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Goldfinger (1964) because it started my life-long love of Bond films and Ian Fleming's books.
;)
A Hard Day's Night - Yes, I was really young (I think 9 yrs old) when it came out but I remember so much about how I felt, seeing it at our local theater, how excited the entire group of neighborhood kids were, how it infected every part of our lives. I think it was Roger Ebert who said that he "started growing my hair long while in the theater" when he saw that film. My friends and I were already totally crazy about The Beatles, I had gotten their first album, Meet The Beatles (as it was called in the U.S.) when it came out, I saw them on Ed Sullivan, my friends and I talked about them incessantly. It really was Beatlemania in my world during that time - and pretty much the entire sixties. They were always my favorite group until T.Rex burst onto the scene and took me to another level.
This film just supercharged & solidified for me three key elements that have infused my life:
a) the kind of music that completely set my soul on fire, brought me so much joy, made me want to dance
b) where I wanted to live (London; in particular Carnaby Street, I learned a tad later - though I would have taken anywhere in England)
c) what I wanted to grow up to look like (that would be Patti Boyd, in this case)
This movie looked and felt so spontaneous - so fresh, so funny, with great music. Yet it was scripted. It still looks fresh and sounds great. Precursor of MTV, etc. Oh this movie was such a gift to me.
Fast forward about 40 years and I'm at a local Beatlesfest conference in Tampa - as an adult, watching this film with all hardcore Beatles fans... and every single one of us remembering the dialog. At the very end of the film, the entire audience said the final line in perfect unison, in our best British accent (mimicking the way John said the same line earlier). I remember I laughed out loud - it was one of those glorious "forever" moments, not exactly recapturing anything, really .... more like just celebrating something that was still burning bright inside of me all these years later, something that had never gone out.
What a gift to me this film has been. Set me on course for my life in several ways. It will always be special to me - A Hard Day's Night did indeed change my life.
This is about 13 minutes of "The Making of a Hard Day's Night" Some of you may really enjoy this.
If I can though, I'd like to expand the parameters of the discussion here: one of the presentations that most changed my life was a stage play, a musical, in its original incarnation, and only later a film: HAIR, the tribal love-rock musical, as presented on stage from 1967 through the mid-seventies, and turned into a film by Milos Forman in 1979. Let it be noted here that the changes to the script necessitated by the format change from stage play to movie musical, substantially altered the "storyline" (such as it was) of the original production -- but that's getting ahead of things a bit.
In my high school years (1968-1972) I was a member of the school's drama department, and from time to time we would attend theatrical productions in the Big City, just, y'kmow, as a learning experience. I remember going with several other students and our teacher in those days to see productions of “Hamlet,” “The Crucible,” “Six Character in Search of an Author”…and one, magical, glorious night, we all piled into a bus and crossed the Bay Bridge from Richmond CA (a hardscrabble, blue collar town whose biggest industry is and was a Chevron oil refinery) into the fabled city of San Francisco to see HAIR.
Trying to explain this very topical musical from 1969 to a modern audience is….challenging. Suffice to say that the societal schisms of that time, -- the generation gap, the War in Viet Nam, sex & drugs & left-wing politics -- are playfully, lovingly examined & affirmed to some very skillfully composed and produced rock & roll, by people who were living that life and wanted to show it off to the rest of the world. Some of the songs from that play made it into the common consciousness of that day and are still fondly remembered... "Aquarius," "Let the Sunshine In," "Easy to Be Hard," and many more.
We went, we saw, and we loved it. We joined the cast & danced onstage at the close of the show. And when we left the theatre and stood out on the streets of San Francisco…our return bus was late. So we sang and danced there in the street, joining the robed Hare Krishna group that was outside, chanting and ringing their cymbals and pounding their drums, hoping to get donations from the well-to-do theatre patrons as they left the show. “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,” we sang and danced and chanted and grooved for 20 minutes or so until our bus finally arrived and we were whisked back across the Bay to our suddenly not-so-humdrum any longer lives.
The movie, arriving a decade later, was something of a let-down to those of us who saw and lived the stage show. Ragni & Rado, the authors of the original “book,” disowned the movie, due to the script alterations --things that I think were actually necessary to turn the rather plotless but entirely charming stage show into a movie storyline with the required beginning, middle, and end. If you ever get a chance to see HAIR the Love-Rock Tribal Musical as a stage production, by all means do so. Otherwise, “if you can’t remember the sixties,“ then HAIR the movie is the next best thing.
Made me get into older movies.
The Godfather (1972)
Greatest movie i've ever seen.
I've been wondering about what movies actually changed my life, and must come to the boring conclusion that there are two. Well, one series, and one film. Not that I don't love many other films, I do, but these films made a profound impact on my everyday life.
The film is 'The Man Who Would Be King'. This epic story of adventure, friendship and human willingness to believe in leadership opened my eyes towards the more cynical side of life. I didn't see it in the cinema's, I was too young (allright, not even a glimmer in my father's eye) to see it on release, but I remember the effect it had when I first saw it.
And then there's Bond. I'd much rather say it wasn't important, but it has been. For someone who prefers living outside the normal group mentality, who doesn't 'belong' to a certain walk of life and who definately has a bit of a traveler's mind to him, Bond has been a guide when it comes to what is important in life. I learned, at least, that it's ok to be on your own, if that works best for you.
You actually remember that?
The first movie I remember (Disney) is The Fox And The Hound and I loved it.
I remember it clearly, probably because I saw it three times. Or maybe four.
1985 (age 11) YENTL and HELLO DOLLY
It was a double-feature at a cinema. I knew of Barbra because my mother constantly listened to the Guilty and Yentl records in the early eighties, but had never seen her in a movie.
Hello Dolly was first and I absolutely loved every minute. The music, the singing it was all so glamorous and fascinating. After that, I watched this movie every time it was shown on TV which was a lot luckily.
Yentl transformed me into a life-long admirer of Barbra. I was so madly in love with her after seeing those two movies, I confiscated the records from my mother and listened to them constantly for months.
1987 (age 13) THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
I have to begin with Bond and it in fact was one of two "life-altering" movie experiences in 1987.
I had seen OP before in 1984 in a re-run at the cinema, I remember Maud Adams, she was very impressive, but that's it really.
So I knew who Bond was but seeing TLD was like a first nonetheless.
The PTS was so exhilarating and I remember the woman on the yacht so clearly. I was in love immediately and was kind of taken aback that she didn't appear again after the PTS.
TLD was the perfect movie experience. I loved every second of it and it made me the life-long Bond fan. After LTK I slowly discovered all the Bond movies on VHS and LaserDisc.
1987 (age 13) LETHAL WEAPON
I accidentally stumbled into that movie with a school mate. We intended to see some comedy and bought the wrong tickets 8-| silly us.
But of course we stayed. What followed threw me into emotional turmoil for days.
I only discovered my sexuality in that year, and Mel Gibson gave me the hots so badly I couldn't sleep for days. At the same time I was in love with Sheena Easton and Barbra Streisand (there's for other movies that changed me). It took me 3 years to sort things out after Lethal Weapon and realising that I'm blessed with the capability to love both women and men.
1990 (age 16) Madonna: Vogue
I know it's not a movie, but for me it was a life-altering experience.
I was sitting in a pub with lots and lots of tv-screens in Southbourne (Bournemouth UK) with my soccer buddies (I played at AFC Bournemouth Youth).
The music was very loud and I believe they showed MTV.
Suddenly the newly released music video for Vogue was shown.
The following 4 minutes belong to the best moments in my life. The visuals, Madonna, the song and especially her dancing choreography completely overwhelmed me.
And Vogue the greatest music video ever was directed by David Fincher !!
1996 (age 22) Beautiful Thing
Being sure of myself and having found my identity this movie came at the right time. I enjoyed it so much and it resembled some things in my life so well. It was kind of closure for me to a period in my life.
Bonus: 1995 (age 21) GoldenEye
After the long hiatus of Bond I was looking forward to seeing Remington Steele as James Bond.
It was a repetition of the experience I had with TLD 8 years earlier. Everything was so perfect and it has stayed my No 1 for 20 years. GoldenEye even belongs to my Top 10 of best movies ever.
@chrisisall: Cool Batmobile! Could it seat two? Did you have a friend who was willing to play Robin?
@BondJasonBond006: I have both TLD and GE in my Bond Top 10. Was never much of a fan of either Steisand or Madonna, but to each their own...
There was indeed something special about watching movies back then- even on TV... you knew that everyone was watching exactly what you were watching, precisely AS you watched it. They were mini-events if you will. Now it's more like being a drug addict getting your fix in a room all by yourself...
:))
Moonraker - the first Bond movie I saw on TV back on Christmas Day 1985. As it was the first one I saw I thought it to be the best thing I'd ever seen and made me the Bond fan I am today.
Die Hard - Brought about my love of 80's action movies.
Superman: The Movie - A movie that me and my family would sit and watch, when I was younger, pretty much every time it was on. I now do the same with my own wife and children.
TSWLM is easily Fleming’s least popular James Bond novel. Even the author himself didn’t seem to think very highly of it, selling the film rights to only the title itself and requiring that the actual novel as written never be adapted into a movie. The easy question, but one that I’ve never really seen answered is: why? Why did Fleming write a James Bond novel in which Bond himself is only present for the final third of the book? Why did he adopt the pose that Vivienne Michel, our novel’s main character, was in fact a real person who had lived the events depicted in TSWLM? What the heck was he thinking?
Well, I can’t speak from the inside of Fleming’s skull, so all I can do is make a few (barely) educated guesses.
The classic elements of creative criticism involve answering the following questions: what was the artist’s intent? Was it worth doing? And how well did he or she succeed? With those questions in mind, let’s have at it, shall we?
First of all, it seems to me that Fleming is stalling for time here. His real desire is to continue the story of Bond vs. Blofeld, but due to the lawsuit initiated by Kevin McClory, Fleming may have found himself legally unable to use Blofeld and SPECTRE at that point in time. Bond is depicted as being at the tail end of a mission that involved SPECTRE peripherally when he runs across Vivienne Michel one dark and stormy night in a nearly-deserted motel in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. He rescues her from a pair of criminals that have been terrorizing her, makes love to her once the bad guys have been disposed of, then leaves to alert the local authorities of the situation and continues along the path that will eventually lead him to a confrontation with Blofeld once McClory’s lawsuit has been settled.
But since Fleming can’t write the story that he really wants to write just yet, he tried something different. Now, it is no secret that Fleming didn’t feel respected in certain literary circles -- circles that his own wife Ann included in her social set -- and I’m of the opinion that part of what Fleming was trying to do with his legally-enforced down-time was to write a different sort of Bond novel, one that might have appealed to the literary set that had also been the designated audience for the short story, “Quantum of Solace.” And so it is that we have what is essentially a romance novel --later popularly-termed a “bodice-ripper” --instead of the adventure thriller that we have come to expect from the James Bond 007 series.
The first third of TSWLM is the hardest part for many Bond aficionados to take, where Viv introduces herself to the reader and depicts a series of misadventures that led her to become the caretaker-for-a-night of a closing motel in a remote part of the Adirondacks. The second third of the novel introduces two professional criminals, Horror and Sluggsy, who intend to torch the motel for the insurance money and pin the deed on Viv…presumably after raping and killing her. The final third of the novel introduces Bond, who doesn’t really seem to be in top form as he takes out the pair of hoods…and that’s about it. Not really one of Fleming’s better Bond novels, but not entirely without interest if you know where to look amid the pine needles and the rain and the cheap motel ambiance.
Quite frankly, the back-story provided for Viv Michel -- to one who has read the Ian Fleming biography by Andrew Lycett, which I have recently finished -- reads suspiciously like Fleming’s thinly-veiled “mea culpa” for his careless and caddish behavior towards women in general throughout much of his life. As Lycett points out, Viv’s loss of virginity takes place just as did Fleming’s, in the private “box” of a theatre. Viv has a bit of a history of being taken advantage of by the men in her life, and as anyone aware of Fleming’s personal life knows, Fleming has been exactly that type of man for much of his.
So, all that established: what do we think was Fleming’s intent? To write a different sort of Bond novel, one that might finally appeal to folks who hadn’t until now been Bond fans. And, secondarily, to mark time until the ownership of Blofeld and SPECTRE can be established. And just perhaps, to enable Fleming to air out some of his own personal dirty linen in a fashion that would be fairly well veiled to the general public. Was it worth doing? Yes to the first point; I suppose, to the second point; and not really to the third. How well did he succeed? Well, obviously Fleming himself wasn’t too thrilled with the results. But at this point in time, I think TSWLM is due for something of a reappraisal by the Bond community. We first must acknowledge that this wasn’t intended to be a standard Bond novel…and personally, I think Fleming deserves more credit than he usually receives for trying something different!
Here's Marc Bolan/T.Rex with "Jewel", filmed live in German tv studio Feb 1971; for the German TV show, Beat Club. Marc wrote this song for/about his wife, June It's on the 1970 "brown" album entitled T.Rex; the first album he shortened the name of the group from Tyrannosaurus Rex, and "went electric" in a big way. One of my favorites.
Nice psychedelic effects on this show ... ;)
by Darth Dimi
Besides the Bond films and to some extent STAR WARS, I hadn't exactly watched a life changing film until I reached the age of 19. Watching 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY completely changed my life. This film introduced me to a kind of hard science fiction I hadn't yet encountered or thought about before. My fascination with and subsequent analysis of this film led me to view THE TERMINATOR, ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER in an entirely different perspective. I had previously considered them mere entertainment; I would henceforth view them as fertile ground for philosophical debate.
It didn't take me long to discover the Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and its three sequel novels. They were the first hard science fiction books I've ever read. A friend of mine suggested that if I liked these books, I should also read some Asimov. And I did. Through his famous ROBOT and FOUNDATION series, I got hooked on Asimov.
That put me on a path of exploring Asimov's non-fiction works. His sharp and clear science books not only introduced me to the history of science, particle physics and astronomy, they also made me more secular than ever before.
Through Asimov I ended up discovering the works of Carl Sagan and Michio Kaku, who further deepened my understanding of the cosmos, modern physics and the virtues of a secular life.
So seeing where I am today, a science fiction fanatic with a passion for particle physics, the history of science and astronomy, who's become arguably more secular than Richard Dawkings himself, I can rightfully say that the movie that started it all, is Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
@4EverBonded: Nice psychedelic effects for TV indeed. Maybe someday when we don't already have a bunch of music videos up here I'll post some really cheesy '60s TV psychedelia: the Mike Douglas show hosting Moby Grape, playing "Omaha" and "8:05."
@DarthDimi: Good choice! 2001: A Space Odyssey was a real game changer for the entire film industry.
While this didn't have an impact on my character development it had a huge impact on what I liked concerning movie genres.
I more or less accidentally stumbled into a screening of Scream. Having seen only some horror flicks in my later teenage years that never really appealed to me, seeing Scream at 22 changed my preferences of movies.
After Scream many similar horror flicks followed up to the mid 00's. Then it was basically over as horror à la SAW took control of the genre, and that was not for me.
But thanks to Scream, I discovered a lot of older horror movies that I would have never seen otherwise.