Ask HN: Inspirational movies • Hacker News Board

kevin_morrill wrote: post #66

Ken Burns's Frank Lloyd Wright documentary is one of my favorites. The guy went through so many ups and downs in his career and created some of his most amazing works well and age when most would have retired. Leaves you feeling like it's never too late to accomplish something amazing if you stick to your convictions.

I found it quite the opposite. He valued his genius above anything else, honored no inconvenient personal obligations, and was chronically dishonest when promoting new projects, and without those qualities, his accomplishments would have been much more limited. I don't feel inspired by that at all -- I could perhaps convince myself I was a genius and do anything to further my creative output, but I can't morally do that, because the odds are overwhelming that I would not create beautiful and enduring works of art that eclipsed the personal damage to people around me the way Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture does.

Re: Ask HN: Inspirational movies

#124

Post by kleiba » Wed, Nov 17, 2010, 4:00 PM UTC

Harold and Maude

Re: Ask HN: Inspirational movies

#125

Post by briandek » Wed, Nov 17, 2010, 4:45 PM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #106

briandek wrote: post #101

Wanted Spirited Away

Don't know Wanted, but Spirited Away is totally amazing.

All Hayao Miyazaki movies are pretty epic :)

Re: Ask HN: Inspirational movies

#126

Post by jcapote » Wed, Nov 17, 2010, 4:57 PM UTC

Man on Wire. This movie pumps me up like no other.

Re: Ask HN: Inspirational movies

#127

Post by anthuswilliams » Wed, Nov 17, 2010, 5:24 PM UTC

adamzochowski wrote: post #114

_b8r0 wrote: post #57

Sneakers ( http://www.themovietracker.com/movies/8710 ). The film's aged a little, but it's nice to watch a fairly funny hacking film that doesn't dress up hacking into 3D flying GUIs, Hack the Planet or hacking a TLA with a gun put to your head, while getting head. Brewster's Millions always cheers me up around Christmas, as does Trading Places ( http://www.themovietracker.com/movies/9749 ), both of which are slight…

I think you mistook Sneakers for Swordfish. One is from 1992 and has Robert Redford and Dan Aykroyd.

I'm pretty sure Swordfish was one of the films he was slamming. The movie is rife with "hacking the TLA with a gun to one's head". Not to mention, the visual programming bit was pretty ludicrous.

Re: Ask HN: Inspirational movies

#128

Post by blender » Wed, Nov 17, 2010, 5:26 PM UTC

mtm wrote: post #49

'The World's Fastest Indian'

Yah, this is a really inspirational movie. How a little guy with passion and determination can make a dent in the universe.

Re: Ask HN: Inspirational movies

#129

Post by anthuswilliams » Wed, Nov 17, 2010, 5:39 PM UTC

hardik wrote: post #6

I find 70s Japanese action movies very inspiring. Very hard to explain why, but just do.

You mean like Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman? Can you give some examples?

Re: Ask HN: Inspirational movies

#130

Post by _b8r0 » Wed, Nov 17, 2010, 5:49 PM UTC

adamzochowski wrote: post #114

_b8r0 wrote: post #57

Sneakers ( http://www.themovietracker.com/movies/8710 ). The film's aged a little, but it's nice to watch a fairly funny hacking film that doesn't dress up hacking into 3D flying GUIs, Hack the Planet or hacking a TLA with a gun put to your head, while getting head. Brewster's Millions always cheers me up around Christmas, as does Trading Places ( http://www.themovietracker.com/movies/9749 ), both of which are slight…

I think you mistook Sneakers for Swordfish. One is from 1992 and has Robert Redford and Dan Aykroyd.

I think you mis-parsed my Sneakers comment. Sneakers is an awesome film. Swordfish, while ok to watch if there's nothing else on can't hold a candle to Sneakers.