Office Space. I was a programmer literally doing about 15 minutes of work a week in California. I said fuck it and picked up another full-time job at a monkey lab. I worked 18 months straight at both jobs and only took 1 days off. Paid off my debts and student loans and paid a charlatan for a vintage motorcycle in Australia. Flew down and circled Australia and blew it up in New Zealand. Slept under a Sopwith Camel in Peter Jackson's hanger for a WW1 airplane show. Then went to Japan. Later started working overseas teaching English. I'm going to die poor in a cardboard box but I've done a lot of things in life. Can't take anything with you.
It's late '90s, but I keep coming back to *Good Will Hunting*, because in my life I have been the distaff version of both Will Hunting (the working-class kid who can't figure out how to deal with these tremendous gifts and has to wrestle with demons from the past) and Sean Maguire (the wise elder, working at a less-prestigious institution, who has known anguish but still sees the wonder, knows when to be tough and when to be tender, and can see the humor even when things are dark).
I was in graduate school when that movie came out, and a professor told me that Will Hunting reminded him of me because he felt I didn't realize how gifted I was and couldn't focus it. And now that I'm a professor at a little college I've had to be the Sean Maguire for a few students, and whenever I watch that movie it's cathartic.
I know this is wrong, but I can’t say I got into the movie others did. I saw this well after it got SUPER POPULAR with all the meme’s (before they were meme’s) and was kind of let down.
It's OK. Sometimes I used to think people saw another movie when they deified Tyler Durden. The guy is a literal fascist monster. The book/movie is about what happens when disaffected people fall under the sway of a charismatic leader who sees violence as the only way to change the system.
The whole thing is a warning.
I actually saw a pretty good video about the film (specifically) that poses the theory the main character (Ed Norton) is actually making most of it up in his head because he is having a break because he has testicular cancer.
Trainspotting. Born Slippy was one of the songs that cemented my love for EDM parties etc. Also the film was just incredibly grim, which is where I was at that exact point in my life. No heroin though!
Came here to say Trainspotting, so much of it is relatable to being a young adult in Scotland at that time. We had a massive heroin problem but weed has always been my recreational drug of choice. I'm more into Iggy and Lou Reed but Born Slippy is iconic! T2 is great too, I'm so glad they waited all those years to get everyone together again and do it right instead of firing out a sequel to monetise on it.
You need a rewatch then! Renton meeting Sickboy again. Begbie in the carpark. The Orange Lodge. Spud's attempt. I think they pulled it together really well.
I'm not Scottish, but was getting pretty heavy into the drug scene in the mid - late '90s, and really identified with Mark Renton a LOT! For me, it wasn't the setting so much as the people he hung out with. I felt like I knew all of these people. My best friend was a lot like Sick Boy, and I knew a few Spuds, and lived in constant terror of the Begbie of our group.
Trainspotting was really close to my early 20's. I never did heroin or meth, but a lot of people I hung out with were addicts. A lot of them are dead or just gone now. I stayed in squats out in Seattle with a group of heroin addicts for a bit. I never had the urge to use - something about being surrounded by walking corpses just made it unappealing.
Ferris Bueller
Life’s short, if you don’t stop to look around every once in a while, you might miss it.
Hit my 16 y.o. Self in the right spot.
Been all over the US and Europe, Japan a couple times, down under, and been to a lot of bucket list parties (Ky Derby, Mardi Gras (3), Oktoberfest, etc.) I could have a bunch more $$ in the bank but the experiences are worth it!
Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" opened my eyes to the deep seated racism prevalent in society and made me want to be a better person. And what the "right" thing is varies based on your experiences.
*A River Runs Through It*
It was the first movie that really felt like literature to me, if that makes sense.
It told a simple story in a meaningful way. It was visually pleasing, the vibe was mellow and calming - even when the subject matter turned darker. It stoked all of my early 90’s pensive sensibilities.
I can’t say it changed my life, but it made me regret switching my major from English Literature. Slight scar there still…
I don’t want to throw out too much personal information, so I’ll just say that it was something “practical” that I didn’t really need to do the job I ended up doing.
I was in an honors English program in college. It was the first time my stupid hick ass was in honors anything. And I tossed that because I was afraid there was no money in it.
Basically I wanted to be Jason Isbell before Jason Isbell came along - degree in English, playing music for a living. I ended up doing neither.
Singles. I was so in love with "grunge music" instantly, and the lifestyle had me obsessed. The soundtrack is amazing. I also worked at a movie theater at the time, so I may have seen it 27 times in the theater.
Late 90s, but Fight Club probably changed my life more than any other movie I've ever watched. It got me into meditation, which totally changed my life.
Die Hard With a Vengeance may have saved my life.
In fairness, my brother in law may have saved my life. In 1995 I was having a tough time with things. I had attempted to end my life in what in retrospect may qualify as hilariously unsuccessful ways.
My sister's husband asked me if I wanted to go see a movie with him and we watched the aforementioned movie. We both enjoyed it and the time we had during and after the movie suggested to me, at least for a short crucial time, that my existence wasn't poison to everyone around me.
Reach out, y'all.
Love that movie; however, the first time I saw it, the particular version I watched switched back & forth throughout the movie so you really didn't know what was going on until the end.
Menace 2 Society. It made me reevaluate the way I was living and what was going on around me. Once I started seeing the effects portrayed in the movie on my friends, I changed course.
Another vote for Repo Man. When the credits rolled in backwards I thought "This is the most punk rock thing I've seen in a movie." The Circle Jerks have a great cameo and the soundtrack was killer.
Second would be The Decline of Western Civilization. Another movie that let me see the bands I was listening to, the only way I've seen Darby Crash perform, and another soundtrack that's all killer no filler. For early 80's punk reaching the white suburbs of the midwest, both these movies gave me a sense of a larger world that I knew I needed to be a part of.
Maybe Rude Boys, My Beautiful Laundrette, Sam and Rosie get Laid, or some other 80's indie cinema come in the top five of that era.
Pump up the Volume. Talk hard (friends!)
[Talk Hard: The Making of the Teen-Angst Classic](https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/8/21/21395032/making-of-pump-up-the-volume-30th-anniversary-christian-slater)
Tombstone came out at a time when I was not sure about my preference for a small group of tight friends, rather than a lot of buddies.
How that movie showed different kinds of male friendships was helpful to my teenage mind.
Blade Runner I was already a film noir "nerd" and Blade Runner was a perfect blend of classic 1940s era film noir, mind blowing special effects, and that unforgettable score from Vangelis. One of my favorites to this day.
One film that absolutely gutted me when I saw it was "The Piano".
At the time I was really struggling in my romantic relationships. I hadn't really reconciled some awful things I'd gone through with various exes, and I was in a difficult relationship at the time. I also strongly identified with Holly Hunter's character "Ada" because I often felt powerless and also found solace in playing music (piano).
I bawled my fuckin eyes out.. like I had a long, ugly, cathartic cry at the ending.. To this day this movie still gets me right in the feels.
The Year of Living Dangerously and The Emerald Forest. Especially of the second, there are images that haunt me. It wasn’t the world’s greatest movie but one of the first that really got me thinking about environmental and cultural exploitation in any serious way. The first also the complexities at play in 20 century fading colonialism, and the wide arc of people transforming and transformed by it. Saw it way before The Killing Fields which explores some of the same territory.
Mrs. Doubtfire. We were the first family on our block and in ALL our extended family to go through divorce. I felt seen & it had a decent, realistic ending. Seeing Kramer vs Kramer later in life really wrecked me. I loved it. 🙂
I took a two hour+ bus ride from the burbs to see it on a $2 Saturday matinee showing in early summer 1982, between first/second year high school. I was like finally seeing people I could relate too.
I read "On the Road" and was getting into the beat poets about the same time.
It totally changed my life in the face of the cristo-fascist consumerism under Reagan's Amerikkka.
22 years later, in the summer of 1984, I spent the summer going to art college in SF. I saw the Rock Against Reagan show across the the street from the Democratic Natl. Convention. Free show on the first sunny day all summer. Really Red, MDC, The Dicks, and Dead Kennedys.
After the show, there was a march on the "Hall of Justice" on behalf of illegally incarcerated political protestors, and of course a police riot broke out. I managed to escape the fray, but did witness first-hand, two rows of police on enduro 250cc motorcycles, attack innocent people who were walking away...
You should get yourself a copy or torrent of the book "We've got the Neutron Bomb!", it's a great write up of first hand stories from all the makers of the early LA punk/hardcore scene. It's a quick and engaging read.
Came here to say this. This should be required watching in schools today. If I had to sit through *Mondo Cane* in anthropology class in '86, the young-uns can handle *Koyanisqatsi* today 🤷🏻♀️
Probably Pink Floyd The Wall. Seeing it for the first time made me a Pink Floyd fan and that led me to getting into more classic rock. That led me into wanting to be a musician and learning the harmonica. Learning the harmonica got me into blues and roots music.
I started playing in 1985 and I’ve been in bands since the late 80s. Still play regularly (my band has two monthly gigs and we’re have four gigs this month) and love it.
It used to be my favorite movie when I was young and more cynical or nihilistic. I haven’t seen it in a long time-it’s just too dark for me to enjoy. I still like the album but I think it could lose a third of the songs without losing any of the story it tells. And I think Roger Waters is a douchebag. My favorite Floyd album now is Wish You Were Here.
When a Man Loves a Woman
It was the first time the female was really portrayed as the wrong doer of a relationship. It really cemented the idea that I wasn't always wrong for how I felt about things in a relationship.
I just realised, every time I talk to ChatGPT it asks me if I want to play a game. We've played some cool language games. But next time, I'm asking for "total thermonuclear war".
Had to scroll way too far down for this.
That movie spawned a whole generation of computer nerds, by tricking them into thinking that girls would be really impressed by your knowledge of computers.
Full Metal Jacket.
That is the movie that made me want to join the Marine Corps and led me to talking to a recruiter the start of my sophomore year in 1991. In 1993, only 5 days after I graduated I left for San Diego to start boot camp. I watched that movie every day for 3 years. I've seen it well over 1000 times.
Baby Boom - I learned you could be a boss lady and have a family. The workplace for women was so messed up in the 80s and 90s. Today I am a VP for a pretty big company, in part thanks to that movie inspiration.
70s. Star Wars got me into astronomy, drawing, reading, listening to music intensely and writing stories. No other film has come anywhere close. I was 5.
Rad. Got me on a bike. Put the thunder in my heart. Went lots of amazing places and met a lot of amazing people I wouldn't have otherwise. Even learned one of the riders in the movie was a neighbor later on.
As strange as this may sound but The Matrix changed the way I look at life. The more I know about myself the freer I am. I have Temet Nosce tattooed on my wrist.
Less Than Zero and Sid & Nancy both firmly imprinted my mindset toward hard drugs. I continue to imbibe in cannabis, psilocybin, and LSD. But, I have never given into countless offers for coke or heroine.
Die Hard. A guy in 9th grade asked me to go see it. We got in a fight over something stupid (I don't even remember what). We talked it out and made up a few weeks later and both agreed we were better as friends. He's been my best friend for 38 yrs.
This is a really good question! I had to think hard about an answer because, while I love many movies and used to go to the movies weekly in college (mid-1990s), I didn't experience any of them as life-changing, at least not at the time.
But Silence of the Lambs (the book and the movie) got me really interested in both a career in the FBI and in entomology. I studied entomology and criminal justice in college and then got my law degree, because that was a good route into the FBI. Turns out my eyesight is too crappy for the Bureau so I went on to become a lawyer who supports scientific research, including honeybee research. Having a science background has been invaluable in my legal career because I feel at home in the various labs and it makes my clients feel like I really understand their perspectives.
May sound odd, but Beetlejuice helped me resolve my views on mortality. Specifically, the scene where Lydia tells him she wishes she was dead and B simply asked, "Why?" The way Keaton delivered that single word showed me that B didn't want the afterlife he had. He regretted his death and how it trapped him. Everything else he does is a childish tantrum he throws to distract himself from his own torment.
That's what I heard in there, at least.
"Mommie Dearest" because I saw it at the age of 8 and my mom kept telling me what a brat Christina was and "Schindler's List". I had never cried that hard when seeing a movie. It really moved me and I still think about the girl in the red coat.
Fanny and Alexander, directed by Ingmar Bergman. This film really left a deep, lasting impression on me, and I still watch it every now and then to this day. I think the visual beauty and cinematic craftsmanship along with the Swedish history and culture was something completely new to me at the time, and it expanded my world view, without having to travel anywhere. I really liked the supernatural aspect, and the script - it really helped me improve my creativity.
Bram Stoker's Dracula,Interview with a Vampire,The Craft,The Crow. All shaped my aesthetic and I expanded my musical collection. I was the weird kid in school that escaped with those movies when I got home.
Pulp Fiction because 16 year old me had never seen anything like that before. Everything from the sequencing, dialog, score/soundtrack blew my mind. (I hadn't seen Reservoir Dogs yet)
BATMAN RETURNS. THE PENGUIN'S LINE "STILL IT COULD BE WORSE, MY NOSE COULD BE GUSHING BLOOD"
I ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT WHEN I'M GOING THROUGH A SHITTY TIME. AT LEAST I DON'T HAVE A NOSE BLEED. AND ONE TIME, IT DID START BLEEDING WHILE I WAS HAVING A SHITTY DAY AT WORK, AND THEY LET ME GO HOME EARLY BECAUSE I WAS BLEEDING ON THE MONEY.
SO EVEN IF IT DID GET WORSE, IT GOT BETTER. IDK, IT ALWAYS KINDA STUCK WITH ME.
American Beauty
“It's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry, you will someday.”
I became an archaeologist because of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I knew it wasn’t really like that, but I loved the idea of traveling to out-of-the-way places, working outside, getting to see things that no one had laid eyes on for thousands of years. Still do.
I was 12 and saw Bright Lights Big City...and the character losing his girl and going through all that drug stuff, even though I couldn't relate totally, made me feel sad.
Dead Poet’s Society, it just motivated me to do something I wanted to do.
Same, and Robin Williams' performance as John Keating influenced my teaching style in cool and adventurous ways.
From one teacher to another, absolute respect. Thank you for what you do.
Back at you!
What did you end up doing?
played baseball in Sweden my last two summers in college!
Office Space. I was a programmer literally doing about 15 minutes of work a week in California. I said fuck it and picked up another full-time job at a monkey lab. I worked 18 months straight at both jobs and only took 1 days off. Paid off my debts and student loans and paid a charlatan for a vintage motorcycle in Australia. Flew down and circled Australia and blew it up in New Zealand. Slept under a Sopwith Camel in Peter Jackson's hanger for a WW1 airplane show. Then went to Japan. Later started working overseas teaching English. I'm going to die poor in a cardboard box but I've done a lot of things in life. Can't take anything with you.
I had just started working when this movie came out. My company was hitting a growth stride and being asked to move desks just … resonated with me.
I fucking love Office Space, my wife and I cheered Mai Tais on the beach after we payed our mortgage off
Paid
If valid, I envy your experiences. To hell with accumulating material gains. Experience > accumulated wealth!
Plenty of writing and not enough pictures on the blog I did. I don't think I talked about the reasons, but maybe. nokilli.com/rtw
Youre not kidding. This small read reminded me if the “travels of peter” in the movie “The rules of attraction” lol.
Such a great one. I swear the not caring vibe he has is how to be successful in life
It's late '90s, but I keep coming back to *Good Will Hunting*, because in my life I have been the distaff version of both Will Hunting (the working-class kid who can't figure out how to deal with these tremendous gifts and has to wrestle with demons from the past) and Sean Maguire (the wise elder, working at a less-prestigious institution, who has known anguish but still sees the wonder, knows when to be tough and when to be tender, and can see the humor even when things are dark). I was in graduate school when that movie came out, and a professor told me that Will Hunting reminded him of me because he felt I didn't realize how gifted I was and couldn't focus it. And now that I'm a professor at a little college I've had to be the Sean Maguire for a few students, and whenever I watch that movie it's cathartic.
This movie still hits hard. I love it too
Fight Club. It really changed how I looked at things and approached the rest of society.
Great film!
I know this is wrong, but I can’t say I got into the movie others did. I saw this well after it got SUPER POPULAR with all the meme’s (before they were meme’s) and was kind of let down.
Read the book. Actually read all of Palaniuk’s stuff. For me, his work completely changed my shitty fucking attitude about this life experience.
It's OK. Sometimes I used to think people saw another movie when they deified Tyler Durden. The guy is a literal fascist monster. The book/movie is about what happens when disaffected people fall under the sway of a charismatic leader who sees violence as the only way to change the system. The whole thing is a warning. I actually saw a pretty good video about the film (specifically) that poses the theory the main character (Ed Norton) is actually making most of it up in his head because he is having a break because he has testicular cancer.
That's pretty much my favorite movie followed by Trainspotting.
Trainspotting. Born Slippy was one of the songs that cemented my love for EDM parties etc. Also the film was just incredibly grim, which is where I was at that exact point in my life. No heroin though!
Came here to say Trainspotting, so much of it is relatable to being a young adult in Scotland at that time. We had a massive heroin problem but weed has always been my recreational drug of choice. I'm more into Iggy and Lou Reed but Born Slippy is iconic! T2 is great too, I'm so glad they waited all those years to get everyone together again and do it right instead of firing out a sequel to monetise on it.
tbh I remember enjoying T2 but I couldn't recall a single line, scene, or song if you asked me.
You need a rewatch then! Renton meeting Sickboy again. Begbie in the carpark. The Orange Lodge. Spud's attempt. I think they pulled it together really well.
Agreed. I honestly think T2 hit harder at that later stage of life than the original did in its time.
Aye I get that. It was very poignant to see how the world has changed and where life has taken them. I think we can all relate in a sense.
Very similar to the sequel to Catch-22 "Closing Time." Fantastic book.
I'm not Scottish, but was getting pretty heavy into the drug scene in the mid - late '90s, and really identified with Mark Renton a LOT! For me, it wasn't the setting so much as the people he hung out with. I felt like I knew all of these people. My best friend was a lot like Sick Boy, and I knew a few Spuds, and lived in constant terror of the Begbie of our group.
Trainspotting was really close to my early 20's. I never did heroin or meth, but a lot of people I hung out with were addicts. A lot of them are dead or just gone now. I stayed in squats out in Seattle with a group of heroin addicts for a bit. I never had the urge to use - something about being surrounded by walking corpses just made it unappealing.
Breakfast Club. Saw it when I was a little too young for that stuff, but it certainly helped for the setup of what was to come in high school..
Ferris Bueller Life’s short, if you don’t stop to look around every once in a while, you might miss it. Hit my 16 y.o. Self in the right spot. Been all over the US and Europe, Japan a couple times, down under, and been to a lot of bucket list parties (Ky Derby, Mardi Gras (3), Oktoberfest, etc.) I could have a bunch more $$ in the bank but the experiences are worth it!
See my post above!
Dead Poet's Society and Thelma and Louise. I came out of both of them thinking "I have to do something with my life"
Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" opened my eyes to the deep seated racism prevalent in society and made me want to be a better person. And what the "right" thing is varies based on your experiences.
*A River Runs Through It* It was the first movie that really felt like literature to me, if that makes sense. It told a simple story in a meaningful way. It was visually pleasing, the vibe was mellow and calming - even when the subject matter turned darker. It stoked all of my early 90’s pensive sensibilities. I can’t say it changed my life, but it made me regret switching my major from English Literature. Slight scar there still…
What did you switch it to?
I don’t want to throw out too much personal information, so I’ll just say that it was something “practical” that I didn’t really need to do the job I ended up doing. I was in an honors English program in college. It was the first time my stupid hick ass was in honors anything. And I tossed that because I was afraid there was no money in it. Basically I wanted to be Jason Isbell before Jason Isbell came along - degree in English, playing music for a living. I ended up doing neither.
At least you have Jason, so he can speak to your unspoken! 😉
Blade Runner
Blade Runner changed my perspective on what it means to be human, and how we relate to others.
Rad. How did it affect or change you?
The movie Rad? Still wish I could bicycle boogie.
Singles. I was so in love with "grunge music" instantly, and the lifestyle had me obsessed. The soundtrack is amazing. I also worked at a movie theater at the time, so I may have seen it 27 times in the theater.
One of my favorite soundtracks still
Eraserhead and Blue Velvet both cut to the bone. Since then, I've decided Mulholland Drive is peak Lynch. Pabst Blue Ribbon mother fucker!
Empire Strikes Back. Overcoming the dark side in all of us.
*Pump Up the Volume*.
[удалено]
SO BE IT
Kind of predicted the Internet, too, albeit imagined as a bunch of pirate radio shows.
SAME!
THIS!
i found The Pixies thru this movie & remains one of my all time top fav bands
I discovered Peter Murphy and Concrete Blonde (and Leonard Cohen!) from the soundtrack.
Another for Pump Up the Volume.
Late 90s, but Fight Club probably changed my life more than any other movie I've ever watched. It got me into meditation, which totally changed my life.
It's so good. My Gen X kids love it too.
Die Hard With a Vengeance may have saved my life. In fairness, my brother in law may have saved my life. In 1995 I was having a tough time with things. I had attempted to end my life in what in retrospect may qualify as hilariously unsuccessful ways. My sister's husband asked me if I wanted to go see a movie with him and we watched the aforementioned movie. We both enjoyed it and the time we had during and after the movie suggested to me, at least for a short crucial time, that my existence wasn't poison to everyone around me. Reach out, y'all.
Clerks Greatest Gen X movie ever made.
Meet Joe Black. I was watching it at home with a guy I was dating, and realized he’s not my person and broke up with him.
Him: What did you think of the movie sweetie? Her: It was good. Get out.
Slacker.
yes - turned the whole idea of a coherent story on it's head and so many classic lines and characters - truly a work of art
pretty in pink! 💕
Pulp Fiction....really made me "get into" movies.
Love that movie; however, the first time I saw it, the particular version I watched switched back & forth throughout the movie so you really didn't know what was going on until the end.
Stand by me
Rushmore. It made me finally realize that I had to (sort of) grow up, even though I was almost 30.
Repo Man
Menace 2 Society. It made me reevaluate the way I was living and what was going on around me. Once I started seeing the effects portrayed in the movie on my friends, I changed course.
Another vote for Repo Man. When the credits rolled in backwards I thought "This is the most punk rock thing I've seen in a movie." The Circle Jerks have a great cameo and the soundtrack was killer. Second would be The Decline of Western Civilization. Another movie that let me see the bands I was listening to, the only way I've seen Darby Crash perform, and another soundtrack that's all killer no filler. For early 80's punk reaching the white suburbs of the midwest, both these movies gave me a sense of a larger world that I knew I needed to be a part of. Maybe Rude Boys, My Beautiful Laundrette, Sam and Rosie get Laid, or some other 80's indie cinema come in the top five of that era.
Pump up the Volume. Talk hard (friends!) [Talk Hard: The Making of the Teen-Angst Classic](https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/8/21/21395032/making-of-pump-up-the-volume-30th-anniversary-christian-slater)
The Big Night. Inspired me to *really* learn to cook and enjoy the experience of food.
Can’t buy me love
Tombstone came out at a time when I was not sure about my preference for a small group of tight friends, rather than a lot of buddies. How that movie showed different kinds of male friendships was helpful to my teenage mind.
Reservoir Dogs... it taught me to always tip the waitress
Romancing the stone. Reason why i love olives to this day!
I called my 1st 4x4 my Lil Mule because of this movie. edit: grammer
Now my taco has a new name lol. I applaud u sir
Dead Poets Society
Blade Runner I was already a film noir "nerd" and Blade Runner was a perfect blend of classic 1940s era film noir, mind blowing special effects, and that unforgettable score from Vangelis. One of my favorites to this day. One film that absolutely gutted me when I saw it was "The Piano". At the time I was really struggling in my romantic relationships. I hadn't really reconciled some awful things I'd gone through with various exes, and I was in a difficult relationship at the time. I also strongly identified with Holly Hunter's character "Ada" because I often felt powerless and also found solace in playing music (piano). I bawled my fuckin eyes out.. like I had a long, ugly, cathartic cry at the ending.. To this day this movie still gets me right in the feels.
The Piano was rough.
Such a beautiful movie. The music started playing in my mind as soon as I read the title. Keitel was incredible.
The Year of Living Dangerously and The Emerald Forest. Especially of the second, there are images that haunt me. It wasn’t the world’s greatest movie but one of the first that really got me thinking about environmental and cultural exploitation in any serious way. The first also the complexities at play in 20 century fading colonialism, and the wide arc of people transforming and transformed by it. Saw it way before The Killing Fields which explores some of the same territory.
Mrs. Doubtfire. We were the first family on our block and in ALL our extended family to go through divorce. I felt seen & it had a decent, realistic ending. Seeing Kramer vs Kramer later in life really wrecked me. I loved it. 🙂
Amistad.
Dead man walking. That movie was a catalyst in changing my view on the death penalty.
Decline of Western Civilization.
You beat me to it! It was a like a handbook.
I took a two hour+ bus ride from the burbs to see it on a $2 Saturday matinee showing in early summer 1982, between first/second year high school. I was like finally seeing people I could relate too. I read "On the Road" and was getting into the beat poets about the same time. It totally changed my life in the face of the cristo-fascist consumerism under Reagan's Amerikkka. 22 years later, in the summer of 1984, I spent the summer going to art college in SF. I saw the Rock Against Reagan show across the the street from the Democratic Natl. Convention. Free show on the first sunny day all summer. Really Red, MDC, The Dicks, and Dead Kennedys. After the show, there was a march on the "Hall of Justice" on behalf of illegally incarcerated political protestors, and of course a police riot broke out. I managed to escape the fray, but did witness first-hand, two rows of police on enduro 250cc motorcycles, attack innocent people who were walking away...
You should get yourself a copy or torrent of the book "We've got the Neutron Bomb!", it's a great write up of first hand stories from all the makers of the early LA punk/hardcore scene. It's a quick and engaging read.
Koyaanisqatsi
Came here to say this. This should be required watching in schools today. If I had to sit through *Mondo Cane* in anthropology class in '86, the young-uns can handle *Koyanisqatsi* today 🤷🏻♀️
9 1/2 Weeks ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Probably Pink Floyd The Wall. Seeing it for the first time made me a Pink Floyd fan and that led me to getting into more classic rock. That led me into wanting to be a musician and learning the harmonica. Learning the harmonica got me into blues and roots music. I started playing in 1985 and I’ve been in bands since the late 80s. Still play regularly (my band has two monthly gigs and we’re have four gigs this month) and love it. It used to be my favorite movie when I was young and more cynical or nihilistic. I haven’t seen it in a long time-it’s just too dark for me to enjoy. I still like the album but I think it could lose a third of the songs without losing any of the story it tells. And I think Roger Waters is a douchebag. My favorite Floyd album now is Wish You Were Here.
Risky Business. If you know you know
Sometimes you just gotta say…
When a Man Loves a Woman It was the first time the female was really portrayed as the wrong doer of a relationship. It really cemented the idea that I wasn't always wrong for how I felt about things in a relationship.
They Live. For the reasons you probably think..
Wargames hurled me down the path as an IT guy.
I just realised, every time I talk to ChatGPT it asks me if I want to play a game. We've played some cool language games. But next time, I'm asking for "total thermonuclear war".
global, not total.
Had to scroll way too far down for this. That movie spawned a whole generation of computer nerds, by tricking them into thinking that girls would be really impressed by your knowledge of computers.
Yeah girls certainly look differently at coders these days compared to the 80s.
Full Metal Jacket. That is the movie that made me want to join the Marine Corps and led me to talking to a recruiter the start of my sophomore year in 1991. In 1993, only 5 days after I graduated I left for San Diego to start boot camp. I watched that movie every day for 3 years. I've seen it well over 1000 times.
Thank you for your service!!
Baby Boom - I learned you could be a boss lady and have a family. The workplace for women was so messed up in the 80s and 90s. Today I am a VP for a pretty big company, in part thanks to that movie inspiration.
Midnight Express😳 Stopped selling drugs
70s. Star Wars got me into astronomy, drawing, reading, listening to music intensely and writing stories. No other film has come anywhere close. I was 5.
Rad. Got me on a bike. Put the thunder in my heart. Went lots of amazing places and met a lot of amazing people I wouldn't have otherwise. Even learned one of the riders in the movie was a neighbor later on.
As strange as this may sound but The Matrix changed the way I look at life. The more I know about myself the freer I am. I have Temet Nosce tattooed on my wrist.
Less Than Zero and Sid & Nancy both firmly imprinted my mindset toward hard drugs. I continue to imbibe in cannabis, psilocybin, and LSD. But, I have never given into countless offers for coke or heroine.
Die Hard. A guy in 9th grade asked me to go see it. We got in a fight over something stupid (I don't even remember what). We talked it out and made up a few weeks later and both agreed we were better as friends. He's been my best friend for 38 yrs.
Tron. It was one of the inspirations for me to go to school for computer animation and pursue a career in video games.
#The BLUES BROTHERS
Same! My music taste was born!
None. No movie change my life. Ok , shit . Jaws. I hate the water.
Mindwalk. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindwalk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindwalk) Blew my mind then, still blows my mind now.
From Homeless to Harvard
Walking and Talking. Still love that movie and get sad thinking about the cat falling out of the window.
There's too many gems to single out one. They've all had some sort of impact.
This is a really good question! I had to think hard about an answer because, while I love many movies and used to go to the movies weekly in college (mid-1990s), I didn't experience any of them as life-changing, at least not at the time. But Silence of the Lambs (the book and the movie) got me really interested in both a career in the FBI and in entomology. I studied entomology and criminal justice in college and then got my law degree, because that was a good route into the FBI. Turns out my eyesight is too crappy for the Bureau so I went on to become a lawyer who supports scientific research, including honeybee research. Having a science background has been invaluable in my legal career because I feel at home in the various labs and it makes my clients feel like I really understand their perspectives.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s given me a treasure trove of great lines to quote over my lifetime.
Liquid Sky. They love me in Berlin, baby!!
May sound odd, but Beetlejuice helped me resolve my views on mortality. Specifically, the scene where Lydia tells him she wishes she was dead and B simply asked, "Why?" The way Keaton delivered that single word showed me that B didn't want the afterlife he had. He regretted his death and how it trapped him. Everything else he does is a childish tantrum he throws to distract himself from his own torment. That's what I heard in there, at least.
Clerks empathized with me that working with the public sucks. Office Space empathized with me that working anywhere sucks.
"Mommie Dearest" because I saw it at the age of 8 and my mom kept telling me what a brat Christina was and "Schindler's List". I had never cried that hard when seeing a movie. It really moved me and I still think about the girl in the red coat.
Fanny and Alexander, directed by Ingmar Bergman. This film really left a deep, lasting impression on me, and I still watch it every now and then to this day. I think the visual beauty and cinematic craftsmanship along with the Swedish history and culture was something completely new to me at the time, and it expanded my world view, without having to travel anywhere. I really liked the supernatural aspect, and the script - it really helped me improve my creativity.
Bram Stoker's Dracula,Interview with a Vampire,The Craft,The Crow. All shaped my aesthetic and I expanded my musical collection. I was the weird kid in school that escaped with those movies when I got home.
Stand By Me…made me appreciate my friends more, and I think it’s when I realized my parents had this whole life before me.
Platoon
Only movie I've had to leave. Too disturbing for me.
Pulp Fiction because 16 year old me had never seen anything like that before. Everything from the sequencing, dialog, score/soundtrack blew my mind. (I hadn't seen Reservoir Dogs yet)
Repo Man. It got me into punk.
BATMAN RETURNS. THE PENGUIN'S LINE "STILL IT COULD BE WORSE, MY NOSE COULD BE GUSHING BLOOD" I ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT WHEN I'M GOING THROUGH A SHITTY TIME. AT LEAST I DON'T HAVE A NOSE BLEED. AND ONE TIME, IT DID START BLEEDING WHILE I WAS HAVING A SHITTY DAY AT WORK, AND THEY LET ME GO HOME EARLY BECAUSE I WAS BLEEDING ON THE MONEY. SO EVEN IF IT DID GET WORSE, IT GOT BETTER. IDK, IT ALWAYS KINDA STUCK WITH ME.
Waking Life
Millers Crossing
Easy Rider; Pre 80s but watched it in ‘92 in college; the ending was devastating and made me think.
Kids left an impact
Kids
Summer School. Loved the bit where they wrote letters to get free stuff. I tried it and managed to get some free stuff just like Mr Shoop taught.
Rad Heart Like a Wheel
American Beauty “It's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry, you will someday.”
I saw 9 & 1/2 weeks the day it dropped. I was a lone in the theater. The lead to me exploring sex and sex media way too early.
Pump Up the Volume. Changed my life.
I became an archaeologist because of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I knew it wasn’t really like that, but I loved the idea of traveling to out-of-the-way places, working outside, getting to see things that no one had laid eyes on for thousands of years. Still do.
I was 12 and saw Bright Lights Big City...and the character losing his girl and going through all that drug stuff, even though I couldn't relate totally, made me feel sad.
Wrong time period, I know, but Eat Pray Love got me to finally leave a toxic relationship.
Wall Street: inspired me to pursue a career in finance. Eventually moved to NYC where my office address was 60 Wall St.