Has a movie ever changed your life?

Not the answer you're looking for but....

Alien, I was young and it scared the bejesus out of me.
 
Not really, but only because I don't really allow things to change my life (well, at least not significantly). It requires a level of pro-activity that I just don't have.

Some people could watch The Cove or Earthlings and decide to get involved in animal activism - while I was certainly moved hugely by those two documentaries, I can't say I even considered doing anything about it, which is shameful really.

On a wider scale I would say cinema as a whole has changed my life, just as it has changed most people's, as it adds to your knowledge of many things, consumes a lot of your time and provides a huge social element (and not just watching with people - I've made many friends just through discussing film). There's also the small matter that I'm pursuing a career in film-making, but again that couldn't be completely attributed to one film. If I were to pinpoint one film that tipped me over the edge and got me thinking "this is the only thing I want to do", it'd probably be 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 
Any movie set in ancient times. It may seem silly but I cannot get over the fact that there was glorious civilizations and wondrous kingdoms 1000's of years ago. There was interesting lives, wonderful stories, intrigue, there was everything there's now, but under different circumstances. All gone and consigned to a few lines of history, if recorded at all. I feel such a sense of loss that I cannot go back in time and walk around a market in ancient Rome, attend the Coliseum, set sail on a ship for Athens, or trek across Germany on a donkey, en route to trade my goods. Silly, but it was, and is, always something I had a fascination with.
 
shaank said:
Star Wars - made me a massive fan of the whole 'universe' of it and so forth
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Yep - I was 7 or 8 years old in 1977 and this absolutely blew me away.

From the moment that Star Destroyer thundered into shot from the top of the screen, that was it - I was enthralled. I went nuts for anything Star Wars - remember having a SW duvet and pillowcase on my bed!
 
I don't know whether I'd go so far as to say it changed my life but reading The Aquariums of Pyongyang certainly changed me as a person. It's a truly horrifying read... the lengths that humans go to to survive is breath taking. It also made me realise just how insane and evil Kim Jong Il is.
 
Sometimes I really puzzle myself...

joeyjojo said:
However, it was a freebie DVD I was given by a Chinese lady on the tube who didn't speak any English which has made the biggest real change to my life. It was a documentary about how terrible the meat industry is, and how much energy/water/land is saved by being vegetarian. I've not eaten animals in nearly two years :)
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I found the above quote really inspiring, and yet I've been munching on smoked pork while reading it and have absolutely no intention to stop. (It's just so damn good!)

I guess vegetarianism to me is like those soldiers who fall on a grenade to save their squadmates: commendable, but I sure as **** am never going to do it! :p
 
Not a film, but I read Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" when I was very wrong - can't remember exactly when but around early Primary School time.

I recently realised that that book almost certainly sent me on my current career path (Geology!). Was a real "woah" moment when I thought about it.

I used to read that book over and over again when I was younger, probably more than 15-20 times. I loved it!

Although music is my real passion (and I'm planning on doing more with that), I really love my job in Geology and I think it all comes from that book :)
 
V for Vendetta certainly enforced a few views I have. A few films about WW2 have had an effect on me too.

A few books have as well.
 
Without a doubt the following films have...

Koyaanisqatsi by Goddfrey Reggio / Philip Glass / Ron Fricke
...All 3 are so vital to this reaching so many people via their ideas, music and cinematography. I first watched this at the Scala in Kings Cross in the mid '80s and I was truly blown away. The Scala in KC was such a great cinema; dope smoking, wild graffiti, alcohol and the audience (a major assortment of psychedelic psycho's, squatters, pimps and whore's!). I was to visit the place on a regular basis!

http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/koyaanisqatsi.php

King's Cross Scala:
http://cinema-architecture.blogspot.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2010/09/my_favourite_cinema.html?postid=101364871
Orthodoxcaveman wrote:

"I was lucky enough to frequent the Scala in Kings Cross in the early 90s not long before it was closed down for illicitly screening A Clockwork Orange. It was everything you could want in a cinema. Slightly seedy (hardcore porn like Thundercrack and Cafe Flesh were regularly on the bill), a bit bohemian (chocolate cake) and located in London's decaying red light district. I saw the Exorcist for the first time on the big screen there and was impressed by the atmospheric sound design until I realised it was the rumblings of the Northern Line and not an irate Prince Of Darkness beneath my seat

My gleaming local multiplex is just too damn clean."

Faces of Death
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077533/

I saw this in the early '80's and parts of it remain with me today:

"One scene shows a group of tourists in Egypt smashing a monkey's head while still alive and eating its brains"

I can't say it is a great film but seeing it at a fairly young age (13 ish), when all I had been witness to we're mainstream family fare, had an amazing impact. I quickly became vegetarian after seeing this and I never ate any meat again (now 43).

Zombie Flesh Eaters
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080057/
This properly scared the **** out of me! I watched the film in a converted old vicarage surrounded by creepy woods. My mate lived in the vicarage and after the film was over (at about midnight iirc), me and my other mate had to wait out in the road for my mum to collect us. All I could hear were zombies coming out of the ground all around us. I had nightmares for weeks afterward and I have never watched the film since! A lot has happened since then, but it has always stuck with me, how a thing as silly as a horror film can cause deep psychiatric trauma in a young developing mind.
 
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It's not really changed my life but the documentary Home has really made me change my views in regards to humans and our effect on the planet.

It's free to watch on youtube if anyone's interested, it has stunning visuals as well so watch it in HD!

 
Jimmy Hillbilly said:
Faces of Death
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077533/

I saw this in the early '80's and parts of it remain with me today:

"One scene shows a group of tourists in Egypt smashing a monkey's head while still alive and eating its brains"

I can't say it is a great film but seeing it at a fairly young age (13 ish), when all I had been witness to we're mainstream family fare, had an amazing impact. I quickly became vegetarian after seeing this and I never ate any meat again (now 43).
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Quite a strong reaction to have to faked footage. :)

You have my permission to tuck into that burger now.
 
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