Best Movie You Never Want to See Again?

I watched Brazil four times, trying to get all the messages in there.

Nope. Fail.

But I laughed. Even at the ending. Was that, too, a message?

Mine, I guess, is Grifters John Cusack, Angelica Huston, Annette Bening. Brilliant story. Brilliant acting. And I so needed a shower after watching that.

Kids: Amazing acting, amazing dialogue, amazing camera work, amazing et cetera.

But oh so God damn yucky. So it's a no thanks on seconds (thirds actually) for me. I'll pass.

Life is Beautiful

Marvelous movie. I laughed. I cried like a baby.

Never, ever, ever again.

If its something I wouldn't want to watch again I probably wouldn't have watched it the first time.

American History X

Incredible movie, but man what a downer.

Schindler's List or Brokeback Mountain

Shadow_Ferret said:

If its something I wouldn't want to watch again I probably wouldn't have watched it the first time.

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One would think so, eh? I was surprised by my reaction to Grifters.

I think it'll make more sense if you ever come across a movie like this. The ones mentioned so far are really good movies. So maybe that's going to keep you willing to see them.

To each his (or her) own.

A Clockwork Orange.

Saving Private Ryan and Blackhawk Down. Both fantastic movies. But they were so hyper-realistic that watching them again would trigger painful issues with friends and family members lost in military service. ((I flirted with the Marine Corps through ROTC in high school and college, training and all. I was inches away from OCS when I graduated in 2000 before deciding on grad school and a family instead. Many friends who got their commission and went active duty didn't come back. The fact I was so close to going myself makes it all that much eerier.))

Anyway, watching once was doable and well-worth it. Twice would be masochistic, unless I had a really good reason. That's an ode, though, to how well they did those movies. I enjoy almost all military movies and I'm not easily disturbed. There was something about those ones though. Not sure what made them different.

Schindler's List is another. I watched it for the second time last year. It took me twenty years to be able to see it again.

Schindler's List for me as well.

Grave of the Fireflies.

It took me years to muster the courage to watch Schindler's List. I finally did, and agree it's a great movie that I never want to watch again.

I have quite a few of these. Another one is Raging Bull. Now, I am a fan of De Niro, Scorsese, and Pesci, also of boxing, and have even written a boxing novel. But the emotional violence in that film, the ugly, is truly unsettling. Not the scenes in the ring, but LaMotta's self-hate, his abuse of his wife, his accusing his brother of sleeping with her, and then giving him a beating in front of his wife and children, I found wrenching. Also the scene in the jail cell when Jake's banging his fists and his head off the wall, "I'm not an animal, I'm not an animal." On a side note, I had an occasion to speak with Jake LaMotta on the phone a while back, and I was a little apprehensive of what I might encounter. But what I found instead was that he was warm, funny, welcoming, and articulate as hell. When I called him, the veteran of over a hundred ring wars was reading Budd Schulberg's "Ringside".

ETA: Just had to add an anecdote to this- I had a good friend, since passed, a guy who led a thousand lives who'd paled around with Jake back in the day. His comment on Raging Bull? "It was the Disney version of Jake's life."

Threads, the BBC production about life after a nuclear war. I've seen it and The Day After, and wouldn't watch TDA again because of its shoddy production values and hokey dialogue. Threads was much more graphic and relentless in its depiction of people trying to survive and did so much more with so much less. I saw it once and really don't feel like having my soul destroyed like that ever again.

American Beauty. Everyone in that movie was a horrible person. It's really great, but really uncomfortable. I felt like a voyeur or something, watching it.

Cranky said:

American Beauty. Everyone in that movie was a horrible person. It's really great, but really uncomfortable. I felt like a voyeur or something, watching it.

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Really, Cranky? I didn't see it that way. I mean, the Kevin Spacey character lusts after an underage girl - and that's nothing to condone - but I think it was really about his lusting after his lost youth. The Chris Cooper character is sick, twisted, the easiest to dislike, but in the end we find that it was all about his closeted homosexuality. I donno, I just saw them as flawed, but maybe it's because I'm a horrible person and it hasn't dawned on me yet.

Right. I'm sure Schindler's List is a wonderful movie, but I also know I'd rather not watch something so depressing.

And I've seen Saving Private Ryan but I haven't watched it all the way through for a couple reasons. Some of the later scenes were too realistic (although I used to blast the opening sequence on my home theater system) and the movie as a whole angered me with what I perceived as dishonest story telling. They started with the old guy visiting the graves and then they immediately flash.back to Tom Hanks landing at D-Day -- leading us to believe Tom Hanks was the old guy reminiscing and that he survived.

bookmaker said:

Really, Cranky? I didn't see it that way. I mean, the Kevin Spacey character lusts after an underage girl - and that's nothing to condone - but I think it was really about his lusting after his lost youth. The Chris Cooper character is sick, twisted, the easiest to dislike, but in the end we find that it was all about his closeted homosexuality. I donno, I just saw them as flawed, but maybe it's because I'm a horrible person and it hasn't dawned on me yet.

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Am I not getting a joke? Otherwise, it sounds like taking a disagreement awfully personal.

Cranky saw something in that movie. Clearly, you didn't. But I don't know where you get the impression that Cranky said anything at all about those who didn't see what she saw.

It's all good, Rob.

And it's cool bookmaker saw something I didn't. That's the beauty of art, yes? It speaks to us all in different ways. In any event, I took no offense. It's just a great movie I'll never watch again because it disturbed me. ETA: And yes, I am in no way casting aspersions on anyone else who saw it, loved it, and watched it a gazillion times. Different strokes.

My Girl

Made me laugh, made me cry. I still think about the movie. But, I can't ever watch it again. It was far too emotional for me to deal with a second time.

Also, I'll put in votes for Saving Private Ryan and Blackhawk Down. Those were hyper-realism to the max and upsetting with family in the military. Not overwhelmingly a fan of "true life" dramas. I will NEVER watch Titanic.

robjvargas said:

Am I not getting a joke? Otherwise, it sounds like taking a disagreement awfully personal.

Cranky saw something in that movie. Clearly, you didn't. But I don't know where you get the impression that Cranky said anything at all about those who didn't see what she saw.

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Yes, you are not getting the joke.

Cranky said:

It's all good, Rob.

And it's cool bookmaker saw something I didn't. That's the beauty of art, yes? It speaks to us all in different ways. In any event, I took no offense. It's just a great movie I'll never watch again because it disturbed me. ETA: And yes, I am in no way casting aspersions on anyone else who saw it, loved it, and watched it a gazillion times. Different strokes.

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I'm kind of surprised I was taken that way. It was just meant like, if I don't see them as horrible people than it must be me. Was not at all meant literally, and thought it was obvious.

bookmaker said:

Yes, you are not getting the joke.

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Not the first time. Won't be the last.

robjvargas said:

Not the first time. Won't be the last.

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Ah, the limitations of text.