Powerful Movies

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2005-02-20 04:13pm

Das Boot
The Big Red One
Shindlers list
All Quiet on the Western Front.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2005-02-20 05:32pm

AS an addendum now having been reminded of it let me add What Dreams May Come. The story was simply amazing and the visual sweep with it just connected in such a raw way that you had to be moved.

entfern · Post by **entfern** » 2005-02-20 07:54pm

The Passion of the Christ. . . .

It's kind of scary when you watch a movie in a gym filled with people on the court and off. . . and after the movie, there was dead silence for 3 mins and no one moved. . . . Then the crying started. . . . I can't think of any other movie I had been to that has had quite that reaction on the viewers. . .

Azazel · Post by **Azazel** » 2005-02-20 09:07pm

Platoon, Braveheart

Can't really think of any more right now.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-02-21 12:47am

A lot of great movies in this thread so far, but I don't know if I would classify them as "powerful" using the criteria in the original post which specified that they must "make you think" (presumably about larger issues in society).

Using that criteria, while I absolutely loved the movie "Gladiator", it should not be on the list. Neither should "Saving Private Ryan" which, while moving and well-done and one of my favourites, certainly did not give me reason to think about anything that I had not thought of before. Same goes for popular picks such as "Schindler's List"- it may have been moving, but did it really make you think about anything that you didn't already know?

It's hard for me to think of movies that meet this particular standard of "powerful", but a few that come to mind are "A Civil Action" (its depiction of the struggle between the idealism of youth versus the crafty skill of well-funded experience in the courtroom gave me food for thought about the way the legal system operates) and "Demolition Man" (despite its superficially vapid popcorn movie appearance, it quietly poses some serious questions about the relative weightings that we give to liberty and safety in society). "Jurassic Park" also falls inadvertently into this category for me, because it made me think about the social phenomena underlying technophobia and the irrational causes of anti-scientific sentiment: not the intent of the producers, I'm sure.

When I was a child, "Kramer vs Kramer" was a very powerful movie for me, because of its frank depiction of the effects of divorce which I had never really seriously thought about before. Rewatching it as an adult, it was not powerful because its treatment of the subject was fairly superficial and greatly simplified by the mother being reduced to a one-dimensional (and largely absent) plot device.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-02-21 12:59am

entfern wrote:The Passion of the Christ. . . .

It's kind of scary when you watch a movie in a gym filled with people on the court and off. . . and after the movie, there was dead silence for 3 mins and no one moved. . . . Then the crying started. . . . I can't think of any other movie I had been to that has had quite that reaction on the viewers.

The OP specified that the film had to stimulate actual thought. This doesn't sound like thinking to me. It sounds more like some kind of masochistic wallowing in emotional catharsis.

SeebianWurm · Post by **SeebianWurm** » 2005-02-21 02:25am

Million Dollar Baby is really a very good example of powerful film. Both in the something-to-think-about sense and in just the total impact of the film. I've seen it twice and been completely absorbed both times. It's still in theatres, and if you want to see a strong serious drama, I recommend it highly.

Edit: And Adaptation if you're a film person who doesn't mind following dialogue.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2005-02-21 06:37am

The Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
Gladiator
8 MM

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2005-02-21 06:51am

Fight Club!
I agree with the shawshank redemption, it was really quite inspiring and made me contemplate the "point" of existence. Perhaps the point of existence is to persevere for the purpose of persevering, as you go through life day by day and it's not really all that bad. l

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-02-21 06:52am

12 Angry Men. That provoked quite a lot of thought.

Clerks. And I mean that seriously. It had some pretty thought-provoking stuff in there with the dick jokes if you thought about it.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2005-02-21 06:56am

A powerful movie that makes you think?

Philadelphia: first time I had really been exposed to the menace that is AIDS. Nothing underscores a tragedy quite like putting a human face on it. It was also an interesting look at the kind of intolerance that homophobes regularly displayed towards homosexuals. The bit where that old fucker was on the stand bragging about how when he was in the Navy they did this terrible thing to the only gay crewman... it opened my eyes. People can and will do terrible things for no good reason than out of spite. No-one deserves to be treated that way for things they do in their bedroom, and certainly no-one deserves to die in such a horrible manner.

Malena: first time I saw that you could be despised simply for looking beautiful. I still cringe and see red and get almost violently upset when the town bitches beat up Malena at the end, enough to permanently cripple her to limping, while the men stood by and watched like a bunch of pussywhipped motherfuckers. The entire movie they had been salivating over her and all but masturbating in her presence, yet when she was in trouble nobody helped her. She had to become a whore to survive, and no-one forgave her for that. Human nature at it's ugliest. She was a gorgeous woman who did not deserve the kind of shit thrown her way.

Schindlers List: really the first time I had been exposed to the holocaust. (I saw it when it first came out, and I was a kid)

The Empire Strikes Back: first time I saw the bad guy win. Up until then I had always expected the good guys to triumph eventually. They never did in this movie. Han gets zapped, Luke's will becomes broken, Leia loses her lover, Chewie loses his best friend and the guy who saved his life, and the Alliance was in retreat... again, it was just an eye opener for me (particularly for a fantasy film where you expect the fairy tale ending, and its never provided).

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-02-21 07:22am

Schindlers List: The girl in the red raincoat. Your not human if you wasnt shocked
Der Untergang
Saving Private Ryan (omaha beach)
Full metal jacket
Platoon
Stalingrad (the German movie)
The sixth sense
The butterfly effect (I had a hard time watching that trough)
Paths of glory (imo a very underrated Kubrick movie)
Cross of iron

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2005-02-21 08:50am

I can't believe no one has yet mentioned Dogma.

it's been never since a movie provoked as much thought as that movie. the spin it placed on popular religion as a whole almost made every argument they made work in my mind.

Caius · Post by **Caius** » 2005-02-21 10:28am

two off the top of my head and that I don't think I saw listed while going through:

21 Grams
Irreversible (right from the very start this movie was a bit hard to watch because it was so powerful in it's telling. especially when you get to about the middle or so with the rape scene.)

Gunhead · Post by **Gunhead** » 2005-02-21 02:10pm

Good going Wautd, I almost gave up on you people, but then Wautd saves the day.
Der Untergang, you can feel the impending doom in this one.
Also second you on Stalingrad

The Winter war
The Unknown soldier (Both versions)
All quiet on the western front

-Gunhead

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2005-02-21 02:34pm

I forgot:

M

Häxan

Both movies are ancient, but disturbed me and made me think. M is about a pedophile serial killer in late 1920s Berlin. Not only does the movie itself make you think, but what the movie ended up causing does, too. The Nazis used the film as an example of why movies were for degenerates and why they would clean things up if you voted for them. They ran Fritz Lang out of the country, then the Nazis re-cut the film and used the Peter Lorre character as an example of the Jewish Predator. This helped bring the Nazis to power and incite the Final Solution.

Häxan is a pseudo-documentary about witchcraft and hysteria with some of the most horrific imagery you'll ever see in any movie. When you see the witches' sabbats recreated by actors in authentic costumes (sort of), you'll realize how people not only can believe anything, but will believe it.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-02-21 02:56pm

Sticking with 'powerful' over simply 'entertaining' ....

The Deer Hunter

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Schindler's List

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-02-21 03:04pm

Chmee wrote:The Deer Hunter

forgot that one. good one

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-02-21 03:10pm

Other People's Money. Not your standard "Small Town Company vs. Evil New York City Tycoon" flick.

THEHOOLIGANJEDI · Post by **THEHOOLIGANJEDI** » 2005-02-22 09:44pm

"Born on the Fourth of July"
and "Amistad" are some I can think of.

entfern · Post by **entfern** » 2005-02-22 09:51pm

Darth Wong wrote:
entfern wrote:The Passion of the Christ. . . .

It's kind of scary when you watch a movie in a gym filled with people on the court and off. . . and after the movie, there was dead silence for 3 mins and no one moved. . . . Then the crying started. . . . I can't think of any other movie I had been to that has had quite that reaction on the viewers.
The OP specified that the film had to stimulate actual thought. This doesn't sound like thinking to me. It sounds more like some kind of masochistic wallowing in emotional catharsis.

The thought it stimulated was how humane and different our society is. Religious issues aside, Gibson did do an impressive amount of research into the time period. More than anything, it was the interraction between the people, the spoken Aramaic, how the characters there were believable people in a different time period which touched me and awed me.

IRG CommandoJoe · Post by **IRG CommandoJoe** » 2005-02-22 11:01pm

Add Seven Days in May, The Longest Day, and The Day After, and The Good Earth to the ever-increasing list.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-02-22 11:06pm

IRG CommandoJoe wrote:Add Seven Days in May, The Longest Day, and The Day After, and The Good Earth to the ever-increasing list.

Kudos for Seven Days in May ... and add Kurosawa's RAN

IRG CommandoJoe · Post by **IRG CommandoJoe** » 2005-02-23 03:15am

Are many other Kurosawa films like Seven Samurai? Because I just watched it a day ago and it's kick-ass. That movie's constantly on my mind now. I don't know why...the theme music is stuck in my head, I can't help but feel a loss when my favorite samurai got killed (the crazy guy who had a huge sword and dressed up as one of the bandits at the end), and I keep thinking about how great the samurai and villagers' camaraderie was.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2005-02-23 11:07am

Rashoman
The Hidden Fortress
Sanjero
Yojimbo
"Redbeard" <this one's about a unconventional doctor>