What movie(s) impacted your life the most?

[Flint Marko]

Title says it all. The definition of "impact" in this context has quite a broad range, so interpret it as you'd like.

Raiders of the Lost Ark pretty much defined my taste in movies. I was maybe four when I first saw it and that, along with Jurassic Park which I saw in the same year, laid the general groundwork for my movie tastes going forward.

The first Spider-man is what made me a lifelong superhero fanatic.

The Shining (which I saw in grade school) made me a lifelong horror fan.

 

[NotSoLongAgo]

I think I can thank the first star wars for making me a huge movie geek. I had that on repeat for most of my childhood. I also really bonded with my dad over Raiders and the other indiana jones movies so those mean alot to me as well.

Halloween probably has had the most impact though. Its a movie I know backward and forward that I watch a few times a year and it went from the movie that scared the **** out of me as a kid, to a creepy movie that entertained me to a movie I genuinely respect. Like the shining for you, it made me a huge horror fan.

I actually have a few more. Goodfellas is the movie where it finally clicked how important camera movement is and how much nicer thought-out, dynamic shots can complement a story. That sparked my inner filmmaker. Same with Pulp Fiction. I hated it as a kid because I didnt get it but when I revisited it much older I fell in love.

 

[Sundancer]

I'm not sure what movie had the biggest impact, but Blood Diamond made me never want to buy a diamond.

 

[childeroland]

Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Goonies, The Wizard of Oz, and The Neverending Story when I was younger. Spielberg in particular defined my taste in genre cinema for years, to the point where it didn't occur to me that very commercial films could be made any other way.

Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique did so later, leading me to discover that art films can entertain the same way as commercial genre films while reaching for something more than most of them do.

Hsiao-Hsien Hou's Millennium Mambo (a serendipitous find stemming from me seeing The Transporter and wondering what else actress Qi Shu had done) and Ming-liang Tsai's Rebels of the Neon Gods were fortunate discoveries that hit me like tons of bricks, the latter leading me to Asian art cinema. To this day I've never seen anything on the big screen more beautiful than the opening and closing scenes of the Hou film.

Spirited Away, another accidental discovery (I wandered into the wrong theater), led me to anime, which led me to worldwide animation, an entire galaxy I was not really aware of before.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

300.

 

[David H.]

I had a minor obsession with Cronenberg's The Fly when I was a kid. I was four or five when I first saw it and it got me fascinated in body horror for a while. Pretty sure the arm wrestling scene is my earliest memory of a movie. Singled me out as a weirdo from an early age.

A few years later, when I moved to the US, The New World, Terrence Malick's film, was among the first I saw. It's kind of embedded in my first impression of the country. That alone should tell how important it is to me.

 

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

The documentary "Godzilla and Other Movie Monsters" was something that I watched before I was even 1 years old. My older brother watched it all the time and I in turn watched it with him. It's what got me into Godzilla.

 

[batman44]

Superman: The Movie

 

[Marvolo]

Star Wars
ESB
ROTJ

All three instilled in me a love of film, fantasy, science fiction, wonder, magic, and of course the galaxy far far away.

 

[Victarion]

Hellboy rekindled my love for comic books, after having read and watched a lot of Spawn as a kid.

 

[Warhammer]

Superman Returns

It taught me that it's okay to think that big budget tentpoles can suck. After that movie, I started to judge films critically.

 

[Silvermoth]

X-men 2. Watching Ian Mckellan bust out of prison showed me gay people can kick ass

 

[I Am The Knight]

Batman. My first memories are all B89 related. I have been a Batman fan all my life, and it all started with that movie.

 

[Quasimod0]

I grew up loving the Star Wars prequels. They ignited my love for Star Wars in a big way and now of course I like the originals better but those later films still remind me of being young. Love the characters

 

[Sundancer]

300.

Interesting. how so?

 

[Flint Marko]

Superman Returns

It taught me that it's okay to think that big budget tentpoles can suck. After that movie, I started to judge films critically.

Spider-man 3 was that movie for me.

 

[I Am The Knight]

Spider-man 3 was that movie for me.

B&R was that movie for me. First Batman movie I didn't like.

 

[lime]

Steven Spielberg's Hook. It made me dream and explore my imagination as a kid. I love that movie for that and for always!

 

[Bats123]

I grew up loving the Star Wars prequels. They ignited my love for Star Wars in a big way and now of course I like the originals better but those later films still remind me of being young. Love the characters

The first movie i ever watched in a theater was The Phantom Menace, many will say, "im so sorry" but if it wasnt at 5 years old that i watched that movie, i would've never known anything about star wars, and tbh i probably wouldnt love movies as much as i do right now, so i have a soft spot for Phantom Menace, that and Toy Story.

I wanna say The Dark Knight as well, probably an obvious one but before that movie, i had never EVER watched a movie multiple times in theaters, every time i watched it i ended up loving it even more, and every time its on TV, i just cant help but watch it, i just absolutely love that movie.

 

[Flint Marko]

The first movie i ever watched in a theater was The Phantom Menace, many will say, "im so sorry" but if it wasnt at 5 years old that i watched that movie, i would've never known anything about star wars, and tbh i probably wouldnt love movies as much as i do right now, so i have a soft spot for Phantom Menace, that and Toy Story.

I wanna say The Dark Knight as well, probably an obvious one but before that movie, i had never EVER watched a movie multiple times in theaters, every time i watched it i ended up loving it even more, and every time its on TV, i just cant help but watch it, i just absolutely love that movie.

You and I are around the same age. But I remember watching those movies when I was a kid and not liking them, and everyone else thought I was so weird. I was legitimately ostracized in some ways because I didn't like Star Wars. I still don't know why I've never gotten into that franchise because I love so much nerdy sci-fi stuff, but I wish I could have.

 

[Kyle]

Can only answer this as in personally impacted, because as a filmmaker the list of inspirations is way too long.

The Neverending Story - Looking back, probably what inspired me to become a writer and assisted in helping me accept moving on from losing my parents as a child.

Ordinary People - Found it shortly after my cousin died, related to it a lot, and it helped me to move on.

City By The Sea/Requiem For A Dream/Basketball Diaries - inspired me to stop the path of self destruction I was on with substance abuse.

Boyhood - Although I saw it after college, I saw it right before I left my home town for the second time and for what's still the longest time span, thus it really marks that moment in my life.

 

[Flint Marko]

The first movie i ever watched in a theater was The Phantom Menace, many will say, "im so sorry" but if it wasnt at 5 years old that i watched that movie, i would've never known anything about star wars, and tbh i probably wouldnt love movies as much as i do right now, so i have a soft spot for Phantom Menace, that and Toy Story.

I wanna say The Dark Knight as well, probably an obvious one but before that movie, i had never EVER watched a movie multiple times in theaters, every time i watched it i ended up loving it even more, and every time its on TV, i just cant help but watch it, i just absolutely love that movie.

You and I are around the same age. But I remember watching those movies when I was a kid and not liking them, and everyone else thought I was so weird. I was legitimately ostracized in some ways because I didn't like Star Wars. I still don't know why I've never gotten into that franchise because I love so much nerdy sci-fi stuff, but I wish I could have.

 

[psylockolussus]

X2. Start of an era for me!

 

[Wildcard]

The Dark Knight & The Godfather (Part I & II). For me, being a filmmaker myself, they made me look at films totally different. I look at those films as some of the only examples of perfect filmmaking, and it makes me aspire to reach that level.

And the same could be said for Frankenstein (1931) & Dracula (1931). When I saw those films, it was like a doorway to a whole new dimension opened up for me.

I also have to give credit to Rob Zombie's Halloween. It was after watching all of the special features that I finally started to write scripts. And I haven't turned back since.

Oh and Purple Rain. Music is something I love as much as filmmaking, so it's always had a profound effect on me, especially since I consider it to be, like, the best album ever.

 

[Warhammer]

Spider-man 3 was that movie for me.

The amount of anger I felt after watching that film has never been matched for 9 years.