Movies That Stay With You

[Nadam]

With all of the movies each one of you has seen throughout life, what are 5 films that have always stuck with you? These are movies that have you pondering life, feeling emotional due to the material, an unforgettable overall cinematic experience, etc. It could be anything! I watched "After Life" (1998) last night, and it really hit hard like few have in my life, so I wanted to see what your top 5 list would be! 

 

NOTE: You are free to explain or not explain the reasoning for your choices.

 

Mine: 

1.) Come and See

2.) Ikiru

3.) After Life

4.) Gladiator

5.) Portrait of a Lady on Fire

[Veum]

9 minutes ago, Nadam said:

With all of the movies each one of you has seen throughout life, what are 5 films that have always stuck with you? These are movies that have you pondering life, feeling emotional due to the material, an unforgettable overall cinematic experience, etc. It could be anything! I watched "After Life" (1998) last night, and it really hit hard like few have in my life, so I wanted to see what your top 5 list would be! 

 

NOTE: You are free to explain or not explain the reasoning for your choices.

 

Mine: 

1.) Come and See

2.) Ikiru

3.) After Life

4.) Gladiator

5.) Portrait of a Lady on Fire

 

 

 

📺 🎬 📀 🤠 

 

1) The Outlaw Josey Wales

2) The Godfather Trilogy

3) The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy 🇸🇪 +1 🇺🇸 

4) Hang ‘Em High

5) Tombstone

Edited January 23 by Veum

[hansreinhardt]

Hey @Nadam, great idea! But a tall order for sure, tough to narrow down to five. I'm going to omit my favorite film 2001, even though it checks all the boxes for this. The following films all triggered some form of existential crisis in me, BUT aren't necessarily the best cinematic experiences I've ever had.

• Aniara
• The Whale
• The Weather Man
• Eraserhead
• Melancholia
• Moon
• Apocalypse Now

Later today, I'm going to realize all the films I forgot to mention here, and kick myself. 

Edited January 23 by hansreinhardt

[LeadFarmer]

I'll mention some of the movies I saw when I was much younger (barely into double digits) that I found terrifying or disturbing 

 

1) Candyman gave me nightmares for days. 

2) Event Horizon warped my fragile little mind

3) IT afraid to walk past drainage openings for a short time

4)Jacobs Ladder had no idea what was going on at the time but found it creepy

5)They little older when I saw this one. I was in high school by the time it came out but the terror and helplessness the main character felt stuck with me 

[Nadam]

27 minutes ago, hansreinhardt said:

Hey @Nadam, great idea! But a tall order for sure, tough to narrow down to five. I'm going to omit my favorite film 2001, even though it checks all the boxes for this. The following films all triggered some form of existential crisis in me, BUT aren't necessarily the best cinematic experiences I've ever had.

• Aniara
• The Whale
• The Weather Man
• Eraserhead
• Melancholia
• Moon
• Apocalypse Now

Later today, I'm going to realize all the films I forgot to mention here, and kick myself. 

I still need to watch "The Whale", but I need to be in the right mindset to be prepared for that emotional ride.

[hansreinhardt]

1 minute ago, LeadFarmer said:

2) Event Horizon warped my fragile little mind

 

YES. I was six when this movie came out, and the trailer alone was the most horrifying thing I had ever seen. So many nightmares. There was a particular trailer that played before a VHS I owned that did the most damage on me, I can still hear Laurence Fishburne asking "where has she been for the last seven years, Doctor?" with the trailer voice responding "she came back... abandoned" with that eerie music. Chills! 😂

[R1s1ngs0n]

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp

12 Angry Men

The Elephant Man

Blade Runner

The Crying Game

 

@Nadam great topic. At first I posted movies that left a great impression on me, not necessarily on an emotional level. But then I read your post more carefully and revised my list accordingly. 

The five movies above are listed in chronological order. I have all but Elephant Man and Crying Game. I love those two movies but do not revisit them very often as I find them to be very taxing emotionally.

 

Edited January 23 by R1s1ngs0n

[Nadam]

24 minutes ago, R1s1ngs0n said:

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp

12 Angry Men

The Elephant Man

Blade Runner

The Crying Game

 

@Nadam great topic. At first I posted movies that left a great impression on me, not necessarily on an emotional level. But then I read your post more carefully and revised my list accordingly. 

The five movies above are listed in chronological order. I have all but Elephant Man and Crying Game. I love those two movies but do not revisit them very often as I find them to be very taxing emotionally.

 

Thank you so much for the kind words! Each one of those is an amazing choice, but I have yet to see Elephant Man (I feel absolutely terrible for saying that). I imported the 4K Blu-Ray last week, and it won't get here until the end of the month, but I will be watching it as soon as it arrives. Blade Runner and 12 Angry Men almost made my list, but the main 5 choices slightly edged past them. Colonel Blimp is also another work of art that I love. The Crying Game is something I also need to watch as well, but haven't bought it yet (which will change here shortly, haha). 

[Veum]

28 minutes ago, R1s1ngs0n said:

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp

12 Angry Men

The Elephant Man

Blade Runner

The Crying Game

 

@Nadam great topic. At first I posted movies that left a great impression on me, not necessarily on an emotional level. But then I read your post more carefully and revised my list accordingly. 

The five movies above are listed in chronological order. I have all but Elephant Man and Crying Game. I love those two movies but do not revisit them very often as I find them to be very taxing emotionally.

 

 

I’ll sell you my copy of The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp 😅

 

[hansreinhardt]

59 minutes ago, R1s1ngs0n said:

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp

12 Angry Men

The Elephant Man

Blade Runner

The Crying Game

 

@Nadam great topic. At first I posted movies that left a great impression on me, not necessarily on an emotional level. But then I read your post more carefully and revised my list accordingly. 

The five movies above are listed in chronological order. I have all but Elephant Man and Crying Game. I love those two movies but do not revisit them very often as I find them to be very taxing emotionally.

 

Hey, I’m curious about your original answer based on what your initial understanding of the question was. I saw Goldfinger before you edited your post. If you’re willing to share, I’d be curious to know what else you had named 

[R1s1ngs0n]

23 minutes ago, hansreinhardt said:

Hey, I’m curious about your original answer based on what your initial understanding of the question was. I saw Goldfinger before you edited your post. If you’re willing to share, I’d be curious to know what else you had named 

I originally listed Goldfinger, Once Upon A Time In The West, The Éléphant Man, The Untouchables and Pulp Fiction.

Generally speaking, these five movies left a long lasting impression on me.

[Nadam]

16 minutes ago, R1s1ngs0n said:

I originally listed Goldfinger, Once Upon A Time In The West, The Éléphant Man, The Untouchables and Pulp Fiction.

Generally speaking, these five movies left a long lasting impression on me.

Also really amazing movies!

[LeadFarmer]

4 hours ago, hansreinhardt said:

 

YES. I was six when this movie came out, and the trailer alone was the most horrifying thing I had ever seen. So many nightmares. There was a particular trailer that played before a VHS I owned that did the most damage on me, I can still hear Laurence Fishburne asking "where has she been for the last seven years, Doctor?" with the trailer voice responding "she came back... abandoned" with that eerie music. Chills! 😂

 

Man I remember when I saw it. My mom wanted to go see that and I wanted to see James and the giant peach but my movie started way after her's did. So I had to sit and watch a good portion of event horizon before walking across the hall to my theater. Even with that pallet cleanser James and the giant peach was event horizon stuck with me for a while. Now I can watch it without being traumatized.

[Gary K]

Staying true to the spirit of your topic lmine would be:

 

1 -charlotte’s web

2 -the graduate

3 - brazil

4 - the godfather part II

5 - blade runner

6 - parallax view 

[hansreinhardt]

20 minutes ago, Gary K said:

3 - brazil

 

Brazil! That's one that I forgot. What a phenomenal movie, the production design is just insane, and that ending floored me. Great list!

Edited January 24 by hansreinhardt

[hansreinhardt]

2 hours ago, LeadFarmer said:

 

Man I remember when I saw it. My mom wanted to go see that and I wanted to see James and the giant peach but my movie started way after her's did. So I had to sit and watch a good portion of event horizon before walking across the hall to my theater. Even with that pallet cleanser James and the giant peach was event horizon stuck with me for a while. Now I can watch it without being traumatized.

 

Oh boy. Honestly even James and the Giant Peach was kind of terrifying in its own right too, that's an intense night at the cinema for a kid 😆

 

 

Edited January 24 by hansreinhardt

[Fortis93]

7 hours ago, Nadam said:

With all of the movies each one of you has seen throughout life, what are 5 films that have always stuck with you? These are movies that have you pondering life, feeling emotional due to the material, an unforgettable overall cinematic experience, etc. It could be anything! I watched "After Life" (1998) last night, and it really hit hard like few have in my life, so I wanted to see what your top 5 list would be! 

 

NOTE: You are free to explain or not explain the reasoning for your choices.

 

Mine: 

1.) Come and See

2.) Ikiru

3.) After Life

4.) Gladiator

5.) Portrait of a Lady on Fire

 

1. Rocky

2. It's a Wonderful Life

3. Wild Strawberries

4. The Exorcist

5. Once Were Warriors

 

Edited January 24 by Fortis93

[Nadam]

1 minute ago, Fortis93 said:

 

1. Rocky

2. It's a Wonderful Life

3. Wild Strawberries

4. The Exorcist

5. Once We're Warriors

Wild Strawberries is a true work of art from Bergman! My second favorite film of his after The Seventh Seal.

[BreakBeatDJ]

Yeah, this is a tough one.  

 

When I use the "have always stuck with you" criteria 

 

1. Husbands

2. Amadeus

3. Beat Street

4. Annie Hall

5. Bottle Rocket

 

When I use the "pondering life, feeling emotional due to the material, an unforgettable overall cinematic experience" criteria

 

1. Irreversible

2. The 400 Blows

3. City of God

4. Trainspotting

5. 2001 A Space Odyssey

[Fortis93]

I'll include five more for the fun of it:

 

1. City Lights

2. Superman

3. The Green Mile

4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

5. Fail Safe

 

Edited January 24 by Fortis93

[Casiusco]

1. Paris, Texas. I was a kid, and I was shocked. I didn't understand some things, or at least I didn't appreciate them as I do now, but still, I was deeply impacted.

2. The Natural. I was also still a kid, and that figure of the man who disappears and comes back, the stranger who doesn't need to be seen as great by others, enchanted me.

3. Birdy. I saw it as a teenager, in those days when seeing something like that at that age was a possibility, and not like today, when teachers would be denounced for putting them on us. I saw it at school, and it left me dismayed, realizing that there were things in the world that were not as I thought they were, as I had seen in other kinder films. 

4. In the mood for love. It got into my head in such a way that I was never able to get it out. Sometimes I seem to see similar scenes or gestures in the street.

5. Mulholland Drive. It instilled in my head the feeling that something had escaped me, that there was much more there. As Churchill would have said, it is "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key".

[Heywoodmoutaw]

19 hours ago, Gary K said:

Staying true to the spirit of your topic lmine would be:

 

1 -charlotte’s web

2 -the graduate

3 - brazil

4 - the godfather part II

5 - blade runner

6 - parallax view 

Oh man, that last one is a great choice that I probably wouldn’t have thought of on my own but definitely is one of the movies that stuck with me the most. The film that they make Beatty, and us, watch is more haunting to me every time I see it.  
 

Still thinking about my list a bit.  “Stuck with you” is different than the movies you enjoyed the most, to me, but there’s obviously some crossover.

[nathan_s82]

Thank you for doing this @Nadam, I had to think about it throughout the day. Here are my Top 10 (sorry, couldn't whittle it down to Top 5):

1. Nightmare on Elm Street - First Horror movie I saw at the wee age of 4 broadcasted on TV. This is the one that started my Horror obsession of today.

2. Evil Dead (1981) - My favorite Horror movie of all time. The practical effects on a shoe string budget, still looks awesome by today's standard.

3. Forrest Gump - My favorite Drama of all time. Nothing beats a one-liner like Stupid is as Stupid does.

4. Gladiator - The stellar performances of Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix made me question why does bad things happen to good people.

5. The Green Mile - The story of a man done wrong by a corrupt system. I cry every time they have John Coffey ride the lightning because he was such an amazing person.

6. Transformers 1986 Animated Movie - They killed Optimus Prime and shattered my childhood. However, Hot Rod is my favorite character, so it was great to see him become Rodimus Prime and beat Unicron.

7. Ghost in the Shell - I can watch this everyday and not be tired of it. The Cyberpunk meets Android technology with a psychological story of what constitutes life was always intriguing to me. 

8. Macross: Do You Remember Love? - Hands down my favorite Anime Movie of all time. As an avid Macross fan, to finally get this movie subtitled in English and to see the animation done completely different than the original Macross series was astounding for me as an 8 year old.

9.  The Exorcist - This was the Horror movie that scared me. Seeing Reagan have that sound come out of her and crab-walking down the steps still gets me.

10.  Shutter Island/Inception - Both of these really had questioning my sanity on what was actually going in the story.

[Heywoodmoutaw]

8 hours ago, Casiusco said:

1. Paris, Texas. I was a kid, and I was shocked. I didn't understand some things, or at least I didn't appreciate them as I do now, but still, I was deeply impacted.

2. The Natural. I was also still a kid, and that figure of the man who disappears and comes back, the stranger who doesn't need to be seen as great by others, enchanted me.

3. Birdy. I saw it as a teenager, in those days when seeing something like that at that age was a possibility, and not like today, when teachers would be denounced for putting them on us. I saw it at school, and it left me dismayed, realizing that there were things in the world that were not as I thought they were, as I had seen in other kinder films. 

4. In the mood for love. It got into my head in such a way that I was never able to get it out. Sometimes I seem to see similar scenes or gestures in the street.

5. Mulholland Drive. It instilled in my head the feeling that something had escaped me, that there was much more there. As Churchill would have said, it is "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key".

Love this.  
 

Paris, Texas captures a particular kind of American (I just can’t speak for other countries; is there a Swiss Harry Dean Stanton?) better than any movie I’ve seen. It’s so beautiful.

 

Just watched In The Mood for the first time last year.  15 minutes in I was enjoying it but kind of thinking “what’s the big deal?”  By the end I was mesmerized, completely absorbed and really had to give a lot of thought to why.  But most of us have passed up so many opportunities in life.

 

Mulholland Drive is Mulholland Drive, I’ve watched it at least 6 or 7 times.  The best Lynch (I would put a lot of Twin Peaks: The Return in here too) connects with dream logic, almost like it’s your own dream, for me anyway.  This is going to sound ridiculous, but when he really connects with me, he sort of changes how I perceive time.  It seems like I’ve been immersed in it much longer than I have been, in a good way. A lot like a dream.

[Casiusco]

On 1/25/2024 at 3:25 AM, Heywoodmoutaw said:

Love this.  
 

Paris, Texas captures a particular kind of American (I just can’t speak for other countries; is there a Swiss Harry Dean Stanton?) better than any movie I’ve seen. It’s so beautiful.

 

Just watched In The Mood for the first time last year.  15 minutes in I was enjoying it but kind of thinking “what’s the big deal?”  By the end I was mesmerized, completely absorbed and really had to give a lot of thought to why.  But most of us have passed up so many opportunities in life.

 

Mulholland Drive is Mulholland Drive, I’ve watched it at least 6 or 7 times.  The best Lynch (I would put a lot of Twin Peaks: The Return in here too) connects with dream logic, almost like it’s your own dream, for me anyway.  This is going to sound ridiculous, but when he really connects with me, he sort of changes how I perceive time.  It seems like I’ve been immersed in it much longer than I have been, in a good way. A lot like a dream.

 

If you think about it, both "Paris Texas" and "In the mood for love" talk about universal feelings/situations, through very specific characters, cultures and environments. It doesn't matter if it's a particular kind of American, or a Chinese guy in Hong Kong. The stories that break, and change everything; the missed opportunities, the doubt of what would have happened "if". And to do it in such an intimate, yet explicit way, makes it all the more authentic, and makes these two films even bigger, being very different, but linked to something that many people carry inside.

 

You don't have to go to the desert to end up walking like Travis sometime.

 

Nor do you have to go to Angkor Wat to say something to a hole in a wall, and leave it there, knowing that you have to move on.

 

By the way, what you say about "Mulholland Drive" doesn't sound ridiculous; on the contrary. Both that film and "Inland Empire" are time, and at the same time space; you can travel through them, but they are a world in their own right, different from ours. Curiously, I think that both can be summed up with the phrase with which Lynch summed up "Inland Empire": a woman in trouble.