Best Movies - Ones that left an impression

Buzz · #1 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 06:04 PM

Mikey's Angelina thread got me to thinking about movies that really had an impact on me to the point that I am able to watch them over and over and still enjoy them.

For me Legends of The Fall with Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins was an unexpectedly awesome movie with Hopkins delivering a powerfully moving performance as the patriarch and Pitt perfectly cast as one of his sons. Julia Ormond and Paul Desmond also delivered convincing performances. Damn near fell in love with Ormond's character myself and when ol' Decker (Desmond) went for revenge I was just as pissed as he was and wanted to be the one doing the deed.

If you haven't seen this story, pick it up. Get comfortable - it's fairly long and involved, but it gets you into the story in a way that lets you feel what the characters are feeling. Anger, sadness, affection and sympathy - its powerful stuff folks!

Have any of you guys seen it and what other shows have you watched that left you feeling like you actually experienced something after watching?

Jamo · #2 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 07:01 PM

Weird how you picked Legends, Buzzer...that movie has affected me the most consistantly over the past several decades.

In 90, my Dad, a tough old farmer who worked his sons hard, suffered the first of a series of strokes, which ultimately took him a few years later. Hopkins portrayal at the end could've been of Dad...speaking more with his eyes and gestures than by speech. Still has an effect on me, though I never miss a chance to watch it.

Actually, Pitt's movies score pretty damn well with me...he has a good eye: A River Runs Through It, Meet Joe Black (again, with Hopkins) and even the latest The Curious Case...

But the one that absolutely reaches down into my guts and leaves me ready to kill something is Black Hawk Down. Just saw it again the other day and mentioned on Gasholes how much I want Somolia to be gone in the most horrific manner possible.

Insatiable shivered me timbers.

Thanks...you've made me sad, totally pissed off and sporting wood in one post. Bravo.

Buzz · #3 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 07:29 PM

Sorry big buddy for the sad and pissed part, but yea - there was some of my Dad in old man Ludlow too, so I know how you feel. Black Hawk down hit me in the chest as well - everytime I've watched it, I keep hoping I missed the part before when a squadron of apaches will come roaring in with hellfires streaking and rotary cannons blazing.

Interesting what you say about Brad Pitt. I tend to be kinda skeptical of the Hollywood starboy types, but he really comes through when he's cast in the right roles. In the movie "Troy" his brooding anti-hero portrayal of Achilles really made the show.

A similar example was when Di Caprio was cast in a lead role in Titanic, I told the wife she would have to find another date because I just didn't see how he would be relevant in what was supposed to be a serious epic movie with historic significance. I was wrong - he played the part quite well. So did the emminently porkable Kate Winslet - I wouldn't mind doing a sketch of her butt naked - with or without the diamond pendant.

Ronbo · #4 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 07:59 PM

For me the story has to be a true event. Black hawk down (our Alamo), Saving Private Ryan, Patton, Killing fields, Shindler's list, Last king of Scotland.

The best stuff you just can't make up...

BlueRooster · #5 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 08:38 PM

There are a couple movies that always leave me feeling screwy...Jacobs Ladder and A.I.

Whenever they come on I cant not watch 'em, but I just dont feel right after. What kinda mental defect is that? Eyes wide shut is another Ill watch wherever I come into it.

Alright heres a few more...
Fight club
midnight run
no country for old men

There's more but Ill stop.

Wes Tausend · #6 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 01:12 AM

...

Yeah, Legends of The Fall was a true classic.

Rewatchables: The African Queen, The Dirty Dozen, Unforgiven, Breakdown, Bond movies...

Wes

...

Buzz · #7 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 01:53 AM

Unforgiven is another one for me as well - Hackman was good as Lil' Bill. Sergio Leone's spaghetti western trilogy with Eastwood also keeps me coming back for more; not so much for the acting or storytelling, but for Leone's campy, artistic style and scene composition. "For a Few Dollars More" is possibly my most watched movie of all time - Lee Van Cleef is a badass as Colonel Mortimer and almost every still frame in that damn movie could be framed as an art quality print. Next time you get a chance to watch it, look beyond the goofy acting and out of synch voice-overs and look at the brilliant use of facial expressions and meticulous, painter-like composition of light, shadow and arrangement in almost every scene. Use the pause button a few times and you'll get stills you could frame and hang on your wall.

While we're talking about westerns, the two more recent Wyatt Earp movies were not bad; with Val Kilmer stealing the show as Doc Holliday in "Tombstone." Ah'm yoh huckleberry

Another Gene Hackman western performance I got a kick out of was John Herod in "The Quick and the Dead" with Sharon Stone. His role saved that movie for me.

Ron61 · #8 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 02:24 AM

Several of the above listed movies I really like and I have watched the Shawshank Redemption until I could almost recite the lines in it. I like Morgan Freeman. Also I liked Paint Your Wagon with Lee Marvin.

Ron

FuzzyDiceRide · #9 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 02:45 AM

Joe Dirt for me :
Joe Dirt: So your gonna' tell me that you don't have no black cats, no roman candles, or screaming mimis?
Kicking Wing: No.
Joe Dirt: Oh come on man. You got no lady fingers, fuzz buttles, snicker bombs, church burners, finger blasters, gut busters, zippity do das, or crap flappers?
Kicking Wing: No, I don't.
Joe Dirt: You're gonna stand there, owning a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistling bungholes, no spleen spliters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker donts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistling kitty chaser?
Kicking Wing: No... because snakes and sparklers are the only ones I like.
Joe Dirt: Well that might be your problem, it's not what you like, it's the consumer MikeR

Roger Cormier · #10 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 04:57 AM

Gumball Rally which started my obsession with Cobras !

trularin · #11 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 05:43 AM

Two that I watch whenever I can are The Forbin Project and Soylent Green.

There are several that are classics and I watch time and time again, but these two catch my interest.

Ron61 · #12 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 07:20 AM

Tru,

Soylent Green may be coming to life soon. I remember when I first saw that movie. I also liked Caddy Shack.

Ron

Roscoe · #13 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 07:52 AM

Poignant Dramas:

Das Boot
The Lives of Others
Glenn Garry Glenn Ross

Comedy:

Johnny Sticchino
Blame it on the Bellboy
Caddy Shack
Young Frankinstein
The Thin Man Series
The Seduction of Mimi
Seven Beauties

Action:

Odessa File
The Wild Geese
Dogs of War
Siege at Firebase Gloria
Zulu
Battleground

Film Noir:

Sunset Boulevard
Double Indemnity
Charlie Chan (Warner Olin)
many more.......

Roscoe

FuzzyDiceRide · #14 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 08:45 AM

The Godfather I & II , The Outlaw Josey Wales , Full Metal Jacket ,
Citizen Kane , Napoleon Dynamite

Roscoe · #15 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 08:59 AM

The Big Lebowski ???

392cobra · #16 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 09:18 AM

Deep Throat (1972) with Linda Lovelace

hound dog · #17 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 09:51 AM

The two that stand out the most for me are "Shenandoah" and "Apocalypse Now". So many quotables in both movies!
h dog

VRM · #18 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 03:13 PM

Lawrence of Arabia - Great historical pic that does some level of justice to what actually happened. The book is better, naturally, but does not seem to be all that available in this country. I wore through a vcr tape of the movie just before it came out on dvd.

Das Boot - Probably the best sub movie out there.

Saving Private Ryan - The level of detail is amazing - there is even a Wespe (German tank-ish thing) in the end scene - who ever puts Wespes in movies!?!

Shawshank - just a great movie.

Tru - I didn't know that 'the Forbin Project' (as in Colossus??) was a movie... I read the book about 413 years ago. I'll have to look into that - thanks.

Steve

Sharroll Celby · #19 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 05:06 PM

Kelly's Heroes, with Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor, Gavin McLeod, Telly Savalas, and many others. A great WWII movie!

(AGAIN with those negative vibes, Moriarty!)

Roscoe · #20 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 05:31 PM

Anyone see "The Loved One"?

Dozens of good actors.....

Robert Morse is memorable as the hapless Englishman, trying to understand this peculiar American commercial funeral institution and the nearly fanatical devotees to the Jonathan Winters' Blessed Reverend.

The tawdry nature of the corporate funeral industry gradually unfolds in this fantastic study of our fixation with marketing everything, even death.

Jonathan Winters plays the roles of a televangelist and his loser brother, Rod Steiger is brilliant as Mr. Joyboy, the effete chief embalmer, and the film features such huge talent as John Gielgud and Robert Morley as well as a cameos by Milton Berle, Roddy McDowell, Tab Hunter, and Liberace as the smarmy casket salesman. Look for a very young Paul Williams and...is that James Coburn? Yes, yes it is. And that Mrs. Joyboy!!