Movie Question for all. What is the most powerful movie you ever saw?

[Stuart G]

Last edited Sun Oct 14, 2018, 01:04 AM - Edit history (6)

not the most fun,
not the funniest,
not the best drama,
not the best directed,
not the sweetest,
not the saddest,
not the best animated,

not the best music,
not the most famous
not the most academy awards
not the best acting,
not the worst acting...
etc, etc........................THE MOST POWERFUL MOVIE ...that you ever saw...

Warning: If you do not want to feel sad, please do not read my post... while it is truth to me, it is also very sad...Please read the other posts in this thread..thank you...Stuart

Mine is very simple...Night and Fog.
32 minutes of living hell............................... This is my review from IMBD (Internet Movie Data Base)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048434/

(a documentary on the holocaust) I wrote this 14 years ago, and still believe it is true. If you go to this film at IMBD, most other reviewers say exactly the same thing, so powerful, it is in a class by itself.....and totally true..


10/10
The Most Powerful Film Ever Made
stuartpiles16 November 2004


If you want to describe or give your audience a feeling for the holocaust, or "Man's Inhumanity To Man", then this is the vehicle to use..Show it..be warned, it is so powerful, that you will never forget what you see, neither will any of your viewers..It is impossible to describe, intermixing l955 footage of Auchwitz Concentration Camp, with captured Nazi footage which the allies found at the end of the war, and the scenes of American and British troops liberating the camps...In French, with English subtitles.. and scenes that are unforgettable and horrific. Even the sad music of death from this film plays in my ears, and I have not seen it in 15 years. Once you hear it, you will know.

This is the one to show if you want people to understand the truth of what happened and the reason for its reaction in today's current events....It is shocking in a special way. I showed it to my classes. Students were warned, and told what was coming, they said it would be "nothing" By the end some were crying and moaning in horror...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. The Pawnbroker.

[rurallib]

18. I will second that

nearly 55 years later and I was only @ 14, this movie still sticks with me.

Pan's Labyrinth was darn good also and Dr. Zhivago

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. That one was heavy. I was in college when I saw it, was depressed for days after.

It was an excellent movie but I've never wanted to watch it again.

[dhol82]

33. Yup.

I was 18 and my parents had been in a slave labor camp during the war.
It was too much for me and I had to leave about 2/3 of the way through.
Every time I think about it I remember that feeling of being overwhelmed by what actually happened.

[dem4decades]

2. Z

He lives.

[Stuart G]

4. I have heard about "Z" but when it came out, in 69, I thought it was too much for me.

..Little did I realize that 6 or 7 years later, I would view Night and Fog. Night and Fog was originally shown in 75 or 76 by a friend of mine in the history class next to mine. He had gotten a 16mm print and showed it to his students. He said I should come into the class and watch it. I was amazed that anything that horrific and real was on film. I started showing it a few years later, (not right away) but when I started, I showed it maybe 45 or 50 times. Warning, this film, is all real. Captured footage from the Nazi Concentration camps. Some of that footage was taken by the Nazi's themselves as a "record"...and some was taken when the Allies entered the camps at the end of the war. Warning: it is available at libraries, and free on the internet at certain sites.

Because of my feelings about "sad films" I often ask around if it (the film, any film) ends "sad" If it does, well I have had enough of that..and I don't watch it. Can't. Too sensitive for me, now that I saw the worst of the worst..

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. For me: Schindler's List.

It was by far the most powerful movie I've ever seen. Normally coming home from a movie, my husband and I would be talking about it, but not this time.

We were silent.

Fantastic movie.

[Rhiannon12866]

20. I have to agree with you.

When we arrived at the theater, a friend and coworker was just coming out, having seen it. She didn't stop and chat like you'd expect, we just exchanged perfunctory greetings. Now I know why. And I still haven't been able to look objectively at the actor who played the cruel nazi at the camp.

[smirkymonkey]

62. I think that would be right up there with me.

I could not speak after I saw that film.

[mucifer]

63. made me physically ill nauseous and a headache yeah it was so intense.

I don't remember any movie affecting me like that.

[SKKY]

5. Life is Beautiful...

...it pretty much shook me to my core, and serves as a lodestar for me as a father.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Probably "Two Women"

[Talitha]

7. Sophie's Choice

As a Mother, I cannot imagine the hell she went through....

[LAS14]

30. I couldn't think of what it was until I saw your post. Yes, definitely. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

43. Good Choice

Someone else above said Schindler's List and that's a good one too.

[Basic LA]

8. Original Night of the Living Dead

Unrelenting, right to the bitter end.

[Nay]

9. Clockwork Orange, and then Sophie's Choice. nt

[mysteryowl]

10. Safety Not Guaranteed (fantastic! powerful movie)

If you are going to see the movie, DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER.

The trailer will ruin all the mystery for you and take away some of the power of the experience.
The acting is poor. The movie is great! Powerful and funny.





If you are going to see the movie, DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER.

If you are going to see the movie, DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER.

[red dog 1]

11. I want to see that!

[red dog 1]

12. Probably "Fire in the Sky"

but equally powerful was Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"



Good Post!....Great question!

K&R

[DFW]

13. Probably "If"

I had just come from my one and only year at a conservative boarding school for boys, and HATED the place with a passion.

And then I saw "If." It was almost as if my life of the past year was rolled out before me again, in concentrated form, and with a British accent. All the frustration, the humiliation, the anger, came boiling back up. The final scene, of course, never happened at my school, but I was glad to have seen the last of the place.

"Ådalen '31" was a close second, but I don't know how to explain that to people unfamiliar with Sweden and its 20th century history. My Swedish professor prepared us before we saw it, and it left one hell of an impact.

[Totally Tunsie]

14. Soldier Blue

recounting the Sand Creek Indian Massacre. I honestly don't recall what drove us to see this film, but I do recall the absolute silence of all the viewers as we exited the theater. We were all in shock at the violence of the film's ending...horrid. Had I been able to speak at all, I would have warned the incoming patrons for the later show about the film's destructive ending.

https://lilyandgeneroso4ever.com/2015/01/18/1970s-soldier-blue-is-a-vile-exploitation-of-the-sand-creek-massacre/comment-page-1/

After SB as #1, I'd rank Schindler's List and Life Is Beautiful as Nos. 2 and 3.

[Stuart G]

48. "Sand Creek Indian Massacre" ...I didn't know there was a film about that. horrific event..

Thank You for mentioning this. Most people don't know about that. I urge people to read, "Bury My Heard at Wounded Knee." by Dee Brown, for more info on the destruction and killing of Native Americans. I might add that if you read this, it gives a detailed account of the Sand Creek Massacre...

If you have never heard of it, then I recommend you look it up. Here is a link, very sad, and truly horrific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre

[Totally Tunsie]

50. Consider yourself forewarned, Stuart G., if you decide to somehow see this film.

It's every bit as brutal as you might imagine.

[backtoblue]

15. The Color Purple and Philadelphia

ETA:

American History X

[kwassa]

16. Shoah

[OilemFirchen]

17. Yep.

[Little Star]

21. Dances with Wolves

[Wounded Bear]

22. Tough choices, but I have a couple of references...

Breaker Morant...Australian film about an incedent involving the execution of some civilians and how justice gets despensed under military tribunals.

Casualties of War...one of, if not the best performance(s) by Michael J. Fox about a war crime involving rape and murder of a civilian Vietnamese woman and how whistleblowers get treated, and how shit like that leaves lasting scars on the psyche that can last a lifetime, even for those who just witness them.

Both are rather obscure now, but they have stuck with me for many years now.

[ProfessorGAC]

44. Breaker Morant Was GREAT!

Jack Thompson is superb as the defending officer.

[flibbitygiblets]

23. The Whistleblower

This movie still haunts me.

A drama based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outed the U.N. for covering up a sex trafficking scandal.

[bif]

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Last edited Wed Oct 17, 2018, 04:23 PM - Edit history (1)

Saw it on the big screen (Cinemascope?) when I was around 12 years old. It had a big impact on me. I still watch it with awe.

[skypilot]

25. Synecdoche, New York

I don't think I'll ever watch it again, it affected me so much.

[TygrBright]

26. Schindler's List. n/t

[onecaliberal]

56. That is mine too.

[mikeysnot]

27. Most recent would be

BlackKlansman...

others would be O Brother...

[redstatebluegirl]

28. Schindler's List

[Raven123]

52. Agree

[centrarchus]

29. Saving Private Ryan

[bobbieinok]

31. Black Orpheus. Modern retelling of Orpheus myth, set in Sao Paulo. Saw in 60s

Another foreign film Tales of Hoffmann

[Rustynaerduwell]

32. The last five minutes of

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[Stuart G]

39. I would agree. While the documentary "Night and Fog" was number 1, this is a close number 2.

I will never forget walking out of the movie theater, totally stunned by that ending. I never thought of it as "horrific" but I do now. And I did not think of that when I started this thread. But that one was really something..If there is a non documentary movie, regular film , then the last 5 minutes of "One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is it.

[Kurt V.]

34. Osama comes to mind

because i saw it for the first time earlier this year.

[dewsgirl]

35. Schindler's List and Requiem for a dream.

[Sneederbunk]

36. Ordinary People.

[ghostsinthemachine]

37. Schindler's List

Still resonates and Ive only seen it once, when it came out. It affected me so much, I cannot watch it again.

[CTyankee]

40. Oh god, you are right. It was beautifully done but SO sad! The theme music was wonderful but

also heartbreaking.

[Paladin]

38. "Chinatown" (nt)

[enid602]

41. Movie

Grapes of Wrath

[jrandom421]

42. Saving Privat Ryan

Not only the battle scenes on Omaha Beach, but the opening and closing scenes of Jimmy Ryan coming back to Normandy 50 years later.



Second: We Were Soldiers


Not only because the sound of Hueys and the battle scenes brought back memoriries (and nightmares), but the scenes of the wives delivering the condolence telegrams made me cry. I had friends who were stationed at Ft. Campbell at that time, and while they weren't in Hal Moore's unit, they knew people who were.

[ProfessorGAC]

45. Just To Add, Since Nobody Mentioned Them

I agree with a lot of them here, but here's 3 more.

Deer Hunter
Arlington Road
Hidden Figures

[Niagara]

46. It's difficult to choose only one movie

Several in my list includes:
Escape From Sobibor
Unbroken
Schindler's List
Pearl Harbor
Seven Pounds
The Green Mile
Revolutionary Road

[MountainMama]

47. Schindler's List

No question.....my (at the time) husband and I saw it in the theater and we walked out just stunned. No one was speaking, except in a whisper.

I told my husband, "I've feel like I've just been to a funeral." I was drained after that.

[Iggo]

49. The Ox-Bow Incident. (n/t)

[Moostache]

51. Killing Dogs

It was about the Rwandan genocide and alongside Hotel Rwanda (Don Cheadle starred in that one), it makes for an absolutely unsettling double feature that should be required viewing for everyone who doubts genocide is only a few bad leaders and license to kill away from happening again.

[jodymarie aimee]

53. BOBBY

story of RFK by Emilio Estevez.....sat there bawling and didn't want to leave theatre...

[JDC]

54. Blue Jasmine or Twelve Years a Slave

[Raven123]

55. The Accused was very powerful

Schindler' List was the most powerful for me

[justhanginon]

57. Henry V (1989) Kenneth Branagh and Derek Jacobi

[Sedona]

58. The Deer Hunter eom

[Permanut]

59. Caine Mutiny..

Navy veteran here.

[OregonBlue]

60. more than one

Gota go wth Sophies Choice and Schidlers list but I was affected by To kill a mockingbird too because the racism was so realistic.

[Number9Dream]

64. "Inherit the Wind" (1960)

I saw "Night and Fog" in high school over 45 years ago. It was definitely gut level powerful and depressing. For me, I'm not sure if powerful equals depressing. The movie which exerted the most power to affect my life, was the first time I saw "Inherit the Wind" (Spencer Tracy, Fredrick March, Gene Kelly), when I was a teen. It made me seriously think about religion and atheism. It was loosely based on the Scopes trial (teaching of evolution). It shaped my adult life more than any other single film.

[Turin_C3PO]

65. "Schindler's List"

Followed by “American History X”.