I came in just as someone had been killed and two guys were talking about stuffing the body into the trunk to take it away. I was returning from the county jail where I was visiting a friend who eventually got 65 years for double homicide (he had used the victim’s car trunk to move the bodies across multiple state lines). ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/14 "2006-10-04T10:46:30Z")
Kevin Bacon in _The Woodsman_. Jesus…what an upsetting film. I’ll definitely watch it again, but damn… ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/15 "2006-10-04T10:52:25Z")
[East-West](http://www.amazon.com/East-West-Oleg-Menchikov/dp/B00003CXF4) I’ve seen it several times, but can’t watch it anymore. I’m in tears from the moment when one of the main characters has her passport taken away and torn up in front of her face. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/16 "2006-10-04T10:57:48Z")
Not “too close to home” at all, just too emotionally upsetting: _Dances With Wolves_ and _Sophie’s Choice_ Too painful. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/17 "2006-10-04T11:31:38Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Not “too close to home” at all, just too emotionally upsetting: _Dances With Wolves_ and _Sophie’s Choice_ Too painful. [/QUOTE] Oooh…I forgot about _Sophie’s Choice_. I sobbed after I saw it. _Unspeakably_ sad. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/18 "2006-10-04T11:54:54Z")
Midnight Express is still hard to watch, years later ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/19 "2006-10-04T11:57:57Z")
[Irreversible](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290673/) ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198/20 "2006-10-04T13:04:49Z")
I nominate the New Zealand movie “Once were Warriors”. Doesn’t hit close to home, but boy are there some raw scenes in that one. Especially the suicide scene and aftermath just leave me with frayed nerve-endings. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-hardest-movie-for-you-to-watch/375198.md?page=2)