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Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

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Re: Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

#201

Post by pivo »

pjmorris wrote: post #126

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.

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.

Re: Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

#203

Post by juniper_strong »

DonaldPShimoda wrote: post #122
jollofricepeas wrote: post #10

“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 c…

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 conju…

> 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.

Re: Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

#204

Post by the-dude »

Markoff wrote: post #157

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 - Vi…

The dude abides.

Re: Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

#205

Post by ttyprintk »

'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.

Re: Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

#206

Post by mke »

Markoff wrote: post #163
mke wrote: post #136

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 ?

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

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!

Re: Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

#207

Post by nr2x »

rmrfstar wrote: post #39

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/

John Carpenter is so under rated in general, Escape from New York is amazing as is The Thing.

Re: Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

#208

Post by krapp »

torben-friis wrote: post #104
qwe098cube wrote: post #66

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

> 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.

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of mature anime which are recent, because the trends in anime seem to be skewing towards isekai that caters to otaku and shonen.

- Spirited Away

- Grave of the Fireflies

- Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex

- Psycho Pass (first season only)

- Tatami Galaxy

- Perfect Blue

- Paranoia Agent

- Serial Experiments Lain

- Eden of the East

Re: Ask HN: Films that made you see the world differently?

#209

Post by trevett »

petercooper wrote: post #197
trevett wrote: post #186

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.

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,…

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.
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