Top 5 Movies that Influenced Me

             Hey ladies and gentleman who enjoy reading things that I write!  I’m TheCinemaChick and tonight, I’m using an idea Mumford gave me.  I’ve picked five movies that I have seen and I will now explain how they’ve influenced my life.  Before I get to that, please, please, please don’t laugh at some of my picks.  Most of them make sense but there’s one that you might wonder why it made the list at all.

            So prepare to wonder what’s wrong with my brain as I discuss my most influential films in my life.

5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I know, I know, this was a terrible movie.  There’s no denying it.  However, the memory I have associated with this film has given me a lot of hope for the future.  You see, the first time I saw this in a theater, I had Kit Kat and Fry with me.  It was the first time I’d ever met Kit Kat too.  Before seeing it, I had undergone my surgery.  I was just getting back in the swing of things after several months of doctor ordered bed rest.  So, thanks to a brand new set of crutches I was starting to walk again.  Of course, I was also terrified that Kit Kat would look down on me for being handicapped.  At the time, I didn’t have my AFO brace (a nice brace on my left ankle that helps me walk) so my steps were exaggerated.  

Thankfully, she didn’t think I was a freak and Kit Kat has become my long lost sister.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen brought us and Fry together into a special friendship that’s lasted several years.  We all agree the movie is stupid and makes no sense, but I’m ok with that.  Instead, it helped me regain my confidence during a difficult time  To help me out with my depression, Kit Kat and Fry even created a new superhero, named Gimparella.  I love the movie because of the experience I’ve had with it, not because the movie itself touched my heart.

4. Get Real

This isn’t a well known film.  In fact, I’d never really even heard of it until I found it on a random trip to a video store.  It’s a British film and it is centered around LGBT issues.  The story focuses on two high school boys who fall in love.  One boy is a quiet intellectual while the other is the school’s star athlete.  Because of social pressure and the constant pressure to conform, the boys are torn apart.  Despite declaring their love for one another and spending weekends together, the athlete succumbs to social pressure.  The end of the film has Steven (the intellectual) coming out to his entire school in an emotionally heart wrenching scene.  Right before this, he is assaulted by two bullies when John (the athlete) finds him.  John, not willing to admit to everyone else who he is, proceeds to beat Steven savagely, leaving Steven emotionally and physically damaged.

After watching Get Real, I realized that I have a similar situation.  I was in love with someone who ultimately rejected me because I wasn’t exactly what he wanted.  He claimed to love me, but he ended up like John.  While he never hurt me physically, he did leave some emotional scars.  I finally stood up to him and told him that if he couldn’t accept me as is, then I wouldn’t take his crap anymore.  Like Steven, I had to learn how to accept myself and walk away from it.  I learned that I deserved better than someone who will break my heart.  

Get Real is a fantastic film that I highly recommend.  It’s great for LGBT folks as well as anyone who’s ever been broken hearted by their first love.

3. Real Women Have Curves

This movie is fantastic.  It’s about a girl named Ana, who is Mexican American and in high school.  She has dreams to attend college, but her mother thinks she should settle down, get married and have children.  The film covers many topics, such as gender roles, cultural norms and beauty.  Ana’s mother Carmen thinks Ana will work in a dress factory all her life.  Carmen also constantly torments her daughter for being slightly overweight.  The movie ends with Ana accepting herself and going off to Columbia for college.

It should be pretty clear why I love this movie.  I don’t like women who are stick thin.  I find that the concept of beauty has been greatly distorted.  To some cultures, women who are curvy are far more attractive than woman who aren’t.  I’ll admit, I’m not a skinny little thing.  I don’t even like my men to be thin.  I want a man with a waist and hips.  There’s nothing sexier than a guy with a little extra meat.  

My point is, why should we be ashamed of our bodies and kill ourselves to be something we’re not?  I mean, I didn’t eat for five days but I was legitimately ill.  Take pride in what you look like and who you are.

2. The Nightmare Before Christmas

Oh come on, you knew this was going to be on my list.  It’s my favorite all time movie, I have admit to having a healthy obsession with it and I know all the songs by heart.  This movie got me started on a life long love affair with Tim Burton and turned me on to what I think is the most underrated and unappreciated art forms.  Claymation is an excellent medium that usually goes unnoticed by the masses.  The film mixes Christmas with Halloween, which is a strange combination.

This movie taught me that its perfectly all right to be weird.  It created an eternal love of Halloween and got my fascination with the paranormal started.  I could watch this movie over and over and over…which I have.

1. Memoirs of a Geisha

You can think this film for getting me started in the critique field.  I did a very in depth analysis of this movie for a class.  It required me to read the book, watch the film and do literally months of research.  I learned so much about how movies were made, as well as the geisha culture.  Once I discovered how much I enjoyed all this, my desire to do it more often came about.  I began taking more film classes, paying more attention to movies I watched and eventually started writing about movies.

Not only that, but it is visual perfection.  The colors, the lighting…all those technical aspects blended together beautifully to create an artistic atmosphere.  Memoirs of a Geisha is probably the only movie where I like to use of voice over.  Normally it annoys me to no end, but here, it works perfectly.  Saiyuri’s story is relatable since at some point everyone has experienced loss, heartache and impossible struggles.  The acting is flawless, the dances are mesmerizing and the costumes are to die for.

Memoirs of a Geisha is easily one of my top films of all times, though sometimes I do have trouble sitting through it.  The film is long and sometimes has slow parts where I’m itching for something to happen.  It’s an Americanized version of an Asian topic, so patience is a necessity.  Rob Marshall, the director, did his best to make it more appealing to the American viewer and I believe he was highly successful.

So there you go, five movies that have influenced my life in significant ways.  I know some people are going to laugh at my choices, but this is my list.  Yes, Transformers is a bad choice, but remember, for me it was about the experience I associate with it instead of the actual film.

Movies have the power to make us laugh and make us cry.  Some are wastes of time but others stick with us forever.  What movies have touched your life, dear reader?  Is there a film that you can watch repeatedly because you love it that much?

Let’s share, reader.  We’re friends here.

I’m TheCinemaChick and soon…you’ll see my choices for my top guilty pleasures…the five films I secretly love.