What Is The Most Disturbing Film?

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Not a bad list, but you are forgetting a few, and I'm quite surprised.

Taxi Driver

The Deer Hunter

American Beauty

Born on the 4th of July

Rambo
(don't laugh, it's got a lot to say)

Perhaps also American Psycho

Psycho


They're a few to start with.



I ain't gettin' in no fryer!
Oh yeah, American Psycho is a top-notch disturbing film. It's one of those that is so disturbing you have to watch it over and over.
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So if anybody actually reads this....

I just saw AI: Artificial Intelligence... Very Disturbing
Also.... The new movie Frailty....disturbing, and also a terrible film.



Originally posted by williams_131
Also.... The new movie Frailty....disturbing, and also a terrible film.
Boooooooo. Disturbing, yes. Terrible? No way. I thought it was borderline brilliant. Excellent film.



Originally posted by Yoda

Boooooooo. Disturbing, yes. Terrible? No way. I thought it was borderline brilliant. Excellent film.
Well we all have our likes and dislikes i guess. Just thought that it was too repetitive with the killing and stuff, had some good points though about how parents can screw up their kids though. I just dont like the thought of killing people in the name of god i guess.



Now With Moveable Parts
My mom told me about a movie she thought was very disturbing, and I completely trust her judgement. It's called, Happiness.
Maybe someone already mentioned it.
She told me a little bit about it, and some of the more disturbing scenes; I have to say...I won't be renting it.
My parents like grittier stuff than I do, and they pulled it out...it must have really gone against their grain, because I can't remember the last time they pulled a movie.
So, just a warning.



Many people are easily offended by Todd Solondz's stuff. To date he's made three films: Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness and Storytelling. I was a little disappointed in Storytelling (see my MoFo review HERE), but I think Dollhouse and Happiness are brilliant. They do present some disturbing characters and situations, but its all filtered through such an odd and unique sensibilty, I find it fascinating. Funny, too.

But, diff'rent strokes and all.
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Now With Moveable Parts
Originally posted by Holden Pike
Many people are easily offended by Todd Solondz's stuff. To date he's made three films: Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness and Storytelling.
I'm a big supporter of Welcome to the Dollhouse. I always tell people about it, and I'm comfortable in recommending it to others. Even though it presented some difficult subject matter, it did so in such a lighthearted way, that it was easy to swallow.
The sibling rilvalry, feelings of unattractiveness,teen angst...were all key parts of the story--but they were delt with tastefully and with humor.
From what my mom told me about Happines, I wouldn't want my child to act in this movie. No frippin' way.
But, different strokes and all.



You should probably see Happiness sometime for yorself, to judge that character in context (I know which subplot you are referring to, of course). If your parents didn't even watch all of the movie, how can they fairly judge it? It's a tough movie to watch in some ways, but I think also an honest and non-judgemental multiple-character study, and ultimately a very interesting film. But I find that's part of what turns people off most about that one character, that he isn't presented as a monster. Not that he's presented sympathetically either, because he certainly isn't. It's hard to intellectualize, you just have to see how it's done in the movie.

Or don't. I love Welcome to the Dollhouse too, but Happiness is so much more complex and ambitious. I think you're missing something by not judging for yourself (it's also about a lot more than just that one storyline), but I also don't think I (or Todd Solondz) am going to lose sleep over it if you never watch it.




Now With Moveable Parts
You should probably see Happiness sometime for yourself, to judge that character in context (I know which subplot you are referring to, of course). If your parents didn't even watch all of the movie, how can they fairly judge it?
I might. I usually do, just to see what all the groaning is about. Someone told me not to see Kids, too; but I did...and didn't find it half as insulting as they did. My parents watched almost all of it...she said they were down to the last 15 minutes or so, and it wasn't getting any easier so she just said she'd had enough. Dad will sit through most anything...so I'm surre it was her choice. I watched Reqreium for a Dream, with them and she wanted to pull it; but we made her stick it out. Anyhoo...I'll take what you said into consideration.
but I also don't think I (or Todd Solondz) am going to lose sleep over it if you never watch it.
Not that you care.



XetoxIc's Avatar
Morbida
I would have to say Natural Born Killers or Pink Floyd the wall, maybe Syd Baretts first trip........there are so many!
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bigvalbowski's Avatar
Registered User
Natural Born Killers disturbing?

I've never been able to understand the reaction to this movie. I found it to be nothing more than a light-hearted comedy about violence in the media. Most of the violence was of a cartoon variety.

Perhaps the early scenes with Rodney Dangerfield were so satirical and distasteful that they disturbed some viewers. I'm pretty sure there are people out there who were forced into laughing at the horrible things Dangerfield was saying simply because the laugh-track told them to. But that was the point, wasn't it?

I didn't think the violence in NBK was any more gratuitous than you'd find in Bonnie and Clyde or other murderers on the run films.

Oh and Sades, if you can at all, check out Happiness. If only to catch a great cameo by Jon Lovitz. The subject matter is frank and dangerous but Solondz treatment is very, very funny. Perhaps too funny for the subject.
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Now With Moveable Parts
Originally posted by bigvalbowski
Oh and Sades, if you can at all, check out Happiness. If only to catch a great cameo by Jon Lovitz. The subject matter is frank and dangerous but Solondz treatment is very, very funny. Perhaps too funny for the subject.
I read what Holden said, over the phone...and she brought up an interesting point: Holden doesn't have kids. Things like that may not effect him on the same level as someone with kids. Same with Schindler's List...I'm sure we all could identify with the hardships and the pain...but not like someone who lived it.
It applies here. The thought of someone doing to your child what this man did, is going to leave you pretty cold.
I don't know, maybe you have a nephew or something, Holds, and just have no trouble distancing yourself from the subject matter and real life.



I don't have children of my own, true, but I don't think that really affects how I view Happiness...or any other movie, for that matter. Not in a direct one-to-one correlation anyway. Something tells me if your Mom didn't have kids or she could somehow time travel and see it when she was sixteen, she still would have rejected that storyline. Like most Films, it's just a taste thing on the most basic level and completely subjective.



Personally, I think her mom makes a very good point. I used to wonder why it was my dad, a grown man, would cry during certain movies. I told him I didn't feel the urge to cry. He told me "you will. When you have a family...when you have a wife you love and children you adore, you will." I've come to realize how right he was. I'm growing up in a family that allows me to, in a way, feel very much like a parent (I'm roughly sixteen years older than my youngest sibling). When I watch a movie about war, for example, I can't help but picture my friends, and those younger siblings, out in battle...and it gives the film a much stronger impact.

That's my opinion, at least. It's easy to take the depiction of emotional loss lightly when you have less to lose, emotionally, than some others.



This is an interesting debate...

The thing is, personal taste must be defined by who you are, and who you are is at least partially determined by your roles in society. Being a parent, I think, is one of the most life-changing aspects of human existence, and it can have a big effect in how you look at things. All kinds of things. "Things" being such a great, descriptive word and all.

My point is, some people's tastes change more than others. If I had seen Trainspotting at any other time than in the first few months of my daughter's life, I don't believe I would have freaked out and started crying like a maniac at that one scene (you know the one I mean). My husband remarked on that, too. So, being a mother changed me, to an extent--changed who I am. I never know for sure, but I do know that it surprised the hell out of me to react so strongly to a scene that was comparable to others I had seen of the same nature (and not reacted to... I feel like I'm repeating myself, so I'll stop).

It's all subjective, to be sure... but then again, so is your personality.
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Fez Wizardo's Avatar
Um Bungo! Um Bungo!
I just remembered another addition, which didn't disturb me as I watched it only afterwards when I thought about it:

The War Zone (Tim Roth's directorial debut)

I think to a large extent when I watch foreign films (inc. American ones) I can kind of distance myself from them and think of it as another world... but when it's filmed and shot on an everyday backdrop with incredibly bog standard looking actors it becomes completely different on so many levels... does that make sense?

... and without wanting to sound like a broken record too much: if anyone can get hold of a flick called Bad Boy Bubby fecking well do! (especially you SB, something this freaky obviously comes from your parts ) From it's opening scenes you'll know whether you're going to love it or hate it but either way you'll still want to watch it through...

plot summary:

Bad Boy Bubby is just that: a bad boy. So bad, in fact, that his mother has kept him locked in their house for his entire thirty years, convincing him that the air outside is poisonous. After a visit from his estranged father, circumstances force Bubby into the waiting world, a place which is just as unusual to him as he is to the world.
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Another high quality post by Fez Wizardo



Now With Moveable Parts
Originally posted by Holden Pike
Something tells me if your Mom didn't have kids or she could somehow time travel and see it when she was sixteen, she still would have rejected that storyline.
Nah. I don't think so.
but I know her better than you do.



I'll tell you what I didn't find disturbing.
Requiem for a Dream.

And I'm willing to discuss this with someone, because I don't know why I didn't when everyone said I would...