MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS AND MOVIES, AND WHY
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Sunday, May 3, 2026 17:28
VIEWED: 4878
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OCD much?
Not ready to defend this opinion, but:
Giving in to perfectionism is a bad idea.
Cultivating one's perfectionism is a terrible idea.
For most folks, it's inevitable self-defeat.
Movies: Out of Africa; Driving Miss Daisy.
Both great; I never analyzed why.
=========================
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. ~Charles R Swindoll
If I have to react to others all the time, then they own my mind more than I do.
If I let others tell me how to feel, I lose my ability to choose happiness.
If I let others tell me who I am, I've vacated self-definition.
Finally, I realized how foolish I was to give others such power over me.
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I think Byte does enjoy her videogames, even though they eat up time, I think the time eating part is what she objects to rather than the playing of the games.
I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.
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Casablanca is one of my favorite movies. The new dvd has interesting cast and backstory notes including the Nazi Major Strasser, played by Conrad Veidt, had been an outspoken critic of Hitler in Germany and fled to America to avoid arrest by the SS. The majority of the patrons in Rick's Cafe were actual refugees from Nazi-occupied France, and when they stood up to sing La Marsielles, they were singing from the heart. Ingrid Bergman's stunning beauty, and Bogart's amazing acting skills make this movie timeless and pure joy to watch.
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Quote:
OCD much?
OBVIOUSLY. Take a pie chart of percentages of the population with some mental disorder, hang it on a wall, use it as a dart board. If you hit one, I probably have it.
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Books
Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
lord of the Rings - Tolkein
Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
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Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Sat through it more than once, Jack. More than several times, in fact. Bought it on VHS, then DVD, then Blu-Ray, too.
If you really need it explained to you, the sequel, 2010 does a passable job of dumbing it down quite a bit for mass consumption. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" does a far better job, though, as it was the jumping-off point for the movie.
2001 set the stage for pretty much every space movie that followed, including Star Wars, in its look and modeling, but 2001 is one of the very rare few to pay attention to the "space" part of things, where explosions are silent...
Citizen Kane actually is a pretty awesome movie, if for no other reason than just the movie-making aspects of it. Watch it again sometime, and look at the innovations it brought - long tracking shots, up buildings and through windows - things that are commonplace now, but considered all but impossible at the time the movie was made. Orson Welles was the James Cameron of his time in a lot of ways - when others said something couldn't be done, he just invented new ways of doing it and carried on...
"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero
"I've not watched the video either, or am incapable of intellectually dealing with the substance of this thread, so I'll instead act like a juvenile and claim victory..." - Rappy
Hey Kwick,
Nah... I don't need it explained to me. Although I hated watching it, I didn't sleep through it and I understood it... at least my subconscious mind sat through it. Given a different, more fast paced vision, I think it could have been a great movie (in my mind). It certainly was a great concept, and as we both mentioned before that so many sci-fi movies today have a lot of thanking to do for the vision this movie put out there. (Although, I'd say that as far as the story itself goes, there were MUCH better concepts that predated it by up to 50 years in novel and short story form)
But really, when you took out all of they symphony pieces coupled with mind-numbingly long periods of time where nothing happened out in space, this could have been condensed down to an excellent 30 minute short film. I'm sure if you love going to the symphony, you'd love this movie... the Sci-Fi background would just be a bonus. You may not be older than me, but I assume you are. If you are, you have to remember that this movie came out around the time I was born, and I didn't see it for the first time until I was like 23 years old. "The Thing" aged very well, as did the first two Aliens movies, 2001 however, I believe is just downright painful to watch for most people under 32 years old today. I don't think you'd find any single person under 20 years old today that would be able to even sit through this or Citizen Kane without their wrists strapped down and toothpicks holding their eyes open.
I'll give you 100% that the cinematography was extremely influential to its genre and to every movie to come out afterward. I'll also give that to Citizen Kane. That's, personally, all I can give to it. As a case-study based on those parameters, I can't deny the facts.
It's just..... just..... THEY'RE BOTH SO INCREDIBLY BORING TO SIT THROUGH!!!!!!
Even my old man never watched it to the end, and he didn't like the original Star Wars Trilogy!!!! I just find that funny because he's rarely ever read a book that wasn't sci-fi, and his reason's for never watching any of them more than once are the exact opposite for my same reasons for 2001. He felt that Star-Wars had too little interesting plot, and it was too fast paced and disjointed.
Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Jack: Unfortunately, vNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
A "stand out" piece from Orwell that could even attempt to match the profound effect of reading 1984 or Animal Farm.......
Even knowing that you're the type to shun conventional wisdom (takes one to know one), I'd have to say that you're probably the only person in my life still alive who'd I'd even take such a claim seriously.
I've honestly never heard of it.
I'd like to hear more about it from you, rather than look it up on Amazon.com and get the publisher's description.
How on earth did you find it to be more moving than 1984 or Animal Farm?
Well Jack - the REASON it stands out is that Orwell was actually THERE, during the Spanish Civil War, when the alliance shattered and the Communists and Socialists, who were originally down for "freedom" with the Anarchists, showed their true colors and jumped on board with the Fascists...
Cause all of them bastards really want Government, and the only real argument between THEM wasn't over gettin in the car, it was over who got to drive - and when they realized the Anarchists really meant that shit, EVERYONE turned on them.
This is, mind you, why Anarchists despise Socialists and Communists - up till then they'd been staunch allies, but obviously Anarchists are a threat to anyone who wants Government.
Also, America supported Franco, wholeheartedly, throughout his entire reign well into the 70's.
Hell, America was and still is extremely pro-Fascist, they just don't ADMIT it.
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/american_supporters_of_the_europ
.htm
That said, SOME americans did *not* support Franco, and snuck over there to form the "Abraham Lincoln Brigade"(1) and fought for the Anarchists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_Brigade
(1) This demonstrates a shocking ignorance of history cause Lincoln and Franco would have got on REAL good!
Of course, Anarchists being Anarchists, and foolishly trying to wage a conventional war on up to five fronts at once without any organization, it was kind of a foregone conclusion.
IMHO - the biggest mistake they made was trying to play the game by the enemies rules, it killed them, in the end, and crippled them from the beginning.
But see, again, Orwell was *THERE*, present and in person, at pointblank range and he saw with his own eyes the "true colors" of those involved.
And thus he wrote Homage to Catalonia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia
It was his experiences there, I think, which solidly influenced all his future works and the basis on which they were written, essentially this being the "root" of all his other work, but that's just my opinion.
Here's some more on that for you - folks like to dispute my words in regards to how Anarchists actually fight when forced to, thinking they meekly knuckle under like everyone else - they don't.
I *seriously* encourage you to read this bit, if no other.
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/scw/anarchist.htm
Oh yes, and Movies - Demolition Man.
Cause I swear that damn flick looks more prescient every day.
-F
I'll have to put that book on my list Frem.
Part of me would really love to witness true Anarchy, but is it really viable?
If we were ever thrust into a world tomorrow where all tech and government were gone, and we were left to fend for ourselves, it would be up to us to form even "small governments" to group together to fend off the roving bands of pillagers and rapists.
I know that you and I have the ability to survive in that type of world today, as well as zero desire to head a movement that could become a small form of government.... but as well as we'd be able to take care of ourselves if that time came, how well could we be able to also look out for everyone we cared about, with so much unbridled evil roaming around?
The Postman.....
Great flic
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Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Books
Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
lord of the Rings - Tolkein
Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
I forgot to add Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier and Independence Day by Richard Ford and a short story collection by Raymond Carver. Gotta love American fiction.
of course there are the british classics, Persuasion by Jane Austin, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.... I could go on and on, but if I have to explain why, I just don't have the time.
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On the non-fiction front,
Day One: Before Hiroshima & After by Peter Wyden
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (this is actually an historical novel, a novelized version of actual events of the battle of Gettysburg)
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
And of course, Carl Sagan's Cosmos and James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed.
"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero
"I've not watched the video either, or am incapable of intellectually dealing with the substance of this thread, so I'll instead act like a juvenile and claim victory..." - Rappy
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