Has a Movie Changed Your Life?

There are lots of movies that effect the way you think about things, but has a movie ever changed your life?

I saw Times Square when I was 17 and it totally changed how I enjoyed music. Before I saw that film I was all into heavy metal, like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent, ACDC, etc. I went to all the big concerts that came to town and I wore black concert T-Shirts to school and always had something heavy in my walkman. I was very closed minded about music and if it wasnt heavy metal, I wanted no part of it.

Times Square was about two rebellious teenage girls that run away from home (and a mental hospital) and start a punk band. Tim Curry was a DJ that promoted them. Some of the bands on the soundtrack include Roxy Music, The Ramones, Cars, Talking Heads, Gary Numan, Lou Reed, and The Pretenders.

That music, and the context of the plot, I was an instant convert. I pretty much quit listening to heavy metal and started listening to new wave and punk. My musical tastes were profoundly effected practically overnight. I have well rounded musical tastes now, but at the time, that movie changed my life!

Anyone else profoundly effected by seeing a movie?

Wewease wodewick!

Loki, the same thing happened to me when I saw the movie "Scratch". I have a whole new appreciation for Turntablism and absolutely love the music now. I had a passing fancy with DJ produced music before, but Turntablists like DJ Q-Bert and Cut Chemist pretty much completely changed how I feel about it!

Arti

I saw Debbie Does Dallas 2 nights before my first weekend liberty in the Philipines back in the mid-70s..... Best educational 2-hour lesson I ever took. The practicum lasted all weekend and I continue to take refreshere courses on a routine basis... Before that, I hated school.

I loved that movie when it came out. I can't say it changed my life but I did see it several times and have since searched for it on video. No one else I know has even heard of it.

Has a movie changed my life?
Well, StarWars Episode 2, Attack of the Clones wasted about 2 hours of it

Pooty Tang.

But seriously, I think Big Fish came close.

Passion of Christ - renewd my faith.

Aww, right up my alley! We should form a Sprituality in Movies chat group one of these days!

On the serious side, two movies (among many) have had a profound impact on me:

It's a Wonderful Life
The Green Mile

Now for the cynical humor:

Office Space
There's Something about Mary

There ya have it!

*Edit: In fact, I need to get my butt away from this computer and watch OS again!

Well this is a bit embarassingly geeky, but I'd have to say that the first Star Wars movie had a huge impact on the direction of my life. I'd never seen a movie so convincingly create worlds that didn't exist. It spawned my interest in art and set me on the course to film school. When I got there I discovered film wasn't really what I wanted to do, but I got introduced to people who led me down the path to becoming a digital artist and animator. I look back at Star Wars now and think it's pretty damn cheesy. But had I never seen that film I might have ended up a plumber or something.

Big Fish! Oh my god that was a fantastic movie!

I can't say it's changed my life, but whenever I watch "What Dreams May Come" I cry through the entire thing.

And Bicentennial Man is sooooo fantastic as well.... god I love it....

*sniff*

I... gotta go...

A list of movies that have changed my life that all have something in common:


Back to the Future
Donnie Darko
Twelve Monkeys
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Groundhog Day
Run Lola Run
Frequency




The reason I have enjoyed these movies in large part is because they have gotten me to consider possibilities in life -- and in Second Life, for that matter -- and a number of "What if?" scenarios. My mind has been opened up to the choices I make, and philosophical discussion aside, I like to believe that some branches of the tree bear tastier fruit than others. ^_^

This move is the pwn.

I'd say a lot of movies have changed my life.

How about:

Blade Runner
Saving Private Ryan
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Full Metal Jacket
The Animatrix
The Princess Mononoke
Yellow Submarine
The Shawshank Redemption

I wouldn't say any single movie has changed my life, but ther eare a few that made a significant impact on me, in no particular order:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Citizen Kane
A Simple Plan
Terms of Endearment
A Beautiful Mind
My First Mister
Less than Zero
The Breakfast Club
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
As Good as it Gets
Saving Private Ryan
The Omen
The Big Red One
Serpico
Monster's Ball
Unforgiven
Cape Fear
Dog Day Afternoon
Giant
Mommy Dearest
Sibyl
The Hitcher
Jaws
The Godfather and its sequels
The Exorcist
Dirty Harry and its sequels
The Warriors
The Outsiders
Once Upon a Time in the West, and many of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns
Taxi Driver
Rumble Fish
Star Wars and its sequels
Star Trek and its sequels
Bladerunner
Scarface
Bad Ronald
Chinatown
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Wild One
East of Eden
Rebel Without a Cause
Full Metal Jacket

There are more, but I won't bore you with them.

I find it amazing that The Matrix hasn't been mentioned yet! No, Hiro, The Animatrix doesn't count in that statement.

Mine are:

The Matrix (all three!)
Mirage (1965)
Blade Runner
D.O.A. (1950)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Yojimbo
Impostor
Network
Unbreakable
Total Recall
Stephen King's The Stand
Natural Born Killers

The Trial of Billy Jack.

I'd hafta agree with Torley, Back to the Future is what gave some inspiration to be creative. For the first time. Although I was 5 at the time it came out (amazing how us youngins understand movies so well).

Billy Jack! Kick the apple from my hand! The Billy Jack movies were great, although they haven't held up that well with time, kind of like "Walking Tall".

"Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000" Definatly changed my whole life.

It made me realise, in a total, all-encompasing way, that I should choose movies far more carefully as I'd never get those 118 minutes back. Ugh.

Was it the special effects that looked like Crayola crayons on screen, the horrific storyline inconsistancies, the incomprehensible tilted camera angles, or the dank look of the movie that made you realize this? I have Ebert and Roeper's review of Battlefield Earth saved on my hard drive, because it is hysterically just how much they trashed the movie. "Two thumbs down, way way down, way way way down!"

Hiro, I would be hard pressed to pick one particular aspect as the coup de grace of the overall assault on my senses. It's an ensemble peice - all the horrid production mistakes, writing disasters, direction miscues and "I can't belive I signed up for this" acting blend together in a roiling mass of effluent with a thick miasma eminating from the festering putrescence that was that film.

The book was much better.

Yes, it had better special effects.

I would rate this one of my favorite novels of all time! I never saw the mini-series, though. I have read the book, in its entirety, no less than four times.