How Movies Have Ruined My Life
It was at the age of four that I saw my first R-rated movie, Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Ever since then I have been completely obsessed with films. I currently own over 200 dvds and have watched almost any movie you can imagine. I am still traumatized from watching “Juno” when I was 7, a film about a pregnant teenager who has an unhealthy obsession with Sunny-D (Trust me when I say that watching “Juno” with your parents is not a good idea). It’s through these movies that I have gained so much knowledge and perspective on the world itself.
As much as I love these movies, the truth is, movies have ruined my life!!! It’s true, movies have given me such high expectations for my life. When I was little, I would watch “Halloweentown” every year and recite all of the spells that I heard. I was just waiting for the day that I turned 13 and became a witch, little did I know, that day would never come. I soon moved from kid movies to Rom-Coms. I started watching all the John Hughes movies and Molly Ringwald became my inspiration. I watched “Sixteen Candles” when I was 13 and I was so looking forward to my 16th birthday, where I would meet my own “Jake Ryan” and end the night blowing out the candles of my birthday cake in a bridesmaids dress. That day was a real bummer.
I have now moved on to the classics, my current favorite being “Good Will Hunting,” a movie that combines math, boston accents, and Robin Williams’s unlimited sweater collection, what’s not to like? This movie brings me to a whole new level of sadness. While it is much more realistic than most of the movies I have watched, it’s so close to being real that I can’t use the excuse “that only happens in the movies.” Yes, a secret math genius living in Boston may not be that realistic, but the relationships between the characters is what makes it so realistic and makes me so sad. The relationship between Matt Damon and Robin William’s characters alone is a bond strong enough to make anyone jealous.
I guess I’ve learned that our lives will never be like the movies, I mean how could the be? Movies are perfectly scripted, the people make perfect speeches and no matter what mistake they made, they are always forgiven. The thing that’s so different about life and movies is that movies end, yes so does life, but they end when everything is going great, when the couple ends up together and is unbelievably and disgustingly happy. They never show you what happens ten years later when the couple could be divorced or just plain miserable. “La La Land” got it right. (SPOILER ALERT) Mia and Sebastian didn’t end up together because they knew that if they did, their dreams wouldn’t come true. That’s real life, making tough decisions and not marrying Ryan Gosling (unfortunately). Every now and then though, try and live like you’re in a movie. Go do something crazy and adventurous, make your boyfriend/girlfriend put a boombox on their shoulder outside your window or sing a high school musical song to you. If your life isn’t as exciting as a movie, make it be. “It’s funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen.” -Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Below is my list of 150 movies that I recommend you see (in no specific order):
- The Godfather (film series)
- Scarface
- Top Gun
- Goodfellas
- Kill Bill
- Roman Holiday
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s
- Casablanca
- Cast Away
- Whiplash
- Big
- The Da Vinci Code
- Philadelphia
- Jaws
- Catch Me if You Can
- Django Unchained
- Good Will Hunting
- Dead Poet’s Society
- Taxi Driver
- The Graduate
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Singin’ in the Rain
- The Shining
- Almost Famous
- Chinatown
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Some Like it Hot
- Apollo 13
- Spotlight
- Psycho
- American Psycho
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- The Birds
- Rear Window
- Misery
- Malcolm X
- Groundhog Day
- Schindler’s List
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Sense and Sensibility
- Pulp Fiction
- The Usual Suspects
- Fargo
- Saving Private Ryan
- American Beauty
- Fight Club
- The Matrix
- The Sixth Sense
- Brokeback Mountain
- The Hurt Locker
- The Exorcist
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
- Dawn of the Dead (original)
- American Hustle
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (original)
- Halloween
- E.T.
- The Goonies
- Wolf of Wallstreet
- Die Hard
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Airplane!
- Caddyshack
- Boyz n the Hood
- Annie Hall
- American Graffiti
- Rocky
- 12 Years a Slave
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Strangers on a Train
- The Pursuit of Happiness
- The Dark Knight
- Inglorious Bastards
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Room
- No Country for Old Men
- Million Dollar Baby
- Prisoners
- Memento
- Boyhood
- Sunset Boulevard
- Frankenstein (original)
- Zero Dark Thirty
- Moneyball
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Boys Don’t Cry
- The Breakfast Club
- Beetlejuice
- Seven
- Sound of Music
- Forrest Gump
- Footloose
- Grease
- Titanic
- Pretty Woman
- Poltergeist (original)
- Back to the Future (film series)
- Argo
- Ghostbusters (original)
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- The Wizard of Oz
- Raging Bull
- Inside Out
- 12 Angry Men
- The Lion King
- Star Wars (original trilogy)
- Bridesmaids
- Rain Man
- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- Stand by me
- The Green Mile
- Terminator 1 & 2
- The Departed
- Gladiator
- Apocalypse Now
- Alien
- Reservoir dogs
- Braveheart
- A Clockwork Orange
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
- Jerry Maguire
- Risky Business
- Gone with the Wind
- Mary Poppins
- Shrek
- Birdman
- Planet of the Apes(film series)
- Star Trek(film series)
- Dirty Harry
- The Professional
- Moulin Rouge!
- All About Eve
- Die Hard(film series)
- A Few Good Men
- As Good as It Gets
- Avatar
- Gone with the Wind
- The Sandlot
- Rocky
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- The Color Purple
- A Christmas Story
- Gladiator
- West Side Story
- The Artist
- Rebel Without a Cause
- Mr. Holland’s Opus
- The Social Network