
Ask HN: Any movies that changed your life? - avinoth
For me pursuit of happyness, it had a profound impact and I learnt to appreciate things I have.
======
CephalopodMD
May be cliche, but "2001: A Space Odyssey" was huge for me the first time I
really watched it through. Kubrick, in his own way, created a timepiece that
reflected and captured the revolutionary mood of the late 1960's without ever
having to directly bring it up. It is truly a movie about humanity and one
which completely describes all my hopes and fears for the future of our kind.
Not only that, but the film is really beautifully well done. Every shot feels
like it means something. Every line of dialogue either drives the plot forward
or serves to add greater meaning and mood to the storytelling. It's just a
monumental work that I think everyone should at least try to see at some point
in their life.

Also, "Synecdoche, New York" is a very depressing and introspective movie that
left me reeling for days. Hard to get through, but very worth.

~~~
Amanjeev
I upvoted not because I think it is cliche. I don't think it is cliche at all.
It is one of my favorites too.

------
stephengillie
Big Fish gave me the perspective that you can move around in small ponds and
still be a great person; you don't have to start a company and change the
world to accomplish this.

~~~
tyrick
I loved this movie also. In the end, he was a Big Fish.

------
sgt
Not a movie, but Star Trek: The Next Generation had a profound impact on my
life.

Captain Picard's level of human ethics is something most of us can only strive
for. I think everyone (including Earth politicians) should take note of his
supreme leadership skills, and the will become a better place.

Roddenberry's vision of Star Trek was really that Enterprise was a metaphor
for "starship earth", so even if you're not into sci-fi, it's still highly
worth watching. It's not really about space per se, it's about people.

------
calebm
I feel like "The Fountain" left an imprint on my soul. It's weird, but
probably the most beautiful movie I've ever seen (especially its music and
filmography).

~~~
calebm
Sample of the music:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swAicg0GjNg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swAicg0GjNg).
It deserves to be so much better known.

------
ak217
The Matrix and Miyazaki's movies. Maybe didn't change my life, but had a
lasting impact.

~~~
sogen
Future Boy Conan and Grave of the Fireflies.

~~~
simonebrunozzi
Why?

~~~
scott_karana
There was an article/thread about Grave of the Fireflies in particular, just
yesterday. I strongly recommend reading the article, at least. :-)

[https://medium.com/dan-sanchez/miyazaki-s-beautiful-
antiwar-...](https://medium.com/dan-sanchez/miyazaki-s-beautiful-antiwar-
dreams-44951be1be11)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10037010](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10037010)

------
shankysingh
Jurassic Park, its not the movie in the literal sense, but the fact that it
was my first move I ever saw with my family in a big theatre. So every frame
of it "wow" experience for me at that time.

Also "Man from Earth", It was my first movie that made me realize sci-fi genre
is lot more than fancy cgi.

------
aks_kuhu
Life is Beautiful, made me realise the sacrifices we make for the people we
love.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Not a movie, but related to what you mention about sacrifice and love. This
photo has always stuck with me.

[http://nation.time.com/2011/09/28/no-idle-boast-a-
soldiers-t...](http://nation.time.com/2011/09/28/no-idle-boast-a-soldiers-
tattoo-becomes-truth/)

------
solutionyogi
Pursuit of Happyness is definitely one of my favorite.

Another one which I regularly watch is Shawshank Redemption. A choice quote
from the movie:

 _Hope is a good thing, may be the best of things, and no good thing ever
dies._

------
lcswi
Das Boot taught me that war is nasty for all inside and that there are humans
on all sides, abused into submission and dillusion by the war mongers. I
cannot recommend it highly enough. Watch the longest version you can find, I
prefer the mini series.

------
JimmyM
Don Hertzfeldt's _It 's Such A Beautiful Day_ is wonderful, capable of
teaching you new things about mortality and how you think about yourself and
others, and is available on Netflix. It might also make you cry.

------
dhirenb
Gattaca
([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177))
left a lasting impression on me. It initially reads like dystopian scifi but
at it's core it's really about persistence and overcoming obstacles.

------
api
I have too many to list. Here are some of the highlights that come to mind.

2001: A Space Odyssey -- had a profound effect on me as a child. It both
reinforced my interest in science and opened my mind to the sheer size and
scale and mystery of the universe. The original Cosmos series did likewise,
and I think it's far better than the remake with Tyson. Sagan just
communicates the sense of awe and wonder a lot better.

Wargames -- definitely made an impression on my pre-teen self and helped get
me into "hacking" (sense #2), which led here through a long and winding road.

Stand By Me -- a profound film about the end of childhood. (The Stephen King
novella 'The Body' is good too, probably almost his best work.)

Primer -- the best sci-fi of the past decade. When you don't have a big budget
to plaster FX all over the screen, it's got to be in the writing. Big budgets
do sometimes ruin cinema.

Enter the Void -- this is a weird recent one that stuck with me. This is
definitely a binary reaction film. I loved it, others hate it. It communicated
the profound sense of loss that comes when you're forced to leave a thing
unfinished and move on, followed by the sense of hope that comes with a new
beginning. It was also just the visual aesthetic of that film. It haunts me.
The artistic ethos of this film felt as if someone lifted dreams directly from
my soul and rendered them on screen. Night flights over neon cities is
probably what I'll dream about as I die.

~~~
jeffwass
Primer is awesome, one of the few (if not the only) time-travel movies worth
watching. It's the only movie I ever watched in entirety the very next day
after seeing it the first time.

~~~
rnhmjoj
It's great but I had to watch it like 5 times to fully understand it.

~~~
jeffwass
If you 'fully' understand it after 5 times, you're doing pretty good. I
thought I read somewhere that the writer intentionally obfuscated parts of it
to stress that time travel is complicated business.

------
codex_irl
Baraka - both format and content was one of the first movies that really made
me "think" & realize how many different experiences of being human can exist.

I know this is off topic, but one of the fist / only books that ever really
changed my view on the world around me was "Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters
Consciousness" \- I have never seen things quiet the same way after reading
this.

------
cryoshon
A few:

Fight Club: I really didn't understand the concept of anomie before seeing
this movie. Normlessness and lack of connection to society's way of things are
fundamental issues which are largely ignored in common conversations or
articles. This is the same movie that introduced me to post-modernism,
nihilism, and existentialism.

Brazil: This film really taught me a lot about how to produce creativity as
well as government. One of the main characters is an outlaw "combat"
HVAC/plumber who has been forced out of his legitimacy by a sprawling
Kafkaesque bureaucracy riddled with incompetence-- the absurdity of the
character is illustrative of the bizarre extremes government policy can
unintentionally create.

Waking Life: This film is a great representation of what it is like to be
dreaming. The film is comprised of a series of barely-related conversations
between different dream characters. Waking Life taught me not to be too
analytical of art, and to restrain criticism of a new experience. Most
importantly, Waking Life taught me that life is a trip, so you may as well
choose to enjoy the ride.

------
jimsojim
Kobe Bryant's Muse - its sort of a documentary defining the life of a
basketball genius. It shows you the thought process of an expert. It makes you
'think'. And, I don't know if it makes any sense, but this documentary would
feel quite 'realistic' in comparison to the other documentaries you might have
seen under the same genre or theme. What I mean is, it is highly detailed
about the vulnerabilities, insecurities and personal life of an expert (Kobe
Bryant). Its relatable. These are just ordinary people with uncompromising
determination to not to give up. Its just a beautiful journey to greatness
shown by the man himself, Kobe Bryant, he talks you through the documentary. I
bet if you watch it you will feel like a Black Mamba by the end of it.

PS. oh btw he will tell how he created this alter ego called 'Black Mamba' to
deal with the mess he was going through. Its crazy. (NO SPOILERS :p)

------
arkem
Two movies, Sneakers and Hackers led me to my career. They're still two of my
favorite movies, each for different reasons.

~~~
api
Hackers is a movie that I thought was terrible when it came out (even as a
youngster!), but now seems like a wonderful 90s period piece. It snapshots the
whole hacker/raver/"burner" techno-counterculture axis of the 1990s really
well, and the schmaltz and cheeze is actually pretty clever and entertaining.
It sort of makes fun of itself in an also very 'period' way.

I sort of like movies that start bad and then age well.

Sneakers is also incredible. It's far more objectively cinematically good than
Hackers, and it snapshots a slightly earlier era in hackerdom. Sneakers is
about the time immediately before Hackers, basically before the youngsters
flooded in and started hacking web apps and doing 'E'.

------
enigmatic7
The Batman Series by Chris Nolan. Haven't seen such awesome portrayal of human
emotions/behaviour.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the
villain."

~~~
rajeshmr
Awesome movie. Christopher Nolan is such a gem of a director. Inception is
another beUty. Had a deep impact.

------
nisa
Stalker -
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/)

~~~
iliaznk
"The Mirror" is also absolutely fantastic!

------
Mz
_Apollo 13_ provided me a solid and inspirational mental model for some of the
work I do.

The astronauts are trapped up there. They are pretty much doomed to die. The
people on the ground cannot physically provide any kind of aid. Everything
they can provide is in the form of information, research, better answers,
different ways of handling things and also a bit of enotional encouragement,
but, mostly, they can provide better intelligence. And that is enough. It
saves the lives of the seemingly doomed astronauts.

That has been enormous food for thought for how to approach my web projects,
why they matter, and that they can make a real difference in the world while
providing nothing but information.

------
brudgers
Howard Hawks _The Big Sleep_. It provides a window into how America perceived
itself in 1946 and it is quite different from the post-war narrative that was
established over the following decades.

------
probinso
Internet's Own Boy

Its important to watch movies that make you blind mad occasionally

------
donutdan4114
More recently, Ex Machina. Seriously great movie. Beautifully shot, amazing
sound, great effects.. You can watch it two, maybe three times in a row.

------
vojant
When I was a kid: Hackers (watched it around 30-40 times when I was a kid),
War Games, Matrix, Sneakers pushed me into being developer, but the most
impact on my current life had American Beauty as it made me thinking about
working less. Another movie that I can think of is Social Network - It
motivated me to on my side projects harder.

------
emeraldd
Not a movie but some books that I helped shape my view on life and learning:

[http://www.amazon.com/Have-Space-Suit-Heinleins-Juveniles-
eb...](http://www.amazon.com/Have-Space-Suit-Heinleins-Juveniles-
ebook/dp/B004XD1NJW)

[http://www.amazon.com/Starman-Jones-Robert-A-
Heinlein/dp/145...](http://www.amazon.com/Starman-Jones-Robert-A-
Heinlein/dp/1451638442)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_of_the_Galaxy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_of_the_Galaxy)

That's the set I remember most at least. "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" has some
good stuff on getting where you want to be in life.

~~~
naturalethic
Those first two were the first novels I read and had a massive impact on me.

------
Tactic
Thelma and Louise would come the closest for me. Specifically the scene where
they are complaining about men and one says to the other "You get what you
settle for."

I think about that when deciding things and it has improved my life.

------
rajeshmr
The knights tale is my personal favorite. Not sure, how many in hacker
community would like this movie, but this movie taught me very early the power
of hope and dreams.

EDIT : I would love to add Lions king (animation )

------
clavalle
'Explorers' when I was a kid. It really inspired me to take things apart and
put them back together -- preferably in new and useful ways.

It also kick started a life long love of sci-fi.

------
hindupuravinash
I too like The Pursuit of Happyness a lot!! Other than that, well, I tried to
narrow down to one, but couldnt.

Shawshank Redemption - For the never give up attitude

Schindler's List, Invictus and Matrix too!:D

------
Fargren
In the public university of Buenos Aires, which I attended, there's not much
incentive to actually finish your studies quickly other than getting your
title. You can take as much as 4 years between finals without much of a
problem. Being gainfully employed, I had been procrastinating my last finals
for a while until I saw Wes Anderson's Rushmore. I grabbed my books the next
day and promptly finished my studies.

------
jMyles
The Animatrix. The best reason to watch the live action trilogy is to be
sufficiently informed to watch this. It delves far deeper into the philosophy
and psychedelia of technology than the live action films. And it's made and
voiced by the same people.

Big Fish. How will you live if you know the exact moment you're going to die?

The Wicker Man. Weird. Christopher Lee apparently said it was his best work?

Waking Life.

The Big Lebowski.

A Serious Man

O Brother Where Art Thou.

------
kruhft
Fight Club.

------
tyrick
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (E.T. communication will be weird). The
Man from Earth (What it might be like to live through several ancient ages).
Citizen Kane (Simple things in life matter--Rosebud). The Fountain (What it
might be like to live through several ages with unrequited love). FernGully
(Don't mess with nature, or small humans will mess you up).

------
Amanjeev
I have a list I keep on IMDB. I call it "Movies to buy". Unfortunately, I have
not owned a single one of those, yet but someday.

[http://www.imdb.com/list/ls052591350/](http://www.imdb.com/list/ls052591350/)

It is missing some of the movies but I update it when I get time.

------
kkt262
A vote for Pursuit of Happyness, in fact it moved me so much I used it in my
company's about page: [http://hyperlush.com/about-
hyperlush/](http://hyperlush.com/about-hyperlush/)

As messed up as they are, I also liked Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me if You
Can.

------
goshx
Hackers, from 1995.
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/)

It is funny to think about it now, but I can remember clearly how this movie
got me so excited at the time. I shifted all my focus to computers.

------
myth_buster
Citizen Kane - Its fascinating to me that someone who has no experience in the
medium can create such a seminal work.

Jiro dreams of Sushi (Documentry) - This is perhaps one that left quite a
lasting effect on me.

In the same vein, Stanley Kubrick and his drive for perfection has been a
great influence as has been his filmography.

------
DrinkWater
The Godfather: The importance of family values, politics and the thin line
between power and downfall.

------
iliaznk
"The man who sleeps" – one of the best art-house movies I've seen
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192718/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192718/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

------
chillingeffect
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. It showed me that our surroundings can be almost
completely different from one another's with only a minimal subset of common
characteristics.

------
Mimu
Trust (2010) because it addressed a common issue with a new angle (at least
for me) that I find very interesting, and troubling even though I have no
doubt it exists.

------
matthewn
_Synecdoche, New York_ made me think more about why we are here and how we
should spend our time than anything else I've ever seen on a screen.

~~~
Nadya
I was going to mention this film. I'm happy to see someone else did.

This movie was... an experience. To sum it up as succinctly as possible.
Perhaps a bit too existential at times, but it's extremely meta - and I like
meta things. It really forces one to be introspective and to dig down through
all the layers.

------
redwards510
"Fed Up", a documentary currently on Netflix, changed the way I look at food,
especially sugar. I now avoid it at all costs.

------
NIL8
War Games

------
jazzyk
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

I have no words that could do this movie justice. Should be required watching
in high-schools. EVERY YEAR.

------
postitit
Ingmar Bergman's "Winter Light". When I was younger, Tim Burton's "Big Fish".

------
noobie
A Beautiful Mind.

And quite recently, That Sugar Film!

------
pietdan
Network Dr Strangelove Star Wars

------
navyad
Mulholland Drive. Not changed as per-se my life, but certainly had a big
impact.

------
clark-kent
Shawshank Redemption - got me through the most difficult time in my life.

------
epx
War Games.

~~~
sgt
For several years I used the password 'joshua'. As a kid, I figured that
nobody would figure it out.

------
erbdex
Aronofsky's Pi.

------
nether
My Dinner with Andre

