Movies That Changed Your Life

Have you ever seen a movie that literally changed your life?  Think about this for a bit.  Really think about it.  Then blog or email me about it!  I would love to know what meant something to you.

I found this such a compelling topic for thought, that I have challenged my husband and son to a dialog discussing the subject at length.  Our responses were so different, and so interesting.  When I was a young girl and saw Breakfast At Tiffany's, I determined that I would from that day on be a person of style and grace and character, just like Audrey Hepburn/Holly Go Lightly.  The fact that she pushed love away was lost on me at the time,  I just loved her look.  Seeing the movie again, I found her sad and lost.  But still damned attractive.  Interesting note--Marilyn Monroe was originally picked to star in this movie.  If that had been the case, I doubt it would have had the same impact on me.

When I was a bit older, and in college, I saw two movies that had even a greater impact on my persona.  One was The Pawnbroker, a movie about loss and the subsequent emotional detachment of an individual  who had suffered in a concentration camp.   Rod Steiger, who played the Holocaust survivor, experienced countless horrors at the hands of the Nazis, losing his family and best friend.  After the war, he emigrated to America where he opened a pawn shop in Harlem.  There, he witnessed many atrocities and much violence, but remained curiously detached from the suffering of others.  You would have thought he would have much empathy and compassion, but it was quite the opposite.  He had steeled himself to the meaninglessness of life.  At the movie's end, the loyalty and sacrifice of his shop assistant provokes him to an act of self mutilation that causes him at last to feel pain and awareness and empathy.  These were topics that had never crossed my mind in my entire life.  The movie was so eye opening and consciousness raising that I have thought of it often over the years.  How cruelty and meaness only perpetuate numbness and detachment and therefore more cruelty.  Wow.  This brings back some painful thoughts.  Self discovery isn't always about fun, fashion, and frivolity.

The other movie that influenced me was one starring Terrence Stamp and Samantha Egger, called The Collector, based on a novel by John Fowles.  This movie was all about different sorts of love, and mainly that you cannot MAKE someone love you.  In this movie, a nerdy butterfly collector kidnaps a beautiful art student and is determined that if he showers her with lovely things, she will come to love him.  He wants to own her, as something in a collection.  This movie is so complicated--it has to do with class differences, differences in attitudes and expectations and the fact that love is often just a huge delusion.  The plot even has parallels to Shakespeare's work The Tempest.  I loved the movie intellectually because it was so challenging , but also because it addressed the topic of loving someone for inauthentic reasons.  It reminded me of being a kid and catching a lightening bug in a jar, planning to make it my pet, only to find when I woke up the next morning, it was dead in the jar.

My son's most influential movie was one called Harold and Maude, a cult classic about a very disturbed, death obsessed young man who ultimately befriends and falls in love with an 80 year old woman.  This movie is all about love and the fact that it transcends what society deems acceptable norms.  Love for the right reasons, see the true essence of those personalities with whom you interact.  Don't be "normal" and love what society tells you to love.  Possessions and life are temporary, is what Maude teaches Harold. It is what you do every day with your life each and every day that matters most.  An intersting side note, Maude too was a Holocaust survivor, but instead of becoming numb and detached like the character in the Pawnbroker, embraced life with a zest that was amazing.  If you have not seen this movie, rent it immediately!



I think I am just going to have to tag a few people, I am so interested to hear what movies they say have influenced them.  So, I tag Susan of Blackberry Creek, Karen Dianne of Lee Haven, and Carol of Brown Quilts.  Also, my sister Mary, if you are reading this, email me what you think--I would love to know.

Comments

[Susan Ramey Cleveland]

Hmmmmm, gotta think about this one.

[*karendianne]

ahh, I'm on it. I've got a long day of appts so I'll time to contemplate!

[CJ]

I didn't see Breakfast at Tiffany's until a few years ago and I was majorly disappointed. What was all the hype about anyway? What a mess her life was, oh sure she LOOKED good but that is NOT what it is all about. Sorry to pick on your movie. I don't even know what I would put down for mine. :S

[Karen]

I hope it's ok if I comment tho I've not been tagged. I remember seeing "Mr. Mom" back in the 80's with Michael Keaton. It just made me laugh so hard. I was a SAHM with 2 little ones and it was just what I needed. It also made me thankful to be able to be home with my little ones. The other movie is "A Wonderful Life". I have always felt I was shy and not a stand out person-"invisible". It helped me to realize that I may not be making a world shaking difference but my life does matter.
I tend toward feel-good movies.
Thanks for asking

[Nancy]

Well, I wasn't tagged but I had to tell you that I was a young girl when my neighbor took her daughter and me to see "A Patch Of Blue"...it really opened my young eyes to problems that I hadn't thought much about and also made me appreciate my loving family and our small but comfortable home. Many of us really are so blessed and just take it for granted. Strange that a movie can impact your life in these ways. Books also.

[Libby]

For me the movie has always been To Kill A Mockingbird. I saw it for the first time on television probably before I was 10. As a child of divorce and living with my mom, I was completely intrigued with the relationship Jem and Scout had with Atticus. Oh how I wanted my dad to be around and to be just like that! I know that I really did not comprehend exactly what was happening in the courtroom scenes the first time I saw the movie. But I knew that Tom was innocent and not being treated right or fair by the the prosecution and the jury.
After seeing the movie and reading the book countless times, I often try to look at a situation by 'stepping in another man's shoes and walking around in them.'

[Veronica]

I know I wasn't tagged but a combination of "Dead Poet's Society" and my senior high school English teacher helped me to chose my own classes and start to make my own decisions when I started college. I do love "Breakfast at Tiffany's," it's one of those classics I can see over and over.

[Thelma]

I thought about this all day yesterday and overnight. I cannot come up with a single movie that has changed my life. I've had movies that haunted my thoughts for a day or two but no life changers. I asked my husband this question and he said he's had movies that have changed his life for maybe a week or two, but nothing long lasting. I hate to admit that the movie I've watched the most is "You've Got Mail". I've watched that happy little simple movie well over 50 times....I know, it's a sickness. It just lifts my spirits everytime, what can say......

[Andrea]

Harold & Maude changed my life. The very first date Rick and I went out on was to see that movie.

This probably says oodles about me but I rarely pay attention to what the message of the movie is - I'm always way too interested in the costumes and scenery. I loved Pretty Baby (a movie basically glamourizing child prostituion) because of all the dreamy lace on costumes and bedding (lots of bedding scenes.....).

All my favorite movies are my favorites because of the sets.

[Kayte]

I loved musicals...when I was young, I would watch them, memorize the music, sing all the tunes, and we would play act everything we could. High Society with Grace Kelly was one of my favorites for some reason (Sarah looks like Grace don't you think?). I don't know that it was any big influential factor in my life, but it defines me as someone who is happy and likes good endings and is a bit of silly nut along the way. I love the colors and the costumes and the songs and the music and all the dancing and acting and fancy bits. And I never once wanted to be an actress. I wanted to be a librarian...like Marian the Librarian in 76 Trombones! LOL! How silly...this was a fun post to read about yours.

[Christine]

I would have to say that I'm sure there were many that influenced me, but the one that touched me that I can think of now was "Steel Magnolias." Even though it was so sad, it just goes to show you that friendship always makes us stronger in times of great despair.