Don't get me wrong, I love a good lighthearted comedy void of any real meaning or message, but a good flick that leaves you pondering seems to be one of the pinnacles of modern artistic expression. Obviously, a lot of the great dystopian films immediately come to mind, but I'm sure you guys know of plenty of other films belonging to plenty of other genres. Can you guys list some movies that really made you think? Movies that perhaps even changed the way you think?

None in particular, though the two novels which have helped shaped my views on various subjects, have not been given fair treatment insofar as I'm concerned when such comes to film adaptations: Contact by Carl Sagan, and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque. Both have had decent film treatments, but nothing so grand and great as what I'd hope for.

Probably what mostly makes me think, and really think, when it comes to films are those pictures which display raw humanity - the savagery of war in Saving Private Ryan, for instance.

Probably what mostly makes me think, and really think, when it comes to films are those pictures which display raw humanity - the savagery of war in Saving Private Ryan, for instance.

That's a great point. That's one of the reasons I like WWII movies quite a bit.

Idiocracy. It wont get that bad, but I wouldnt be surprised if it got close.

They Live
Fight Club
Pokemon

Seven Years in Tibet

wo wo wo wo HOLD the fuck up.

no "2001: a Space Odyssey"? WTF?

also "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is great.

The Draughtsman's Contract
Land of Silence and Darkness
Viridiana
La Chinoise
Do the Right Thing
Teorema
3 Women
Dead Ringers

You are the king of movies no-one's ever heard of.


Anyhoo, Natural Born Killers, American Beauty, Matrix, Adaptation, Fight Club, Donnie Darko, Being John Malcovich, Man on the moon.

Prolly some others.

Gattaca, i had to watch it as a year 11 essay thing.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Pi


The Number 23 made me flip shit. It was weird because after I saw it, I started actually noticing 23 everywhere, and I still do notice it. 23's my favorite number.

Transformers.

I'll never look at a car in the same way ever again.

Mulholland Drive

It made me think, "What the fuck did I just watch?" and, "I want my two fuckin' hours back."

anyone ever see the movie "Primer?"

What a mind trip. I know people who have watched it upwards of five times and still don't understand what's going on. Check out the Wikipedia page, what an absolutely ridiculously obfusciating movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)

Also, V For Vendetta, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Manufactured Landscapes, and some documentaries, like a Nova doc on String Theory or whatever.

The Corporation

I can't really think of any others, that's the latest one I've watched, other than that there's a lot though.

Probably Blood Diamond made me think the most - Children killing people/brainwashing.

Very good movie.

some documentaries, like a Nova doc on String Theory or whatever.
Documentaries are the king of those films which make one think. I'm unfortunately mostly unfamiliar with the genre and so am trying to find more of such.

Fantasia
Charly (Flowers for Algernon movie)
The Cable Guy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)

I have to echo the recommendation of Primer. It's worth your time.

Documentaries are the king of those films which make one think. I'm unfortunately mostly unfamiliar with the genre and so am trying to find more of such.

Check out some Werner Herzog documentaries, especially his '70s stuff -- Land of Silence and Darkness is one that I mentioned above, it's about deaf-blind people. I would also recommend The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (my fave), God's Angry Man, Fata Morgana, and Grizzly Man. He has a very unconventional and poetic style, not the same old talking head stuff.

Errol Morris' docs are also very interesting, particularly Gates of Heaven and The Thin Blue Line.

Les Blank is another great documentarian, but most of his stuff is quite hard to find. I think his doc on Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (Burden of Dreams) is the only one on DVD.

Connecting them all is the Les Blank film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, named after a bet that Herzog supposedly made with Errol Morris that he'd eat his shoe if Morris ever managed to finish Gates of Heaven.
Available on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgbbjPQqgfg

southland tales. the fuck, the movie was so confusing, WAY to many different plots going on at the same time only to collide into one even more confusing plot.

Home Alone

Charly (Flowers for Algernon movie)


-Donnie Darko
-Apocylpse Now
-I Am Sam

I third Primer and there is a link on google video to it.

Also
21 Grams
The Constant Gardner
Amelie
Joint Security Area
City of God and City of Men
Pan's Labyrinth
The Visitor
Proof
Tropa de Elite

v for vendetta

Amelie


What exactly is thought-provoking about this two-dimensional, obnoxiously cutesy piece of cotton-candy-flavored shit? It's about as profound as a Hallmark card.

What exactly is thought-provoking about this two-dimensional, obnoxiously cutesy piece of cotton-candy-flavored shit? It's about as profound as a Hallmark card.

The music alone is enough reason for me to watch Amelie. Yann Tiersen is amazing.

i'd have to say what the bleep do we know and a scanner darkly.

8 1/2..

that movie is a trip and a half.

Waking Life.

Trippiest movie ever? I vote yes. The only movie I ever watched that actually made me question my own existence.

that one looks great!

You are the king of movies no-one's ever heard of.


If you haven't heard of "Do the Right Thing" then you don't watch movies.

Pianist.. it made me think. OK what's happened in the time jump of about 5 months?

Seriously though: Butterfly effect, final destination, matrix, dark city and that's about it I think.

My friend tripped when he saw The Truman Show. He thought his life was a TV show, and I was like "It's really not." and then he was like "You have to say that anyway, so I don't realise." I then proceeded to punch him in the face.

Though most Americans haven't seen it, there's a great Swedish film called Lilya 4-Ever which REALLY makes anyone think. Especially if you watch it knowing that stories like Lilya's, though fictional, happen all the time in Europe, and in other places around the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilya_4-ever

Check that out, it will give you some idea. If you get a chance to see it, I advice EVERYONE to watch it. The most moving movie I've EVER seen. EVER. HANDS DOWN.

OH wow, the whole thing is in google videos:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2818582001271029300&ei=SNERSZ6EE4fA-wGrkvz3Dg&q=lilja+4-ever

Check it out, I promise it is worth your while. Hell, just watch the opening sequence where she's running through a city in Sweden to "Mein Herze Brennt" by Rammstein, it will hook you and you will watch the whole thing.

Rammstein?! I'm there. Hope it's as good as you said it is.

A lot of these movies really shouldn't have you thinking too hard...

Fight Club was a cool movie I guess, but the book had an entirely different tact. The movie left out a LOT, basically to make it more watchable to the general pool of idiots. Why do you think it's the favorite movie of every hot topic kidiot? It's still not a bad movie but...really not that amazing, compared to the book especially.

The Matrix and the Butterfly effect could get you thinking I guess... but they're both based on really old ideas.

Ones that I would say should get you thinking: The Truman Show, most Kubrick ones, the Machinist, City of God. And Amelie may not be a dark cynical movie, but it does have a lot of content. Jean Pierre Jeunet is a smart guy, and the movie has a lot about love and loneliness. So fuck off, you cynical angst-pot.

Oh, and fuck Donnie Darko. I don't have much respect for a movie that was shot in 28 days to make a neat little twist with the movie itself. That's on par with releasing movies so the release date has some correlation to the movie.

Five Easy Pieces.

Very easy to relate to Jack Nicholson's character in this movie. Just struck a chord with me.

And Amelie may not be a dark cynical movie, but it does have a lot of content. Jean Pierre Jeunet is a smart guy, and the movie has a lot about love and loneliness. So fuck off, you cynical angst-pot.


LOL, I'm cynical and angsty because I don't like a sappy boring chick flick? Nice assumption, but I am actually a huge weepy pussy when it comes to movies. I even cried at the end of Jules & Jim, a great film which Amelie is hopelessly indebted to, and even includes brief clips of. But that's irrelevant to this thread, which is about movies that primarily make you think...

Yeah, Amelie does say things about love and loneliness. But not anything you couldn't find in a Disney movie. And like Disney movies, Amelie gives us a child's view of the world, from the simplistic presentation of altruism to the corny asexual romance that it eventually devolves into. People call it "magic realism", but really it's just a fairy tale. I learned nothing new about love or loneliness from Amelie, except that apparently stereotypical stalker antics are sweet and charming instead of creepy and narcissistic. If someone far less cute than Audrey Tautou had played the lead, perhaps people would understand how fucked up the relationship part of this movie really is. I could rant on and on, but I'll just say that overall it's a hectic mess and an embarrassing blemish on the face of French film.

Also, Jean-Pierre Jeunet is wack. He has a gimmicky MTV-esque style like so many other "innovative" filmmakers of his generation, relying on eye candy, visual tricks, fast cuts, etc instead of actually making things happen in front of the camera. I guess audiences and critics nowadays are so desperate for directors who aren't Michael Bay that people like Jeunet seem like Bunuel in comparison. Delicatessen had its moments, but still nothing amazing.

Amelie = the token French movie for people who only watch Hollywood shit but think they're sensitive or something. And pretty much the definition of a chick flick, warm and reassuring but ultimately empty and far too fantastical to tell us anything of value about actual human relationships. See the second half of Chungking Express for a film that has a similarly odd romance but doesn't suck shit.

Friday Night Lights

Great choices.

The Last Temptation of Christ is also really thought-provoking, as an atheist or a spiritual person.

If you can get into older eras like film noir, Night and the City is one of the most insightfully depressing films you will ever see if you like that kind of thing.

http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=2164664

If you haven't heard of "Do the Right Thing" then you don't watch movies.

Go away.

I quite enjoyed the Great Expectations movie from 98.

Amen, brother/sister.

Great choices.

The Last Temptation of Christ is also really thought-provoking, as an atheist or a spiritual person.

If you can get into older eras like film noir, Night and the City is one of the most insightfully depressing films you will ever see if you like that kind of thing.

Are you talking the 1950's Night and the City or the one from '92?

Are you talking the 1950's Night and the City or the one from '92?

Im guessing since he said older era he means the 1950's version.

The Man From Earth

It is about a guy who appears to be immortal and has existed since cave man times.

Not really got any action it mainly a bunch of people talking in a room. But it is good, it made me think.

Donnie Darko

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Navidson Record

"Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"

space jam

^this


and Problem Child 2

I was gonna post in this thread but then i couldn't remember the name of that film. Good pic.

Truman show

Pi

Pi

Yeah, definitely a thought-provoking flick. How Aronofsky went from this raw, original film to the abysmal Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain I will never understand.

The Navidson Record

http://www.totse.com/community/images/icons/icon14.gif

Pi fucking sucked

fixed

Donnie Darko

Absolutely!


And I have to also echo the Blood Diamonds note... it's not "trippy" in a question reality sort of level. But it really is an eye opener and I bawled like a blubbering idiot at the end

Im guessing since he said older era he means the 1950's version.

Yep, I did mean the original Night in the City with Richard Widmark. I haven't brought myself to see the '92 remake, but the general opinion I've heard was that it was an unnecessary homage that even Robert De Niro didn't manage to save.



"In Bruges," which came out this year could also be considered a thought-provoking flick: it's by the brilliant Martin McDonagh, and darkly hysterical enough to appeal to most people here I think- film nerds or no.

Highly, highly, highly recommended.

My Dinner with Andre

Not intentionally being a Linklater fanboy, but I love A Scanner Darkly, and Waking Life. All of his intellectual-based movies are good, now that I think about it. I agree with Donnie Darko. I like Paprika. Requiem for a Dream? Wristercutters: A Love Story. Maybe the original Wicker Man. Hell, what about The Wall. Eraserhead from the 70s. Oh! How about Pi? anndd Irreversible. The Pianist? Old Boy? Idk I'm fucking neurotic right now, didn't read much of the thread sorry for repeats. REPEATS AND THREEPEATS FOURPEATS THEN MOREPEATTTTTTSSSS

A Scanner Darkly

That movie is intense and funny, very thought provoking. Although, I do have to suggest, that you don't watch it shitfaced the first time. Not unless if you like slurring "what the fuck just happened".

Drinking is cool

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

waking life

Some good movies I don't think anyone else mentioned:

No Man's Land
Reconstruction
Sexual Life
Dirty Pretty Things
Train Man
3 Iron
Russian Ark
The Seventh Seal
You Kill Me
Abre los ojos

I was gonna post in this thread but then i couldn't remember the name of that film. Good pic.

Im surprised you have seen it.

It is really good but I am hesitant recommending it to people because nothing much happens it is just like a film length thought experiment. Most people would prob just be like wtf is this shit?

It literally caused one of those brain expanding into the universe moments if you know what I mean.