# Movie obsessions



## Guest (Jul 19, 2020)

That is to say, are there any movies with which you have some kind of obsessive relationship. You have to keep watching it to explore it further (or differently). You are drawn to it becasue of its concept, or its story, or its plot, or its beauty.

(I don't just mean that it's a favourite that you enjoy watching on a regular or frequent basis.)


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Notting Hill
You’ve Got Mail
Sleepless In Seattle
Tombstone
Saving Private Ryan
A Man For All Seasons

As per OP, not just favorites. There’s obsession there and something knew to appreciate anytime I watch them.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Blade Runner. Each time I see it I come away with a slightly enriched perspective on why it's so brilliant.

Also Vertigo and Witness. New ways of seeing and interpreting them are revealed with each new viewing.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Lawrence of Arabia. Fabulous dialogue, often droll. Spectacular scenery. All-star cast. Fascinating characters. Wonderful scenes and sequences. "it's my manner, Sir....."

Planet of the Apes. Charlton Heston's finest sci-fi film, and with many of the attributes listed above.

So many more......


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

I'm obsessed with how *bad* a movie was considering the fact that Hollywood had the greatest comeback story in the history of individual sports to work with......and totally blew it. They made a really schmaltzy grade B- movie that was as incomplete with the story as it was sketchy with the facts. Move over Jimmy Braddock, it's the story of......

Wait. Wait.

Play a little mind game with me. Imagine your favorite athlete....Pele, Gretsky, Trout, Ronaldo, Federer, Phelps, whoever.

Now imagine that athlete laying crumpled in the front seat of his car after being struck head-on by a bus. In a real act of heroism, (because this IS the story of a hero) the star athlete throws himself across the front seat right before impact to try to save the life of his passenger. That act saves his life. The engine block smashes through the firewall sending the steering wheel through the front seat. Had our hero not acted to try to save the life of his passenger the steering wheel would have killed him instantly. As it was his left side is exposed to that same engine block and does terrible damage; double pelvis fracture, fractured left collarbone, fractured left ankle. In addition, a blow from the dashboard on the forehead above his left eye would, in latter years, prove pivotal.

The accident occurs on a remote mountain road. It takes the ambulance an hour and a half to arrive. Our star athlete loses a lot of blood. At first, doctors doubt he will live, but he manages to pull through. However, the damage to his left side is so bad doctors doubt he'll ever walk again. His career is over.

Then, three weeks later, even more bad news. In an era before anticoagulants blood clots form in his legs threatening to kill him if they reach his brain or lungs. A radical surgery is tried where the vena cava, the huge vein that carries blood back from the legs to the heart, is tied off. The surgery is successful, but from that day forward our hero must rely on the rest of the smaller veins in his legs to move the blood back to the heart. From that day forward our hero doesn't take a step without being in pain.

Washed up! Finished! Career over! What athlete could possibly come back from that?????

But you see, this is really the story of determination.

****Flashback****

Our hero is 10 years old. He is either in the room, or in an adjacent room, when his father put a rifle against his chest and committed suicide. Our hero has to quit grade school and sells newspapers at a train station having to fight off older and bigger boys for the territory. Determination! Then, our hero discovers his sport, and despite the fact that he is a small person, excels at it. Determination! Our hero turns pro and promptly falls on his face - twice - but refuses to give up. Determination! Then our hero hits his stride and becomes great....because of determination. And inevitably....the crash.

Do you think this is a guy who gives up easily? Come back? Did I say come back? How about coming all the way back to being thought of as the very best of his time!!!!

How does Hollywood puck up a story that good?


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

Any baseball movie is, by definition, steeped in wonder.

*Most* science fiction movies are, by definition, steeped in wonder.

But the best of all movies, _to me_, is Miyazaki's _Spirited Away_. I would pay just to listen to the score in a concert hall. Take any individual cell from the movie and hang it in a museum - instant art. The hero's journey reimagined in a unique way. And the train journey to Swamp Bottom is a masterpiece beyond words - though many have tried: unless you're in the fandom you will have no idea of how many people react with intense anemoia - the feeling of homesickness for a place you've never known - to the brief glimpse of the house on the island. Entire comment sections hug each other and cry their hearts out.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Something always bugged me about the main battle sequence from _The Charge of the Light Brigade_ (1968). Couldn't put my finger on it so back in the days of VHS I rented it and watched it about three times before it eventually clicked. It was a fairly glaring error with the uniforms worn by the British cavalry - in fact, for such a big budget film priding itself on sartorial accuracy the mistake was a something of a boner - but it just didn't register straight away.


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2020)

Room2201974 said:


> I'm obsessed with how *bad* a movie was considering the fact that Hollywood had the greatest comeback story in the history of individual sports to work with......and totally blew it. They made a really schmaltzy grade B- movie that was as incomplete with the story as it was sketchy with the facts. Move over Jimmy Braddock, it's the story of......


Yes...yes...??

It's the story of...???


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

'Contact' for me MacL. Every time I watch it I revel in Sagan's writing, it really does remind me of symphonic writing at it's best with the way he thematically develops a parallel between religion and science via analogy and metaphor. Ultimately he tries to reconcile the two with 'faith' being the pivot. 
The score by Silvestri is terrific with a lovely heart warming main theme that is very moving and stays just shy of being too mawkish imv....(with a great key change around 55" in).

The on screen credit 'For Carl' at the end brings another lump to the throat as he died in hospital as the film was being made,


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

*Once Upon A Time In The West *- I've lost count how many times I watched it. It's been a big favourite for almost 20 years. I even wrote my thesis on Sergio Leone  The cinematography, the music, it's all breathtaking.

*The Seven Samurai* - what can one say about perfection? This movie is a masterpiece. It's on a lot of people's top lists for a reason 

*The Wild Bunch* - this movie took traditional western and massacred it gloriously with a machine gun XD

*Seppuku* - a very bitter and very beautiful movie. Not even in the general vicinity of f***ing around. I recommend watching without looking up the story because it will flip expectations.
*
Samurai Rebellion* - from the same director as Seppuku (Kobayashi Masaki) and again harshly criticizing a corrupt, hypocritical system.

*The Good, the Bad and the Ugly* - for something more lighthearted. It's good, old-fashioned Adventure with some of the best music in cinema history.

*Throne of Blood* - yeah I know this entire list is samurai films and westerns XD But this is also the best M*cbeth adaptation I have seen.

*The Deer Hunter* - okay, fine, here's a war movie. Or rather, anti-war. What sets it apart from most Vietnam movies is that it spends more time on the "before" and "after" than on actual combat scenes, and it shows the impact of war and PTSD really damn well.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

+1 for:
Blade Runner
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Once Upon A Time In The West

Eli Wallach's (Tuco) performance in the GBU, absolutely legendary.
But the entire movie is brilliant. I'm kind of obsessed with Sergio Leone's style. It just resonates with me. They don't make 'm like that anymore... Once Upon A Time In America is also a very special movie.

I mentioned these also because of their scores.
Major goosebumps at the end titles of Blade Runner, the music is just so incredibly fitting.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

One movie I continually turn to is Bergman's Wild Strawberries. It's a road trip where an old distinguished doctor travels through his life and confronts it again, now as an older man, and becomes transfigured through it. It gives me hope as I face the draining hourglass. 

I really like Waterloo with Rod Steiger as Napoleon. It has half a bazillion live actors in Napoleonic uniforms and arms, something we'll never see again in this age of CGI. Christopher Plummer gives a great contrast as Wellington, the effete snob putting down this Corsican upstart and his loyalists with an army he basically holds in contempt.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

mikeh375 said:


> 'Contact' for me MacL. Every time I watch it I revel in Sagan's writing, it really does remind me of symphonic writing at it's best with the way he thematically develops a parallel between religion and science via analogy and metaphor. Ultimately he tries to reconcile the two with 'faith' being the pivot.
> The score by Silvestri is terrific with a lovely heart warming main theme that is very moving and stays just shy of being too mawkish imv....(with a great key change around 55" in).
> 
> The on screen credit 'For Carl' at the end brings another lump to the throat as he died in hospital as the film was being made,


Here's a nasty review of Contact;






But here's a correction to that nasty review;


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

The early Fred and Ginger movies, they all have the same plot ( so much I can't recall titles or pick a favourite) and cast but oh when they dance. Each viewing seems like a first time to me.

Brazil. Does it have plot? Watched it countless times and just love how it unfolds in front of me.

The Third Man. Watched even more times than above. At the end I always long for Alida Valli to acknowledge Holly. To give a hint of hope...

Rear Window. A film about film. What am I looking for?

Some like it hot The funniest?

Groundhog Day. Could watch it .....

Priceless. (Hors de prix). Amoral fun with Audrey Tautou so watchable. I can't justify or defend its inclusion on my list, but I'd happily watch it on repeat. 


Isn't this one of the main things we hope for each time we see a new movie? One that will suck us in and give us repeated pleasure over many years.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Luchesi said:


> Here's a nasty review of Contact;
> 
> 
> 
> ...


...it's still my favourite movie.....


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