Movies so good you never have/want to see them again

[truehobbit]

Schindler's List was my immediate reaction to seeing the thread title, too.

I have seen it again after first viewing, but somehow have not been able to watch with the same kind of intensity as the first time round. It's simply not possible to watch it again and have the same experience again, I guess - it was just too intense to be repeated.

The other movies named here I just don't want to see again though, because I thought they stink.

I've never had the nerve to take on Trainspotting. I've had the same experience so often with films like that, films that are adored by sophisticates everywhere: when I finally try to watch them I can't get past . I'm too appalled by the repulsive sensory overload to see the mordant wit or trenchant satire or whatever it is I'm supposed to take away from the film.

So now I don't try. Life is too short.

I have the same reaction to that kind of film, though instead of considering the people who like it more sophisticated than me, I take them to be just sicker.

I watched "Trainspotting" from A to Z, because, as you said, it's one of those movies one is supposed to have seen.
All the time I just kept wanting those creeps in the movie to bite the dust and make an end of that rubbish.

"Seven" was remarkable merely by its record disgust-factor, the rest of it was a weak detective movie - and I'm not into disgust at all.

There are a number of other movies, though, that I enjoyed so much that I've not been able to concentrate on them a second time because the first time was so fulfilling, so, yes, I know that response.

[yovargas]

"Seven" was remarkable merely by its record disgust-factor, the rest of it was a weak detective movie - and I'm not into disgust at all.

I thought the same thing...

(well, I'd say "average" more than "weak")

[vison]

A movie that I still find intense after many years and several viewings is "Midnight Cowboy". I think it's one of the best movies ever made, and it still affects me powerfully. Yet I know people who thought it was "sordid" and "disgusting" and who can't understand why I love it.

[Faramond]

I'm really surprised to see Brazil mentioned.

I'd go with In the Bedroom and Mystic River as movies I thought were very good but don't want to see again. Too much emotional violence.

And I wish I hadn't see Se7en at all.

[vison]

I'm really surprised to see Brazil mentioned.

I'd go with In the Bedroom and Mystic River as movies I thought were very good but don't want to see again. Too much emotional violence.

And I wish I hadn't see Se7en at all.

I've never seen "Seven" and I'm awfully glad I didn't.


Faramond, this is off topic, but I have always meant to comment on your avatar, the room that becoming ocean or vice versa? I love that picture. It reminds me of one of my favourite books, "Forerunner Foray" by the immortal Andre Norton. There are beings in there known as "Lurla", and the Lurla deal with an encroaching sea . . . on a world unlike any where your picture could have been made, but still, it reminds me every time I see it and I thought I'd say, Thanx.

[Primula Baggins]

What I remember about Brazil was its nightmarish quality, which always makes a film intense for me. Part of it may be that in nightmares, and nightmarish films, anything can happen at any time—there are no "safe," quiet stretches where no one's face is going to melt off. So I'm tense all through.

[axordil]

Prim--
There was a loooong gap between my first viewing of Brazil and my second. Twenty years, nearly. I just saw it with my wife on DVD a few months ago, and what struck me this time was the bitter comedy in it, the echoes of Monty Python's darker side.

vison--
Midnight Cowboy was hard to watch when I was young. I may have to revisit it to see if that's changed.

[WampusCat]

I still haven't seen Schindler's List yet, but it arrived from Netflix today. We'll see how long it takes me to actually put it in the DVD player.

[Primula Baggins]

I know I have to see it. I haven't had the guts to rent it yet.

[samwarg]

Speaking of "Brazil", I've liked about everything Terry Gilliam has ever done. I just watched "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" for the umpteenth time the other day. Wow, that 19 year-old Uma Thurmond was (and still is) such a dish.

I haven't had the guts to watch Schindler's either. It's too hard a pill for me to swallow.

Has anyone mentioned "Pan's Labrynth"? I just saw that last weekend and I loved it. I'll definately be buying that one when it comes out on dvd.

A couple that are available to rent/buy now that I also liked are "The World's fastest indian" with Anthony Hopkins and "The three burials of Melquiades Estrada" with Tommy Lee Jones.

[axordil]

Has anyone mentioned "Pan's Labrynth"?

Well, yes, actually. It was the reason I started the thread.

Uma Thurman emerging nude from the shell is one of my personal Great Moments in Cinema.

[truehobbit]

But Schindler's List is a nice movie, considering the topic.

The way it's made, it's more personal than a real documentary, that's why it grabs your heartstrings so much, I guess - it gets you involved on a personal level - but there isn't all that much material that's really shocking just from the sight of it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I agree very much, hobby. Schindler's List is very, very tame as far as Holocaust movies go.

[Rowanberry]

Bound, by the Wachowski brothers. I really thought it was a very clever movie - but, seeing it once was enough.

I watched Seven because of all the praise it got. I found it quite overhyped - a mediocre detective story with too much gore to my taste, and quite predictable. Won't bother to watch it again.

I haven't got myself to watch Schindler's List or Trainspotting; I don't doubt that they're good movies, but I know that they would only make me depressed.

[JewelSong]

I only watched Schnidler's List because a friend of mine insisted - he came over with the DVD, sat me down, and watched it with me!

I am so glad I saw it. It was sad and even horrific in places, but ultimately uplifting and beautifully done. Spielberg's finest moment. And the score, by John Williams, is surprisingly subdued - a real departure for him. I highly recommend it.

I saw Pan's Labyrinth with PearlyDi and thought it was one of the most stunning and evocative movies I have ever seen. And I don't know if I could watch it again, either. At least not for a long time.

[samwarg]

[axordil]

Samwarg--you may want to de-spoilerize your post.

[Teremia]

I went to Bridge to Terabithia yesterday with the kids, and we cried. Samwarg's reaction has evaporated into a , but I'll say that there's a lot that's thoughtful about the film, though the seams tend to show -- acting isn't perfect, effects aren't perfect. The girl who plays the little sister does a fabulous job, though!

[samwarg]

I liked Pan's Labrynth a lot and will buy it when it comes available on dvd. Some people have a problem with it's subtitles, but I didn't mind that at all since I often turn those on anyway due to my crummy hearing.

As for "Bridge", it wasn't what I thought it would be.

I can enjoy a movie on different levels, but mostly I want to be entertained. Before the LotR movies came out, my favorite movie of all time was "O Brother where art thou". That movie is such a gem and was just full of lines that still make me laugh like "No, they never did turn me into a toad". I wish the Coen brothers would make another or two along those lines.

[baby tuckoo]

Of course, the Coen Brothers aren't interested in making movies along any same old lines. Which reminds me of one of their great ones that I have never been able to watch again: Miller's Crossing.

Funny, I can watch Blood Simple again and again, especially the scene in the field at night where the rube/hero can't seem to kill his foe with a shovel. But not Miller's Crossing.