The most powerful movie experiences of your life?

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Requiem for a Dream.

Pulp Fiction.

Princess Mononoke.

Grave of the Fireflies.

Spirited Away.

Taxi Driver.

2001: A Space Odyssey. Would have been strong, the ending ruined it for me.

The Dark Knight.

Nightcrawler.

Sophie's Choice. Could have been better but still a strong one.

And Twilight Saga. So strong I'd like to burn all the theater playing the movie.



Raven73's Avatar
Boldly going.
Forest Gump: Went into this movie with very low expectations; came out thinking "That was the best movie I've ever seen". Haven't had that experience since.

Star wars: As a kid, it completely captured my imagination. The foundation of my love of fantasy and sci-fi.

Groundhog day: This was another movie I had low expectations for, but mid-way through the movie I understood the depth of it.

Saving Private Ryan: No other theatre experience has made me feel like I was 'in the trenches' like this.

E.T. I remember children crying so much their mothers had to take them out of the theatre. Not all tears are an evil.

Marvel's Avengers. I know this sounds strange, but I felt like they did an almost perfect job of bringing my favourite childhood comic book to life.

300. It's a guy thing.

Lord of the rings: Return of the King. Besides being an excellent movie all-around, the scenes at the end often choke me up.


Too many movies to list....



Forrest Gump. It's an eye-opener.
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Just watched Close Encounter of the Third Kind yesterday. I'd say this is one my top 3 most powerful experience, yet.
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The only time I've literally sat there open mouthed at a reveal... And it's not even a twist ending.
Have you seen parts 2&3?

Fascinating.

I've taken this on as a sort of mini research project. I've been able to trade a few emails with Jason Baldwin and Mara Leveritt and have read every crazy theory about this case that's out there (as well as formulating a few of my own).

Anyway, fodder for another thread. 3 truly great documentaries though.



I interpret "experience" as containing an entire event... so I have a few.

1. Star Wars - the only time my whole immediate family went to the theater together - it was so crowded that there were only single seats left so we all got split up. I sat with a strange family. My mom said that she paid no attention to the movie because she spent the whole time trying to figure out where I and my older brothers had been seated.

2. Superman - the only moive I ever went to with just my dad.

3. Star Trek the Motion Picture - my mom dropped me & my best friend at the time at Loew's to watch it on our own (we were just about to enter the 9th grade). There was just something special surrounding the whole experience - a TV show in film form, the reunion of the original cast, etc. It was something that is common now, but was rare then.

4. Stripes - saw it at a drive-in - we parked a pick-up truck backwards and watched the movie laying down on a blanket while having a picnic in the bed of the truck! How cool is that?

5. 2010 (the sequel to 2001) - first movie I ever went to by myself, and on my birthday!

6. Platoon - went with my girlfriend. I don't know... combination of a powerful movie AND being with my girlfriend left a heavy memory.

7. Schnindler's List - it was like attending a giant funeral, no one said a word as we filed out of the theater, all you heard were muffled sobs.



Have you seen parts 2&3?

Fascinating.

I've taken this on as a sort of mini research project. I've been able to trade a few emails with Jason Baldwin and Mara Leveritt and have read every crazy theory about this case that's out there (as well as formulating a few of my own).

Anyway, fodder for another thread. 3 truly great documentaries though.
Yes, I've seen parts 2 & 3, though only once each. I couldn't really get on with part 2. Whether that was because I'd been so excited to see it having waited a couple of years or the film itself I don't know. The third, however, I thought was good. Neither of them had the effect on me that the first one did.

In a way, I wonder if it's a bit like how I feel about Before Sunrise. When it was a stand alone piece with not before or after, I feel it's far more powerful. Had I seen it as a first instalment I think I'd have had a very different (and lesser) experience.
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Inception
Shawshank redemption
2001 a space odyssey
Mullholland drive i still think abt how disturbing this movie is
Blue velvet



I have to list "experiences" #8 & 9 as A Fish Called Wanda and Hellboy because I saw both in the theater (many years apart, of course) and at both of these someone brought an infant that cried through the entire film... and they would not take the child outside. So I'll never forget these movies because of that experience! (Hey, sounds like a good thread topic: "Crying babies in Movie Theaters (and the people who love them)")

#10. Enemy Mine - at this movie, about 20 minutes into it, the lights came up in the theater and stayed lit. I began to look around. I saw a cop just standing with his hands on his holster, near the entrance but in the center aisle, and he just stood there surveying the crowd with his head scanning back & forth. Finally, since the movie had now been disrupted, I got up to go to the bathroom (and maybe see what was going on). As I reached the cop he kind of blocked the aisle. I said, "Hey. What's up?"
He said, "Where you going?" as he scanned me, his head going up & down as his eyes looked me over from head to foot.
"Bathroom," I said.
He kind of just stood there looking and then finally said, "Okay, go."
When I got back he remained inside the theater for about a half hour as the lights remained on while the movie played. People kept looking back to see if he was still there. Finally, he disappeared and the lights went back down and we watched the end of the movie. Never did find out why he was there or who or what he was looking for.



A memorable film for me was Help! , The Beatles film in 1965. I was 7, my next door neighbours son was 9 and I adored him. We went to see it together. He was instructed to hold my hand all the way there and back which he did like a good kid. He bought the ice creams and we loved the film. I was really sad when the family moved house a few years later.



Boys Don't Cry
Contempt
Coming Home
Reign Over Me
The Deer Hunter
Warrior
Grave of the Fireflies
The Best Years of Our Lives
The 400 Blows
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Terms of Endearment



Whatever Happened To Baby Jane ? My first horror film when I was 12 : A 1962 American psychological thriller starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Sibling rivalry and revenge, between two aging sisters, moves in slowly but steadily. You know something bad happened long ago, but the mystery is not revealed until the end where Bette Davis gives one of her outstanding monologues.



Captain Spaulding may enjoy this one...

Went to see Devil's Rejects... don't ask me why because I don't know myself. I've never gone to see movies like this. It must have been that I just needed to go somewhere and there was nothing else playing (???)
Anyway, I went by myself and it was a weekday matinee. I got in the theater and found I was the only one there. About 10 minutes went by after starting time and nothing happened - no previews, no lights turned down. I stood up & looked toward the projection booth, waved a few times, but saw no activity.
So I went out and found someone who worked there, told them what theater I was in and the guy went back with me to look inside. It was a bit embarrising since it was the theater showing Devil's Rejects and I was the only person there to see it.
So he looked around and said he'd go see why the movie hadn't started. Soon the lights went down & previews came on, and I watched the movie.
I can only assume they didn't start the film because the projectionist thought the theater was completely empty.

Another bizarre movie experience.



There are so many movies which I find powerful.But with my experience I will List of some's which are powerful for me.

Ghost (1990)
Saw(All parts of it)
Fast and furious(All the parts)
Terminator
X men
Rambo
wrong turn
300
The Hobbit



The Dark Knight and 12 Years a Slave. Brutal, powerful, and jaw-dropping.



I'm a newcomer to the forum, so going back to the original list, I was delighted to see two of Yasujiro Ozu's films included. I would add my personal favourite of his films, The Flavour Of Green Tea Over Rice.
Other films which I find intensely moving even after repeated viewings are Grigori Chukrai's Ballad Of A Soldier, Jacques Demi's Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, Truffaut's 400 Blows, Louis Malle's Au Revoir Les Enfants, William Wellman's heartbreaking The Oxbow Incident, Lasse Hallstrom's My Life As A Dog and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain.
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There are so many others out there, too. What are your selections?
I found Heat like that, having just seen it properly for the first time.

In recent memory I would say the film that really hit me, at the end, was The Lives of Others.



Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the most powerful film of my childhood. I was obsessed with it to the point of disfunction. Its like Steven Spielberg made a film specifically designed to perfectly engage ME psychologically. I biked 15 miles to the movie theater by myself as a child seven times so I could see it over and over again)
Red Road (redemption at the highest level!)
The Spirit of the Beehive (to this day I dont understand why this film has had such a powerful effect on me. I still seek out information about it to this day and have full blown up framed prints on my walls from scenes in this obscure Spanish movie.)
Excision
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Rogue One
(for the end that pinned me to my seat and forced me back in time to my childhood)
Poltergeist
Jaws
Happiness

Irreversible (still haunts my dreams. I saw this film years ago and I LITERALLY just dreamed about it the other night...)
Celia (that f%@$*&g ending!!)
Hope and Glory
Alien
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Dead Girl
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