5 Unforgettable Movies That Literally Will Alter Your Life.
Sunday, November 29th, 2009What exactly does it mean when you stumble upon a movie that changes your life? One critic defined it as the ultimate in perspective shift, something that really comes along and shakes the foundations of how you view the world.
Check out this list of 5 that I’ve compiled here, and see why these ones are compulsively viewable but still insanely powerful at the same time.
#5: Riefenstahl’s Disturbing Masterpiece, Triumph of the Will.
If you want to understand war films, and films that glorify things (be it anything — war, a country, a person), this is the film to have in your repertoire when you need to think about it. Not because the subject of the film is wonderful or because Riefenstahl is a genius, but because of what this movie says about spectacle.
#4: Bicycle Thieves.
Ultra-simple — a man gets a bike, and a job, when Rome is very poor after the second world war. He then loses the bike, and tries to steal another one so he can keep the job. There isn’t much else to the plot, but it contains a whole world.
#3: Chinatown.
If you’ve been put off by a few select films from the’40s because the plots are so convoluted or you don’t happen to be a huge Bogart fan, check out this one instead, which has the perfect spirit of the 70s but happens to be set way back.
#2: Vertigo is the Summation of Everything Hitchcock Did.
A wonderful thriller that also happens to be all about falling in love, idealizing women (or men), wanting other people to conform to our expectations, and an examination of the director’s role in shaping how a movie is made. No other film is so good both on its surface and in its multiple layers of meaning at the same time.
#1: Coppola’s Godfather Hits Heights Most Films Dream About.
It doesn’t matter that this film is about the mafia — it’s actually about family, power, children, America, crime, and politics. It’s also told so unbelievably well that sometimes you literally cannot believe it doesn’t have a bad moment. Which it doesn’t. The ultimate example of film’s completely unique cultural position.
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