If you check out the various lists touting the greatest movies of all time, you’ll notice that the top spot varies between two films, The Godfather and Citizen Kane. Which is the best? Well, for me, the answer is obvious, because one of those movies changed my life and the other did not, and that’s the measure of a movie’s greatness. Every time you see a movie, you are changed a little bit, but some movies, rare movies, can change your life.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never watched a movie and then made a drastic change in my life like giving up meat, or becoming a gay cowboy, but my favorite movies have stayed with me. They’ve changed the way I think and act, and more importantly, they’ve revealed me to myself. My favorite movies, the movies that have affected me most, tell me what kind of person I am, and what kind of person I want to be. In fact, ask someone what their favorite movies are or which movies have changed their life, and you can learn a lot about that individual. (That’s why the ominous people behind Facebook like to post that quiz, among their many others that reveal your personality).

My favorite movie is The Godfather.  It is the movie that most shaped how I think about power, and the acquisition of power. (Interestingly, the book that most shaped my thoughts on power was written by an Italian as well: The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli.) The movie was a class on realist political theory, and I’ve learned so much from it, I still watch it to this day and find new nuances. When someone tells me this is their favorite movie, I know something about that person. Most likely they have Daddy issues, but then again who doesn’t?

Even more likely, this is someone who believes in breaking the rules to get what they want when necessary. In an ends-justifies-the-means way, they know that the rules are for fools, and behind every great fortune is a great crime. In the end, in reality, might makes right, and true strength is found in cunning and a strong will. That is what it means to make someone “an offer they can’t refuse.” My will wins over yours because I wield more power, namely through the threat of violence.

There is also a strong theme of loyalty throughout the movie. Loyalty starts with blood and ends with blood. The only ones you can really trust are your family, and those that betray you, including your poor older brother Fredo who got passed over by your father in favor of yourself (we all want to be Michael, don’t we?), must die, when they go against the family. “Never go against the family!”

I could easily write a whole essay on The Godfather, but let’s move on. I mentioned previously that certain films reveal you to yourself. You look at the screen and you see yourself, or maybe you see the person that you want to be, or maybe don’t want to be. I saw all of these things in Fight Club.

Fight Club  is the story of a man who works in the corporate world, living a typical, shallow, materialistic existence, all the while dealing with the nihilistic, primitive, testosterone-fueled alter ego that lies deep inside of him, waiting to become an anarchist revolutionary bent on destroying the status quo that is killing us with kindness, making us soft, weak and unfulfilled.

After I saw this movie for the first time, I searched for fight clubs, and I wasn’t the only one. I’ve met a few people who work in the fight industry (Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, etc.) and I can’t tell you how often that movie comes up in reference to what they do, and how they live. That movie started a movement, and the increase in popularity that MMA is enjoying these days can be directly attributed to Fight Club. They still reference the movie in news shows that talk about the rise of MMA or the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). When a movie reaches cult status, it is a testament to how many lives were changed by that film.

I found my fight club in the dojo, studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I continue to try and live in balance with my Tyler Durden alter ego. Although I don’t know how well I’m doing, since my co-workers made a mural of cartoon-like characters based on the people in the office. Mine is the only one carrying a shotgun!

My last life-changing movie also revealed me to myself, but more importantly, revealed the world we live in, revealed the illusions we live under. Many of us knew those illusions existed, but we didn’t know what it was called. It is The Matrix. An allegory about the dehumanizing condition of living in a media driven, mechanized, commercialized, corporatized society, The Matrix struck a deep chord with many people.

Does the world feel artificial to you? Do you feel special, like you’re destined for greater things? Well the world you know is artificial, and in reality, you may be The One! Before the movie came out, you might blame your oppression on “The Man”, but in 1999, we learned that the 21st Century term for the system that controls your thoughts and life, while draining your life energy for its own purposes, is called the Matrix. Thus revealed, you must now choose: the red pill or the blue one.

Admittedly, when you make a personality profile on me based upon these movies, you’ll see a mal-adjusted, anti-authoritarian ego maniac, with a streak of violence. But I know I’m not “The One,” even if my mom insists that I am, and I don’t want to be punched in the face, or worse yet whack a guy (that sounds wrong), but there is something in me that admires those things, and I’ve learned which edges I want to walk along, and which I don’t. I’ve learned who I want to be and how I want to be seen in the world, and I’ve done it all sitting in a seat, staring at a screen.

I’d like to know what movies have changed your life, dear reader. What should I be watching to become a changed person? What do you recommend? Meet Your Meat? Mr. Smith Goes To Washington? Forrest Gump? Those have been called life changing by some. Do you agree? Do you have something better? Do you think having your life changed by a movie is pathetic? Let’s get interactive and discuss!

 

 

“In the world I see — you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You’ll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You’ll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you’ll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway. ”

-tYLER dURDEN

Cinema This Week appears every Friday at noonish.

 

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