Discuss: The Movies That Haunt You
Filed under: Fandom
After heaps of buzz and praise, and our own Eric Snider saying: "it's compelling and artistic, punctuated with warm humor and masterful performances, and ultimately triumphant and hopeful," Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is finally hitting theaters today. It's a harrowing look at one girl's traumatic young life of being pregnant with her second baby (by her father), abused by her mother, and struggling with illiteracy and obesity. In other words, a movie that demands you to think and feel -- to be touched beyond the 110 minute span of the film.
Naturally, that made me think about movies that haunt us. It can be for any number of reasons -- because of a film's thought-provoking power, how it's filmed and presented, the way it latches on to pain in our own experience, unsettles our own belief systems, angers us, or challenges us. Whether it ends sadly, or with hope. Whatever the reason, certain films seep into us and refuse to leave, whether it be for a few fleeting post-credits moments, or a week, month, year, or lifetime.
Upon leaving Requiem for a Dream the first time, my friend and I couldn't get the music out of our heads. We couldn't stop repeating the same thoughts as our brains tried to process them. Even if I don't see the film before my eyes, the music brings back every feeling, every moment of tenseness. As the credits started moving in Dogville, I couldn't shake the last powerful moments out of my head. It took a while to shake the gooseflesh from my arms, and every time I let my mind slip back, there's a brief jolt of shocked memory.
And ultimately, I think of that moment in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, when Spencer Tracy delivers his final speech, sick, to die only 17 days after filming. The entire affair was fictional, but still steeped in so much truth. There was the truth of love having no race, and more joltingly, the real passion behind the film -- Katharine Hepburn's own niece playing her daughter, and her love playing her husband. The minute Hepburn is visible in the speech, you can see the tears in her eyes. And when Tracy delivers the line: "And there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that your son feels for my daughter, that I didn't feel for Christine," she quivers, the weight of the truth slamming into her. I've never forgotten the look in her eyes as he delivered his speech, and the look they shared at the end of his discussion of their love. (And in a world where we want every sordid detail of a celebrity's life, I don't think any tabloid can pull as much romantic drama and truth as this speech did for Tracy and Hepburn's relationship.)
Now that I've pulled all the ghosts out of my closet. What are yours? Which films and moments haunt you long after they end?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-06-2009 @ 6:13PM
Alicia said...
Lust/Caution. Without fail. for days...
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11-06-2009 @ 6:18PM
martisco said...
Branagh's HENRY V. Still my perfect movie.
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11-06-2009 @ 6:37PM
Fred said...
This may be cliched, but the scene in Forrest Gump when he realizes he is looking at his son always kills me. His eyes tell the whole story. As much as that film may be derided, for me that Oscar win was well deserved.
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11-06-2009 @ 7:09PM
Shelagh said...
Breaking the Waves. I've only seen it once, and I don't think I could ever watch it again. It cuts out your heart and leaves it in your tear-soaked hands. Raw and brilliant.
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11-06-2009 @ 7:12PM
Ryan said...
The entirety of Cries and Whispers hits me on about that level. Actually, the entirety of Bergman's filmography hits me on about that level.
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11-06-2009 @ 7:12PM
BloodwerK said...
Closer. Seen it countless times...
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11-06-2009 @ 7:57PM
Bec said...
"Recovery." It's a little-known UK TV movie with David Tennant and Sarah Parish, but the two of them made the terrible tragedy of a traumatic head injury upon an entire family an all too real scenario. I have never been so emotionally affected by a movie before or since.
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11-06-2009 @ 8:22PM
Tobi Ximenez said...
Hirokazu Koreeda's NOBODY KNOWS (2004)
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11-06-2009 @ 9:06PM
NP said...
Yes. Absolutely a haunting film, one I don't think I could watch again.
11-06-2009 @ 9:02PM
Jen said...
Synedechdoche New York. We have so little time.
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11-06-2009 @ 9:08PM
NP said...
Wendy & Lucy
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11-06-2009 @ 9:16PM
Tobi Ximenez said...
o my god, i was sad for about a week after I saw WENDY & LUCY.
David Gordon Green's debut GEORGE WASHINGTON is also extremely haunting
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11-06-2009 @ 9:48PM
Kate said...
[long post]
This may all be because I'm a tremendous pussy, but movies always hit me hard. 'Requiem for a Dream' by default, but 'Atonement' is one of the most emotionally raw movies I've ever seen. I wasn't spoiled before going in, so when the denouement came around, I left the theater in a daze. I couldn't bring myself to watch it again for more than a year it hits me so hard. It was on TV yesterday and when Robbie is standing in front of the movie screen at Dunkirk, I felt like I was going to tear in two. Better yet when I read the book after the movie, it happened all over again because Joe Wright perfectly captured Ian McEwan's words. It's so difficult to do, but when you do it right, it's poetry.
There's also 'Brokeback Mountain' for the same reasons. I left the theater feeling I'd never be happy again. When I saw 'The Empire Strikes Back' in fourth grade, I started shaking when Han was put into carbonite and I didn't stop until the next day and I watched 'Return of the Jedi' on video. That has never happened to me since. Then there's 'The Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes'. The ceremony of mummifying girls alive gave me nightmares for years, and I still don't know how or why that movie is for kids. It's the only one that prompted me to sleep with the lights on and a crowbar in bed, which didn't happen again until a few days ago when I read 'The Road'. (And of course, I'm going to be an idiot and go see the movie.)
And this is more of a happy one, but I can't watch 'A Little Princess' without crying through the whole thing, especially when her dad runs out in the rain to save Sara.
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11-07-2009 @ 12:19AM
Chad said...
In America. Everything from the carnival game scene that almost turned into a tragedy to the end when the father finally comes to terms with his grief and says goodbye to his son. Kills me.
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11-07-2009 @ 2:17AM
Chet said...
The Pledge. (2001, Jack Nicholson)
My best friend still won't forgive me for showing him that movie.
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11-07-2009 @ 3:52AM
heather said...
Testament..
it;s a lesser known post-apocalyptic movie that came out some years ago;about a mom,who has to keep her family togetehr after a nuclear bomb goes off sevral miles away,and the radiation and fall out travels down to their lil california town...
the part that always gets me,is when she realizes that she can put an end to their slow deaths,and celebrates a birthday...not sayin anymore...just that,it is a very powerful movie,and thought provoking...
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11-07-2009 @ 7:56AM
Phil Guest said...
There's a 1972 TV movie called "Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol", starring Martin Landau as a Vietnam vet who returns to the US after a psychologically draining tour of duty. He tries to go back to his hometown but discovers it has mysteriously disappeared = no record of it exists and nobody has ever heard of it. The riddle is solved in the very last shot of the movie and it's haunted me for years...
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11-07-2009 @ 9:13AM
Ben Kay said...
Seven. Haunted me for days. Still haunts me. It's a great big haunty cake with haunting icing and a red haunted cherry on top.
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11-07-2009 @ 11:31AM
arianit said...
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11-07-2009 @ 12:28PM
FamilyBand said...
Martyrs (2008) - The most disturbing movie I've ever seen. I watched it alone and couldn't stop thinking about it for about a week. I felt like it was slowly eating away at my soul. I probably just started the process over again by thinking about it this long...
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