Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently? - <AUTHOR> Hello all. There are nice frequent Ask HN threads where people share books that made a large impact on them and how they saw the world, and I was just thinking it would be good if there were a similar thread about movies. <comment><USER3> My answer might sound like a joke, but I'm being sincere -- the Adam Sandler movie "Click" had a profound impact on me. I saw that movie in theatres on a total whim when I was a teenager. After watching the movie, I felt extremely emotionally affected -- I literally spent the drive home sobbing.

I felt so moved by how the movie showed time passing by, especially as the main character started to lose control of how quickly time went by. I visualized myself being in the same situation as the main character at the end of the movie -- his entire life having passed by, and this sensation of guilt and regret he must be feeling for not having spent his time in a meaningful way and for having missed things like the last conversation with his father. I imagined the despair the character must have felt at having wasted his life, and then the incredible relief he must have felt when he got a chance to do it over and do it right.

Ever since seeing that movie, I've made an extra effort to remain present in my life, prioritize my family and close friends, and always question whether the way I'm spending my time is meaningful, or if I'm doing things that I'll one day look back on and feel regret. This movie made me confront what it would feel like to look back on my life and evaluate my choices, and consequently it helped me see what's important to me in life.

<comment><USER4> Checkout "The man who wasn't there"

<comment><USER5> Criminally underrated, and it doesn't get talked about enough when folk talk about the Corn Brothers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Fight Club" had such a huge impact on my life that I won't even mention other films.

QUOTES:

"This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time."

"Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need."

"You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else."

"Getting fired is the best thing that could happen to any of us. That way, we'd quit treading water and do something with our lives."

<comment><USER7> Fight Club is a great film!

But I can't believe how many people watch Fight Club and miss the real message: that Tyler Durden's philosophy is _not_ one to live by, because it doesn't bring you any joy or fulfillment. Too many people watch the movie and see a tour de force of machismo and stick-it-to-the-man ideology, but the movie is really about the negatives of extreme, prolonged toxic masculinity. The Narrator conjures Tyler Durden out of a misplaced idea of what he's "missing" in life, and he suffers greatly for it. Durden is a false prophet, and shouldn't be idolized in the slightest. But tons of people watch the movie and come away wanting to start their own fight clubs, or otherwise emulate the masculine charisma of Durden without ever understanding what it was really all about.

Also ironic that the modern use of "snowflake" (at least in America) originated with Fight Club but has become completely divorced from its intended semantics.

<comment><USER8> > the movie is really about the negatives of extreme, prolonged toxic > masculinity

Chuck Palahniuk, the author of the book the movie is based on would disagree with you. For one, he has said he doesn't believe in the term toxic masculinity. He has said that Fight Club is "about empowering the individual and allowing the individual to make what they see as the best choice" and "about the terror that you were going to live or die without understanding anything important about yourself".

He has also remarked about how few cultural narratives there are for young men today, "I feel a little frustrated that our culture hasn't given these men a wider selection of narratives to choose from. Really, the only narratives they go to are The Matrix and Fight Club".

As for the snowflake term being co-opted, he says, "once that material passes on to an audience, the audience adopts it. It will become the child of the audience and will serve whatever purpose the audience has for it. It would be insane to think that the author could control every iteration or every interpretation of their work."

For me, Fight Club was a very nihilistic (Chuck Palahniuk admits to being somewhat of a nihilist) and also very hopeful book (and movie), which is a tough combination to pull off.

<comment><USER9> >> the movie is really about the negatives of extreme, prolonged toxic masculinity

> Chuck Palahniuk, the author of the book the movie is based on would disagree > with you.

Palahniuk: "Throughout childhood, people tell you to be less sensitive. Adulthood begins the moment someone tells you that you need to be more sensitive."

> For one, he has said he doesn't believe in the term toxic masculinity.

He criticized the term, for being poorly defined, not the concept:

[https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/a-conversation-with- chuc...](https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/a-conversation-with-chuck- palahniuk-the-author-of-fight-club-and-the-man-behind-tyler-durden-2)

[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fight-club-2-chuck- palahniuk_...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fight-club-2-chuck- palahniuk_n_5845c35ae4b028b32338a632)

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure how either of those support your point about the term toxic masculinity. I claimed, "he has said he doesn't believe in the term toxic masculinity".

In your first link, he is asked, "We hear the term "toxic masculinity" a lot these days. As someone who writes a lot about manhood, what does it mean to you?". He answers, "Oh boy, I'm not sure if I really believe in it".

Sounds to me like he doesn't believe in the term toxic masculinity.

In your Huffington Post link, the interviewer claims "It's a book about consumerism, and an expressive, violent response to the cold fact of it. It's also a book about toxic masculinity, even if its author never deigns to expressly critique or uphold controlled violence". I don't know why we would consider the interviewer the authority on the text in question here. Here is Palahniuk's take in the same interview:

Q: Would you say Fight Club is more of a critique of violent masculinity, a celebration of it, or both?

A: Boy. I wouldn't say it's a critique. I think that because it's consensual, it's OK. It's a mutually agreed-upon thing which people can discover their ability to sustain violence or survive violence as well as their ability to inflict it. So, in a way, it's kind of a mutually agreed-upon therapy. I don't see it as condoning violence ― because in the story it is consensual ― or as ridiculing it, because in this case it does have a use.

Thanks for the HuffPo link though, here is another quote where he gives what he thinks the message of Fight Club is that seems to be in agreement with the other ones I read, "The central message of Fight Club was always about the empowerment of the individual through small, escalating challenges". It also has this quote about killing the father, "In a way, it's like everyone rebelling against dad, and discovering their own power by killing the father, as the Buddhists would say". I've seen interpretations of Fight Club as a Buddhist allegory ([https://web.archive.org/web/20090423020258/http://www.unomah...](https://web.archive.org/web/20090423020258/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol11no2/ReedFightClub.htm)), interesting to hear him bring that up.

<comment><USER9> As I said "He criticized the term, for being poorly defined, not the concept".

>We hear the term "toxic masculinity" a lot these days. As someone who writes a lot about manhood, what does it mean to you? >Oh boy, I'm not sure if I really believe in it. >Why? >It seems like a label put on a certain type of behavior from the outside. It's just such a vague term that it's hard to address.

<comment><USER8> So he doesn't believe in the term toxic masculinity. What is the argument you are making here, exactly?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Snowpiercer

Most people see this movie as a very on-the-nose example of class struggle. But I see it as a commentary on how we humans build and interact with the very system that we collectively create to sustain ourselves as a species. The system always has its apologists, supporters and opposition, but deep down all but the most extreme zealots understand that the system has to change with time or fail, and the longer it takes for change to occur, the worse the inevitable failure will be. It ties in nicely with what Nassim Taleb says about fragility of rigid systems.

In the movie the system is represented by the train and its architect. All people on the train are grateful for what the train has provided them: safety from certain death outside. The poor at the back of the train are constantly threatened and preached to by the train loyalists how important it is for everything to stay as it is, that the train is eternal and will be there forever as long as they obey and believe. But as it becomes apparent that the loyalists are lying and things don't seem all that rosy with the train, the poor start to push forward, for information, and ultimately, change. As they go forward in the train they discover that the wealthy passengers have fallen into either hypernormalisation or a drug fueled apathy. They either believe so much in the train that they can't see how it could ever fail, or they know that it will inevitably fail but have given up hope to do anythin about it - perhaps facilitated by their own relative comfort (why jeopardize such comfort for an uncertain, risky change?).

After watching the movie, it struck me how we're perpetually living in an unsustainable system, but we avoid the abyss by constantly changing from one unsustainable system to another.

<comment><USER11> Maybe this is more than what people usually understand when they hear the term "class struggle" but this is actually exactly what Marx is talking about when he describes the "system" of capitalism and how all of the classes are dependent on it even though they are in conflict. This is related to the "inherent contradictions" built into the system which he also discusses.

One word you mention though -- "Hypernormalisation" \-- reminds me of a film that made me see the world differently. I don't know if you intentionally used that term, but the Adam Curtis film Hypernormalisation is, I believe, an absolute must watch, probing for some clarification on the logic of the last 40-50 years of history in our capitalist/neoliberal society.

<comment><USER12> I've been going some anarch-communist rabbit holes lately. I feel I'm leaning more and more libertarian socialist. I'd accept government medicare for all, but I'm losing hope govt will ever do anything for people.

Another alternative would be: 1 million people start a union, virtual nation, online commune - whatever you want to call it. They donate 5% of their income. That's used for rental property investments, until we have a decent monthly recurring income from rentals.

Then we invest in other things like members startup ideas (as long as they use a worker-coop business structure).

Eventually we pay healthcare costs for all members, and ubi. 100% of money coming back going back out to the people who created it.

We could eventually buy hospitals, drug companies etc and get a stronger hold on the medical costs as well. Flip the script so self-pay and union members get discounts, and insurance carriers pay higher premiums. Maybe we even startup our own insurance companies in all 50 states. All worker-coops. All with CEO capped pay of 10x worker average.

Essentially using a tactic called 'dual power' to wrest power away from the insurance cartel.

<comment><USER13> I had a similar idea, but the organization would provide health insurance from the start. Basically, all gig economy/independent contractors/small business owners could pay into it and get better health insurance than they could buy as independent entities.

<comment><USER12> We'd work to provide that, but you need plenty of $$ on hand for healthcare monthly... I mean one cancer diagnosis and if you have 10 members, it's gonna cost 100k minimum that year just for one person... that might eat up the whole budget.

So by building some combination of crowdfund (for when we're under budget), along-side member sharing backed by recurring income, we create a more stable fund that uses 100% of it's money to reward members.

The idea is basically get single payer healthcare outside the government or alongside and force insurance carriers out of the market by coming up w/ something basically non-profit that gives all $$ pooled towards healthcare costs. While working to bring down costs in the industry where possible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Team America: World Police. Now I get to hear the AIDS song and "America, Fuck Yeah" in my head at least once every day for the rest of my life. It's changed my mind about the concept of entertainment being so crap that it's actual brain poison that the wise will avoid, which I thought was just old stick-in- the-mud folks being old. But no, it's real. Be careful what you expose your brain to.

Bonus round: the wiener-modified Game of Thrones theme from an episode of South Park. Those guys are _uniquely_ good at writing ear worms I wish I'd never heard.

<comment><USER15> Trey Parker and Matt Stone are absolute geniuses, derka derka

Edit: The Lord Song "Push" on South Park [1] was also a real banger ya ya ya

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhGcG2nijaI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhGcG2nijaI)

<comment><USER16> Well played ya ya ya! I didn't know it was Sia that did the vocals for that! No wonder it's so good!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I would suggest "The Big Short". It mainly focuses on the huge disaster of the 2008 financial bubble, and what led up to it.

Before watching the movie I had this feeling of how impossible it could have been for so many normal people to be screwed over so royally. The crisis obviously happened, but I lacked the understanding of how something like that could have happened. After the movie it was clear to me how systemic issues can be institutionalized if everyone is willing to look the other way.

Also, if you watch that movie and start hating everyone working with finance I recommend watching "Margin Call" and you'll only hate some people working in finance.

<comment><USER18> Margin Call has been on my list to watch for a very long time. You just gave me a reason to watch it sooner than later.

I'd say Steve Carell's character is the only protagonist in The Big Short.

<comment><USER19> Margin Call is possibly the best film about how the finance industry works at a micro level ever made.

<comment><USER20> Totally agree. Margin call is a gem, perfect movie IMO

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Going in a slightly different direction, the two saddest films I have ever seen are 火垂るの墓 / Grave of the Fireflies (1988 - Ghibli - Japan) and Hiss Dokhtarha Faryad Nemizanad / Hush! Girls Don't Scream (2013 - Iran). In both of them you can feel the exact moment when the protagonist loses hope and it really hits you.

Both of them deserve a pretty strong warning--I guess the second one more of a true "trigger warning" and the first just a warning of how sad it is. You cannot get them out of your head after you have seen them.

<comment><USER16> Grave of the Fireflies I'm calling the most sad anime ever. It is indeed a wonderful movie. I had a friend say "oh have you ever seen that really depressing anime?" and I immediately said "Grave of the Fireflies?" Nailed it!

<comment><USER22> An ex showed me this movie and I was actively hostile afterwards because I wasn't given a heads-up on how depressing it was going to be and I hadn't prepared thinking it was just another cute Ghibli film

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Watched "They Live" [1] while working as a quant dev at a large bank in '09\. Work the next day was super weird.

[1] [https://signal.org/blog/they-live/](https://signal.org/blog/they-live/)

<comment><USER24> Best fight scene ever!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9rrgJXfLns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9rrgJXfLns)

<comment><USER25> The fight scene in Road House isn't bad either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It highlights the true nature of mastery, how deep it goes, and what an actual master looks like. One of the chefs needed 10 years of experience before they would let him do the egg sushi. There's the deep networks that support it too, the master fishmongers, the master rice planters, and all the master brokers in between who knew how to find the good stuff.

<comment><USER27> > One of the chefs needed 10 years of experience before they would let him do > the egg sushi.

That only ever struck me as extremely pretentious, to be perfectly honest.

The chef in question needing 10 years of experience before they would let him do the egg sushi strikes me as essentially the same harmful mentality the Japanese have toward productivity, thinking that clocking in as many hours as possible equals productivity (regardless of what you got done in said hours).

<comment><USER28> You are missing the philosophy. It's not about getting the job done.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> 12 Angry Men

\----

Walkabout

\----

Koyaanisqatsi

A profound movie with no words except the chanting of a Hopi word, meaning "life out of balance", or "a way of life that calls for another way of life".

\----

My Dinner With Andre

"We're bored. We're all bored now. But has it ever occurred to you, Wally, that the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now, may very well be a self perpetuating, unconscious form of brainwashing created by a world totalitarian government based on money and that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks, and its not just a question of individual survival, Wally, but that somebody who's bored is asleep, and somebody who's asleep will not say no?"

\----

The Third Man

(Long shot from Martins' eye line of the fairground far below and the people now on it.)

"Would you feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you £20,000 for every dot that stopped - would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money? Or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man......free of income tax. It's the only way to save money nowadays."

<comment><USER30> My all time favorite movie. From the opening monologue by Carol Reed to the ending walk by Anna past Holly. The music. the fingers through the sewer grate. Cuckoo Clocks!

<comment><USER31> Fingers through the sewer, such a haunting scene

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> My dad took me to see '2001: A Space Odyssey' when I was about 10. He didn't understand it, I only thought I did, or I didn't care. It was beautiful, magical, it boosted my interest in space and in computers, and got me reading science fiction.

If you frame 'Groundhog Day' as a story of a self-centered man learning how not to be self-centered, I see one framing of my own life's story.

<comment><USER33> I had the same experience, dad and all. It was just wonderful to me and I'll never forget it.

It makes me a little sad that young people today will probably never see it on the big screen.

<comment><USER32> There were a series of showings of 2001 last year, on IMAX screens. I can't even describe the delight I felt in taking my son to see it there (muffled a little by his not liking it, but that's life.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Princess Mononoke [1] (1997) had an impact on how I value our environment and also was my gateway into anime

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke)

<comment><USER34> > and also was my gateway into anime

Slightly off topic, any recommendations on that area? I've never checked out any anime besides children shows and would like to see something good, preferably mature and recent, to see if I'm missing out on something cool.

<comment><USER35> > _preferably mature and recent_

Try _Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū_ , about rakugo, a Japanese style of storytelling.

<comment><USER36> This reminds me of the (live-action) show Tiger & Dragon[0] is pretty great, although I watched it a decade ago and can't fully say whether it still lives up to my expectations.

[0] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731947/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731947/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Ikiru / To Live (1952, Kurosawa)

Only saw it once long ago, among many other masterpieces. It immediately and singularly became my deeply ingrained reference model for the mechanics of fateful changes in life, following your heart, the absolute happiness of meaningful sacrifice, cathartic paradigm shifts, and a host of other vital concepts that are otherwise difficult to visualize.

<comment><USER38> I just saw this last night and was going to add it. I agree totally with your take.

This is available on the Criterion streaming service which has many other good movies. If OP signs up try also Night on Earth by Jim Jarmusch, a look at transitional moments in life through taxi cab rides occurring simultaneously in five cities.

<comment><USER39> If you have a library card, your local library may provide free access to Kanopy, which has Ikiru, as well as a couple other Kurosawa and Jarmusch films.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Synecdoche, New York

As to why, Roger Ebert said it best[1].

[1][https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/synecdoche-new- york-2008](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/synecdoche-new-york-2008)

<comment><USER40> One of the few films that haunted me for many days after viewing it. Beautiful, tragic, and too real.

It can be a hard watch, if you're not in the right headspace, but it's so totally worthwhile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Life is beautiful (1997, 'La vita e bella' with Roberto Begnini) No other film made me laugh and cry like this one. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/?ref_=nm_knf_i1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/?ref_=nm_knf_i1)

Little Big Man (1970) and Dance with wolves (1990) . I saw them many times when I was a kid. It made me understand early that the adult world would be tough. I was also amazed with the landscapes. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065988/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065988/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)

Un Prophète (2009 by J. Audiard). A weird gangster movie that makes you realize that even in the worst situation, even if you reached the bottom, there is a path to get out... [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235166/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235166/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)

Ghost Dog (1999). I was obsessed for months by the music and by the scene when Withaker steals the car... [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165798/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165798/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

<comment><USER42> Re: Ghost Dog, I was also obsessed with that beautifully shot driving scene (with Killah Priest in the background). I was listening to a lot of hiphop at that time. Usually a burned CD playing on a glowing car stereo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Blue by Kieslowski. A movie about loss and freeing youself from the past. I saw it when I was 15, and I still remember how I felt when I got out of the theater. It has shaped the way I handle difficult times in life such as the loss of loved ones. Losing someone close to you breaks your soul, and to keep on living, you have to reinvent yourself every time.

Loss is an integral part of life. Acquiring material goods fools us into thinking that as life goes on, we have more things. But if you make it into old age, you will lose everything. Things go broke, your friends and family die, your health and mind fade, and finally you will lose your life. Being aware of this will help you lead a happier life. It seems contradictory. But somehow it isn't.

<comment><USER44> Kieslowski can give such incredible lessons. Dekalog has some utterly brilliant ideas within it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> The 13th floor. I liked it better than Matrix because it touched upon the ethical issues dealing with AR and potentially sentient simulated beings.

12 Monkeys. Probably my favorite time travel movie, and the trouble with fate.

Grave of the Fireflies. Probably the saddest movie ever made, touching on so many aspects of human suffering.

Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run). It's been done so many times, but not as well as here.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "The Body". The show itself was basically mindless entertainment that I almost stopped watching, UNTIL this episode. I've never been thrown so much. If you're going to experience it, you MUST watch the entire series up to and including that episode to understand why it's so powerful, and you must not read anything about that episode beforehand.

<comment><USER46> Same with -The Thirteenth Floor", one of my favourite movie, make sure you don't read any spoiler about it though.

Nexts on the list:

Moon

Ex Machina - I personally have no issue with nudity but I wish there were less of it in that movie because I know it turned a lot of people off

The Green Mile - not quite changed my view, but reinforced it

Westworld 3rd season (first 2 seasons revisit themes from above movies, they are good but not necessarily new themes)

Breaking Bad - I tend not to like series and this is a really long one, but it really does make you question things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Wall-E.

The first like 15 minutes have no dialog. The rest of the movie is a profound commentary on modern life told as a children's story

<comment><USER7> I wish I liked Wall-E more.

The last time I watched it, I felt like there was a narrative disconnect about midway through the movie where the primary plot just changes. (One is Wall-E's relationship with EVE, the other is the saving of humanity.) It's not that I can't deal with both plots being in the movie, but it seemed to me that there was kind of an overt switch between them, and it really brought me out of my enjoyment.

Maybe I'll give it another go sometime, though. There's a lot of great stuff in there! I just wish it all flowed better for me.

<comment><USER48> It was always about earth, though. It's why Eve was there in the first place?

<comment><USER7> I mean sure, in a sense, but a significant portion of Wall-E's personal plot is focused primarily on his relationship with Eve with very little specific focus on Earth. There's a shift about midway through the movie that radically changes this focus, and I didn't love the way it happened.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> La Haine (1995)[0]: not so much that I saw it differently, more that I felt less crazy for seeing it as it was. I come from those exact areas and times, and even twenty years later there is a terrible amount of similarity in how things are unraveling.

Children of Men (2006)[1]: for the combination of cinematography and the dystopian atmosphere.

Departures / Okuribito (2008)[2]: the subtlety and elegance of the Japanese touch when brushing against Life and Death.

Persona (1966)[3]: I can and can't wrap my head around this movie. I think it left a trace on me in a way that my conscious self doesn't address but the subconscious plays with.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)[4]: there are few things that can put a person against their own mind more than the locked-in syndrome. There's a lot of confusion, humility and strength to find in such apparent helplessness and lack of control. I think of it when I encounter people with ALS or other neuro-degenerative illnesses, and I think of it when I explore my own journey throughout the depths of mental illness.

Amour (2012)[5]: when you go through certain inevitable journeys with people you love, there's so much to be found in the most essentially simple things.

I'm sure there are other impactful things out there but my memory is pretty spotty at times.

[0] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113247/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113247/)

[1] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/)

[2] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/)

[3] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060827/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060827/)

[4] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401383/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401383/)

[5] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602620/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602620/)

<comment><USER49> Children of Men: My favorite movie.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Andrei Rublev. It's long. And slow. And in black & white. And about a Russian medieval iconography painter. But the last sequence is stunning.

It's about a young boy who is the son of a bell maker. Everybody in his town, bell maker included, has died. Some soldiers come around looking for a bell maker and the boy claims that he was taught by his father. He proceeds to make the bell.

I won't go any further, but the story is one of the greatest analogies for creation and creativity. Tarkovsky was likely talking about his own films and his process of creation, but I believe it applies to anything creative, whether that's a startup or a programming language.

</comment><comment><USER50> Going through the list, I noticed a lot of films from the Criterion Collection. For people that love film, I think it's a great subscription. $9.99 per month (US; I signed up before the release, so it might've gone up since then) for a host of film and commentary – probably some of the best ever made. At this point, besides Apple Music, it's the only subscription I've kept (unless you count Amazon Prime Video included in Amazon Prime).

Films that had a great impact on me, however:

1\. Lord of the Rings – Lord of the Rings is, to me, the epitome of the epic. It is grand, sweeping, and larger than life. I inevitably compare all movies to the trilogy.

2\. Hamilton - Its made me think a lot about ambition and legacy and, to a lesser extent, representation and sanitization of those that came before us.

3\. Apollo 13 - I think few films come close to capturing how ingenious some people can be – as well as how many people it takes to get us off the world and back to it safely.

<comment><USER51> > Apollo 13 - I think few films come close to capturing how ingenious some > people can be

I agree, I also like The Martian and The Shawshank Redemption, which both have similar premise of human ingenuity solving difficult problems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> _crouching tiger, hidden dragon_

like all of the best wuxia, the fight scenes are dances that metaphorically relate interpersonal conflict and resolution. also, raw ambition and talent without vision and principle leads to (self-)destruction.

bonus edit: _spirited away_

a young girl comes of age by bridging the spirit world. a child apprehensive of change, an ethereal melancholy, ancestral and karmic deference for life. it's a masterpiece.

<comment><USER53> Another way to watch 'Spirited Away' is from the point of view of child prostitution.

[https://jpninfo.com/29501](https://jpninfo.com/29501)

<comment><USER52> that's an interesting take. and although i can see the fit, i prefer to look at it from a wider lens of children taking the torch from parents, debts and all. the first step of the harrowed journey to adulthood, in this case.

you can take prostitution specifically out of it, and still see lots of instances of children being burdened with the idiosyncracies of ancestors and environment. a child overcoming an unspecified gluttony of parents and society, if you will.

<comment><USER53> IMO one of the reasons that make that movie such a masterpiece is that it can totally 'change' depending on the viewer's perspective.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> V for Vendetta

 _People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people._

<comment><USER55> 'Eve in rain' is one of the most epic scenes ever created.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> I would say the following had a profound effect on me:

The Reflecting Skin - I found the movie to be quite disturbing to the point that I felt mentally violated having watch it. While I would not say I was traumatized by it, in a strange way having the feeling of I wish I would have never seen that, has allowed me to empathize with people that have been truly traumatized. I guess you could say the move takes you right to that edge.

OfficeSpace - It was with this movie that I realized that most employers really don't care, you are just a cog in the machine and that many-times upward trajectories have nothing to do with performance.

<comment><USER57> The Reflecting Skin - was just very powerful and in my top movies.

<comment><USER56> I literally walked away from that movie and said to my buddy, that I watched it with "WTF, I feel like I just got mentally raped", it is really that powerful of a movie. It disturbs me that a human mind could conceive of that story.

<comment><USER57> The scene with the women walking past holding the dead pigeon really flipped me out.

<comment><USER56> one word Eben. The fact that he found Eben, and thought that it was him in angel form and put him under his bed and would take him out at night to talk to him, that was some really twisted crap.

Funny story I dated this girl off and on, and she went away to college. Well she caught her boyfriend over there cheating on her and she called me and asked me to come over for the weekend a few weeks later (I was a good rebound guy). Anyways, we go to rent movies, because one still rented them back then, and I see the reflecting skin so I was like oh lets get this, and I tell her it is really messed up. Well we get back, one thing leads to another and we never watch the movie, so I really never got to tell her how much the movie disturbed me, just really had a high level, this movie is crazy talk at the video store. Well the weekend comes and goes, I go home which is about 2 hours away and 3 days later I get a call from her, which can pretty much be boiled down to: "What the fuck is wrong with you! Loose my number". Maybe 5 years later, we cross paths in a bar in our hometown and we are talking and one of the first things she brings up is the movie and tells me, that about 5 of her girlfriends came over to hang out and they decided to watch it as she had not returned it yet. She said the most awkward part was her explaining to her friends that she had not selected the movie but this guy, that lives 2 hours away who she does this on again, off again thing with was over and picked it out. They pretty much convinced her that I was a serial killer for having selected that movie for viewing. At the bar, I did get to relay to her, my experience of first watching it, and that I had planned to explain to her that the movie was fucked up and had a profound impact on me, as I did not have a lot of empathy for people in my teens and 20's and I had kind of did her shitty after our first round of dating. Instead I got the cold hand due to the possibility that I could have been a serial killer. I figure it was Karma having her laugh, at my expense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> Brazil ([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(1985_film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_\(1985_film\)))

<comment><USER59> I will second that, I remember seeing it in the theater with my father in my teens, and it made a huge impression on me, skewering totalitarianism and glib postwar America in one jab.

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> Samsara - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara_(2011_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara_\(2011_film\))

4 years of filming in locations from 25 countries using 70mm cameras. No narration, just spectacular captures of life. They say it's a form of guided meditation.

I can't really explain how it affects me in detail. Certainly in a very positive way though. I feel humble.

<comment><USER61> I was in Yosemite photographing when they were trying to film the Yosemite scene from the "Tunnel View" perspective. The cinematographer had left his light meter in the van that was in the valley. I used my camera with long lens and histogram to give him his exposure off the El Capitan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> Patton (1970)

A great movie about an impressive commander. Key takeaways for me were:

1\. Don't assume that because someone isn't very personable that they are bad at their job.

2\. Have the courage to have a strong sense of duty.

3\. Lead from the front.

4\. Be willing to learn from people you dislike (Patton read Rommel's book on tank tactics, to his great advantage).

<comment><USER63> Dr. VDH has some great lectures on WW2 leadership, including one on Patton called "American Ajax":

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJsC- buIkSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJsC-buIkSE)

(German intelligence found it literally incredible that Patton was relieved for slapping a couple of GIs for "malingering.")

The Germans learned mechanized warfare from an English book, the Americans learned stealth from a Russian paper, and the Stuka was copied from an American airplane.

The USA was blessed with some of the greatest military leaders of all time in WW2, natural-born killer OG's. The only incompetents I know of were Lieutenant General Mark Clark in Italy who killed over 10,000 GIs with 3 bungled amphibious landings, and the Mark 14 torpedo mgmt. (a decade of refusal to test.)

WW2 Battle of Anzio

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Anzio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Anzio)

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Koyaanisqatsi (1982) - made me realize the degree to which society has been mechanized, how our alienation to nature and each other is almost guaranteed if we give ourselves over to technology.

<comment><USER64> Koyaanisqatsi has been my favorite movie ever since the first time I accidentally caught it on TV almost 20 years ago. I've since been to live screenings with Glass and his Ensemble playing it, etc. :-)

And.. despite eventually discovering what Reggio is about, I have always taken the opposite view of the movie. To _me_ it feels like a neutral view of how systematized our world is, how technology enables such systems, and how such systems are a fundamental and valuable part of moving forwards as a species. Humans = technology = systems.. but positivity for such things is my world view anyway, and Koy is a blank enough canvas to take this on.

The second sequel _Naqoyqatsi_ felt like a more on the nose critique of the ills of technology and modern society to me, made up entirely of stock video set to a fragile but very human soundtrack, in contrast to Koy.

<comment><USER42> It's been a while. I'll rewatch it and see if I can take your view of it. Yes, humans have been driven to refine systems and tools since day one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER65> Not a movie, but a Monty Python sketch - "Ministry of Silly Walks"

In the sketch, the Python gang presents a culture that values silly walks and their development and a government that sponsors their study and development. There's even a critical discussion of what constitutes an "interesting silly walk".

Mind blown.

It offered a fresh perspective where I thought, what if we look at music (ex: singing) as "silly talk". Pretty much the entire sketch would hold. I started taking art stuff less seriously which had a lightening effect on my life .. coming from a family of musicians.

</comment><comment><USER66> Henry V (1989 film)

I randomly saw it one night on PBS. I thought I had caught it in the middle of the movie, not realizing I turned it on the moment it started. I was pretty young and had no real interest in literature, the arts, whatever. But it looked neat "hey a dude in a castle" ... and I realized ... I kinda understood it. I couldn't explain it word for word in plain English, but I got the metaphors and the story enough hand was hooked. It opened up a world to me that I didn't think was within reach.

Certainly doesn't hurt that the film is absolutely packed with great actors.

Dead Poets Society (1989 film)

Bunch of kids find inspiration at a stuffy school from a special teacher and some poetry that they might have otherwise found to be stuffy and simply passed over had they not looked at it differently.

<comment><USER67> "And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by from this day until the ending of the world but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, Be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition, and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves acursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks, that fought with us upon St. Crispin's day!"

Possibly Branagh's finest work delivering Sheakspeare's most rousing words.

<comment><USER68> It's basically the president's speech in Independence Day.

<comment><USER66> I don't think I've ever been more triggered by a hn comment.....

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> Falling Down.

I grew up in fundamentalist cults and lived in a rural area favored by the antisocial. This film was the indulgent catharsis of reactionary Luddism, anticulture, bigotry, and social paranoia I was immersed in. A naked display of antisocial fantasies. I couldn't have avoided watching it. Everyone I knew watched it over and over, feeding antisocial yearnings. I took away a sharp new perspective on my world which formed the tip of the wedge that separated me from those communities.

</comment><comment><USER70> The Pursuit of Happyness [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pursuit_of_Happyness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pursuit_of_Happyness)

</comment><comment><USER71> Swimming to Cambodia[0] because it was both highly insightful and stylistically unique - it's a monologue by a single person(Spalding Gray [1]) and Lauri Anderson's excellent soundtrack adds just enough you visualize much of what he describes. At least I did but that might have been the LSD.

Rest in piece Spalding Gray.

[0] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_to_Cambodia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_to_Cambodia) [1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spalding_Gray](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spalding_Gray)

</comment><comment><USER72> The Matrix - For me it is a deeply philosophical/spiritual film. We are surrounded by illusion that we cannot see. All suffering/joy is nothing but electrical signal in our brain. We always have this yearning that there is more to life than this. Also the action sequences are not bad :).

<comment><USER73> This interesting story that I hadn't realised (although I was quite young when I last saw it) came out a couple of days ago:

"The Matrix director: I'm glad film recognised as trans metaphor"

[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/aug/06/the-matrix- dire...](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/aug/06/the-matrix-director- lilly-wachowski-trans-identity-metaphor)

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> _Idiocracy_ of course. Most prescient movie ever.

And maybe the ridiculous Jesse Eisenberg movie I saw last night, _Vivarium_. It changed my opinion on how reasonably good actors can do horrible movies, obviously not for the money because there isn't going to be any.

</comment><comment><USER75> Movies with great impact on me:

1\. Untouchable - must see

2\. Gattaca - are we going there?

3\. 1984 - must see

4\. Idiocracy - initially looks like joke/stupid movie, but it's more real then we may want to agree

5\. Life of others (made in Ge)

6\. Amelie Poulain (made in Fr)

7\. Turtles can fly (made in Ir)

8\. Stalker - the russian original (3 parts) (made in Ru)

9\. Metropolis

Other good movies:

Lost Horizon

The Bucket List

The Truman Show

Solaris 1972

Enemy at the Gates

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Tips for good movies in general: take countries one by one and search best ever movies from that country.

<comment><USER76> Gattaca is one of my favorite movies

<comment><USER77> Yes. I can't believe there are so few mentions of it here. "I never saved anything for the way back."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER78> Ghost in the Shell, which also doubled as my gateway into anime.

</comment><comment><USER79> Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, Forman's Amadeus, again Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, Antonioni's Blowup, De Sica's Miracle in Milan are some of the first films that come to mind and wish more people came to enjoy them

<comment><USER80> Amadeus, definitely changed my world view of what _movies_ could be!

</comment></comment><comment><USER81> All of them, to some degree. But here's a few off the top of my head that are maybe a little less well known that have really stuck with me over the years. I'll try not to say too much about them, and encourage you to go into them without spoilers, as I did:

* Leviathan (Russia, 2014) - It's a minor miracle this film was made and saw the light of day, depicting as it does the banality of corruption and impunity in provincial Russia. Not especially obscure, it won a slew of awards including a Golden Globe but it's not nearly as well-known as it should be. This film isn't didactic and there really are no "good guys" \- it's at least as much a tale of love and loss. I certainly understood local corruption at an intellectual level - I saw plenty of it growing up in the American "Deep South," but as a middle-class white boy it was never really aimed at me. This film helped me feel the weight of it at a visceral level in a way I hadn't before.

* Nobody Knows (Japan, 2004) - Sometimes what shapes us is only visible in retrospect. Most parents, in my experience, will acknowledge the profound shift in mindset and empathy that occurs when you have a kid. Half a decade before my first, I can trace the first experience of those feels to this film. Surely this has something to do with my (20s) age when I saw it, but it's a rare film that triggers such a re-programming of the psyche. I feel duty-bound to warn this isn't a comedy.

* Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989, Finland and America) - This _IS_ a comedy. A band from (fictional) northern Russia unable to hit it big in the terminal-stage USSR (this film was released 8 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall) comes to America to seek fame. By Finland's (arguably) greatest director Aki Kaurismäki, the heart of the film is a journey through the forgotten routes and dives of the American South. The places are real. The extras are local. As a cinematographic document, it's the best road movie since Easy Rider. The band (by virtue of being visible outsiders) obliviously crosses all kinds of social boundaries, playing in redneck bars and juke joints alike. This film gave me an outsiders frame of reference to a part of the country where I grew up, and was an inspiration to me to get out and see the world. Inconsistently available, I've bought it on multiple physical formats over the years. For folks in the US, I guess HBO Max has a lot of Criterion-distributed films now so they might have it? But I can't tell because that service isn't available in the country where I now live.

</comment><comment><USER82> Memento.

Just the right movie at the right time with the right themes and tone.

Its sister movie 50 First Dates is pretty fundamental too to certain perspectives.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> My own picks would be HyperNormalisation, The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, and Koyaanisqatsi

<comment><USER83> HyperNormalisation is amazing, as are all of Adam Curtis's other documentaries. I especially liked Bitter Lake as well. All highly recommended.

<comment><USER79> I liked Century of the self as well. He seems to simply display the whole tangled narative in a very simple linear way that sticks. Definitely recommend Adam Curtis

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER84> As a European, I thought I had a basic understanding of the dynamics of racism in the U.S. until a friend of mine from Mississippi recomended I should watch "Free State of Jones".

That film made me realize in a shocking and eye-opening way, how much more of a "fresh wound" race issues are in the US comparing with other places in the world with different history and timelines.

<comment><USER85> I would suggest Crash, IMHO the best film on racism ever made.

</comment></comment><comment><USER86> Jean de Florette (1986) and its conclusion Manon des Sources (1986), great 80s French movies, top notch cast you would even recognize in the US. Also Le château de ma mère (1990) and La gloire de mon père (1990). I haven't watched the second pair since I was a small boy, but I remember being captivated.

A complete tangent is this Kurzgesagt video on YouTube where they consider the possibility that you will be every human and live every life. I can't stop thinking about it. [https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI](https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI)

</comment><comment><USER87> Before The Rain about love and war in Macedonia. Amazing and impactful film.

Time of the Gypsies by Emir Kusturica - just go in cold to this, one of my favorite movies. Featuring musical score from the incomparable Gorman Bregovic.

Enemy by Villeneuve (or literally anything from this director; also check out the compelling Incendies, and Sicario of course; Prisoners is also amazing)

Literally pick any movie from Iranian director Asghar Farhadi. The Salesman is probably my favorite from him. Very impactful and each of his movies shows a compelling and unique slice of life.

<comment><USER87> *Goran Bregovic (was too late to edit)

</comment></comment><comment><USER88> Glengarry Glen Ross

"If you can't think on your feet, you should keep your mouth closed."

<comment><USER89> First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is... you're fired.

</comment></comment><comment><USER90> it depends on your age, I don't think you can really change your world view based on movie if you are in 30s or older, but you can be definitely influenced if you are teenager and into 20s

taking this into consideration I would recommend these parts of the movies, you can find them all on YouTube without watching whole movie:

Se7en - final John Doe monologue about innocence of his victims in back seat

Collateral - Vincent monologue on back seat about not doing anything with your life

Fight club - pretty much all movie, very influential, should be mandatory for teenagers

American beauty - less extreme version of fight club for older men that you can rebuild your life even in higher age

the big Lebowski - if you care about your clothing maybe it can help you to watch Lebowski

the beach - encouraged me to travel more, although wanted already before

<comment> the-dude The dude abides.

</comment></comment><comment><USER91> Schizopolis by Steven Soderbergh. Made after Sex, Lies and Videotape made him famous, it's a wonderfully playful meditation on all sort of things. I think the thing I most appreciate is the play with language, as in these clips with meta-language: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pct9smNM6u4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pct9smNM6u4) (The whole film isn't like this - just these excerpts).

Apparently it got such a frosty reception at Cannes after he was so lauded for SL&V that he added the amusing introduction that includes the lines "When I say this is the most important motion picture you will ever attend, my motivation is not financial gain, but a firm belief that the delicate fabric that holds all of us together will be ripped apart unless every man, woman and child in this country sees this film - and pays full ticket price, not some bargain matinée cut-rate deal. In the event that you find certain sequences or ideas confusing, please bear in mind that this is your fault, not ours. You will need to see the picture again and again until you understand everything.": [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU_na__nfSU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU_na__nfSU)

</comment><comment><USER92> Probably 'Crash'. Yes I know it's contrived, cheesy, and everything else. But I thought it did a pretty good job of explaining the fact that everyone you meet is having their own struggles, and to a lesser extent why some people act the way they do.

Also, Run Lola Run. It was the first movie I'd seen that showed how each seemingly small thing you do each day affects outcomes.

</comment><comment><USER93> Jimmy Stewart's "Harvey". There's so many things i could say about it, i can't say them effectively. The illustration of _choosing_ to live in a state of graceful peace was a revelation; then there the layers of "wow good story telling, worth learning from", the performances still stand out as exemplary, and so on.

</comment><comment><USER16> First, the Last Starfighter. My mom said this was the first movie I stayed awake for the entire time as a toddler, and while I don't remember seeing it in a theater, I think this made me instantly interested in everything computers and space, and I eventually became a rocket scientist (kinda). Yay!

Network - It was made a long time ago, but it's really about Facebook. Watch it.

Requiem for a dream - I'll never forget this movie, ever. This will make you want to quit all your drugs.

Hearts of Darkness (A Filmmaker's Apocalypse) - This is the making of Apocalypse Now, and it's amazing. It's so much more than a documentary about how to make a movie, it's about life, movie making, and youtube, long before it existed.

Wargames - still relevant about how technology could destroy us. I feel like this is the Ferris Bueller's Day Off for Hackers.

And lastly, who could forget, Hackers.

</comment><comment><USER89> The Matrix

<comment><USER94> _The Matrix_

I wonder why they never made any sequels

<comment><USER95> It was a trilogy, and apparently one of the original creators will be creating another sequel.

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.digitaltrends.com/movies/ma...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.digitaltrends.com/movies/matrix-4-release- date-news-cast-trailer/%3famp)

<comment><USER96> Naturally, it's a joke: [https://xkcd.com/566/](https://xkcd.com/566/).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER80> 1) It's a classic and perhaps a cliche, but _The Shawshank Redemption_ will profoundly change your view of the world.

2) Then, on the nature of competition, obsession and greatness _The Prestige_ and _There Will Be Blood_

4) And then there are days where I still wonder to myself, what the heck happened in _Primer_ ?

<comment><USER90> 1) how? I consider The Shawshank redemption romantic movie for women, if you want more realistic portrayal of prison and impact it does on people I recommend German Das Experiment. I served in military which was sort of like prison where you were totally under someone's control and I experienced changes shown in Das Experiment first hand, when your are noob and older dudes bully you and later you turn into them

<comment><USER80> I meant that it can change your world view on the nature of forgiveness, not of prison psychology. Surely I was influenced seeing it at 14 years old. Das Experiment is for a much finer palate!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER97> It's strange. I can definitely give you a list of books that made me see the world differently, but I find it much harder to come up with a list of films, even though I tend to enjoy the medium more. Broadly speaking, I keep reflecting on scenes from Tarkovsky, Kurosawa, and Miyazaki films more than any others, even though they're not necessarily my favorite films. I would recommend _Stalker_ , _Dreams_ , and _Mononoke_.

There's also _Man on Wire_ , for both the sheer joy of impossible achievement that it evokes, as well as the beautiful minimalist soundtrack. On reflection, maybe _that's_ one of the few films I've seen that had a different person leaving the theater. The mood of that film is imprinted in my personality.

</comment><comment><USER98> The Dark Knight: I searched the entire thread before posting and was surprised to not see this movie on the list. I would say that this was one of the very few movies that ever challenged me morally. To this day, it's one of my favorite movies to rewatch.

</comment><comment><USER99> I grew up in Germany and maybe around 1980 we watched "Die Brücke" in school. It's about a group of unprepared teenagers made to defend a bridge against advancing US troops. I don't really know if it's that good but left me shaken.

<comment><USER100> I still see the various characters of Die Brücke in my colleagues around me during my daily working life, watching them in futile defence of long lost bridges

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> "In Time" \- okayish film but led me to start thinking about the time value of what I'm doing at any one moment.

</comment><comment><USER101> "schindler's list" made me appreciate what I have in life. Changed my perspective on war and consequences.

</comment><comment><USER102> Godard's Pierrot Le Fou kind of changed my life.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot_le_Fou](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot_le_Fou)

</comment><comment><USER51> When I was a kid in the early 90s (in Czechoslovakia), I watched Wargames and Short Circuit, and they influenced me a lot to become interested in artificial intelligence. I found the idea of intelligent computers fascinating. Although the anti-war message in these movies sorta went over my head at the time.

I still like Wargames today, although I appreciate very different things about it. I also really like the library montage, which just so nicely captures the effort sometimes needed to solve a problem.

</comment><comment><USER103> Vera drake. It's about a woman who does abortions when it was illegal in UK. She is caught and ends up in jail.

It shows whatever your stance on abortion that making it illegal doesn't stop it and is risky for women

The film also shows the hypocrisy of the well off woman who can still get an abortion. While the poor can't access this

Finally when the film was released it struggled in America as people expected Vera drake to get off, but she ends up in jail. As the director says this is how it works in real life

<comment><USER104> > It shows whatever your stance on abortion that making it illegal doesn't > stop it

That's not an argument. Making homicide illegal does not stop serial killers, is this a good reason for legalizing homicide?

I am not taking a side on the dispute, but: are you in favor of abortion? Then just say openly that, according to your system of values, a fetus of N months can be rightfully killed, for some value of N.

</comment></comment><comment><USER105> Hable con Ella (Talk to Her) by Pedro Almodovar: I was young when I watched it, the impact it made on me was how important is to stop talking and listen.

Interstellar: I loved it the first time I watched. I recently watched with the perspective as a father to a daughter and it hit me differently. It emphasized the importance of the father/daughter relationship. One quote has stayed with me since: "Cooper: Parents are the ghosts of their children's future."

</comment><comment><USER106> Human, vol 1-3 [1]

Watch it for the mesmerizing aerial footage of parts of the earth you've never seen before.

More importantly, watch it to hear people from around the world, of many nations, creeds and economic status share their stories, hopes and fears.

It will make you smile. It will bring you to tears. It will make you realize that we are all so much alike. I will make you want to embrace humanity.

[1] [https://youtu.be/vdb4XGVTHkE](https://youtu.be/vdb4XGVTHkE)

<comment><USER107> I wish more people saw this, and I hope then it would make them see the world differently. It samples the most wildly different people across humanity and shows how surprisingly connected they are, in a way that's both brutal and beautiful (and pretty funny at times). Plus the slow pacing gives you the perfect space to think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER79> The Color of Pomegranades is a film that stuck deeply in my mind. Another russian was director is Tarkovsly and his The Mirror is also deeply abstraact and very visual.

</comment><comment><USER108> Parasite.

The movie (for me) is such a reflection of globalisation, capitalism and the hard truths of the lives of the people at the bottom as well as the top. I really enjoyed its portrayal of class in our modern society and how we, as humans in this society, can be 'parasitic' towards each other. The poor want the riches of the top, and the rich use the poor to enable their high living lifestyles. It really changed my perspective.

</comment><comment><USER109> Hello!

"The Game Changers" \- Shows that a change in diet allowed world record elite athletes, special ops soldiers, among others, to absolutely improve their performance and health. Available on Netflix.

"Earthlings" \- Absolutely changed the way I see and interact with animal products. Available to watch online for free: [http://www.nationearth.com/](http://www.nationearth.com/)

</comment><comment><USER110> _" Tales from the Script"_, a documentary about the many ways a movie you see has been changed, cut, (partially) rewritten, by many involved parties for a variety of (hilarious) reasons until it finally reached you(if ever/at all). Or in short the nature of the business.

[1] [http://talesfromthescript.com/](http://talesfromthescript.com/) [2] [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tales_from_the_script](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tales_from_the_script) [3] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045642/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045642/)

Maybe [4] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_\(film\)) but not for changing, but rather reinforcing my world views, altough _much_ later after it premiered/ran. Between 2010 and 2015, actually.

</comment><comment><USER25> "Days of Wine and Roses" influenced my life completely. I saw it when I was a teenager and never took a drink of alcohol because of it and the book "I'll Cry Tomorrow" about Lillian Roth that I read at almost the same time. Anyone can become an alcoholic and it starts with taking one drink. I never took that drink because of the movie and the book.

</comment><comment><USER111> Natural Born Killers, so much underrated but a great commentary to our world.

</comment><comment><USER112> The Man from Earth (2007)

[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/)

The film solely depends on dialoge. If it works for you, then it is tough to describe what it does to your brain. Works best for the open minded and get lost in their own thoughts personalities.

</comment><comment><USER113> Commenters here gave great recommendations. I'll try mentioning the unmentioned.

\- Gifted (2017):

Drama about a single man raising a genius girl. Some small bits of the film explore about the responsibility of extraordinary people vs their right to feel like normal human, but most of the film is about the human aspect of it.

\- The Wind Rises (2013):

The Ghibli Studio film dramatizing the story of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of Mitsubishi A5M fighter aircraft and its successor, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. This is one of Ghibli film that is more grounded to reality than the others.

\- Sorry to Bother You (2018):

Black Comedy Drama about a young black telemarketer who are really good at his jobs, gets involved in a huge corporate conspiracy where he must choose between profit and joining his activist friend.

\- Don't fuck with cats (2019):

Documentary about people over the internet brings down the infamous murderer Luka Magnotta.

\- The Great Hack (2019):

A great documentary for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

\- Justice League (2017):

Please don't flag, I'm not joking! The film itself didn't change anything. It was a little under my expectation. What happens following the release of the film, though, is the gem. The snydercut movement is a very rare phenomenon where a significant amount of people actually take action against disappointment from a change in a film's direction. Long story short, fans investigate how it could be and uncovered a great deal of what they think a miss-handling of a film production. It opened a window where we can see how moviemakers and everyone involved has their own political agenda and some actually falls for what they do. The movement is actually successful considering it has the power for the film industry to react and the fans seems to get what they wanted.

</comment><comment><USER114> Les Miserables (2012) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/)

Okuribito (2008) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/)

</comment><comment><USER115> "Die Marquise von O" with Bruno Ganz. A study of the relationship between appearances and reality, and how it can be difficult to say which is which. A relief for a youngster like me who was just then coming to grips with the layers and layers of appearances underneath which we still can't be sure of much.

</comment><comment><USER116> The Aviator - I don't know why I was so obsessed with this guy eg. Howard Hughes his tragic/surreal life having so much money and descent into madness. The passage of time makes me sad as well, you see the peak/height of the day...

The Master - this is emotional the churning water scenes in particular with the music great sound track

Her - mostly I enjoy the intro, I don't know maybe it's a part of being alone a lot up to where he meets the OS for the first time, something like this is interesting

Lost in Translation - somehow I found this movie and the social aspect is nice

Iron Man movies - for motivation

Blade Runner - I was obsessed with this movie in high school 10 years ago quoting it ha "I've seen things..."

2001 Space Odyssey - probably my most favorite humbling scene the bone becoming a space craft [1] it's just so emotional "exiting the system". It felt freeing briefly to think you can leave everything that exists and go to nothing, it was an idea of escape for me at the time. It makes me want to strive for that, but it's not a 1-man job and it takes a while eg. probably not in our life time... the whole 4 years to nearest star at light speed thing. And what is there anyway.

Jobs - probably get hate for this but there was something profound the idea of the chips becoming state/data on a screen.

Social Network - sorry to be basic but I used to watch that to get pumped trying to come up with something big(lol). It's funny when I first watched that movie I was not into software/web dev and later on I understood more and more of the basic stuff he was doing to make the girl comparison app and also mentioning Apache to host the initial The Facebook like "Ooh I know what that is".

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZoSYsNADtY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZoSYsNADtY)

<comment><USER68> > I don't know why I was so obsessed with this guy

I'm going to guess you're also an Elon Musk fan? I feel like he's the closest we have to a modern Howard Hughes.

<comment><USER116> Not as crazy as reading his biography as I did with HH. But I was amazed with the whole Zip2/Paypal thing like "that's the goal/plan"(make a lot of dineros). The space venture is great I'm glad he's one of the few people (with noticeable impact) that has a future-looking mind unlike the "why spend money on space" thing. I mean PayPal personally affected me, I was using it in stores when I was really poor selling my stuff/getting paid through PayPal and using my phone number by keypad to buy nuts/iced tea at home depot. Just surreal/weird.

But yeah I only really became aware of him because people kept comparing Tony Stark with Elon Musk haha... but at least Elon's stuff works... HH stuff worked too but seemed to be "impractical" or a one-off eg. the giant 88rpm helicopter.

Anyway, I watched the movie The Aviator over and over when I was younger, mostly the intro/mood. The color thing I think was well done indicating time... "Where are my god damn clouds!" haha. I was also super into aviation(models and trying to get into aero industry) until I ended up going to software instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER117> Not movies, but documentaries about space, universe, and our existence are what made me truly open my eyes.

I watched a bunch of those - Cosmos, The Universe, How the Universe Works, and a bunch of other PBS Nova and Discovery content.

Seriously, we don't know why we are here. Why we are so alone, and why we have so many problems in the world. Our lives are short, insignificant, and petty, yet we have so many problems from racism to hunger to wars and international affairs. To be frank, we're no special compared to the other animals around us. We just have the most powerful brain that gives us thinking capability, but it also comes with overflowing emotions all the time.

I keep pondering over these thoughts on why we exist, and that while we do, we need to make sure others around us are happy. Money is just a materialistic medium we introduced to make our lives way too complex.

</comment><comment><USER118> Devs (2020, FX/Hulu). Not a movie, but movie-like (8-part series).

I'm not religious and I don't believe in the traditional religious god. But Devs presents a fascinating framework for what that could look like that passes the nerd/science test (with some obvious creative/technological liberties).

<comment><USER119> > that passes the nerd/science test

Apart from the fact that it completely ignores...

[spoiler]

... the uncertainty principle and stochastic processes so that a single computer can confidently model the past and future of the universe. This blew it for me.

<comment><USER118> Totally agree with that.

[spoilers]

What I found fascinating: The conceptual model of a complete universe simulation, however computationally complex, with software that allows camera placement anywhere for "peeking" into the simulation, and the ability to pause/rewind/rewatch (even if forward-looking prediction doesn't make sense).

This is the closest "science" parallel to the classical idea of an all-seeing god (the operator who controls the software). Whether or not it's technically feasible, it's certainly technically plausible. This, compared to traditional religious which always tried to explain the theory of gods as "trust us" or "there is no explanation", clicked.

(That doesn't suddenly make me religious, btw, but it certainly presents a theory that isn't dismissible on its face.)

I know this isn't unique to Devs, and I presume anyone who's spent time thinking about any sort of Simulation Hypothesis has seen these parallels as well, but this was pretty mind-opening for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER120> A few films with an emphasis on dialogue. Made me realize how much can be carried (plot, mood, the whole world of the work of art) by party A and party B doing nothing but talking.

* Jiang Wen - Keep Cool [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Cool_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Cool_\(film\))

* Malle - My Dinner with Andre [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Dinner_with_Andre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Dinner_with_Andre)

* Jarmusch - Coffe and Cigarettes [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_and_Cigarettes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_and_Cigarettes)

</comment><comment><USER121> Casino - "An equal amount of blueberries in each muffin"

Heat - "You must've worked some dipshit crews"

Extreme professionalism: what it really looks like, how it mixes and intersects with street smarts, and that it can be applied to any enterprise - even "low" ones.

</comment><comment><USER122> Minority Report is thought provoking. The movie takes place in the future. The police have a new "precrime" division where they stop crimes before they happen.

Makes you think about how we apply AI today that makes decisions that can affect human lives.

</comment><comment><USER123> Late comment but for me it's Planet of Apes (original) and Blade runner.

I have never questioned my free will, consciousness, evolution and what makes us human so much.

And there are some french and hindi films that changed my perspective about love and life

</comment><comment><USER124> To be watched with your loved ones: What Dreams May Come; Ameli

Those which make you question our society (not mentioned so far): The Platform; Snowpiercer

Others: OtherLife; The Origin; The Wave (it would have bigger impact if I watched it earlier in my life)

</comment><comment><USER125> How To Make Money Selling Drugs - [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Make_Money_Selling_Dr...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Make_Money_Selling_Drugs)

Survivors Guide To Prison - [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_Guide_to_Prison](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_Guide_to_Prison)

Invisible War - [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_War](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_War)

</comment><comment><USER126> Dead Man Walking

Growing up, I was always pro-death penalty and never thought much about it. My parents were pro-death penalty, after all, and I always assumed their political positions were well reasoned.

Dead Man Walking depicted the horrors of the death penalty, and how it can sentence an innocent man to an irreversible punishment. And, even if the man is guilty, it is barbaric for the state to put someone to death.

I never thought deeply about the death penalty before that movie. After watching it, I understood that the only real reason for the death penalty to be inflicted is vengeance, an instinct a just society should not indulge.

</comment><comment><USER127> "About Time" \- absolutely beautiful story about life and time.

"What The Health" \- motivated me successfully when I started to eat less meat

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"

"Bourne Identity" \- motivated me to get into self-defense

</comment><comment><USER128> _The Apartment_ (1960) staring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine: "A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue."

Great comedy, great film. The twist ending is also amazing.

It made me see that though 'the past' may be a foreign country, but we're all people just the same. The problems they had, and that we have, are the same problems. The good ol' days never existed. And we can learn from our forefathers, not as semi-divine laws and sayings, but as one would learn from a friend.

</comment><comment><USER129> Spartacus with Kirk Douglas (the book Spartacus by Howard Fast is also very impressing) i mean we were taught history through from the POV of the state and its rulers etc, here you learn there is another side of the story.

Wall-E

<comment><USER130> Regarding Spartacus, I think you may really enjoy watching History Channel's Barbarians Rising.

</comment></comment><comment><USER131> NatGeo Peace Prize Short Films [0] showed me that the suffering of many people can be greatly reduced by just one person. Another great film that showed me the same thing was "The Price of Free" [1].

[0] [https://www.nobelprize.org/peace-prize-documentary- films/](https://www.nobelprize.org/peace-prize-documentary-films/) [1] [https://youtu.be/UsqKz1hd_CY](https://youtu.be/UsqKz1hd_CY)

</comment><comment><USER132> A River Runs Through It

I loved the multi-threaded story--a love affair with fishing, a coming-of-age story, and an ode to the beauty of Montana in a simpler time. The movie was better than the book. My son has lived the first of those threads on rivers like the Nooksack in Washington. For me the movie articulated the transience of human existence and the receding beauty of the natural world as time passes --a fading that grows within us as we age.

Edit: added last sentence

</comment><comment><USER133> 'Between the Folds' is an independent documentary about origami, far more captivating than it sounds. As people become artists, there's a tension between developing technique versus exploring expression. Relevant to HN, the younger artists use complex software to model geometry -- older artists want the sensibilities of origami as an art form to serve as a lesson when there's pressure to pursue technicality.

</comment><comment><USER134> Kind Hearts and Coronets Withnail and I First Blood (Rambo)

</comment><comment><USER135> I know this is an late comment and won't be seen, but I have to say 'Come and See' made me realize just how much I had in a time when I thought I was suffering.

I found myself identifying with the boy, but also the soldiers who did the most horrible things ... and I realized I could be a monster under the right circumstances.

I have spent my life trying to make myself not be that kind of person no matter what my circumstances were.

</comment><comment><USER57> The Road (2009) is like a horror movie for fathers, really destroyed me watching it but made my more aware of how tough it is to be a father & husband.

</comment><comment><USER136> The classic: eXistenZ. Released just a few days after The Matrix, and that's probably why this astonishing movie is far less known. Much better IMO.

</comment><comment><USER137> Schindler's List

<comment><USER138> me too. this humanized the holocaust for me

</comment></comment><comment><USER139> A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Nothing like 2001: A Space Odyssey or anything but it was my gateway drug to independent non-English language cinema.

</comment><comment><USER140> City of God (and the documentary that was a special feature of the DVD and was better than the film)

Hector and the Search for Happiness

Ghost in the Shell (as someone else mentioned)

<comment><USER116> Yeah City of God was sad

</comment></comment><comment><USER141> Dead Poets Society.

Quotes from Mr. Keating.

"Why do I stand up here? Anybody? I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way."

"Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that. Break out!"

</comment><comment><USER142> Oh, too many. First coming in mind:

Harold and Maude (1971), Taking Off (1971), Blade Runner (1982), Repo Man (1984), Brazil (1985), They Live (1988)

<comment><USER143> Repo Man is the perfect balance of punk and sci-fi, truly unique in that regard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER144> The Holy Mountain (La montaña sagrada)(1973) by Alejandro Jodorowsky, is perhaps one of my favorite mind bending movies. It takes awhile before you realize that there is an actual plot, but the last scene is profound.

Tampopo (1985) is perhaps my favorite Japanese movie, all about the beauty of food. A noodle western of sorts that is immensely entertaining.

</comment><comment><USER145> Fight Club, Interstellar and Whiplash would be my vote.

I made a letterboxd list with some of the movies mentioned here. [https://letterboxd.com/whygodwhy/list/hn-films-that-made- you...](https://letterboxd.com/whygodwhy/list/hn-films-that-made-you-see-the- world-differently/)

</comment><comment><USER24> #1: The Man From Earth (Most here have seen it)

#2: Jeff Who Live At Home Slow moving (very), but worth it for the last 5 minutes of the movie.

</comment><comment><USER146> Baraka. The most accurate interpretation of the human experience and our current human culture. One of my all time favorites.

</comment><comment><USER147> The Japanese film "Black Rain(1989)" directed by Shohei Imamura is one of the most powerful movies I've even seen. It's about a young woman trying to have a marriage arranged after the Horoshima bombing. It has nothing to do with the US film of same name starring Michael Douglas. Seek it out.

</comment><comment><USER148> Tree of Life - Tererence Malick

Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky

<comment><USER143> I'd you liked Stalker I also recommend the book it was based on ("Roadside Picnic"). The book is very different from the movie in terms of tone, but I feel like the book gives a bit more context to the movie. It's a case of the book/film being complimentary to each other in a really nice way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER149> One of the most hard-hitting movies for me lately: Wheels (2014)[1] - Especially after spending a decent amount of the last year in a wheelchair.

[1]: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2170667/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2170667/)

</comment><comment><USER150> Je ne suis pas un homme facile. ( _I am not an easy man_ )

It's a fairly recent, maybe two or three years old, romantic comedy. It's light-hearted and funny but it really highlighted the absurdity of gender roles - for men and women - in a way I hadn't ever stopped to consider before.

</comment><comment><USER151> I would add What We Did On Our Holiday, it is a comedy and you will laugh but more it is a film about family and how painful you can hurt the ones you love while showing the love you have and at the same time of the pain you can cause when trying as well

</comment><comment><USER152> _A Sound of Thunder_ was possibly literally life saving for me. I generally like time travel stories anyway as a game of "what if," but this came out shortly after my husband physically moved out and impacted some decisions I made that year.

</comment><comment><USER153> Johnny Got His Gun.

Back in the 80's they would show this on PBS and cable TV from time to time, no "trigger warnings" back then.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUfBVLAY_pU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUfBVLAY_pU)

</comment><comment><USER154> La Belle et la Bête (1946), Black Orpheus (1959), Our Town (1940), The Seventh Seal (1956)...

</comment><comment><USER155> I just want to draw attention to how much more compelling these movie descriptions are then the bylines netflix gives to them. I can never take those descriptions seriously or use them to make a choice about whether a movie sounds interesting.

</comment><comment><USER156> Lost Highway

</comment><comment><USER157> American history x

</comment><comment><USER158> Being There - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_There](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_There)

      Memento

      The Usual Suspects

      Lawrence of Arabia

</comment><comment><USER159> Tropa de Elite (2007) - One of few films with a genuine right wing (not Neocon Globalist Corporatist) perspective.

A Swedish Love Story (1970) - The innocence of youth vs. the cynical defeat of adulthood. Don't let the world corrupt your soul!

Apocalypse Now (1979) (must watch the Redux cut!) - The heart of man behind all the artifice and words.

In the Mood for Love (2000) - Dignity and beauty despite everything.

<comment><USER160> The white leave, the yellow stay...

</comment></comment><comment><USER161> Whiplash (2014)

<comment><USER7> "Not quite my tempo."

</comment></comment><comment><USER162> The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359950/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359950/)

</comment><comment><USER163> Happy end. I watched that movie, then went to play table tennis and simply couldn't because my mind was a wreck. It's a movie shot (or played) backwards where plot moves forward.

</comment><comment><USER164> Couple of them: Children of Men, The Matrix, Le Jetée, Behind the Curve

There's a couple others I can't for the life of me remember the name of but I can recall very vividly.

<comment><USER165> Why behind the curve?

<comment><USER164> Helped me understand where the flat earthers were coming from and how to treat people who believe in it. Plus it's just a pretty solid documentary on its own, especially the end.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER166> "Dancer in the Dark" and the absolute performance of Bjork. Unbelievable. Discovered movie from her song and it was deeply deeply painful. Cried so much.

</comment><comment><USER167> I saw Terminator when I was very young and more recently, Ex Machina was pretty great regarding what "passing" the Turing test might look like.

</comment><comment><USER168> "The Magnificent Seven" (the version with Yul Brynner) if you can't find the original Kurosawa movie "Seven Samurai".

</comment><comment><USER169> Network (1976)

Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

<comment><USER170> Network just keeps getting more and more relevant every year. Every time I hear the "We're in the boredom-killing business!" rant, I think of all those dead-eyed fake-smile influencers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER171> For me 500 days of summer is a documentary movie, it helped me to deal with many stupid ideas I had about relationships.

<comment><USER172> Couldn't agree more, though I saw it 20 years too late.

</comment></comment><comment><USER173> Daybreakers, a subverted vampire film. The film is bad, but good grief is it terrifying that humans have to eat food.

</comment><comment><USER174> There are many. Most have been mentioned. Didn't see these mentioned yet: Gladiator, Ip Man, The Last Samurai

</comment><comment><USER175> Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

</comment><comment><USER176> Smoke

The Auggie Wren christmas story still gives me goosebumbs and that movie singlehandedly god me into Tom Waits

</comment><comment><USER8> That made me see the world differently? Faces of Death I guess. Would not recommend.

</comment><comment><USER177> Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray

</comment><comment><USER178> Zeitgeist: The Movie. Which might totally deconstruct your worldview.

But as far as what next, technocracy usually oversimplifies and fails to integrate an understanding of the successes of capitalism and some of the failures of socialism.

Because technocracy usually assumes a type of AI-based central planning and has little or no room for markets. But I believe that any realistic plan must have accomodations for some significant amount of competition and inequality as well as a strong emphasis on facilities to evolve the system and have types of local specialization.

So my belief is that we do need a more holistic view of information and more ways to track and regulate than is provided by the basic concept of assigning monolithic points (money) which is also a gross oversimplification, but there also needs to be some concept like that, just more sophisticated. Such as tracking points available for different categories of things or autotaxing different activities or just tracking resources per transaction.

So I think it will not work to get rid of money, but we need money to be much smarter and less one dimensional etc.

</comment><comment><USER179> Contact w/ Jodi Foster

</comment><comment><USER180> American History X

</comment><comment><USER181> Boyz N The Hood, especially as a female.

</comment><comment><USER182> Trainspotting

</comment><comment><USER183> 12 Angry men.

</comment><comment><USER184> Shrek! Ogres are like Onions

</comment><comment><USER185> Death By Hanging

Fando Y Lis

The Decline Of Western Civilization

</comment><comment><USER156> High and Low (Kurosawa)

</comment><comment><USER186> The Razor's Edge.

</comment><comment><USER187> Zeitgeist and Thrive.

</comment><comment><USER188> Deer Hunter

</comment><comment><USER189> For Sama

</comment><comment><USER190> I try to watch movies that show me who/what I am, where I came from to better understand myself for the future wherever I can find it. One requirement however, is that it cannot be a reflection of current events except that is of my own making.

Not in any particular order and may repeat many of the fine recommendations already said....

1\. The Five-Year Engagement [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1195478/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1195478/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)

2\. The Trigger Effect [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117965/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117965/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

3\. Sweet November [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230838/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230838/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

4\. Les Miserables (1978) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077936/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077936/)

5\. The Vow (i got married to the music from The Nationals - <USER2> (instrumental) :) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606389/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606389/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

6\. The Family Man (Nicolas Cage before he gone off the edge) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218967/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218967/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

7\. Boyz n the Hood [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101507/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101507/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

8\. Up (I'm a new dad and I did Big Brothers to 3 boys so Up means a lot to me) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

9\. Ghost Town [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995039/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995039/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

10\. People Like Us [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1716777/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1716777/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2)

11\. One Hour Photo (Reminding us how incredible Robin William...was ) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265459/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265459/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

WOW...few things..

1\. I realize a little psych profiling can show how old you are ;-) [EDIT] I mean how old _I_ am!! :)

2\. I'm a sucker for romcom light hearted shows that gives me time to reflect.

man.. I realize I need to look into this list, grow it and rewatch.

Enjoy!

</comment><comment><USER191> Inception

</comment><comment><USER192> Cold Fever

Fandango

</comment><comment><USER193> The Matrix

<comment><USER194> I was 17. Questioned reality for 3 whole days. So surreal!

</comment></comment><comment><USER195> Hiroshima mon amour.

City of the lost children.

Stalingrad

</comment><comment><USER196> The Deer Hunter</comment>


Hemingway Takes the Hemingway Test - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/02/hemingway-takes-the-hemingway-app-test.html

<comment><USER2> What I take away from this is: communicating heuristic-based behaviour to users is damn hard.

The irony here is that the beautiful name, "Hemmingway", leads people to paste bloody _literature_ into a style linter! You wouldn't even be able to hire an unqualified human to give you meaningful style feedback.

Nobody writing a novel should want this sort of thing. That's stupid. It's not for writing a novel. Verbal art is always going to break all the rules and invert expectations.

This would be like checking visual design heuristics against paintings or art photographs. Surprise surprise, they break your design rules!

Calling the app "Hemmingway" brands the app beautifully, and gets people engaged...unfortunately the engagement is jumping all over it for something it was never supposed to do.

I think there's good potential for style linting, it's a really under-explored area. And I think probably the app's rules, as implemented in this alpha, aren't that much up to scratch. You'd at least want to run a POS tagger, and probably a parser, to give better feedback.

So long as the heuristics are _correlated_ with common style problems, you can get some use out of the app. But apparently that's a difficult story to tell.

<comment><USER3> These language features are not correlated with style problems. There is no evidence that they are. These are folk remedies for bad writing.

On the passive voice, see: [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2922](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2922) and many, many more articles on that blog.

On adverbs:

[http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/02/20/being- an-...](http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/02/20/being-an-adverb/)

and on adverb hunting via software:

[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004271.h...](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004271.html)

and on this app:

[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10416](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10416)

<comment><USER4> I wonder what someone who writes for a living thinks of it. Oh wait:

"The Hemingway app is fun to experiment with, and it's useful in that it calls out in your writing places of friction—allowing you to decide whether they are necessary or merely sloppy. No one is above clarity. And the app, based on the experience of running examples of my own writing through it today, is, like a good editor, attuned to the places where vanity seems to be getting the better of things."

<comment><USER5> Programmers write for a living; novelists, reporters, columnists all write for a living. Reporters may be sports journalists, chief reporter and sole editor for a tiny newspaper, famous writer for the Times, or many other fields, each of which have their own standards and needs.

Having said that, computer editing will only get better, until it is used seriously by professionals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Way to go Adam ([http://twitter.com/Adam_B_Long](http://twitter.com/Adam_B_Long)) for getting covered in The New Yorker!

If it is no secret: did you get in touch with them or did they seek you out? Did you have a press kit[1] ready, or was this done on the fly?

I'd also be interested to hear about the technology you're using, and how it compares to the pattern-based approach of LanguageTool, e.g.,[2].

[1] [http://www.austenallred.com/the-hackers-guide-to-getting- pre...](http://www.austenallred.com/the-hackers-guide-to-getting-press/) [2] [https://github.com/languagetool- org/languagetool/blob/master...](https://github.com/languagetool- org/languagetool/blob/master/languagetool- core/src/main/java/org/languagetool/rules/LongSentenceRule.java)

<comment><USER7> That was also my first thought. A real achievement for this kind of launch.

I would be super, super interested to hear some rough stats for referral traffic if they founders would be willing to share.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> For a slightly less tolerant review of the app's behavior (generally, and on Hemingway specifically) check out Mark Liberman's take here:

[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10416](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=10416)

<comment><USER9> As soon as I saw the app description (it detects passive voice, counts adverbs, long words and long sentences as the bad thing etc) I've expected such results: HemingwayApp grades real Hemingway's writing as "bad."

I applaud Mark Liberman for the tag "Prescriptivist poppycock."

I still wait for somebody to actually pass one whole Hemingway's novel through the app and tell us about the results. Probably the new insights await us, once we analyze the dynamics of the "badness" inside of the real novel.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why do people want to emulate Hemingway's style?

He's an awful writer. I couldn't stomach his writing style long enough to finish A Farewell to Arms when I was supposed to read it in high school.

If his work wasn't in a book that was professionally printed and bound, I'd have mistaken it for the scribblings of some amateur hack -- maybe one of the students who didn't make it into AP English, because the writing quality was kinda mediocre-to-poor.

Dickens, OTOH, is a master of language -- creating long and complex sentences, filled of description and analogy, which have a rich diversity of adjectives and adverbs, creating a descriptive, witty prose.

I've never understood why people like Hemingway.

<comment><USER11> Well, he is widely regarded as one of the best writers of all time and among other things won the Nobel prize in literature [http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/...](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/). Don't mistake brevity for simplicity. Btw, If you are just starting out I highly recommend The Sun Also Rises.

<comment><USER9> Have you ever thought about the possibility that the Nobel prizes aren't always fully rational or narrowly focused and that there are different motives involved? Hemingway had the novels that widely resonated. Sometimes the writing style or technical details aren't too important when you consider the work as the whole.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I am reminded of a cafe I walked past in Spain, possibly Toledo. Above the front door a sign declared "Ernest Hemingway never ate here".

<comment><USER13> I have a feeling Mr. Hemingway would approve.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Hemingway's most important rule is difficult to parse for a web app:

"I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket."

[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/04/forget-your-personal- tr...](http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/04/forget-your-personal-tragedy.html)

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm glad to this important headline is still on HN after all these days!</comment>


HTC and Valve Partnered Up for the Steam VR Headset - <AUTHOR> http://www.htcvr.com/

<comment><USER2> You can register for a demo at GDC 2015: [http://store.steampowered.com/universe/vr](http://store.steampowered.com/universe/vr)</comment>